Weeks of 9/1/08 & 9/8/08 - Highlights:
****Almost nothing was done the week of Labor Day weekend as our subs weren't ready. We did meet with Steve Feeley, a landscaping consultant, who is going to give us some good, basic start-up ideas. We also put in about 15 hours picking up trash and wood scraps. The weekend after Labor Day weekend we spent most of the weekend sanding our interior logs in preparation for cleaning and sealing them ourselves. We decided not to stain them because they are just too gorgeous the way they are!
****This past week (9/8/08) our main interior and finishing sub, Sam Thornley and his crew (buddy Skip & brother Joe), did get our stairs and spindles installed as well as a small 5x4 deck for our mud room. They also put up most of our interior log siding in the great room. It all looks good. I never thought I would get excited about round wooden spindles, but they are so much prettier than the "ripped" ones simply nailed to the railing (and, of course, about 3X more expensive!).
****We purchased all of our staining supplies and finally decided on a beautiful dark honey color.
****We are going to be cleaning and applying Shell-Guard RTU (insecticide guaranteed for life)to our logs inside and out and staining the interior of our home with a clear coat adding UV protection to it - because finances are getting tighter and the bids for those jobs are higher than we think they should be.
****The posts holding up our porches and decks are not set and bolted in concrete per code, and have to be fixed before we can pass the rough-in inspection (J.R. Neal dry-in crew).
****The building crew headed by J.R. Neal also failed to drill all of the holes needed for electrical wire.
****After some initial resistance, Battle Creek agreed to make good on the above, but we don't know yet when, as the crew works out of KY and will have to come back to TN to fix things. (Will find out on 9/14/08).
****Finishing nails were not used on our trim so we will have to figure out how to cover up large nail heads when we stain.
****The trim for the fixed windows that we thought we got such a good deal on were done backwards, the window sill on the outside. Also, when our window guy came out to measure for our fixed windows, he refused to do so, saying he would guarantee they would leak. One estimate for replacing and correcting the trim is $600 labor, not including materials. We will discuss this with J.R. Neal when he returns to correct the other above errors, but don't have any confidence that he knows how to do the sills correctly (maybe we'll get a refund, at least?!)
****Our fireplace guys, who told us two weeks ago that they were running 2-3 weeks behind, now tell us that it will be about 3 more weeks. We are getting another bid next week from some folks who can start next week if we accept their bid.
****We are installing a gate as people coming down our country road think our driveway is now the main road.
****We are still in fairly good spirits, but are realizing that almost everyone in this business is fallible (except for Freddie, our world-famous log home salesman, who is simply a wonderful guy) and that we really must be more on the ball in terms of inspecting people's work.
****Almost nothing was done the week of Labor Day weekend as our subs weren't ready. We did meet with Steve Feeley, a landscaping consultant, who is going to give us some good, basic start-up ideas. We also put in about 15 hours picking up trash and wood scraps. The weekend after Labor Day weekend we spent most of the weekend sanding our interior logs in preparation for cleaning and sealing them ourselves. We decided not to stain them because they are just too gorgeous the way they are!
****This past week (9/8/08) our main interior and finishing sub, Sam Thornley and his crew (buddy Skip & brother Joe), did get our stairs and spindles installed as well as a small 5x4 deck for our mud room. They also put up most of our interior log siding in the great room. It all looks good. I never thought I would get excited about round wooden spindles, but they are so much prettier than the "ripped" ones simply nailed to the railing (and, of course, about 3X more expensive!).
****We purchased all of our staining supplies and finally decided on a beautiful dark honey color.
****We are going to be cleaning and applying Shell-Guard RTU (insecticide guaranteed for life)to our logs inside and out and staining the interior of our home with a clear coat adding UV protection to it - because finances are getting tighter and the bids for those jobs are higher than we think they should be.
****The posts holding up our porches and decks are not set and bolted in concrete per code, and have to be fixed before we can pass the rough-in inspection (J.R. Neal dry-in crew).
****The building crew headed by J.R. Neal also failed to drill all of the holes needed for electrical wire.
****After some initial resistance, Battle Creek agreed to make good on the above, but we don't know yet when, as the crew works out of KY and will have to come back to TN to fix things. (Will find out on 9/14/08).
****Finishing nails were not used on our trim so we will have to figure out how to cover up large nail heads when we stain.
****The trim for the fixed windows that we thought we got such a good deal on were done backwards, the window sill on the outside. Also, when our window guy came out to measure for our fixed windows, he refused to do so, saying he would guarantee they would leak. One estimate for replacing and correcting the trim is $600 labor, not including materials. We will discuss this with J.R. Neal when he returns to correct the other above errors, but don't have any confidence that he knows how to do the sills correctly (maybe we'll get a refund, at least?!)
****Our fireplace guys, who told us two weeks ago that they were running 2-3 weeks behind, now tell us that it will be about 3 more weeks. We are getting another bid next week from some folks who can start next week if we accept their bid.
****We are installing a gate as people coming down our country road think our driveway is now the main road.
****We are still in fairly good spirits, but are realizing that almost everyone in this business is fallible (except for Freddie, our world-famous log home salesman, who is simply a wonderful guy) and that we really must be more on the ball in terms of inspecting people's work.
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