Calm Down, Everybody

Mr. Builder came up with an alternate plan that would not necessitate the huge change order (something about slurry and backfill, yadda yadda). We think the concrete people are on board. We had to do a lot of coordinating with the soils engineer and the structural engineer, the architect and builder, and everyone has been very patient with us. Sr. Juniper has talked to the head of the concrete company, and everyone's tempers and tensions have seemed to calmed down somewhat. Including ours.
Pictures soon.

The Saga of Casa Juniper

Several neighbors like to remind us that other people have tried to build on this lot, and never made it very far. The tone is something of, "You crazy kids, you can try, but that lot will eat you alive."
We are still in the midst of concrete work. We are so eager to move forward, and get this show on the road. Unfortunately, work is slowing down this week. There seems to be a major discrepancy between what we thought the scope of work was, and what the concrete people thought they were bidding on. And there shouldn't be a discrepancy. They've asked for a big change order, and nobody on our side of the table can see that all that much has changed. We're hoping we can come to an agreement to move forward, or else... let's not think about that.

Brass Disc

The worry over the property line finally prompted me to go see for myself what the heck is bothering our neighbor. So I found the brass disc (next to the green stake) at the ground that shows the corner of our property after clambering around the slopes. From what I could tell, the pink string lines that the contractors were using as a guide were not pulled tight. Rather they were lazily pulled. So I gave that stupid line a good tug and found that the line did indeed look like it had been favoring us by a few inches. In addition, the line was to the wrong side of a tree along the property and I had to lift it over the tree to set it straight. From what I can tell, it looks better and should satisfy the neighbor and all the fuss.

I can only hope!

Good fences....

Several years ago, at the beginning of the permit process, we had a survey done of our lot. This week, the inspector asked us (or our workers) to show where the property line is. Turns out, this is not where either of our neighbors thought it was. It seems somewhat irrelevant to us, since we are well within the setback, so we won't be building anywhere near the property line. One neighbor threatened to file a complaint with the city if we didn't move our lines. Seriously? I think we have smoothed that over, at least for the time being. Although part of me wants them to file a complaint with the city, because I'm quite interested to see what city department would take their complaint, and what documentation they would use to refute our survey. But it's probably better if it doesn't come to that. It's tempting to go to battle, but it would be hugely counterproductive. I really don't want to end up on Judge Judy.
The other neighbor had no problem with any of it, even though people had to go over the fence onto "his side" to show the property line. He was just worried that his dog would go after anyone on the wrong side of the fence! I think I like this neighbor.

Sabotage!

Let me catch up here...
A few weeks ago, right when they were getting ready to pour concrete, the contractor called us early in the morning and informed us that someone had turned the water tap on, and the lot was flooded. It seemed that it couldn't have been that the workers left it on, because the water tap was on full blast, and they would have noticed that. So, our trusty builder put a lock on the tap, and we went and talked to all the neighbors again just to keep the peace, and ask them to look out for anything. It could have been some teenagers being dumb, but it seems more likely that we might have a kooky neighbor somewhere (Sr. Juniper remembers someone making a comment about "I hope you've got it covered if we get a lot of rain.") Sabotage!
It all dried out pretty well, and didn't slow things up too much. What a pain, though!