More Roof Framing (and Concern?)

Driving Kyle back from practice last night (as is our routine), we noticed that there seemed to be more roofing frames above what will be Kyle's room. We couldn't see much in the dark, so I headed back today.

And sure enough, there were the beginnings of framing along that front edge of the room:


But entering the upstairs, I could tell that more had been done... like Jack's room:


As I turned to the right, I've noticed some changes to the wall beyond where the desk would be:

Looks like when they built the wall, they built it too high (since the the area over the desk will have the roof sloping down into a soffit), so now they're chopping down the wall, and refitting the window..

The roof framing, from Jack's room, looking south...


The bathroom's interior section has started...

(this section will have the skylight; the exterior section will be an A frame [as seen from the east])

The roof framing, from Kyle's room, looking north...


Again, in Kyle's room, there's the desk/wall/soffit issue...


The roofing over Kyle's room is incomplete as of now:


Downstairs, the drainage from the upstairs bathroom can now be found in the exterior kitchen wall:


And work continues in the downstairs hall bath:


Slow and steady progress continues...


Hopefully, the workers will take a break tomorrow (as it's the annual blocks-wide garage/yard sale, and finding parking [and fending off potential lumber buyers] will be a hard job to accomplish).

UPDATE: Dana just called. She wanted me to know that Fred will call later today (but he's at the dentist now); he wanted us to know we got his voice-mail of yesterday (which was a polite sending of regrets: he had invited us to a big-group camping trip to Malibu over the upcoming weekend... there's just too much going on). I do really like these guys...

Some Plumbing Work

Cruised by the site today. Not a great deal of noticeable change, but...

Looks like there's some plumbing drainage installed (I've posted pics on the PhotoViewer [they're pretty boring, as you can see...]).


They're prepping the new location of the water heater.

That's from the garage... here's from the stairs.


And I think a couple more trusses were installed over the family room...


Any forward progress is good...

Lisa's Hate

And I thought my despising of SewerSide³ was bad...

Lisa can't stand this place. Yesterday was pretty much the last straw (after the plumbing, condo nazis, the smoking neighbors, the cutting down of the tree in the ocean view courtyard, the elevator repairs that are interminable [and now cutting off any path to the parking lot that doesn't lead through the grass which is so dewy in the mornings that her shoes are soaked by the time we get to the asphalt (making the first few hours of school oh so pleasant)], and the closing of the still-locked-off-and-closed [but now filled] pool): they removed the external shower from near the beach gate. So they want us NOT to rinse beach sand down into the shower and washing machine, but they removed our outdoor hose and shower used for that purpose.

Great.

Lisa voiced her hate and frustration last night.

And so this morning, in parody of Sonnet XLIII by (and with apologies to Elizabeth Barrett Browning):

Sonnet SSIII (SewerSide³)

How do I HATE thee? Let me count the ways.
I HATE thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when sniffing out of scent
For the ends of Backflow and raw Sewage.

I HATE thee for the removal of walkways
Around the elevator repair blight.

I HATE thee for cutting trees with my rent,

And for killing the show'r at condo's edge.

I HATE thee with a passion of a fool
Who in summer's heat just wanted a pool.

I HATE thee with a HATE seeming to grow
With my lost home, --- I HATE thee with seething
Despising of this condo life! --- and so,
I'll but love thee only after leaving.

Roof Framing Begun

As I noted in yesterday's entry, I received texts from Joni and Jason saying that something was going "up" at the house (verified by Kyle's and my own eyes in the dark after water polo practice).

So this morning, after dropping Kyle off at the school bus stop, and Lisa and Jack at Bard (hooray, school begins today), I cruised by the Maxine worksite, deserted at 7:30.

My eyes had NOT deceived last night... here's the family room roof framing from the ground (from the southwest)...


and from the west...


and from the stairs landing...


and from the room itself (looking east)...

[this is the same view, except from a ladder]


and from the deck...


It's a wonderful thing:

with beautiful blue (not gray) sunny (not rainy) skies above...

