Week 22 Schedule

I mentioned that last week would be instrumental in determining whether we’d make our Thanksgiving deadline or not. Well, unfortunately, the results weren’t as clear cut as I had hoped — we made enough progress that we still could make our deadline, but not enough progress that we’re certain to make it.

We made a lot of progress — passed our blower door test, finished the backsplash, finished most of the front handrail, repaired the rear deck post, got much of the bio-retention pond completed, got electricity to the house, finished the electrical work, finished the carpet and installed a safety rail along areaway wall in the back. Great progress, but there were still some issues — we failed our electrical and plumbing final inspection, broke a front handrail that needs to get replaced, didn’t quite finish the bio-retention pond, didn’t get our HVAC started up, didn’t get our gutters and siding completed and didn’t get the final grading done.

Perhaps the biggest issue was that we had our furniture delivered, and then found out that putting furniture in the house before completion was against county regulations — it pissed off an inspector and we got a very nasty letter threatening civil and criminal action if we don’t get the furniture out (or the house completed) by November 21. So, now we have another great reason to hit our deadline of being completed by the week of Thanksgiving!

The goal of the coming week will be to pass all of our final inspections (electrical, plumbing and HVAC) and then get our final building inspection for the interior. Also, we’ll hopefully finish the bio-retention pond, get our final grading complete and start on the driveway.

Here’s a detailed breakdown of the schedule for this week:

1. Electrical Repairs: On Monday morning (hopefully before the inspector shows up), our electrician will be on-site to fix all the failed inspection issues from last week.
2. Plumbing Repairs: On Monday morning (hopefully before the inspector shows up), our plumber will be on-site to fix the two failed inspection issues from last week. One is pretty simple — adding an expansion tank to the water heater — but the other could be a pain in the butt — essentially adding a vent pipe stub in basement in case we decide to put plumbing down there in the future.
3. HVAC Startup: On Monday morning (hopefully before the inspector shows up), our HVAC guys will be on-site to get the systems started up in preparation for final inspection.
4. Final Electrical Inspection: On Monday, we’ll have our second run at the final electrical inspection. The inspector didn’t even make it through the house last week before failing us, so I have a feeling there could be a third inspection as well.
5. Final Plumbing Inspection: On Monday, we’ll have our second run at the final plumbing inspection. I’m hopeful we’ll pass, assuming the two issues he found last week get fixed before he shows up.
6. Final HVAC Inspection: On Monday, we’ll have our first shot at the final HVAC inspection.
7. Bio-Retention Pond: On Monday, we’ll finish most of the bio-retention pond. We’ll run the underground pipes from the downspouts and connect them to the pond and we’ll throw the final layer of mulch on the pond. We’ll still need to do the plantings around the pond, but we’re having trouble finding the right plants and this is something my wife and I can do ourselves next week.
8. Finish Front Handrail: On Tuesday, our carpenters will be back to finish up the last handrail on the front porch — it cracked during installation last week and we’re waiting for a replacement to be delivered.
9. Final Re-Inspections: On Wednesday, we’ll take another shot at any final inspections that we didn’t pass on Monday.
10. Final Grading: On Wednesday, my bobcat guy will be out to do our final grading.
11. Final Building Inspection: On Thursday or Friday, assuming we’ve passed our electrical, plumbing and HVAC inspections, we’ll take our first shot at our final building inspection.
12. Finish Gutters: By Friday, we should finish the last downspout, which needed to be held off because the front columns weren’t completed. We also need to replace some siding that was pulled off the front porch to install the handrail.
13. Driveway: By Friday, if the final grading was successful, we’ll start installing the driveway.

If we can pass our final electrical, plumbing and HVAC inspections this week, we should be looking pretty good to hit our Thanksgiving goal for the interior work. If we can finish the bio-retention pond and the final grading and start the driveway — or at least be ready to start the driveway — we still have a shot at completing the outside by Thanksgiving.

Should be an interesting — and stressful — week!