Friday, January 27, 2006

The "B" stands for "Blows Goats"

Your favorite insomnia-suffering architect is back! Did you miss me?

Last night, I felt a post just positively bubbling up inside me, like so much acid indigestion, but I couldn’t bring myself to relive the day’s events just yet. Now, at 4:45 in the morning, with the last remnants of my cookie dough-induced stupor gone, I think I’m ready.

Project B has still. Not. Left. The building.

In fact, we just got another fucking extension on it. The extension is the ultimate double-edged sword. We desperately need more time, but I am so sick of looking at this thing, it’s a struggle to force myself to do anything productive each day. The light at tunnel’s end has been cruelly ripped away from me once again. This is the third (Fourth? Fifth? Who can keep up?!?) extension we’ve gotten.

The utter aura of stupidity that surrounds this project has caused me to have this damn song running through my head all day long.

You want an example, you say? Why, sure! I have one for you right here.

The Owner is an ignorant git who has made countless changes and taken forever to answer pertinent questions, yet still expects everything to remain on schedule. Mr. Client Liason- who hasn’t got a fucking clue how much work it takes to finish a project of this size- promised the Owner that the Contractor would receive a pricing set on December 15th. We issued it, even though the set was only 75% done, at best. Because of all the omissions in a set missing 25% of its information, we are now being inundated with 9-page long requests for information from the Contractor- most of which point out that “detail has no notes,” or “referenced detail doesn’t exist.”

No! Really? You don’t say, Mr. Contractor!

We are now working on Addendum 1. This means we have to draw a revision cloud around, and add a delta with a “1” in it, to everything that has changed since the last set of drawings was issued. The last set of drawings consisted of 680 sheets. 680 sheets that were missing a substantial chunk of information. Do you see how big of a pain in the ass this is? Yesterday, my PA hands me a copy of a spec section that reads, “Addendum 2.” Apparently, this is being issued so that the Contractor can use a substitution on a building material. My PA gave me a copy of it because it had been issued. Before Addendum 1.

I never thought I’d be eagerly anticipating hip surgery, but here I am. Next Wednesday, if my doctor says he wants to operate the very next day, I’m so there. I will totally bail on this project, like the sinking ship it is.

Morphine, take me away.

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