According to my original gantt chart, I should have had the whole footing done 6 weeks ago, not just the basement. We got a late start and both the excavation and footings were stretched out over too many days. I really need to try and catch up before winter sets in.
The latest little thing to go wrong was my steel stud distributor breaking up with the manufacturer of the Marinoware studs that I wanted to use. The distributor tried substituting for another brand that does not include the triangular cutouts that I need. These are critical because they allow the shotcrete to go thru the studs and tie everything together.
I couldn’t accept the substitution, so my order was canceled and I needed to start again with another distributor (from the next county over). However, the new distributor quoted me a price ~20% more than the original distributor for the same products. I know the price of Steel has gone up about 18% over the past year, but ~20% over 1 week is a bit more than I could accept. Thursday and Friday I was making calls trying to get the price back down again. Every time they called me back, I was on the phone in another meeting (at my real job). I will need to pick that back up on Monday (which actually looks fully booked already).
In the mean time, I ordered a 20′ steel container for the site. I will use it for secure storage and as a workshop. I had been very tempted to buy one (for $1300 plus delivery), but at only $76 per month to rent, I couldn’t justify the purchase.
I also ordered the steel track (from the first distributor) so I can start laying out the walls on the footings. The track doesn’t need to be MarinoWare, and actually ClarkDietrich has flexitrack for less than half the price of the MarinoWare track. I just really wanted to get started, and I needed to put in the track before the studs anyway. But even those were a special order that will take a few days to come in…
So, this all left me with nothing to do on the site this weekend.
I decided to focus on finding some of the things I will need later. Buying a pickup truck is pretty expensive, and my car just won’t die, so I long-ago decided it would be financially prudent to buy a small trailer instead. I already have a hitch on my car from my bike rack, but my car can only handle pulling about 2500 lbs. It also turned out that getting temporary electrical service was more expensive and much more hassle (it requires its own inspection) than just buying a generator. I started looking on Craigslist List Friday night and found a few good prospects for trailers and generators.
Saturday morning, each of my kids had a Soccer game. I decided to go to the games and call Craigslist list from there (to setup meetings). I drove separately so I could come and go if I needed to. Before the game even started, my wife mentioned my plan to one of her friends within earshot of my son’s coach. He happened to have a generator that he had been trying to sell. He came over and told me his price, which was quite a bit higher than I was seeing on Craigs list (which is probably why it hadn’t sold). I just handed him my smartphone (with a Craiglist app) so he could browse and get a better idea of the prices I had been seeing. He quickly saw that he would need to drop by over $100 to get into the right $/Watts ballpark. We agreed on $285 for his nearly new 5500 watt Porter-Cable generator. I would have paid closer to $700if I wanted a brand new equivalent. It will power my hammer drill and table saw with ease and even be able to handle a MIG welder (using its 240V socket). When construction is done, it will be a decent backup power source for the house.
We also got talking about trailers and he told me about his folding trailer. I liked the way it could be stored more easily than the trailers I was seeing on Craigslist List. He told me where he bought it (Harbor Freight Tools) and even gave me a coupon.
With the trailer/generator plan sorted out, I could relax and watch the games.
On the way home, picked up the generator and two boxes that contained the parts for a 4×8 folding trailer. Due to a combination of a special deal and the coupon, I got it for only $260 with tax. This was pretty good compared to the $650 trailers I was looking at on Craigslist, the only catch was I needed to assemble it and buy some wood for the deck and side rails.
Fortunately, my brother-in-law, John, had come to the soccer game and was willing to spend his afternoon helping me out. It wasn’t “hard” to assemble, but it had a lot of pieces and having a second set of hands (with their own socket set) helped a lot.
This next week will have a lot of rain and I have a lot of “work work” to do. I plan to get back to working on the house on Thursday or Friday. With any luck, I will be putting up studs by next weekend.