Big Picture: Where are we?
Deck at 410 is complete and I’m back to work on the hardscape at Mintwood.
Corp Update
- The week of July 1st I finished up the deck for 410 40th St. This involved putting down the actual decking, and then building the fence. There’s also a gate that goes from the 410 deck to the deck at 412 40th St. I’m not sure if it’s required for egress or it’s just a “Pittsburgh Thing” but it’s there and done. The last step was cutting the posts to height. Since they are 6’x6′ posts, I just rented an electric chainsaw at Home Depot to finish up. I am ready for final inspection, but first I have to complete the renewal of my GC license. (all of that paperwork is submitted- just waiting on the city now.)
- With the deck completed, I’m able to focus on other things. We got a slight surprise this week, in that the tenant at Duncan St. gave notice. It turns out he bought the house next door (which is a mirror image of our house). He’s on the hook for the duration of the lease, but we are in that process of finding a new tenant. I spent a couple of days getting the landscaping back up to snuff so it’s ready to show. Sunday, the 14th, I did a raft of showings. We will see how many of those turn into applications.
- Around the 1st of July I poked the concrete subcontractor and his mason. It turns out they hadn’t even ordered the stone for the front steps. So I’ve politely poked them and the stone is ordered. They said “2-3 weeks” which in theory means end of this week the stone should be ready. I’m going to follow up Monday morning and see what news we have on this. I’m a bit miffed, but it keeps following the same pattern- guys who are good at the work are rarely good at also running the business. I eventually fell into my old consulting ways and asked piolite but pointed questions about status, which is how I uncovered that the stone hadn’t been prdered.At this point they’re making it a horse race to see that this stuff gets done and the landscaping gets installed before the charity event Kath is hosting this August. No meaningful progress on the front steps this week. I did finally get the stone mason and the concrete guy on a text thread and politely prodded them about expected dates. Grrr….
- I’ve picked up the remaining steel order for the planters and a bit of extra for the fence. The welder should come this week to do the last bits on the planters, which would be HUGE. Also, I’ve already fabricated the “standoffs” for the border fence. This will allow us to push the fence out to the property line even though the posts are positioned 18″ inside the boundary. (It’ll make more sense when i can send a complete picture). In any case, I got lots of practice doing some stick welding. It doesn’t look perfect, but it’s acceptable. I keep reminding myself that it’s not featured in the middle of the living room- it’s a fence, and it just needs to be functional.
- Here’s the schedule for the next few days
- Mon: fence parts prep (welding, etc.)
- Tuesday: personal day (motorcycle prep)
- Wed: remainder of planter welding
- Thursday: deliver topsoil and fill planters
- Friday – get the trees for the back yard
My big picture is that we need to get the front entry finished before I leave for Virginia on the 25th. That would leave me in a good position to finish the fence and get ready for the charity event on 29 August. The “big items” before then are:
- Planters completed and filled with green things.
- Front walkway completed
- Front landscape completed
- Fence (west side) completed
- Stretch goals:
- trim on front door
- trim on back door
- finish and install TV floating shelves
Entropy Properties LLC 