After several weeks of construction standstill – oh wonder – finally something is happening again! The basement ceiling is being poured. Viebrock probably didn’t make sure that the precast elements were available in time, then it was too cold, then there were other reasons. So slowly we don’t care.

And the lid was quickly on the cellar. Actually, the insulation was supposed to come this week, which was also scheduled for before Christmas. However, the civil engineer did not remove enough earth on the sides, so that the company that is supposed to install the insulation as well as the light wells on the basement windows did not start working. This went along the lines of “they came, they saw, and they were gone.”

Basement ceiling poured, insulation on the outer walls still missing

As we learned from the structural engineer (not from our construction manager, who is officially still on vacation), the structural engineer and those responsible for the insulation are in an exchange and have now somehow come to an agreement with the civil engineer. It seems that something is happening in the background, which reassures us somewhat. However, we are still up in the air as far as a schedule is concerned – we don’t have one. This still makes various follow-up work and planning difficult:

• We are having the remaining excavated earth removed “ourselves.” The local company is doing this at a much better price than in Viebrock’s offer. The civil engineer now in charge of our construction would also have done it on his own account at a better price, but when Viebrock submits an offer to the builders, he adds a lot to it. Tip: Start with the construction first and then commission. Getting rid of dirt (even if there is a lot of it) always seems to be easy to squeeze in, no matter how full the order books are. This way, you don’t have to coordinate it yourself in case of doubt, like we do now. Still, it saved us a few thousand dollars.
• We’d like to have OSB panels lifted upstairs for the attic before the roof is sealed. To do this, we have to order and have them delivered – not too early, not too late. This will save us the hauling.
• We’d have to plan the topping-out ceremony and write at least a few invitations.
• The separately commissioned trades need a rough schedule from us. In our case, these are: carpenters for the flooring, craftsmen for the bathrooms, the local furniture store for the kitchen (for measuring and installation, with at least eight weeks of delivery time in between).

All this we want to plan, but for now we can still only keep our feet still. Let’s see if in the coming week, at least, will continue to build up and we can learn something new through our construction manager. Maybe he was able to relax over the holidays and is now freshly strengthened to get to work!