FU But Apparently Not BAR

So yesterday morning I was walking around the site with Ben the Architect, who casually asked me about the height of the basement walls. I told him they were nine feet high. He said eight feet. I said nine. He showed me the plans, and pointed to where it said eight feet. I said... umm... oh. When the contractor has asked me the same question, I said eight feet which, it turns out, was the right answer. One point for me! But they built and poured the basement to nine feet, which is now a teensy weensy problem, if not an insurmountable one.

After many meetings and discussions, it seems that we now need to bring in Dave the Concrete Cutter tomorrow to literally cut the top 12" of  the rear wall and remove the header for the sliding doors. The header will be re-framed and re-poured at the end of the week, and the TGI floor system will now sit on Simpson hangers at the front of the house, as originally designed by Rocio Romero, and on top the newly-lowered basement wall at the rear, to bring us back to the correct elevation.

The view from the basement

 Why bother? Isn't it a good thing to have higher ceilings in the basement? Possibly, but it compromises the look and elevation of the house from the street, making it sit too high and appear too ungainly. It will look inelegant, and would in all probability bug the hell out of me from now until the end of time. So we're going to make the changes now, and return the basement to its correct height. And in future, when I'm asked a question about the house, I'll be more inclined to trust my instincts and stick by my original answer unless and until it's proven wrong!

The garage door opening

On the plus side, I didn't blow a gasket and managed to live by my new motto: Keep Calm and Carry On.