Days 4, 5 and 6: A Hitch
[Stay tuned for pics. Our DSL is on the fritz.]
It had to happen, of course. But why did it have to happen so soon?
Our first run-in with the contractor. Seems Contractor Menny doesn't remember that we specifically said that, per Glendale rules, we have to widen the garage from one car to two. Every other contractor got it. And while his garage quote was slightly less than everyone else's, it wasn't enough of a difference that we saw any red flags (he quoted $20,000; another quoted $24,000; a third, $27,000). I finally realized on Friday, however, that he wasn't talking about widening -- just mocing the garage back.
The foreman looked at the plans, and also noted another bummmer: We need to push the garage back eight feet, not five feet as originally thought. Bye-bye, yard.
Back when Menny thought he was just moving the garage back, he thought we'd be able to leave our stuff inside, no problem. Now, both him and the contractor think we have to demolish it entirely. (Which the other two contractors we interviewed thought. I guess that should have been a red flag, but we figured Menny knew something that these other guys don't).
This is a weird situation, because our contract never technically spells out that the garage needs to be widened. It's a pretty simply list of things to do (we do spell out having to push the garage back). Now, we're having to rent a storage container to stick on our driveway ($75/month, plus a $75 delivery fee and $75 pickup fee, for a 20 foot by 8 foot by 8 1/2 foot container) and temporarily move our stuff. And we still need to haggle with Menny on how much more he wants to charge us to redo the garage entirely.
OK, so that's problem one. The second one has a much happier solution.
While digging the foundation, the workers found a hole. A 6-foot deep hole. (Don't worry -- Evan doesn't go close to the work site. So no Baby Jessica situation here.) It's where the septic tank once resided. Apparently when the tank was taken out, the hole was never filled, just covered. Menny told us not to worry -- his workers will simply fill it up. But talk about bizarre.
Meanwhile... I'm beginnign to think that this job really is going to take four months. Because the workers haven't been showing up until noon! (They didn't show up at all on Friday.) Something else to bring up to Contactor Menny when we have our little heart-to-heart.
That's the latest from here... wish us luck with the garage!
It had to happen, of course. But why did it have to happen so soon?
Our first run-in with the contractor. Seems Contractor Menny doesn't remember that we specifically said that, per Glendale rules, we have to widen the garage from one car to two. Every other contractor got it. And while his garage quote was slightly less than everyone else's, it wasn't enough of a difference that we saw any red flags (he quoted $20,000; another quoted $24,000; a third, $27,000). I finally realized on Friday, however, that he wasn't talking about widening -- just mocing the garage back.
The foreman looked at the plans, and also noted another bummmer: We need to push the garage back eight feet, not five feet as originally thought. Bye-bye, yard.
Back when Menny thought he was just moving the garage back, he thought we'd be able to leave our stuff inside, no problem. Now, both him and the contractor think we have to demolish it entirely. (Which the other two contractors we interviewed thought. I guess that should have been a red flag, but we figured Menny knew something that these other guys don't).
This is a weird situation, because our contract never technically spells out that the garage needs to be widened. It's a pretty simply list of things to do (we do spell out having to push the garage back). Now, we're having to rent a storage container to stick on our driveway ($75/month, plus a $75 delivery fee and $75 pickup fee, for a 20 foot by 8 foot by 8 1/2 foot container) and temporarily move our stuff. And we still need to haggle with Menny on how much more he wants to charge us to redo the garage entirely.
OK, so that's problem one. The second one has a much happier solution.
While digging the foundation, the workers found a hole. A 6-foot deep hole. (Don't worry -- Evan doesn't go close to the work site. So no Baby Jessica situation here.) It's where the septic tank once resided. Apparently when the tank was taken out, the hole was never filled, just covered. Menny told us not to worry -- his workers will simply fill it up. But talk about bizarre.
Meanwhile... I'm beginnign to think that this job really is going to take four months. Because the workers haven't been showing up until noon! (They didn't show up at all on Friday.) Something else to bring up to Contactor Menny when we have our little heart-to-heart.
That's the latest from here... wish us luck with the garage!
posted by Mike at 4:39 PM
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