General Contractors Meeting Two

After we reviwed the drawings, we called the GC meeting to order.  My questions were less random this time as I finally internalized Wes' view that we need to focus on things that will effect the design, and most importantly the foundation design as that's the first bid we'll put out.

Let's try some examples:

• We should focus on the floor plan as that effects the foundation.
• We should focus on the stone work on the outside walls, as that effect the ledge in the foundation.
• We should focus on the type of flooring, if it’s going to be unusually heavy as that may change the foundation design.
• We should not focus on the fireplace stone as that does not affect the foundation.
• We should not focus on siding as it does not affect the foundation.
• We should not focus on whether or not Solar Panels will be approved by the St. Johns Peak architecture review board as it does not affect the foundation
• And for the love of God, we should not focus, again, on the heating system as it does not affect the foundation.

So, now that we're focused, here are some of the decisions we made at this meeting:

• We'll look at the sample that Wes has on Saturday, but we'll probably use 'Thin Stone' or another 'Thin' alternative for the foundation cover, so we only need a small ledge in the foundation.
• I'm not going to mention heating systems until Wes asks me.
• Wes is going to engage the engineer for the Septic design, review the plans with the township officials regarding the Horizon Line and present the elevations to the St. John Peak Architecture Review Board to see what else is needed to get approval.
• Wes is also going to discuss the foundation design with one or two contractors.

Just before we adjourned the meeting, we discussed how often we would need to be on-site and at what points during the building phase the on-site visits would become more frequent. While Wes was contemplating, I brought up that I'd been looking on eBay for pop-up campers and old VW Camping Vans, thinking that this forward thinking was a good thing. I was going to continue and start asking how we could get water and internet service hooked up to a tent, when I realized that I had wandered off on my own again. Wes, who only a few minutes ago must have been feeling great as he could tell we loved the plans, was now deflated and staring at his watch. That was bad, but worse was the look Kim was giving me, like she just realize for the first time her husband had a severe learning disorder.

After that, we showed Wes some of our furniture as we must have thought the pictures we sent were not good enough and he was on his way