Construction - The name of the game is.... 'Delays'!

Everyone knows construction projects tend to take longer and cost more. We were expecting some delay due to the MANY historic restrictions and approvals related on this house but, I have to say, even I vastly underestimated the things we would encounter on this project. This blog post is part venting and part reality check for anyone expecting to undertake a construction project and have it done quickly like they so deceivingly show on HGTV. The real world tends to work nothing like HGTV!

We officially purchased this property in October of 2018. I can’t believe it has been almost a year and a half already and yet all we have done is the exterior of the house, basic interior demo and prep, two roofs on barn buildings, and fencing to bring horses to the property. That may seem like a lot to some but knowing we still have all of the interior electric, plumbing, HVAC and kitchen addition to do on the main house as well as the solar photovoltaic system, well pump and line replacement, and all of the interior finishing and fixtures to install…we have a lot of work left to do.

So why aren’t we further along in a year and half? I could have built a new house from the ground up by now. Many of you are probably wondering what is taking us so long that you are still reading this blog.

Delays. Many many delays. Some we anticipated, some we did not. Let me count the ways….

Roof tarped in June 2019. It had been raining inside the house. The tarps we in place for over 6 months.

Delay #1: Preservaton Easement - Historic Approvals

We spent 5 months working with the Advisory Board to outline our scope, discuss options, and ultimately get approval from the Township just to start work. Many debates over what was and was not historic on this house were the root of the issue. Some on the Board took the approach that if it was existing it was historic and therefore should stay. While that is certainly one approach, it is not generally how historic preservation is practiced in the industry. You want to identify the periods of historic significance and bring the property back to those periods, as authentically as possible. This house has multiple periods just to complicate things. It’s original construction of 1744 is pre-colonial. There are early 1800’s renovations and late 18oo’s additions which are Victorian era. Then there are early 1900’s renovations that included things like an Italian Tuscon front porch and the addition of second floors to the late 1800’s add-ons. Plus, a chimney that was moved in the 1950’s and the early 1970’s Formica kitchen which was one of the first things to go. What is and what is not historic was the debate. After months of stalemate, the Board decided they needed to retain a preservation consultant because we could not, and would not, agree with many of the things the Board was rejecting in our application. For example, we wanted to remove one of the 5 front doors that had clearly been added in the late 1800’s when a portion of the porch was enclosed, and return it to a window to make the 1811 wing symmetrical again, as it would have been when built with a center door and window on either side. After a couple more months with the historic consultant on board, we essentially came to agreement on our proposed restoration and renovation work and more or less got everything approved we had asked for 5 months earlier, with the exception of the roofing material. Had the Township had a qualified preservation consultant involved from the start, we could have saved months of time. So end of April/early May of 2019 we officially began work.

Roofing finally underway at the end June 2019.

Delay #2: Coordination is Key - Unexpected Illness

After waiting 5 months to start work, we were excited to submit our demo permit and get going. Unfortunately , just 3 weeks into the job, our general contractor fell ill to a cryonic heart condition and was hospitalized. With no site supervision from our GC, workers and subs were being coordinated in part through us, the Owners, and in part through our GC from his hospital bed. This led to delays in getting subs on site, coordination issues with material orders from subs causing issues with sourcing materials for decking, things having to be reordered like roofing, and double handling of demo and construction waste, increasing time and costs all around. It became evident after a couple months that our GC was not getting out of the hospital any time soon and that we would need to assume the main role of site supervision on behalf of our GC to keep things moving. This is an unusual circumstance and most home owners would not be equipped to handle it, but with me as an Architect and with Lia trained in construction management, we felt we could handle this and keep things moving with our GC overseeing things remotely to the best of his ability. We probably lost two months of time here due to coordination issues, material sourcing issues, incorrect material orders and double handling of recycling. What should have been done by the end of July took until the beginning of September 2019. Until the exterior enclosure was done, we could not proceed with any of the interior work on plumbing, electric, HVAC or finishes. 2 months of delay essentially.

Not much work happening, but horses have arrived! February 2020.

Delay #3: Variances? Why do we need a variance? Board of Health approval for Septic

One of the first systems planned to be installed was a new septic system. The old one had been abandoned over a decade ago and could not pass inspection. We knew this needed to be replaced, so as part of the project design we had an engineer prepare and submit a new system for approval to replace the existing system. You would have thought this would be a quick and easy installation, replacing an existing system, in the same location and roughly the same size. What we did not expect was that when this 7 acre property was divided off from the larger Green Acres 60 acre parcel, the NJDEP and Township arbitrarily drew our property line so that the existing septic system was now a zoning violation by being too close to the new imaginary property line they created. You just can’t make this stuff up! So that meant we had to wait and go before the Board of Health to have an official hearing so they could grant us a variance to allow us to put the septic system back where it was in the first place, which was totally legal before the property was subdivided. Of course, we had to get on their meeting schedule which took a month, have the Board cancel that meeting because of a snow storm that didn’t happen, get rescheduled, and two months later we were finally before the Board and got our variance. We watched September, October and most of November slip by while waiting for the septic permit. We also had to have the tax assessor out to reassess the house from 4 bedrooms to 3, to avoid having to completely redesign the system to a size we we’re never going to need. Another 2 month +/- delay.

