The Letter J

The Terra-Dome crew showed up this evening around 20:30. They had 2 trucks with 2 trailers, loaded to the max (and then some). All along, I had figured that Jay Scafe's (of Terra-Dome) brother-in-law, Tracy Allen, would be running the crew. It turns out he's building another house up in South Dakota. These guys were Jerry, Justin and Josh (the J's). Jerry is Tracy's brother-in-law and has worked with him through the years building a number of these homes. He's running this crew because Terra-Dome has more business than Tracy's crew can handle on their own.
They left the trailers and one truck on site and went to get a hotel. They plan to hit a lumber store first thing in the morning, and then get back to start work. Jerry said they were aware of the weather forecast and will play it by ear. They've done this a few times. He seemed fairly confident.

Steel Was Delivered

Steel was delivered today. They had to drop it off because no one was home to receive it. I had to go to work.
We had a clear day today. Tomorrow, thunderstorms return. I'm told the Terra-Dome crew will be here tomorrow morning (right about when the storms hit).

No Show / No Call

• Terra-Dome: No Show / No Call
• Smith Septic Tank: No Show / No Call

'nuff said: I'm trying really hard not to rant

No Work Today

Hmmm. I just got off the phone with Terra-Dome. I've been informed that they'd forgotten that Monday was a holiday, and so that threw them off a day (but didn't notify me). So they're sending the crew down today, not yesterday, which means work wont start until tomorrow.

So, in other words, I took off work for nothing. And since I arranged to have my ip-cam delivered today too (since I knew I'd be home), I am stuck at the house waiting for it.

So this is costing us money because I'm a contractor, not an employee where I work. I don't get paid time off. If I'm not at work, I'm not paid.

Rachel took off work yesterday. I took off today and will have to take off tomorrow. This really is frustrating. A call lastnight or sometime yesterday would've been nice.

Did I mention previously, that I have noticed that there's not a lot of communication from these contractors? The only reason I know that Terra-Dome isn't coming today, is because I called them. They didn't call me.

Oh, and the septic tank contractor didn't come today either, and I didn't get any calls from them. I called and found out that the boss didn't even know that it was scheduled for them to do the work yesterday. And of course, as luck would have it, the guy that scheduled it was out today because of a knee injury yesterday.

Frustration

For the 2 years that Rachel & I built the current building we're living in, we more than frequently experienced a lack of professionalism and courtesy from construction vendors, contractors and skilled labor. They were unreliable at best. Maybe they'd show up; maybe not. More often than not, they wouldn't bother to call to say they were running late or that they weren't showing up at all.

Rachel took off work today and now I have to take off tomorrow, because of the need to have someone onsite. We finally did get the port-a-john today. He's the only one that showed up. The Terra-Dome folks didn't show up and they didn't call.
The septic tank installers didn't show up and they didn't call. I guess it hasn't occurred to any of them that we have to work for a living, and taking off work to be here costs us money. Evidently, they think we're independently wealthy and have no need of an income.

PS. This is also why (besides the money savings) Rachel & I built the current building doing most of the work ourselves. We initially had some work done by an electrician. I had marked (with tape) studs that he was to put outlets on. There were only four of them. How could you mess that up? He did.
He decided to put one of the outlets in a different location, and then another he decided didn't need it's own circuit, even though I had told him that it was for the refrigerator and I specifically wanted it on its own circuit. I even had a 8x11 sheet of paper with the tape, showing the location and telling him to put it on it's own circuit. He even got the location wrong too. I had to relocate the box higher for the refrigerator and I had to run the new circuit myself.
So much for paying someone $70 an hour for this kind of work. I did the rest of the electrical work myself. I read the book and did it all to code and am proud to have done so.

and we had a worse experience with the plumber we had initially contracted, and so I ended up finishing most of that work myself too.

Hopefully, this new house will be a better experience. As far as reliability, I am just used to people doing what they're instructed to do; doing it on time, and notifying you if there are any issues or if they're going to be late. It's called being professional.

Excavation

Our excavation contractor showed up shortly after 8:00 and wasted no time attacking the area where the barn had once been. The concrete slabs were moved as if they were nothing, and unfortunately, we missed getting a photograph of the first one, which when turned up vertically, reached well above the cab of the dozer before it broke into pieces.

Excavation is now down and we are looking forward to getting the Terra-Dome crew scheduled to come down and put up the concrete.