Construction Begins on the Farm
A lot has started happening over the past few weeks. Yay!
The incredible heat we've been experiencing here in Colorado makes the work so much harder. Somehow we went from a very short spring to "BAM!" Summer is here. The subcontractors want to start each day as soon as possible and I can't blame them.
Finally got the foundation walls poured. It was really cool to watch the concrete boom pump truck unfold itself. It was kind of like looking at a Praying Mantis flexing itself all the while being controlled by the operator and his body mounted joystick controller. The work started with one concrete truck pouring into the hopper and then a second one showed up. Backed up together and kept the concrete flowing. That was one cool show. Jason Beckley, my contractor, opted to pour the stronger PSI concrete so that it would cure to the rate he needed sooner and other things could begin happening faster.
Once poured and cured the walls were waterproofed and backfilled.
A few days later the crew showed up to pour and finish the garage floor. Thank goodness they started at 6am. The temps that day were already climbing into the 80's at 8:30am and forecasted to be well into the upper 90's by 2pm. I'm sitting in my truck with the A/C cranking, with Luna my mini Aussie, watching the guys work their magic with that huge trowel they use. We're such wimps.
The garage floor is poured. The steel support beams are installed and the lumber package arrived yesterday (Monday the 21st.) The framers are scheduled to start this morning. My builder thinks they should have the floor trusses with plywood down and framed walls up by Friday. Wow, that's one efficient crew.
I had to scramble to schedule Tammy, my friend and cabinet designer at Wedgewood Cabinetry. Needed to set up a date for her to field measure for all the cabinetry. Thank goodness she could fit me into her calendar July 6. She and I had actually talked over the weekend about the long lead times her reps are now giving her for cabinetry delivery. 14-16 weeks for the one company that would be doing the kitchen and master bath and 20+ weeks for the other! Unbelievable. So yesterday I made a dash to their offices and changed the cabinet choices for the laundry room and guest bath to the company with the shorter lead time. Jeez, the logistics and manufacturing sector is really compromised right now.
As another example: two weeks ago we had to place the order for all the appliances because of extremely long lead times. We also had to get all the plumbing fixtures ordered too so we could get them in on time. Understand, I'm looking at a finish time for the house late November to put this into perspective. Let's just hope the next bombshell/excuse dropped is not one of actual delivery problems. Everyone is experiencing shortages in materials, workers, order overload, transportation issues, you name it. We just take everyday as it comes and try to come up with the best possible solutions.
Keeping Calm and Carrying On. It is all you can do.
Well, that's my latest update. Thanks for reading. Hope to have some actual "farming" stuff to comment on soon.