Still Rushed but Not Stressed

After further consideration, and talking it over with Rachel, we decided that the money we were going to be paying for waterproofing help, and slab prep, was going to be a whole lot of money for not a lot.  It was going to be a lot in terms of progress that I have not been able to make on my own, but it was going to use up the rest of our money and wasn't a lot of value added.

So Rachel decided that she'll help me.  We're getting a list of things to do and products to buy, and looking to hire some local help.  Our plan is to get the waterproofing done in a weekend in August (before the rains come in the Fall), and get the roof covered as soon as possible.  This will be some dirt work.  I'll have to buy dirt as well as get someone to help move the dirt we have up against the house and get the berming completed.

Likewise, some local help can get us the slab prep work we need, and with Rachel's help, I can get the phonecalls made, the workers lined out and all the things done that I couldn't do and hold down a job at the same time.

This will save us a lot of money, which I feel a lot better being able to save and spend somewhere else (on the house, of course).  Rachel is happier about it.  I don't think Ralph Smoot (the guy in the Austin area that was going to help us) is happy about it.  He's not returning my e-mails right now and there've been no phone conversations since our decision either.

I had literally planned to get him to do the work up until dinner lastnight after work.  I had the contract printed out.  I had already given Ralph our address and instructions on how to find the place, so that they could have materials delivered.  All that remained was me provide a check and the signed contract, which I was going to Fedex for a Monday delivery.
At dinner, Rachel said she didn't feel comfortable with that decision and felt that it was an awful amount of money for what we'd be getting.

I can definitely say that this was nothing against Ralph or his son Conrad.  It was a money issue.  I wanted to get the work done, but I didn't like the idea of being out of money afterwards.  This way, it'll probably take us longer to get this stuff done, but we'll have the money left to go further on construction than we would have been able to otherwise.

I still haven't gotten a return call from Jay Scafe (@ Terra-Dome) because I had wanted to check and see if he had anyone to help us with the waterproofing, and what they might charge.  If it was a better price, we would entertain that solution for certain.  The thing is, Jay hasn't returned our calls.  He's either out of town, or just not checking his voice-mail yet.