So we stumbled on another interesting hold-up. Apparently, the new structural design needs some kind of special, custom steel bracket thing from Simpson Strongtie to hold the beams and posts together. They do custom orders… but they went on strike a few days ago and now custom order are delayed by weeks. The contractor suggested using a local steel fabricator to make it to the same specs. Going rogue from a trusted manufacturer makes me a little nervous, but I talked to the structural engineer and he said as long as specs were the same he would sign off on it, so I guess it is all good. At first I didn’t believe the contractor and thought he was trying to pull something one me, but I did confirm that they are on strike, so I guess this is just another one of those thing that happens to slightly derail projects.