July 5-6

July 5 and 6 were the two days Ronnie promised to have the wire mesh installed, and then get the slab poured.  On Friday he said he had talked to the concrete company, and Wednesday was the earliest day.

Actually he first said he could "probably" have the wire mesh installed on Saturday July 3.  I got him to agree that Tuesday would be the latest day, it would definitely be done by then.

Ronnie didn't show up on Saturday, or Tuesday July 5, or Wednesday July 6.

On the afternoon of July 5th, I noticed some weeds growing into the sides of the slab.  I got out a weed cutting pair of scissors and carefully cut back the worst ones, cutting with one hand and then removing the weed with the other hand.  I was careful not to "tug" on the weeds at all.  One of the weeds fell to the bottom because I wasn't gripping hard enough.  I was incredibly lucky not to cut my hands on protruding thin wire wrapped around the rebar.

Then I noticed two spots of crumbling on opposite sides.  On each side, roughly in the middle, there was now a gap of about 6 inches under the wood forms where soil had crumbled.  You could see the crumbled soil at the bottom of the beam trenches, but fortunately none of it was even close to touching the rebar, which is supported on 2.5 inch chunks of concrete.  Still, I might feel better vacuuming out the crumbled soil.

I called Ronnie about 5pm on Tuesday and told him about the crumbling soil.  He said it was no problem, he could fix that before the concrete was poured.  However, he didn't have any time to talk then, he would call back.  He didn't call back.

I called Ronnie again on July 6 around 5pm.  He said he had talked to the concrete company again and the earliest they could schedule was Friday July 8 at 7am.  So he would be out on Thursday July 7th in the evening and install the wire mesh, then back in the morning for the concrete pour.  I said "Great!" several times, not knowing what else to say.

*****

Since I faxed the Fleedwood window over a week before, June 27, I haven't heard anything from Holly Banks at Fleetwood Windows.  I sent an email on July 5 saying I needed to get the order going soon, this week at the latest.