Closing Day – Part 1

It’s coming up on almost a year ago that I stood one morning on a street corner in Providence working on jump-starting my synapses with coffee while simultaneously giving myself a quiet pep-talk. It was the morning that our questionable ethics were going to be evaluated and I was trying my best to insure that I would be able to hit the speaking points of our argument comfortably and clearly before taking the elevator ride to our hearing at the RI Ethics Commission.

The small and tight but legal lot that we had signed a purchase and sales agreement on required zoning variances to build upon and our situation got murky, quickly, since I sit on the Zoning Board for the Town of Barrington. In exploring what would be required for variances we found that the Ethics Laws in RI prevented me from going before my own board to request zoning relief unless my case met the standards for a “hardship exception.” Without the variances, the site was undevelopable to us.

I found my way to the hearing room and located the lawyer assigned to me by the commission to research and present my case. She had previously put together a legal advisory opinion based on the specifics of my situation and legal precedent for similar requests that we reviewed and discussed a few weeks prior to the hearing date. Her research had turned up a single precedent from over a decade ago where a zoning board member in another city had requested to go before his own board for a dimensional variance to build a house for himself – pretty much the same thing I was requesting to do. His hardship request was granted. As I was thinking to myself that this was looking good she hit me with the big “but…”

She explained that his singular case was the only one on the books and the makeup of the Ethics Commission is different now so they could have a contrasting opinion to the precedent for my case. She went on to let me know that often applicants are told they can begin to act on advisory opinions before the hearing but that in my case, I should wait to go before the commission.

The pressure of this situation was pretty staggering. My ethics hearing was at 9am and our closing was at 4pm THE SAME DAY. If this didn’t work out we would either need to back out of the deal at the last moment and lose our deposit or we would own a piece of property we couldn’t do anything with. Both were non-options for us.

Adding to the already overwhelming pressure was what we thought was our worse-case scenario was not really the worse-case. Going into the purchase and sales we knew we needed variances for the property and at the time we thought our downside was that I would need to resign from the zoning board. It wasn’t until I began communicating with the Ethics Commission, after a signed P&S, that the reality became clear to me: if I resigned today a prohibition will period kick in under the Ethics Laws preventing me from going before the board for a complete year. That could push our construction start out to 2012 which really wasn’t an option either.

This morning was the first time the lawyer and I met face to face. She greeted me and started to fill me in on procedure and where our case was on the docket. Then she turned, looked me in the eyes and asked if anyone had told me about the makeup of the board today and proceeded to inform me that minimum number of board members for quorum was present. I know I just stared back blankly at this point not understanding what she was really telling me. When she told me the implications all I could think was: can this possibly get more stressful?

With the minimum for quorum I would need a unanimous vote in favor of my application.

What’s Going On With Your Lot?

“So what’s going on with your lot?” That’s the question we have been fielding often these days. It just about always results in an uncomfortable feeling in our guts and a bunch of stuttering mumbo-jumbo about starting as soon as we can. The honest answer: not much has happened since the dramatic demolition.

When we started this project we had a fear that the economy might strike again putting us in a very difficult position to be building a house. Happily, that has not been the case and we have been really pushing to be able to keep up with the work load at the office and have even, with some reluctance, grown one employee larger than we have ever been.

The drawback is that I’ve been working 50-60 (and more…) hour work weeks to keep up with the fast-track schedules that seem to the norm in this post-2008 economy. At one point this past winter I was running 4 fast-track projects at the same time which is a feat that I would have said was impossible just a few years ago and don’t hope to relive any time soon.

That brings us to today, the first day of the first week I have taken off from work since Simone (now almost 2) was born. It started like any other Monday with me at my office desk at about 7:05 working out the weekly goals then breaking things down into task lists. The difference: I’m wearing Chucks and a t-shirt and I’m working full-time on our own project. Welcome to the first day of my “work-cation.”

Demolition Progress – Day 20

On Monday February 7th, just after 5pm, I watched as La Machine was loaded on a flat bed trailer and hauled away in an unceremonious end to this phase of our project. I thought that that moment would make a great photo but I honestly didn’t have the energy to make it happen by that point.

Earlier that day I stood in 6 inches of mud holding my 17 month old daughter in my arms as I matter-of-factly discussed with the demolition company what needed to get done if they wanted to get paid. I spend a lot of time on job sites and have been in some pretty bad situations so I was not shy about what I saw that day and what it was that I expected. By the close of my argument, as we walked the muddy site together, I got the answer I wanted to hear: that this was the worse looking job site my project manager had seen in his ten years and it would be cleaned up by day’s end. They cranked up La Machine once again and got on the phone to have another dumpster delivered.

A few hours later it seemed like the whole demo company was at our project site including both owners. They may have been grouping the troops in anticipation of us not paying them again or maybe they all wanted to meet the guy who had become such a pain in their ass over the last month. Probably a bit of both. I just stood there, with a check visibly in hand, watching the last of the pile of debris get loaded into the dumpster.

It’s still not perfect, I don’t think the demo company has the capability to achieve that, but it’s done.

Demolition Progress – Day 16

It’s been 16 days since actual demolition work began at our house site and almost a month since the tree service first arrived to take down the big pine and ended up just driving away (January 7th). I was told (again) by the demo company that the tree service would be here today to do their part of the work but given the track record of their promises I didn’t get excited for anything to happen.

