Alpine Escape - What has happened!?

Hello, Hello!! Oh my.. In July 2022.. OVER 9 MONTHS AGO.. I said I would be back soon for an update.. pending weather, disasters, and all!? Let's just say this has been an adventure of hold ups in the last 9 months...😳😵‍💫

I think I've said many times.. I truly believe amazing dreams don't come easy!! A lot of work, lessons learned, disappointments, trying our patience, and anything else we might add that come along with the dedication to make a dream come true! So I'm going to start from where I left off.. try to shorten this up and bring us to the present day which is May 2023!

My last Alpine Escape blog was prep & wait..It was August and land was ready to start the foundation!

September 8th... digging footers and the foundation has finally began!!

Sept 28th we have rough plumbing, foundation complete! We will seal the concrete later and that will be the finished floor on the main level! Water meter has been installed!

Now we are ready for framing!!....

Friday, October 14, "I've called 3 framers, no calls back yet." Still searching for a framing crew? Shouldn't that of been lined up already!?

..1 crew is booked until 2024.. Job is too small for a crew.. one crew says they can do it!

Many messages.. "ghosting".. no show.. I dunno.. and we are held up for months again...

Finally our project manager decides to frame this on his own..then the lumber isn't delivered on time.. and days of rain..

November 23..Finally, 1 wall goes up..

and then he finds another crew to frame.. December 1st they start framing! This will go faster!

December 2nd David, Lynlee, and I make a trip to take Lynlee to Dollywood Winterfest!! The boys have to stay home for school. 😔

On our way into town we stop by to check out the progress!! Yay! Walls are going up fast! Finally, seeing it take shape!

The sun is shining perfectly on the mountains.. 🥰😍

and then 2 days later.. we stop by on our way out..

and the inside:

We met with our project manager.. We need to get our entry door, 2 bedroom windows, and glass garage door ordered asap. We are a little frustrated as we have been asking about windows since October.. was under the understanding he was getting them and they would be ready for install when framing was done. Now we'll be waiting until beginning of January for windows to come in..😔 There's WAIT between every little thing, and I'm getting really tired of hearing it! I'm trying my best to be patient.. I thought project manager lined things up to keep them moving in a timely manner... 🤔

December 9th they finish up getting house wrap on and tar paper on roof. & yes, these are just temporary post on the porch.

No roof yet, no metal on outside yet.. nothing more is getting done.. let's keep waiting!

Ok.. now here we are.. it is now January 14.. We picked up our windows and doors from Menards and we are Tennessee bound to deliver them!!

David planned on helping Casey put the entry door in and possibly even the windows.. We just want to get this house dried in so work can keep moving!! It is winter!!.. Well Casey has decided we need to drop them off at his storage unit a few miles down the road because of the overnight rain.

So we do that.. and then we head up to the house to see how it is coming along.. and we find that a storm blew through a few nights ago.. the tar paper has blown off one side of the roof, laying all around, hanging out of a tree.. 😵‍💫 A lot of frustration when it has been over a month and no roof yet??

The better part of the day.. this is the first trip for the boys to see the house since it was just dirt!!

They are excited and love it! They head into the woods to build a fort!

So we head back home and pray for better days ahead on getting this house put together.. we are coming up on a year of starting this project!

January 27.. we finally have a roof!

February 1, entry door, bedroom, and loft windows are installed.. garage door needs to wait until metal is installed on the exterior..Still have a fixed kitchen window, bathroom window, and large front window above garage door that needs installed... Project manager is working on those.. supposedly they are ordered? ...

I love the black door!

February 17th the exterior siding metal is going up!! Yay!! We are on our say to South Caronlina for a race so we will be stopping by on our way home Sunday!

Pictures sent from our project manager:

Saturday evening we get settled into a rental cabin in Wears Valley.. our project manager calls to let us know "There are a few things I'm not happy with on the metal work, I've contacted the crew, we will meet to discuss it and fix it." Ok.. hmm..

Sunday arrives... we meet our project manager at the house.. There is scratches.. like they didn't even pick their drills up between screws..

There's dents, trim work is horrendous: scratches, not cut at 45s on corners.. looks like they drug it around, there's footprints on it, so clearly they walked on it, mudd all over, not cut neatly.. no one told me the back side of the trim was white and it would be obviously seen.. 😤 Like the more I look the more upset I was getting.. This can't be real.. did they really stand back and think this looked good and was acceptable!???? Thankfully, labor hasn't been paid yet!!! Kicking our entry door open rather than propping it open!?? I mean the list goes on at this point...

I say it all needs to come off and be redone! Project manager wants to try to save some of it and replace some of it.. He's contacting the crew that did it to see what we are going to do.. I'm conteplating metal off and install wood siding. I love the wood siding anyway.. but wanted metal for less maintenance. However, I don't see how that crew could make this right or to our standards when it looks the way it does!?

