I left this morning and there was only a floor. Now they’ve already framed out the walls of 1.5 rooms and tore the siding off the existing wall. I will never stop being amazed by their speed.
Apparently our existing roof sags by 1 inch on one side, so they’ve been trying to jack up that side of the roof in-place with mixed success. Apparently in home construction, as with software, integrating with the legacy infrastructure is where some of the hardest and most time consuming problems arise.
Now that the siding has been torn off and I can see the inside of the existing outer wall, it’s fascinating to see its history. In two different spots (and at two different times, judging by the construction) there used to be windows where there is now wall. And the one window that is there used to be taller and at one point was swapped for a smaller window (why would you do that?). And, our back bedroom, which I had been assuming was original 1920 stuff, was actually an addition (a very old one). You can see where they grafted new rafters onto the old ones. Now I have some idea what it’s like to be an archaeologist.
I’d always had the opinion that software development is very similar to construction and I’ve seen nothing to contradict that so far. Our outer wall with all its historical remodels looks just like a system that’s been around a while and has lots of patches worked into its original architecture. The way Levitch has been approaching the building process is similar to agile development, where they came up with a ‘story’, then just enough plans to get a permit from the city, but we’ve been modifying bits of the design on the fly as the building takes shape. We’re adding windows here and there, we’re choosing the location of the outlets only when the electrician comes. Of course, there are no unit tests for a house, though.