And there's more work to do...


Yep, things are taking shape...


Wonder what (today and) tomorrow may bring...

Mixed Signals

As I sit here, holed up working (and watching both our and the Corey kids on the last day of their summer break), not even thinking about heading over the worksite (what was I going to see... trusses are a week away)... I get a call from Lisa.

She thinks the trusses are being delivered. A quick call back later, and if the communication--garbled, uncertainly translated--with Juan Antonio is to be believed, then yes, these are the trusses.

What the hell?
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Drove by while taking Kyle to water polo practice. I see some structures on the ground, but they look too small (fragile) to be the trusses... as well as what seemed to be a full crew. Kyle noticed some on the second story, looking at plans.

Got multiple texts during practice from the Coreys that something was "up" on the house.

On the way home, in the dark, we could make out some kind of structure above the family room... it does look like the beginnings of a roof...

I'm so (happily) confused.

And Then Depression Sat In...

Met with Fred today. He brought his incredibly cute four year-old daughter with him.

The delay is with the trusses. With the large span (because of the huge family room), and the complexity of the design from the structural engineer, the trusses are difficult to build, and thus the delay (or as they builder put it after Fred asked about the delay last week, "Do you want them fast or do you want them good?"). So the trusses won't be ready for AT LEAST ANOTHER WEEK. That's a drag.

[Lisa voiced a concern a couple days ago, one I had been harboring silently since the design phase: that we have "architected" in a certain level of "custom"-ness that is coming back to bite us in the ass both schedule- and budget-wise. And I think this is evidence of it...]

I had also a couple of concerns about the placement of the laundry chute and attic access in the south family room wall upstairs... Fred wants to discuss those over the actual plans (not just orally)... he said he'd be around tomorrow (but I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to come by, as I've got full-bore kid duty [a final bout before the summer ends and the kids go back to class Tuesday]).

So I ask the question: how does this look for a possible move-in before the new year. He shakes his head: I don't think so.

Great.

But worse is his fear. He points to the really gray sky. If we get rain, there'll be further delays, as he'll want to spray the wood for mold and termites. In the summer, the monsoonal flow brings humidity, and sometimes thunderstorms to the desert, but we're usually spared.

He tries to comfort us, walking us through the house and discussing the Hardy Frames (when the "big one" hits, he says, give him a call and tell him how many of our neighbors will need his help... because we won't). He discusses the possibility of a tube skylight into the laundry room (that'll cost hundreds, not thousands... great). He tells us that it'll seem slow for the next few weeks, but he'll make sure that work continues, particularly on the plumbing front (not electricity, especially, with --he points to the sky as just a few sprinkles fall).

He tells us to go to Vegas and "get away from all this." He invites us camping next weekend (Labor Day). He's doing everything humanly possible to cushion what I think he realizes is the crushing no-move-in-this-year news.

And he gets his girl out of the sprinkles, and leaves.

What's the line from Young Frankenstein?

"Could be worse. Could be raining."

And it FUCKING RAINS.


Thankfully, it's a short rain. But it's rain. How this affects us, I have not a clue. But now I'm depressed and in a pissy mood. So I'll stop now.

Week's End

So not much has happened this week. That's disappointing.

We meet with Fred tomorrow at 2. It's good to meet with him; he tends to make us feel good. But I'm not so sure about this time... I need to talk to him about this:

Yesterday, when I walked through the house (while supposed plumbing guys were huddled around plans on the tailgate of a pickup outside the site), I found that they had gone ahead with the plumbing changes in the downstairs Guest Bath; even though I had discussed the plan reversal with Fred on August 9 (and had followed up with an email that night). I'm sure it's all OK, the change back can be made effortlessly, I'm sure... it's just that this case is showing a lack of communication that I find disconcerting to say the least. (also disconcerting: the plans they guys were looking at weren't mine)

Trying not to worry about it... hopefully, tomorrow's meeting will alleviate it completely.

The Waiting Game Continues

Went by Maxine earlier today: locked up, no action.

