Found: Missing 5 inches

Saturday, October 6, 2007

Discussion consists of Builder telling us that Carpenter is a great carpenter, and he never makes mistakes…he points out all the very good things he did on our house…and then he talks about how the architect left off some measurements…etc, etc, however he is still embarrassed about the mistake. I just say, look, how are you going to fix it. If it was 2 or three inches, I would not care, however on the other side of the main floor there is a laundry room and I cannot lose 9 inches there because my washer & dryer won't fit!

We stand around for a while because Carpenter has the drawings and he is late… Andreas and Builder measure the overall distance to double check and it still looks like we are missing 9 1/2 inches. Builder wants to leave after he figures out he'll just bolt on a few extra LVL beams (1 & 3/4" thick each by 12" by 22 feet)…but then you have to wonder if the toilet & bath drains are going to be affected since you can't just drop a drain through these beams. Andreas insists Builder stay because we all need to discuss this together. Eventually Carpenter shows up with the drawings and he spends the next half an hour looking sheepish and embarrassed and quite upset. We all inspect the drawings and see that the architect has included the stucco on the outside measurements…this explains away 4" but still we are missing 5".

I take the drawings and say ok, start measuring as I want to see *exactly* each room's layout. Now, there are no interior walls up at this point, so they have to go through and mark each distance, plus every 3 1/2" in between for the walls & closets. At the end of it we see that in reality, we are missing only 3 1/2 inches. Back to the extra LVLs to which Builder mentions it will cost him $300. I just laugh and say at least we noticed now and not when it was finished! He agrees and apologizes again and again and I also say, don't worry wait until we screw something up and we'll be even. Carpenter mentions the windows being off centre & I think Builder told him off in Russian for bringing it up, but I said I was ok with it since they are only out by an inch or two. All's well in that respect.