Missed Deadlines, Casual Labour, and Progress

As I just wrote in my blog post http://thepathtosustainableliving.blogspot.ca/2014/06/missed-deadline-again.html, the scheduled deadline to start the big dig has now come and gone.  While we have made some real progress to get closer to this task, we are still weeks away from getting there and quite frankly, I have stopped trying to plan when it will happen and instead am concentrating on doing my best each day to move forward.

The interior is now pretty much gutted with the non-structural walls now all removed. Tomorrow will entail clearing out all the debris in a green waste and garbage run to the transfer station and then starting to cut up the sub-floor (it unfortunately will be too hard to salvage). I will then start cutting of the ship-lap and siding from the outside surface of the studs which should greatly increase the speed of this task and make salvaging both much easier.

As I wrote about earlier in the week, I hired temporary labour from Embers.  They sent over a nice fellow who put in a good days effort.  But I have to make a confession.  I REALLY do not like being responsible for another person’s productivity, and it is even worse when I am the person paying.  The task was to grind off the staples from the bottom of the pulled up beech flooring.  This was a monotonous time consuming job, but had to be done and I thought this would be a good opportunity to hire out and help me catch up.  I knew there was a problem when the individual asked if this was a two week job.  When I advised I thought it should generally be done at the end of the day and that I had only hired him for the day, there was a look of shock and disbelief.  So he got down to it and made a solid effort.  By the end of the 8 hour shift he had chewed through close to 2/3 of the pile.  I was not going to be around most of the next day and needed it done ASAP, so I tackled the balance myself and was able to polish it off in just under 3 hours.  So this worked out to a task that would have taken me 9 hours (close to what I predicted) to a task that would have taken the fellow I hired at least 12 hours and probably more because the speed dropped off a lot in the later hours of the day.  Those who know me from my Chemetics days, knows how difficult is was for me to work with individuals who did not match my efficiency and speed.  So, I have given the casual labour a try and will use it again in times where I just need more than one set of hands (placing beams and such), but will probably not be utilizing this as a general assistance method throughout my build.

I will post some vids and photos of the deconstruction in the days to come.  Today is office day and it is time for me to catch up on my paperwork.

Thanks for visiting.