Left a message on Fred's voicemail, asking him if we were waiting for trusses, and if so when we expect them in.

Dana just called; she set up a meeting with Fred on Sunday at 2pm. She was under the impression that the trusses would be in at the end of NEXT week. I asked if we were on a holding pattern until then; she said she'd check with Frank.

I am an impatient guy, with no control over this. So this is killing me...

Waiting Game

Not much yesterday (just some clean-up and a couple of upstairs Hardy Frames)... I'll post the few pics later to the Photo Viewer.

Guess we're in a waiting game until the trusses arrive.

I'm hoping to see them when I cruise by the house in an hour, on my way to a doctor's appointment... we shall see.
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UPDATE [4:45]: no one was at the site at 2:15; a couple of plumbing guys looking at the upstairs bath at 4:30; no trusses... damn

Lovely

Went down to talk to Marcy this morning. All the doors to the clubhouse were locked. It seems almost as if they are in siege mode. We had to make a full circumnavigation to ring the ship's bell attached to the wall. She buzzed us in. She asked how things were going.

Lisa let her know. She said she'd call in Pipe Dreams, and said something about the association. My silence ended. I told her that according to Wes, the association had fingered us for the cause of the difficulties, and that that was simply not the case. We haven't used the garbage disposal (save for weekly maintenance spins) since August 3. We're doing our part. She said Wes had been misinformed, that the association had split the bill three ways (between all the tenants on our pipe), but that the upstairs folks are concerned since they're not seeing any problems. Fuck them, I think, but keep it to myself.

Lisa takes over, requesting the phone buzz in device for the gate (helpful ESPECIALLY [wink wink nudge nudge] since the plumber is coming); Marcy takes note but does not tell us when that will be activated.

We also ask about the pool, and if it will be open Friday. Marcy doesn't think so. She says the pool had been vandalized: tagged on the floor, with two side steps chipped away. They have to empty the pool to do the work, and it still has about a quarter of its water. Of course, the fact that they have only one tiny pump sucking water out might be a problem.

This mis-management and total lack of priorities is unbelievable. They've been sucking water out of the pool for over a week now, and there's still water in it? How much would it cost to get one big pump and finish it off in one day?

But they don't seem to give a shit.

I hate this place... cannot wait to see it in my rear view mirror for the last time... never look back, and never give it a sideways glance when we go to the beach.

Wes just called: he claims that the plumbers are "incoming" and should be here around noon.

woofreakinhoo

-----------------------

UPDATE: 1:45 ... Pipe Dreams just showed up. He says the residue in the shower is sand. He's going to work on the sink (there's corrosion causing the leak). He's running water through all the fixtures but there's no back-up... so it's not us. News freakin' Flash.

-----------------------

UPDATE: 3:00 ... Pipe Dreams just left. He fixed the leak in the boys' bath, and ran the water through all the fixtures. It's the plumber's hypothesis that both upstairs neighbors ran their washing machines at the same time and the volume of water had nowhere to go but up our shower... that would explain the suds in the shower, and if they were washing sandy swimming trunks, that would explain the sand. I just checked the shower. It still stinks. I poured bleach down it and mopped up the remaining sand that he didn't flush down the pipes.

The Return of the Beast

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the bathroom... The Return of the Beast(ly Backup)!


It's not bad now... except for the stench. Lisa's on the phone trying to get ahold of Wes the owner. I'm typing, trying not to get too pissed off. I can hear her leaving a message.

On the house front, according to Lisa, Juan Antonio spent much of the day doing cleanup, so no need for pictures today. He says they're waiting on the trusses... though we're not sure when they're supposed to arrive.

(Lisa just came in and asked if this was about the time we are supposed to go upstairs and ask the neighbors not to use their water... great, we'll get to meet the really pissed-off husband upstairs (who yelled again at his "wife" last night and this morning... we're not sure if the nice blonde dog-walking lady is the wife or just a dog-sitter for the past couple of weeks, as we haven't seen her since the major yelling early Sunday morning... if he hadn't shouted this morning, our overactive imaginations would have come up with a Rear Window-esque scenario, I'm sure...).

