Day 67: When Your Consultant Skills Meet Construction Reality (Spoiler: Reality Wins)

Well, well, well. Last week I learned that having a plan in construction is a lot like having a perfectly organized itinerary for a family vacation with toddlers—adorable in theory, chaos in practice.

Let me start with the good news: we made TONS of progress! I even used my fancy consultant skills to find a solution that would get us back that week we lost when our anchor bolts decided to play hide-and-seek (if you remember that delightful saga from previous posts).

Half of The Foundation Is Done-Done

Those towering mountains of excavated dirt that have been dominating our landscape for weeks are finally finding their way home! With half of the building's foundation and foundation walls complete, the team can now start the satisfying process of back-filling those trenches—but not before carefully installing foundation insulation to wrap our concrete work like a cozy blanket.

Our concrete contractor had the perfect perspective on this milestone, joking that his most beautiful craftsmanship will disappear forever, buried beneath layers of earth where no one will ever see it again. There's something beautifully poetic about creating your finest work knowing it's destined to be hidden—the ultimate foundation for everything that follows.

The Great Consulting Moment (Or So I Thought)

Picture this: I stroll onto the site Monday morning, feeling pretty good about myself, and ask my construction manager how many concrete pours we have left. He starts explaining we have THREE more pours. Three! Each taking about a week. Quick math (hey, I am a consultant): that's three weeks, but we only had two weeks before our building erection team was scheduled to arrive.

Cue consultant panic mode.

My biggest fear? Missing our window and having the erection team pick up another job, creating yet another round of delays. So I did what any self-respecting consultant would do—I put on my consulting hat and started asking questions.

"Why do we need that corner again?"

"Why can't we dig it out now?"

"What if we put the pump truck on the north side?"

I was on FIRE. I had charts in my head. I could practically see the efficiency gains!

After some back-and-forth with my construction manager, site guy, and concrete sub (yes, a four-way conversation—peak consulting moment), everyone agreed on a plan that would combine two pours into one and as a result we would save a whole week!

The team started building forms, scheduled concrete, and even found crew willing to work Saturday of Labor Day weekend.

Saturday Morning Reality Check

So imagine my surprise when I arrive Saturday morning at 9 AM, expecting to witness our plan in action, and find...

The pump truck sitting EXACTLY where we agreed it wouldn't be. Right in the middle of the building footprint.

"Why?" I asked, probably sounding like a confused puppy. "Why didn't you follow the plan?"

Plot twist: We got the wrong pump. A much smaller one that couldn't reach all the corners from our agreed-upon position. The crew decided to bring the pump truck and all concrete trucks to feed it over the hump that was built above one of the foundation walls.

Insert record scratch sound effect here.

The Bigger Question (That Broke My Brain)

Here's what really got me: If we were going to use heavy machinery in the building footprint anyway, building a "hump" over the foundation walls for access... why didn't we think of this from day one? Why all the elaborate corner-saving choreography that was supposed to be an access point to trucks to get inside of the building footprint?

Sometimes you have a plan, and then a different-sized pump truck shows up, and suddenly your team has to MacGyver a solution on the spot. And you know what? They absolutely nailed it. The pour got done, the wall didn't break, and our leach field appears to be intact (we'll do a camera check just to be safe—because I've learned to check EVERYTHING twice in this business).

The Boulder Victory Lap

Oh, and remember those infamous boulders from the north side pickleball courts? We brought in a massive excavator-operated hammer (because apparently that's a thing), and now we have a beautiful flat piece of land ready for three courts! The retaining wall is installed, all surprises dealt with, and soon we'll start laying asphalt. The best shot of the progress is probably from the security camera.

Those boulders? We're distributing them around the wetlands perimeter as permanent barriers. From obstacles to assets—I love a good redemption story.

The Foundation Finale

We're basically done with the building foundation! Just one tiny pour left for the foundation walls above that corner. Within a week (maybe a week and a couple days), we'll be finished with concrete and starting the most visually exciting phase: BUILDING ERECTION!

I'm heading into Labor Day weekend in a state of awe, surprise, mild confusion, but overwhelming gratitude for my team's ingenuity and flexibility. They listened to my suggestions, then figured out a better solution that actually worked. Regardless of the logistics and the process, we still managed to shave a whole week from the schedule by optimizing the concrete pours.

Note to self: Consulting skills are great, but nothing beats a construction crew's ability to pivot when a different-sized pump truck shows up.

Sometimes the best-laid plans meet reality, and reality wins. But with the right team, even the surprises turn into victories.

Next week

Final concrete pour and preparation of the building erection, which apparently called "shake out" in construction lingo.

Stay tuned—this construction adventure is just getting started!