Back and forth for a few days.. the crew says they aren't coming back..

At this point we decided that we've had enough and we were taking care of this ourselves. David contacted the metal supplier in Maryville, TN to ask them who they recomend to do metal work. They gave us a crew valled Valley Vista.

We give them a call, seem super nice! They are going to go out to the house to see what they think tomorrow.

Their report: All the metal needs to be removed and all new ordered, trim pieces are not the correct pieces. The roof needs removed and reset.. no drip edge that is code. Ok, give us an estimate and a date you can start!

A few days later get the estimate, give them the go ahead to fix it right! .. within a week I believe it was almost completely redone! Minus a few trim pieces that needed orderd!

W.O.W.!! The difference!! ❤️ Amazing, helpful, sincere people!!

So we are headed back to South Carolina for another National Race, we can stop by on the way home to see what we have now! 🤪

And now we have... an amazing metal exterior like I originally imaged ❤️

There is a few pieces of trim that have been ordered to finish around the windows and porch.. otherwise the rest of the metal is fixed and we love it!!! Can this guy finish our house for us!?! He has more crew members and gave us a guy named Spencer's number for finishing the rest!! Oh let's hope we can make this work!

Saturday we send Spencer a text message, "Hey, this is the Bettinger's, we happen to passing through Sevierille tomorrow. Explain we have this house we need finished, would you be able to meet to see what you can do!?"

Within a few minutes.. replies yes, can you meet around 1:00pm? 🤩 Yes we will make that work!

Sunday, 1:00pm arrives! We meet, a few hours later and quite a few disappointments later we are excited that we've found someone that we feel like is going to get this done! Nice guy, honest, knowledgable.. ready to work!

By disappointments, I am talking about things that been done that need fixed, redone, bits and pieces that are started, but not finished... the temporary power pole we paid for laying beside the house.. the temporary power service we paid for that's never been hooked up.. the porch post that are now ruined from laying out for months.. electric outlets have wires ran but no lights have wires.. just a lot of things to get together! However, this crew seems ready to tackle it!

We let our current project manager over the past year know that we have found another crew to get this done. Although things have went wrong and messed up, he has done what he can to help make $$ right. December 1, 2022 was our finished contract date; we are now well past that and things aren't moving too swiftly!!

We get a new estimate and contract to finish..at this point we ask for turn key finished! Originally we wanted to install the kitchen, finish the cabinets, install our own light fixtures/outlets, and a few other things to save $$ and make it a memorable family project..😔 well ..it's memorable alright.. but not the way I planned! We are losing as we sit here with an unlivable, unrentable home so! PLEASE FINISH and we will come in and decorate, finish the space off with our personal design!

The following few weeks are a few more ouches!!! We knew the framing had issues that needed fixed.. walls not bolted down to code 😳 loft is kinda floating, not built to code. NOW my giant peak that was a huge design love for me had to be flattened off.. they didn't frame roof propperly for the span.. so that needs fixed, making a flat ceiling where my beams were crossing 😢.. We've already taken the metal off the roof once to fix the metal.. and the tar paper was already blown off once .. so not in the budget to take the roof off again to keep the peak. 😔

and then Spencer has his framing crew in to fix it... still doesn't pass inspection due to the loft.. the walls in the bathroom and bedroom will be built out a few more inches to support the loft. 😔

Now let's get this thing going again!.. Spencer's team checks pressure on the sewer lines that were placed by previous project manager.. well they hold no pressure.. so obviously there's a leak.. what does that consist of? Of coarse we have concrete floors so..

Let's tear up some concrete now! Sure, why not!? Yea.. sure enough the plumbing wasn't to code, supposedly passed inspection? ....

Long story short, plumbing was all redone and any plumbing that was there is not being used. 😓 We are still in contact with out the project manager that did this.. he will see what he can do on refunding some money and making this right.

Ok... now can we get on with this build!? Can we move forward rather than backwards please!?

Currently, everything that was not up to code or passing inspection is fixed! 😅 All rough electrical and plumbing is complete! HVAC wiring is complete! Insulation has been delivered and ready to install! Once installed we are finally onto finish work.. interior walls going up, sealing concrete floor, kitchen cabinets.. all the fun stuff !!

Exterior needs final grade, driveway, concrete porch, porch post, and porch ceiling.. That is all scheduled to be done soon!

Let's hope this keeps moving so that we can finish it off and let the vacation plannings begin!! ❤️

So .. I really hope we've battled enough through this project and I will be back soon with finished details and pictures!!

Thanks for Reading!!❤️

Disclaimer: My full throttle blogs are for entertainment purposes only. These are my families stories to share for fun, and our opinions only. I am not giving professional advise or recommendations. Thank you for reading!