D.L.L.I.G.A.F. #12 - The battle of evermore
The names are fictional to protect the guilty. All sex scenes are between consenting adults. No animals were harmed in the writing of this story. I along with Microsoft spell/ grammar check are responsible for the mistakes herein. I write for my pleasure and hope that you enjoy the read. This is the 12
th
chapter in this story. If you haven't read the previous chapter(s), then there may be some subject material herein that may not make sense to you. There is not a lot of sex in this chapter, This is the final chapter of DILLIGAF. Some of the events of this chapter coincide with the time frame of the previous chapter. I wanted to separate the story lines based on subject matter. This chapter concentrates on business and legal affairs. I appreciate the comments good and bad. For those that liked the story -thank you. For those that didn't - Well it enraged you enough to write a comment. Please leave feedback and rate my story.
My mental health
My Wednesday meetings with Dr. Day continue through mid-February. She continues to make me verbalize my feelings and emotions throughout our discussions. She recommends that I verbalize thoughts instead of just rolling them around in my head.
She is still amazed at my continuing relationship as a throuple. She applauds our ability to keep negative feeling out of our relationship and truly believes that as long as we remain committed to communicating and talking through our issues that we will make it int the long term.
She asks for a group session. I talk to the girls, and they are willing. At the end of group session, Dr. Day comments that there is no shortage of love and passion in our relationship. She gives us her best wishes. We decide to stop the sessions but agree to get in touch if the need arises in the future.
The Project
Frank Simmons' report date is Jan 10
th
. True to his word, he reports on Jan 17
th
. He has been working from home the previous week and shows me and the girls what he has been working on. He has taken his previous actual schedule, that reflects delays for weather, materials, inspections, as well as a couple of mistakes that had caused rework, and scaled it down to represent a 5 story with basement project (our project). He then scaled that down to our project's square footage. He also has input about half of the material costs that I had given him previously. I am stoked.
The girls and I dedicate the majority of our time helping Frank with schedule inputs. We help with inputs for manpower costs and associated increases due to projected raises. We also decide to input material costs at 120% of current material costs. It is my intention to bid a materials contract at that price. I believe, that by paying a premium up front and lock in a guaranteed price for the project duration I will save money in the long term.
Within two weeks we have a working schedule that reflects a delivery date of 60 months after the groundbreaking. The preliminary cost estimate with keys to the owner at $70,000,000. We also include in the proposal, various incentive pay outs for keeping costs under budget, for safety - lost time accident rates, and production incentives for completing work at various milestones and overall project completion date.
I delivered my presentation in early April. I gave them a slide presentation including snippets from our schedule, snippets from the original bid package, and a 30,000-foot view of our cost and production proposal. I also present proposed incentive payouts.
I start my presentation with, "Ladies and Gentlemen, Thank you for your time today. I want to start by saying I guarantee you that the bid you are about to see will NOT be the lowest bid that you will see for this project. But I will guarantee this bid proposal can and will be delivered by my company at or below the cost projections that you will see, and at or below the time projections that you will see."
I let that sink in a moment before continuing. I like to start off by praising my people.
"I have several things going in my favor that will ensure the delivery of these projections. I have a skilled and knowledgeable workforce that has already bought in to this project. They and their significant others are aware of the magnitude of this project and know what it will take to get this done as promised. Many of these craftsmen have been with this company for over 7 years. They are ready to step up and take on leading roles to ensure this project is delivered as promised. These same craftsmen are aware of the standards that I expect and that they have adopted them and expect the same from each other and the people that work for them. They will not compromise these standards and workers that can't or won't uphold these standards will not be with us very long."
Next, I want to make the point that we are big enough to handle this project.
"I have secured local financing for this project. I have a proven track record of delivering projects on time and on budget."
I showing them the slides from the local newspaper when we did our choregraphed handing over the keys before Christmas.
"There are always small bugs that need to be worked out on every project. I assign a skeleton crew on site after handing you the keys to ensure any bugs are corrected promptly."
I got a few nods with that statement.
"My bid is not designed to sell you a pig in a poke just to get the bid. My bid, because of realistic cost projections, realistic schedule projections and realistic manpower projections is my word and the word of my company. It is a big risk for a company of my size taking on a project this big, but it is not too big of a risk because a have a talent pool that can eat this elephant one bite at a time."
I need their buy in on the next statement.
"I will not come to you a year down the line or two years down the line with my hat in my hand and convince you that I need more money and that you will either pay it or get someone else to do the work. I am also not promising you a bump free ride. We will have frank, open, and honest discussions when the project is going smoothly and when the project may not be going so smoothly. If you accept my proposal, you will not be sorry that you did."
I had a lot of head nods at the end of my presentation.
There were several questions about the time frames for different milestones, incentive clauses, manpower expectations, etc. I answer the questions with as much honesty and openness as I can. I got handshakes and well wishes. When I left their building, I felt that I had knocked it out of the park.
I receive a certified letter letting me know that we in fact did win the bid. We have another dinner/ date night at the country club like before. I am able to give them hard facts and figures and thank them for their hard work. I tell them that I will need their continued hard work and focus on the tasks at hand. I ask their wives and girlfriends to be supportive and to talk to them. I ask the workers to listen to their significant others and to not forget who is important in their lives. When we arrive at home, the girls reward me with love and affection. God I am a lucky man.
My first new hires are two girls Jennifer and Jo Ann. These girls are to shadow Mandy and Beth. I tell the new hires to learn how to do their jobs. Question them and learn from them. Ask me if you need anything that Mandy and Beth can't provide. They accept my offer to take construction management courses. The next hire is another woman, Barbara. She is recently divorced. I hire her to take care of payroll and benefits. She accepts my offer to take accounting courses and business management courses.
The first year of the project is a little rough. We only retain about 75% of our new hires. I am disappointed that we have such a high turnover rate. It is about 18 months before we achieve our initial manpower projections. We are able to reach our production milestones by working overtime. The incentive payout just about pays for the overtime. Once we reach our manpower projections, and take advantage of this project's learning curve, we meet our production goals without problems. We do manage to lock in materials cost at 120% of BOC (beginning of contract) costs. Being able to convince the materials supplier to accept that offer saves 6 million in material expenses over the life of the contract.