Hermetically Sealed Can
When construction began on our new house, we were warned that it wasn't a matter of "if things went wrong," but, rather, "when things went wrong," and the advice was to roll with the punches. We tried to take that advice to heart, and it served us well last Saturday morning.
We had been questioned by a friend about what he saw as a peculiarity in the layout of a specific room in the house, based on his walk-through the previous evening. Since he has no little experience in house construction, we decided we'd better check it out for ourselves, and so we drove to the location after breakfast.
Sure enough, the closet to one of the bedrooms had two doorways, one from the bedroom (which we expected) and one from the exterior hallway (which we didn't). Interestingly, that latter doorway had been shifted from its rightful place, which was the guest half-bath located across the hall from the closet.
That's right: the bathroom would have no entrance, unless something changed. This may be a standard feature somewhere in the world, but it's pretty much not what we had in mind.
We did have a laugh about it, as I joked that we'd just have to put a sign on the finished wall reading "Break in Case of Emergency."
Fortunately, the framers are still on the job and this should be an easy thing to rectify.
Now, if we can just figure out why the garage opens up into the kitchen...
nice... that would indeed cause some trouble. i wonder how they could overlook something like that, but i guess with as many houses as they frame, and i'm sure they all run together after a while. and surely that's much easier to overlook than, say, bathtub plumbing in the corner of living room, which would make for some awkward situations.
And you had a problem with this? Boy, I'm sure glad I'm not your builder...picky, picky. ;-)
Posted by: gwynne at September 24, 2007 12:41 PMBeth, desperate times call for desperate measures!
Kyle, I couldn't help wondering what they were thinking as they were framing it. "Crazy gringos; I think I've seen everything now!"
And you're right; if I'm going to have a bathtub in the living room, it's going to be right in the middle – not stuck off in a corner.
Gwynne, now you've made me skittish about even bringing up the thing about the bedroom and the sewer! ;-)
Posted by: Eric at September 24, 2007 12:50 PMStories like yours are what make me hesitate to get my first/second...no, third contractor in to finish the remodel on our house.
Posted by: Janie at September 24, 2007 06:50 PMRemodeling is much more gruesome than new construction, in my opinion. For one thing, the builder is the point of contact; you really don't have to deal directly with the subs. Also, if the builder is reputable (and ours is, very much so), his crews are experienced and skilled (and little faux pas like I wrote about are the exceptions that prove the rule).
Plus, you get to live somewhere else while the work is being done! ;-)
Posted by: Eric at September 24, 2007 09:27 PMI can't wait to see the finished construction! Would I know the area in which its being built?
Posted by: Rach at September 25, 2007 02:33 AMRach, it's not in a location that we toured when you were here last year. But, of course, Midland isn't that big so I'm sure we came within a mile of it at some point. But at the time, we weren't even contemplating a new house, much less a specific location for one.
Posted by: Eric at September 25, 2007 06:46 AMThat sounds about par, Eric. I lost count of how many times I visited our house during construction to see chunks of sheetrock disappear, reappear as patches, get re-textured, disappear again... well, you get the idea. And you don't even want to know about the comedy of errors that was our kitchen (or maybe you do, but I don't want to bore the rest of the class here).
A bathroom with no door is definitely a knee slapper, though. At least, as long as it gets corrected.
Posted by: Foo at September 25, 2007 07:27 AMNow, if we can just figure out why the garage opens up into the kitchen...
Maybe when you said driveway the builders heard drive-thru.
I'll take a Texas Longhorn burger, a sagebrush shake, and a side of petroleum fries to go. Please.
Posted by: Jim at September 26, 2007 09:55 AMOh, and I just caught the post title. LOL.
Posted by: Jim at September 26, 2007 09:56 AM...and a side of petroleum fries to go.
We still have restaurants around here that list them on their menus as "Freedom Fries."
But they still may be cooked in petroleum, for all I know.
Posted by: Eric at September 26, 2007 01:37 PMAbout the publisher
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And here I thought you were giving us a new way to make sure our guest baths stayed neat and clean!
Definitely glad you caught it. :)
Posted by: beth at September 24, 2007 11:22 AM