Jeez, I can't wait to be back in my own home...

--------------------------------------------------

Wes called back (by the time he called back [around 8:45] the water had receded, leaving only the residue and the stink behind).

He'll call Pipe Dreams in the morning (though I'm not completely sure what that'll do, as Pipe Dreams usually runs a week behind on "non-emergency" calls... so I would figure that he needs to call the local management office to get that pushed through). I think Lisa and I should go down and talk to management in the morning to discuss this matter, to get the "free" phone gate buzz-in thing, and to find out when the next association meeting is.

Why? the interested reader, might ask...

Wes told Lisa that it is the SewerSide³ association's position that WE are the cause of the plumbing difficulties because we are using the garbage disposal. They don't want to reimburse Wes. He's fighting it, but in their viewpoint, WE are the problem.

This pisses me off not a little. And quite frankly, I want a piece of them. Here's the deal: we have not used the garbage disposal since the visit by Pipe Dreams on August 3; we bought those screen things that go over the sink drain, and we shake those out into the trash every meal. And even if we HAD used the garbage disposal, why shouldn't we? Isn't that why the fucking thing is there in the first place? This is so freaking ridiculous (in the truest sense of the word... worthy of--no, fuck it--DEMANDING ridicule), I'm besides myself.

I want to show up at the next meeting (which, according to their website's minutes, is this Wednesday night, a 7pm conference call in the clubhouse), with pictures, and ask them just how this is OUR fault. And if I can't get a little satisfaction, I'll show up to the next one as well, maybe this time with a reporter from the Ventura County Star newspaper... I'm sure that would make for REALLY interesting reading.

breathe

Maybe I'll cool down before the morning, but I just don't see that as being very fucking likely.

More Work

Cruised by the house around noon. We wanted to pick up some lunch for the guys (since they had a full crew working again today, a Sunday). They had already had lunch, so we brought a case of water instead (at least for now).

They were working hard, as you can see here [QuickTime needed]...

We'll go back later today to take some more pics (as there is progress being made, obviously)...


---------------------------------------------

So we did go back to find many of the upper walls filled in with plywood:






Lisa also noticed that they've finally removed the hall closet structure in the master bedroom, to allow for more space and flexibility in configurations:


Upstairs, plywood is covering some of the framing... Family room:




Jack's room:




Kyle's room:






Just before we left, architect David drove up and visited.

He liked what he saw, both in progress and adherence to the plan. He predicts by this time next week we'll see rafters.

We also took a look through some of the upstairs windows to check out the views. West from the family room:


North toward the mountains from Jack's room:

(we're thinking we'll be able so see the snow on the mountains in the winter!)

South toward the ocean from Kyle's room:

(still waiting for that clear day to come so we can see if we now have an ocean-view home!)

And as we left we checked the now completed water meter:

All I know is our contractors are faster than the City's!

All in all a great week.

We can only hope David's predictions are correct and we see some caps on these second story walls next weekend...

Reach for the Sky

OK, it's late and I'm still working on the photos, but I wanted to get this posted before midnight (and before I crash... both of which will happen long before I get the photos up).

We had a pretty nice mission-free (meaning we didn't HAVE to do anything, we just did what we pleased today: leisurely breakfast, miniature golf, greek food for lunch, cruising by Dad's, a dip in his pool [since SewerSide³'s pool is down until NEXT Friday... much to Lisa's disappointment, as next week is her last week of freedom). And nearing the end of the day, we started getting phone calls from the neighbors... all saying that we needed to come by Maxine and check out what was happening. That something BIG was happening.

So we did.

And they were right....

THE SECOND STORY FRAMING STARTED.

(hell, quite honestly, it looks more than 90% complete)

I'll put pics up in the morning... right now, I gotta get some sleep...