The call came in around 9 am this morning that the whir of chain saws could be heard throughout the neighborhood and I headed over to see for myself.

There is still a stump to grind and some more site cleanup and rough grading to do but we are close to closing this chapter of the project.

Demolition Progress: Day 14

Today was the first day I drove by the job site and proclaimed out loud: “You have to be f**king kidding me” as a positive statement.

We are at the 2 week point on a project the demolition contractor should have been done with in 2 days and it was cold and snowing. They arrived at a decent time this morning (as witnessed and relayed to us by a neighbor) and actually worked a legitimate 6 hours straight removing the remaining foundation, getting the debris cleaned up and leveling most of the site. It is unbelievable to me that on a day the weather was so bad they finally made a decent push.

Now don’t think for a moment this thing is done. That big pine tree that was scheduled to be removed a month back still stands and there is some clean-up and debris removal to be done at the back of the lot. But we hit a milestone that I personally thought was still week or two away and that is a good thing.

So we cracked open a bottle of wine tonight and toasted to progress. Progress is good.

Demolition Progress: Day 8

Well it’s been 8 days since work actually started at our site. The demo boys showed up for their standard 30 minutes of work today and they took down the small shed (I’m not sure where it went, there is no dumpster on site currently…) and the big pine tree in the front yard.

Things look nice and clean now but kick the 12″ of snow around a bit and you realize there is a 6″ thick layer of scraps and shards across most of the site, a partial foundation still in the ground and a bunch of concrete slabs and several trees to still take out. At this rate will been done in another week or so… Maybe.

The big pine from the front yard felled and awaiting removal

Looking at the back of the property where the 2 sheds once stood

Looking toward the front yard. La Machine is still here. Thats the felled big pine to the right of the frame.

Demolition Progress Update

I’m sure you all are wondering just what is going on with the demo. Well things have been very busy at the office and I have not had time to be a pain in the ass of the demo guy recently so I think it was 5 days ago we last spoke. I did stop by the job site at the end of the day today because Michelle had let me know they were there ripping down one of the 2 sheds. But as they typically do, they spent only an hour or so there working. I have no idea how they can be making money on this job with the inefficiency they demonstrate.

I’m going to back up a week to the first day of demolition with a story I have not relayed yet. I got a call from my “project manager” right as they were about to start finally tearing into things that he wanted to pick up the second third of our agreed to fee for demolition the following day. I was excited to finally see things happening and told him “sure!” as I ran out of the house with my camera in hand. However, that night I reviewed our contract and I had noted the terms on the copy I sent back with the deposit check. Those terms were 1/3rd down and 2/3rds at completion. I sent him a fax that night with that info and let him know that upon completion of the agreed work we would promptly provide the remainder of the fee.

The next morning we had a funeral to attend. Michelle’s uncle had died. Right before we were about to head out my cell phone rang and it was my “project manager” and he wanted to talk about payment terms. I didn’t yell (you know there is a MAJOR problem when I choose to make a point by yelling) but we had a heated disagreement about terms. See, although they ripped most of the house down the day before, they only spent an hour and a half doing it. And then didn’t return after lunch leaving a giant pile of shards and scraps littering the lot. I wasn’t about to go up on them with two thirds of the fee after they had f-ed up our permitting so bad then only spent an hour and a half working.

We spent the rest of that morning focused on family. We were only jarred to the reality of our project as we were leaving the luncheon and Michelle’s cousin asked us how the project was going. Michelle covered that “only in Rhode Island” moment in her blog and I encourage you to head over there and read her post – she relayed the story much better than I could hope to here.

Even after making a few phone calls about who knows who and who is who’s cousin, things have not picked up in pace but no one is calling me about money so I’ll take it. One shed still stands, there are foundations to remove, trees to take down, a drivway to remove and a lot to grade to level before this thing is done. All I know for sure is that the tree service drives by every day to see if the lot is clear so they can take down the big pine.

 

 

Demolition Progress

I love the smell of diesel fuel in the morning!

On my way to the office this morning I stopped around the corner at the job site and was happy to see that most of the house debris has been hauled away. They still have quite a bit of work to remove the remainder of the house, the animal pens, the sheds, the driveway and trees then grade out the lot.

I was also sort of surprised seeing the foundation. The front, newer part, of the house was built on a concrete slab on grade that I didn’t expect. Not enough was removed to see what that slab was supported on but the older section of the house seems to have been built directly on the ground without a concrete or masonry foundation which explains why the floors were up and down by a good six inches.

We are hoping they get all the debris out today before the next storm comes in tomorrow. We suspect things may move along better today after making an only-in-Rhode Island kind of connection yesterday.  That story is another post all together which Michelle is working on.

9:30 UPDATE | Just got a call from Michelle. She is standing at the site right now watching them remove the remainder of the house and load it into a 40 yard dumpster.

Demolition Under Way!

Demo? Just Maybe.

9:30 am | Well the machine is sitting in the driveway and I’ve been told the operator is on his way, just delayed because of the weather. This thing may actually happen today even with the snow and rain coming down.

11:00am UPDATE | The machine operators have arrived! They are warming up the wrecker and we are at T-20min!!!