Up In The Air, Part 6

I may have to rename this thing, as we are - for now - back on the new foundation. I'm afraid that this will be the part where things get adventurous and possibly adversarial.

First, it appears that we know nothing about drain tiles, and that ours were laid improperly. We will have to check with the city inspector and find out whether the dirt needs to be ripped out and the job redone right.

Second, since we had no basement stairs, I hadn't looked through the basement door and down the stairwell area. I'm concerned that they laid the foundation in such a way that no appliance will ever pass that way again. How could they make it even narrower than it was? In the old basement, a washer or dryer would fit if I removed the basement door and the first trim strips, and if I didn't mind a small scratch from the fieldstone on one side. Washers and dryers are 27" wide and we had maybe 27-1/4" available. It looks as if our new foundation, while not as thick as the old one, errs slightly toward the inside, and I can barely wait to measure the available space between the stairwell wall (beneath our well-fixed stairs to the upper story) and the new block.

I really don't want to have the house go airborne again, but that wall has to allow appliances to go up and down stairs or it will have to be redone. As long as the drain tiles need to be done right, how hard is this? Except that the girders are gone, and the house movers haven't been paid, and I bet they won't come back. So the contractor will need to kiss some ass or find another house lifter.

Third, we continue to have problems keeping water and hot water supplied to the house. A temporary connecting hose for the water supply split this morning in the wee small hours, and we had some wet dirt in the excavation. The water heater is apparently hooked up and heating but ever since it got moved off its safe spot on the support crib, it hasn't supplied any flow. Cold showers have no charm even while camping, much less in my own home.

It also occurs to me that the contractor has said he has all required permits but we don't have them posted. I think we need to have him bring a permit board and nail it to some part of the house.

Let the pissing and moaning begin.