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OK, It's Sunday morning (just before 10), and groggy after a not very fruitful night's sleep (bed at midnight, awakened around 3am by a argument upstairs [seems like our seemingly single-lady-with-a-dog neighbor has a husband, and one that was PISSED off]... the argument started just after two according to Lisa, and I dozed off and on from 3-4 when it quieted down), so this morning is groggy at best (just another reason to LOVE SewerSide³).

But on to better topics... yesterday's second story framing!

[FULL DISCLOSURE: between me and Jack, we took over 175 pictures yesterday, 75 of which I've uploaded, but only a handful of which I'm including here (mainly because these are the most striking and/or least redundant of other shots)... but they're available for viewing in the PhotoViewer]

So, coming around the corner was very cool, as we could see the framing rising up above the Coreys' house before we could see the ground floor. In front of the house, Dad and the boys had beaten us there (even though they stopped for drive-thru at the arches)... needless to say, they were pretty excited. And here's why:


It was a real "Holy Frak" kind of moment. This really is what we've been waiting for, the instant at which all our dreams of an upstairs begin to take real, tangible shape. The framing is for south wall of Kyle's room. And that feeling of excitement continued as I circled around the house:









(the open space here is for the as-yet-unbuilt railing for the upstairs deck)


And as I usually do, I head into the house from the master bathroom door to take pics of the house...

The feeling of a ceiling from the other night is even more impressive now as there is no sunlight drifting down through/between the beam/supports.

Notice that along the west edge of the house, the second story subfloor ends exactly five feet from the wall (due to the City's second story coverage set-back rules).


This applies also to the bathroom...

And the bedroom for Dad:


I move over to the vantage point of the kitchen door, and great room (living/dining) looks so cool... the double window and the dining room sliding glass door make the room still feel so open...


But the dining room still looks to be an enclave from the openess of the great room...


From the kitchen door, looking directly north, the feeling of "embedded-ness" for the counter is readily apparent:


But the counter opens up to a wonderfully spacious overall kitchen... the kitchen and entry doors, along with the breakfast nook and side windows, will bring light into the kitchen and the entry.


But like a kid who's eaten the veggies off his dinner plate to get rid of them before moving on to the fish sticks, I've teased myself long enough, and I head up the stairs (everyone else is already there), pausing at the landing to take a pick of the south wall of Kyle's room,

and the south wall of the family room...


And onto the second floor... I take in the great big family room... the west wall:

...the northwest courner... WITH THE DECK BEYOND!

...the section of the west will be solid and stucco'ed, the east (yet unbuilt will have an open railing), from which we can look down onto the dining room...

...and across to Jack's room.


When I walk around to the west end of the deck, I can see what will be the exterior west wall of the second floor...


And back in the family room, Dad and Kyle look like they're pretty excited:

And I can see why they're excited, this room is huge...

(that was the southwest corner... this is the northeast [with Jack's room beyond])


And into Jack's room we go... a nice open window out to the north:

The door's in the southwest corner, the closet in the south wall, and Jack's already planning his room (look at that smile!)

The southwest corner has a great window east, and a built-in desk unit that wraps north and west around the east and south walls, respectively.


Moving down the pseudo-hall, here's the shared bathroom to the left (east)... beyond this outer/sink area, is the toilet/shower are:


And further south, we go into Kyle's room... it's a perfect mirror image of Jack's room, with the northeast corner having the built-in desk and great east window (no sleeping in for these boys!):

And Kyle, too, looks pretty excited by the prospects.


Fron the second story, we can see the laundry room...

And if we look straight down, there's the laundry chute:


I start to head down the stairs, and I find the boys already down...

But Lisa staying up on the second story, talking to Jason on the cell (the Coreys are on their way to check it out...):


It's all very, very cool, very exciting. And it must be pretty exciting for the workers, too (despite starting at 6AM... sorry, neighbors!)... the work is too fast and furious to clean up:


...while the dumpster is filling again...


But who cares about the debris (for now... it's all hidden in the back)... I'm a happy camper.

...and Jack is finding new hiding places.


And we walk away, thrilled with the progress thus far, and excited about what is to come.


This was a good day.