New septic finally going in, February 2020.

Delay #4: Expect the unexpected - Holidays, Weather & Worse

Now we have a septic permit! Woohoo! But wait…now it’s the holidays and we have lost our spot in our septic subcontractor’s schedule. Between the holidays, our subs schedule, and the rainy, virtually snow-less winter, we ended up not being able to start the septic system until end of January. Over the holidays, we also suffered the loss of our GC, Bruce Shankin, who sadly passed away from complications of his condition. It was a blow we were not prepared for and out of respect for his family, we did not try to coordinate with Bruce’s partner and wife for over a month, to give her time to deal with the devastating loss she and her children were faced with. At the beginning of February we reached out to see whether we could continue with our GC under her new leadership or if she would not want to move forward, meaning we would have to start over with a new GC. After much thoughtful discussion, we were relieved to be able to move forward with our GC under her leadership, taking on a larger role ourselves in site supervision and project management on her behalf. Work resumed on the septic shortly after that and I am happy to say the septic system is installed and we are waiting on our plumber to make last connections to it so we can get a final inspection and close that piece out. This combination of circumstances cost us about 3 months of time.

Trenching for solar and well. April 2020.

Delay #5: Price and Quality - Getting Subcontractos on Board

Finding good subcontractors is not easy. Finding good subs with pricing that fits a fixed and tight budget, even harder. While demo and septic issues above were being sorted our, I was busy trying to finalize designs and costs for our off-grid solar system, plumbing, HVAC, and electrical work. Normally the GC would be very involved in this as the subs technically work under their contract and the GC usually has a preferred group of subs they work with project to project. With our GC still in the hospital (yes he never left the hospital between May and his passing in December) we took on the role of contacting subs and getting pricing. This took several rounds of design and discussion to get plumbing and solar finalized. I am happy to say, we just got notice that permits for these systems are approved. There is more to that story below though. We are still waiting on pricing for electrical and to finalize the design and cost of HVAC from several subs. Some of the contacts for subs came from our GC and some came from our network. Admittedly, we did not have all the design documents worked out and priced when we submitted for demo permits long ago. While that would have been ideal, we could not just accept the first price we got in, most cases because of the limited funding, and therefore had to do a lot of back and forth with subs to develop designs that worked with our off-grid sustainable demands while fitting our budget. The combination of these things has probably cost us 2 months of time to sort out and finalize the systems to be installed.

Quiet but pretty.

Delay #6: A Pandemic - COVID 19

Who could have predicted an international health pandemic?! No one! Well, this may have been predicted in January, but some did not listen. So we finally have plumbing and solar permits in hand, are about to get building those systems and submit for HVAC and electrical permits to get everything else going we need to….but….wait….literally TODAY Governor Murphy announced that all non-essential construction work looks like it is going to be shut down. We are waiting to see the details of this new executive order as I write this, but I am expecting our construction site will be shut down for the foreseeable future and likely through June at this point. We would be looking at yet another 3 month delay in that case. Sigh.

Conclusion:

It has been 17 months since we took ownership of this property. in that 17 months, we have experienced 2 months of delay related to design and pricing issues of our own making and 10 months of delay due to a variety of things beyond our control outlined above, leaving 2 months of real permitting time and just 3 months of actual construction time so far. So to answer the question of why don’t we have more done after 17 months…delays that have exceeded anything we could have expected have plagued our efforts. I sincerely hope COVID 19 does not shut us down for another 3 months, but if it does, we will be ready to come out strong in July and finish this up as quickly as possible. Thankfully we have had a great place to stay, living with our partner and family member Mary Jane in her 2 bedroom walk-out basement suite. During this COVID situation it has been nice to be together and look our for one another.

We hope you are all staying safe. Be well. Be Patient. We will get through this renovation and we will all get through this trying time, hopefully to a better end. The silver lining of this pandemic is that Lia and I have noticed many families spending more quality time together outdoors with their pets. We have also noticed the dramatic improvement in air and water quality around the globe as human activity has been reduced. The weaknesses in our medical system, financial structures, and institutions that are supposed to protect us and be prepared for such emergencies have been laid bare, and I, for one, hope that life does NOT return to the old ‘normal’ after this pandemic has passed. I hope everyone realizes we need to make some dramatic changes in our politics, institutions, businesses and personal lives in order to truly be more sustainable, happy and healthy for the long term.

Jason

**This was originally written a few weeks ago, and our project has been able to continue, due to it being isolated and contractors able to maintain social distancing easily. It has actually worked in our favor as we’ve been bumped up the schedules by a couple of subs who are not able to work on their other projects. Lots has happened in the last two weeks. More in the next post!