Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Rough-ready

Broken pallets = broken tile

August 29, 2007
If a skid of stone tile shows up on your doorstep looking like the above, think twice about signing for it. The shipper's story changed as soon as I signed the waybill about who I contact for a damage claim. Before signing, "contact the shipper's claim's office", after signing, "contact the original supplier". You can imagine what the original supplier said to me. Lesson learned, don't sign if things look sketchy. Looks like they dropped this thing off of a lift somewhere in transit, thankfully only 6 tiles were broken. According to my supplier that's okay because I should've ordered 5-10% more than I needed...yeah right, at $6/sf I ordered about 20 extra square feet, six-16" tiles is 10.6 square feet...see the problem? Being an architect I can order 6 'sample' tiles so if you're ever in a bind...pretend you're an architect, works some of the time. Use terms like AIA, and LEED and you're all set.

While I'm ranting...Here's something I didn't expect my builder to say to me..."Well, if you're particular about where you want your wall mounted light fixtures then you're going to have to install the blocking for the junction boxes. I just planned on mounting them to the nearest stud. That's what we carried in the price." If I'm 'particular'? So the dimensioned electrical plan.... just an idea really, a napkin sketch, a wish list item, not really how I wanted it. It's still early in the project, not time to put up a stink and besides, I want it done correctly. So this weekend with a chop saw and a nailgun I'll be adding blocking between the studs where my sconces will go so the electrician can mount the boxes next week. I'll be tracking my hours so we can have the discussion when the final bill comes in, early winter I expect.
The interior framing looks great and given that two weeks ago I was staring at curing concrete, I'd say we're in good shape.
Kitchen cooking wall

End bedroom looking toward living space


Pocket door to Master Bedroom looking toward living/kitchen

2 comments:

Kim and Patrick said...

Wow, it is amazing how fast it all went up. I was looking at the blog earlier today and just went on to show a coworker and there it was another update.

Looks awesome!

Anonymous said...

Yeah, looks great. Eric, keep on that contractor. If he thinks he can skate you on something like lights placement, he'll be shoveling more of the same at you later on. Show him the plans he bid on and make him comply. We are 6 weeks into a 'promised' 2-week bath remodel and this guy takes every opportunity to blame us for the delays. We're at the stage nmow where he is only allowed to communicate with me regarding the project, since he's tried to Tweedle-Dee/Tweedle Dum my unsuspecting wife into things..."well, you wife said she liked it.." blah, blah.

Stay on it. The framing goes up real fast. Electrical and plumbing slow things down. And more and more 'inspections' are required along the way.

You know the scoop. You've been down this road many times with clients.

Looks great! Guess I better get that IKEA gift cert in place for you guys.