So, here’s something I didn’t know when I decided to gut-renovate a house. It takes almost an entire calendar year to finish partial demolition and masonry work. We started in October 2016, and as of the time of this writing, we are getting ready to start the framing of the house in October 2017!
What took so long? Well, if you’ve been following my blog, the town was very difficult to deal with at first, and then I’ve been mired in construction delays. At times, I’ve wondered if I make a mistake by not completely demolishing the house. I probably could have gained efficiency if the old structure wasn’t in place and then we would have had enough room to bring machinery in to assist in the excavation process. It’s hard to tell exactly what the cost and time difference would have been had I done that, but we did get to save most of the original structure, so that should be worth something.
We Have a Drainage System
In June, we dug a trench where the old clay pipe drainage system used to be. Apparently, the sewer connection is somewhere behind the house, not in front of it. We were able to locate the connection, and hook the new PVC pipe system into it.
The drainage system in the front driveway
Once the new drainage system was built, we had to call in the town to inspect before we could cover it back up and fill it in. It took about 4 days lead time to call the inspector in. He failed us due to the way the pipes were configured, I never got the exact detail why. The plumber had to fix the problem and we had to get the inspector back in seven days.
All of the sewage connections in the house come together in the garage
Just like that, an entire week was lost. This may not seem like a big deal, but this is typical of a project. A three-day setback here, a week setback there, a three-week setback for some reason. It all adds up to major, major time lapses in between actual work. I’ve come to learn that watching your construction project sit idle for any amount of time is a special kind of torture that I wouldn’t wish on anyone.
Let’s Button It Up
After we finally passed the inspection of the drainage system, we were able to build the basement floor. We backfilled the dirt over the pipes and filled in the trenches. We put a plastic sheet down over the dirt and then built a rebar mesh on top of that. That required yet another inspection, one which we passed on the first try.
The drainage trough at the foot of the driveway
The plastic membrane and rebar
The plastic membrane and rebar
It took a few weeks for the mason to come back, of course, but when he did, he poured concrete over the rebar and plastic, and I finally had a finished basement floor!
View of the fresh coat of cement from the driveway
The fresh cement in the rear addition of the house
More Demolition
Once the floor was poured, my general contractor called in the framer so he could get ready to get started. They also called in my architect to walk through the plans together and get on the same page. One of the things they reviewed was the remaining demolition work that needed to be done. The house needs to be demolished in stages so the remaining shell can stay in place without collapsing during construction.
Making a big mess out front
For reasons that weren’t too clear to me, we still hadn’t done a lot of the work that the framer required in order to start. It could have been done while we had some downtime in between inspections, but it didn’t happen.
Somebody noticed that there was concrete between the garage and first floor that had to be demolished. I don’t know why we didn’t learn this sooner. So, they had to put plywood down on my brand-new garage floor and demolished the concrete, making a mess of the basement again.
This is now on top of my new basement floor! AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!
They had to demolish the original brick chimney while they were at it. That was another bit of work that could have been done much earlier. Finally, they had to strip the outside and inside of the house to the studs and plywood. When it was all done and cleared out, there wasn’t much left but the outer shell of the house, and the ceiling and floor between the first and second floors. The house was finally in a condition to be framed.
What’s left of the chimney
The spaces in between the joists were where the cement was between the first floor and the basement. Nobody noticed it was here until we had finished the basement floor. It had to be removed because it was potentially damaging to the joists.
The hole to the sky where the chimney used to be
What is now left of the front of the house. The garage door is gone, replaced temporarily with that blue tarp.
All that is left of the second floor. Only the outer shell and the roof will remain. The floor will be completely ripped out.
OK, So Let’s Get Started
In late August, my GC e-mailed me to tell me the framer was going to start on September 20. We had a week or so of demolition left and the house would be ready to go long before the start date. Naturally, I called him right away to tell him we needed to move that date in. He told me it wouldn’t be possible because the framing guy was working another job. I told him that I really needed the house to be framed before the winter set in. He emphatically stated that it would take at most two weeks to frame the house and I didn’t have anything to worry about.
September 20 approached and the GC told me the start date was now going to be September 21. Then the framer declared that because it was a Thursday so we might as well start the next Monday. I didn’t follow that logic at all, but I wasn’t going to flip out about four more days wait.
On Monday, I texted the GC and asked him if we were starting. Heard nothing back that day. On Tuesday he texted me and said he was aware I was waiting for an answer and I’d hear back from him by the end of the day. No word for the rest of the day or all of Wednesday. Thursday, I called and got him on the phone. He told me he was very embarrassed, but the framer wasn’t going to take the job.
Things took an interesting turn after that. I repeated my original deadline that the house had to be framed before the winter or the project would be in serious jeopardy. I would at some point just run out of money, having to pay two mortgages. I’m already well over 10 months past my projected worst-case scenario of being done from when I bought the house in December, 2015.
My GC proceeded to get very worked up in explaining to me that he’d figure something out. He said he was embarrassed and upset about the situation and he felt that his entire reputation was on the line. I ended up having to calm him down and tell him not to get bent out of shape. It was almost as if our positions were juxtaposed. I should be the one that is bent out of shape!
I started to consider my options in order of preference:
- Wait for my GC to find a new framer
- Find my own framer
- Fire the GC and quickly find someone else
- Stop making mortgage payments and let the bank foreclose on the house
Each option had pros and cons. At that point, as much as I like the guy, my confidence in my GC was pretty much shot. I didn’t have a framer or a new GC in mind and it would be difficult to make a big change like that given my time constraints at work. The fourth option was a nuclear one, but it’s not as bad as it sounds. I’d lose about 15 years of savings with everything I’ve put into the project so far and my credit would be ruined. But I’d stop the bleeding. I wouldn’t need my credit rating anymore because it would be years before I could save up enough to try again.
Anyway, on Friday, I got a series of text messages from the GC that he had found a new guy and that he might be able to start next week. They met at the house that day, and by Saturday, we had a quote from him. After a day of pondering my options, the first one looks like it was going to work out.
I have it in writing that it should take the new framer about three weeks to finish, and that includes installing the windows that I ordered in August. The framer has a job he needs to start right after that, so he is incentivized to hurry up!
In a way, this is almost too good to believe that we found a reputable guy just in time that has nothing else better to do for the next three weeks. But, this is pretty much my best choice right now. So, on Monday, we are going to order $16,000 worth of lumber from Kuiken Brothers, and we are going to get started.
How Did It Come to This?
When I started this blog, I had figured that it would be an interesting story about design decisions, construction, and decorating the house over the course of many years. I thought I would be living in the house by the end of 2016, and would have sold my Hoboken condo, rolling the proceeds from the sale into a much smaller mortgage on the new house. Instead, this blog has turned into an infrequent, long-winded complaint about not much getting done!
I don’t live life with regrets. I believe in taking measured risks in order to get better outcomes for yourself. This was definitely a risk, and so far, it has not worked out at all. I am certainly not going to say I regret this decision, I know that I wouldn’t have been happy had I simply stayed in my small Hoboken apartment with no eye towards the future. But, this certainly now falls into the category of a BAD IDEA! I’m never going to make up all the money I lost paying the double mortgage for so long, and as of this writing, I can’t see how it’s even going to get done before 2019, a full three years and more after I bought the place.
This is a pivotal week. If they start framing the house and come even close to their self-imposed three-week deadline for completion, my whole outlook will change. I’ll be in a position to tell my contractor that he’d better have someone working on this job every single day until it is done! All work can proceed on the house once the framing is complete, and weather will no longer be an issue.
Wish me luck…
The North Jersey Nonconformist 
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