Monday, March 09, 2015

Ranch House Update

The northern wall of the great room during construction. We have air conditioning vents and drywall! Notice the concrete-based product around the fireplace.

It’s been a busy week at the Hermits’ Rest. Ruben’s crews have been working hard on the ranch house.

Felix and his guys ran the HVAC vents (plana? plenums?). Once the house is ready, we’ll have AC. Luckily, the weather has been fairly temperate and the insulation is keeping the house comfortable.

I’m not sure who the drywall installers were, but I’m not nearly as happy with them. I found were they would cut a 2’x3’ section out of a virgin sheet of material and trash the rest of it. That when there was already a 3’x4’ piece on the scrap pile.

Because they didn’t have to pay for the material, they had no incentive to conserve it and no penalty for waste—or so they thought. I’ve told Ruben I’m going to withhold $500 from what we agreed on because of the amount of waste. He said he’d beat them up about it.

That’s a lesson for anyone dealing with contractors. Make sure you have penalties for waste, as well as for timeliness and quality, in your contract.

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