Getting this renovation/addition off the ground has been slow and painful. I spent almost a year discussing plans and costs with the builder and his designer, and then during the first week of September, 2016, I signed a contract with a substantial down payment. Unfortunately, the designer did not do what was supposed to be done in terms of engineering and dawdled at every turn, such that the City would not issue permits. After several months of changes by the designer, in January 2017, the City issued permits. However, being winter and being that a basement dig was involved, construction could not start until spring.
Then, in spring the builder was busy. Finally, the builder arrived the third week of May to start tearing down the garage. My project is clearly not his priority, as he showed up with a single worker and they only worked two short days with hand tools and the garage still stands, albeit without a roof.
I realize there’s a lot of uncertainty, compromise, and dashed expectations involved with renovations and construction, but it appears much of the stress is completely unnecessary and is manufactured by one party – the builder. I’ll have to suck it up. In any event, we’re off to a crawling start, which I’m hoping I can consider to be better than no start at all.
The builder has said that he will have no problem completing the project by the end of July. I hope that is not an expectation that also will be dashed.