Lawyers and owners see construction delays very differently!

I worked for years in litigation, first as a paralegal and then, after I started law school, as a summer student and articled clerk. Construction law is a such a broad area of law that they offer a distinct construction law class in law school, dealing with issues such as tendering, contracts, change orders and delays. Many of the lawyers I worked for in litigation had thriving construction law practices. People in the construction industry seem to be highly litigious - it seems very rare for a construction project to go from start to finish without somebody suing somebody.

Now I am seeing the world of construction from the other side - as an owner hoping to get a construction project over the finish line on time and on budget. Construction started yesterday and already there have been problems, which = delays! To a lawyer this would be potential business and the lawyer in me automatically thinks "Who is responsible and what damages can we get?" But the owner in me wants to scream "I don't care whose fault it is, somebody just fix it!"

The two sides of me are warring with each other. The lawyer in me wants to dig into the contracts to find out who should have done what, the owner justs wants to get the job done. The owner is going to have to win - one thing I know from experience is that as a lawyer I would be dealing with this problem years from now as it worked its way through the court system. But as an owner I have to get this problem fixed today, because tomorrow there are other contractors waiting to arrive and get their work done. I'll put the fight aside. For now.

Here are a few pictures to give you some "before" views of the space. We will update the pictures regularly so everyone can see the progress! Keep your fingers crossed that things keep moving along!