July update
Yes, it has been a while. We have made some progress over the past few months. Some, but not much.
First, the bad news. The COH still owes us money for an application submittal that never went through. However, they are refusing to refund the money. Every time we prove them to be wrong, they come up with another excuse to deny the refund. In 1 more week, if we have not made progress, I am publishing all the contact info for the employees at the city I have been working with in this blog. Once I do, anyone who reads this, please call or email them and tell them they are full of crap and they need to refund us the money. But first, I am going to email the mayor of the city to see if I can get any results from him. At this point it is not about the money. I just want them to admit they made a mistake. I had to report our engineer, Kamal Rasheed, to the BBB in order to get him to return my phone calls and emails. Once I did, I was able to get a hold of him anytime I needed. Our structural engineer, R-Mac Engineering, still has not finished the plans. I delivered the floor plans and elevations to them mid April. At that time, they told me they would have the engineered plans completed by the end of May or beginning of June. I spoke with them today and they are now saying the plans would be complete by next Wednesday, July 18th. I suspect it will be the following week before I have them in hand. Every time I go in to meet with them, they have bad news which translates to more money to build the house. First, the walls can't be 4" (W6x16). They have to use 6"x6" (W6x15) columns to support the beams due to the way they line up with them. I can make my peace with this. Next, 1 beam that supports the cantilever master balcony is a W12x39 which translates to be a 8"x12" beam @ 39lbs/foot. The total beam length is to be around 36'. I do not love the cantilever balcony that much... I think we will keep the balcony and bump out the wall below it to help support the balcony and create some extra storage space in the process. I'll post some final floor plans once we finish modifying them. Last bit of bad new, the piers were designed to be 12", 14' deep with at 24" bell. Now, 6 piers have to be 14", 14' deep with a 42" bell. Also, there are a grid of concrete beams in the slab 12"x24" that I had not planned on. The cost of the foundation is probably 10K more than I planned.
Now, the good news. The driveway (crushed concrete) is down, and has firmed up nicely. Ready for traffic. The soil samples are back and have been handed over to the engineer. The new kitchen exhaust vent I designed and built, working, and complete, except for the stainless. I'll post the pics as soon as I take some. Ready for the best news....? The replat is now 100% complete!!!! Hopefully (crossing fingers), we will never have to deal with Joyce Owens again. We now have an address assigned to the property from Centerpoint. The street number is to be 24107. For me, just having that is a huge milestone.
More to come...
In hindsight, I wish companies would not take on a project unless they were willing and able to devote 100% of their time to it. If a company is too busy to provide good, no, great customer service, they should disclose this. I would be more willing to use a company in the future, or be more willing to wait, if companies were just outright and honest from day 1. They should not make promises they are unable to keep. From now on, I will put this specification in writing and ask the business to agree to it.
First, the bad news. The COH still owes us money for an application submittal that never went through. However, they are refusing to refund the money. Every time we prove them to be wrong, they come up with another excuse to deny the refund. In 1 more week, if we have not made progress, I am publishing all the contact info for the employees at the city I have been working with in this blog. Once I do, anyone who reads this, please call or email them and tell them they are full of crap and they need to refund us the money. But first, I am going to email the mayor of the city to see if I can get any results from him. At this point it is not about the money. I just want them to admit they made a mistake. I had to report our engineer, Kamal Rasheed, to the BBB in order to get him to return my phone calls and emails. Once I did, I was able to get a hold of him anytime I needed. Our structural engineer, R-Mac Engineering, still has not finished the plans. I delivered the floor plans and elevations to them mid April. At that time, they told me they would have the engineered plans completed by the end of May or beginning of June. I spoke with them today and they are now saying the plans would be complete by next Wednesday, July 18th. I suspect it will be the following week before I have them in hand. Every time I go in to meet with them, they have bad news which translates to more money to build the house. First, the walls can't be 4" (W6x16). They have to use 6"x6" (W6x15) columns to support the beams due to the way they line up with them. I can make my peace with this. Next, 1 beam that supports the cantilever master balcony is a W12x39 which translates to be a 8"x12" beam @ 39lbs/foot. The total beam length is to be around 36'. I do not love the cantilever balcony that much... I think we will keep the balcony and bump out the wall below it to help support the balcony and create some extra storage space in the process. I'll post some final floor plans once we finish modifying them. Last bit of bad new, the piers were designed to be 12", 14' deep with at 24" bell. Now, 6 piers have to be 14", 14' deep with a 42" bell. Also, there are a grid of concrete beams in the slab 12"x24" that I had not planned on. The cost of the foundation is probably 10K more than I planned.
Now, the good news. The driveway (crushed concrete) is down, and has firmed up nicely. Ready for traffic. The soil samples are back and have been handed over to the engineer. The new kitchen exhaust vent I designed and built, working, and complete, except for the stainless. I'll post the pics as soon as I take some. Ready for the best news....? The replat is now 100% complete!!!! Hopefully (crossing fingers), we will never have to deal with Joyce Owens again. We now have an address assigned to the property from Centerpoint. The street number is to be 24107. For me, just having that is a huge milestone.
More to come...
In hindsight, I wish companies would not take on a project unless they were willing and able to devote 100% of their time to it. If a company is too busy to provide good, no, great customer service, they should disclose this. I would be more willing to use a company in the future, or be more willing to wait, if companies were just outright and honest from day 1. They should not make promises they are unable to keep. From now on, I will put this specification in writing and ask the business to agree to it.
posted by 245House at 6:57 PM
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