schedule

Kevin asked the Director of Works, the geometra Jimmy, to make a report at the end of each month.

Here’s why this report is important:

1. To make sure the director of works is frequently on site
2. To ensure he is FORMALLY reporting back on a monthly basis that all works are proceeding as per contract and as per applicable building codes to ensure certification at end of project
3. To make sure end-of-project certifications are a “formality” and not a point of confusion as the director of works will need only revert to his/her monthlies and other notes
4. To keep the builder on his toes knowing that every month there will be a document that reviews his prior month’s work

Progress on the project has been steady once they were able to resume work after the bad weather. I’d say we’re 2-3 weeks behind the original schedule, but they say they can make up the time. (See update below the report.)

Here’s the February report.

An Update

Today we received the Giorni Persi per Maltempo report. This “Days Lost due to Bad Weather” report says that they have lost 2 days to snow and 5 to rain. (These days would be added to the end of the contract term, if need be.) So we’re a little closer to on schedule than I estimated above.

Finally, the snow at our building site has melted, due to warmer temperatures and some rain. But work on the site has yet to recommence in earnest.

The problem now is mud. Take a building site, where the basic earthmoving has started, and add snowmelt and rain and you get one big mess.

Apparently, the mud is worse than our contractor, Francisc, expected. He had a big truck come to the site to deliver some steel — it got stuck. From what Kevin says, it was quite the ordeal to get it un-stuck.

Unfortunately, I don’t have (actual) pictures.

Fortunately, Francisc has been able to construct the steel columns off-site. They next step, when practical, is to deliver them to the site, attach them to the foundation steel, and pour the concrete pillars around them.

More good news is that Francisc believes he can make up the time that was lost in January. We’re pleased, but not that surprised. The schedule looked like it had padding built in.

Here’s Kevin’s summary of what the next few weeks should bring:

The overall plan between now and 10 March is for the columns to be erected, the exterior block (anti-seismic poroton block) walls to be constructed for the ground floor, the interior stone wall to be constructed and the exterior stone to be underway. This will all result in a ground floor well into realization. Then, on or about 10 March we can do the critical structural “floor” between ground and 1st floors.

Lastly, our next trip to see the progress and to make some decisions about interior finishes may get delayed from mid-March to early April. That way we’ll be able to see the structure in a more complete form.

Image source: http://www.pixabay.com – No attribution required

We feel like we’ve made excellent progress on the building project in the last six weeks of 2016.

Kevin sent us a timing plan for the rest of the work, roughly showing activities by month. It stretches the project out until February 2018 — which was the completion date he proposed in October.

Looking at the plan, it feels conservative. There are few concurrent activities, maybe because one contractor and his team are doing much of the work.

Anne can’t understand how it can taKe over a year from where we are now. She really wants to be able to be in the house for Christmas 2017.

I’m a bit more relaxed about the date. I don’t see us being able to furnish and have the house ready until the spring of 2018. That sets us up perfectly for “introducing” the house in the summer 2018. Also, I’d rather take an extra month or two than rush the contractor into cutting corners.

Here’s the project flowchart Kevin sent along.