Chez Simpson: End of Week 2

Omigoodness! What a week. The guys worked 40+ hours Mon.-Thurs. so they're taking the day off. So that gave me (Leslie) my first opportunity to take photos during daylight without getting in their way. (It's very muddy out there, so now I have to clean mud off my shoes.) Things are looking good, overall. We had a bit of a crisis to deal with on Wed. night, when Jeff called to tell us that Lowe's (yes, good ol' Screw-It-Up Lowe's) had messed up our materials order. Jeff had ordered a certain kind of the cement panels for the exterior walls of the garage, but Lowe's gave them the wrong ones. The work crew didn't know what had been ordered, so they just installed what they were given. Jeff stopped by to take a look at the progress and was horrified to see that it was NOT what we'd ordered. He sheepishly called us Wed. night to tell us the bad news and ask what we wanted to do. Since I was in the throes (literally) of preparing for a colonoscopy early Thurs. morning, it was NOT a good time to deal with it. We went out and looked at it with a flashlight. I didn't like it, but decided that since it's going to be hidden with trellises on the 2 sides that are visible, then it's not worth making them do it over. Obviously Lowe's wouldn't take it back anyway, since it had been cut and nailed up. The other 2 sides face the alley and the garage apartment, so I guess it doesn't matter. Jeff said he'd see if Lowe's would discount the materials any, and he would credit us for some labor and materials that were not used as a result of the screw up. (We had planned to do a board-and-batten design, which would have taken used more wood and labor). The front sidewalk is finished and is quite nice. Here are some photos.

The first one shows the garage as seen from the pond area. The side opening is where they'll put the original door from the basement garage.

As you can see, the flat roof slants to the alley. Once the pergola and trellis go up on this side, you won't be able to tell that it slants. You can get some idea of the incline of the new driveway. On either side are the footings for the new retaining walls that will be on either side of the driveway.