Earlier this week we reached out to our contractor to make sure that everything was still on track for our July 18 start date. There were a couple of outstanding questions that they had not replied to.
You know, little things, like how much is the construction deposit that they identified on the schedule for July 15?
And suddenly after two weeks of no communication we were invited to a meeting.
Before I get into that detail, let's review our history...
- We had an initial design in spring 2021 that we gave the contractor for budget.
- They subsequently told us that they could get this done in 2021, so we tried moving mountains to make that happen. We bought a shed that would serve as Glenn's office and a 5th wheel trailer to park in the back yard as a place to live. (Finding reasonably price rentals in Wasaga that allows pets is basically impossible.)
- Fast forward to July 1, we had to commit to trusses in order to have any hope of being done before winter, we didn't have the budget and all the suppliers worked out vet, we didn't vet have the building permit, and we were having serious reservations over some big design questions.
- We pulled the plug and decided to delay to spring 2022, pull the permit drawings, and do a major re-design to cut costs. What we came up with was a far better design.
- November 2021, the contractor had priced out the new design and it still was not looking promising. The studio above the garage and the addition was fully 50% of our budget. So we decided then to nix the additions and concentrate just on the house.
- January 18, 2022 we applied for our building permit.
- April 12 we received our building permit.
- May 31 we had fully moved out of the house, everything in storage, for an anticipated June 1 start date.
- Crickets.
- June 27 we received a schedule showing Jul 18 start and December 15 completion. Later than we hoped, but OK we can figure this out.
And that brings us to July 13 and suddenly we are being told that no, that was not a real schedule and they could not possible start until late September. Trades and suppliers are busy, don't ya know.
Excuse me, but what's that now?
We have been demoing the house and even sold our bathroom vanity just last night!
In case there is any question, we are honestly quite at a loss for words. We have talked to a number of friends and family who all asked what happened and we still have no rational explanation with which to answer the question.
But the upshot is that we have no choice but to delay, again.
We will be waiting it out to spring 2023, and moving back into the main floor while starting to demo and then reconstruct the basement on our own this winter.