## Q18 key (Rock, Tank, Clock)
1. Notice: the March 3 email went to the wrong designated recipient and is not itself compliance, but the six informal-email change orders and the owner's recorded "sort out the paper later" direction make waiver and estoppel genuinely litigable; preserve the argument, do not rely on it, and paper a compliant notice record now. Missed: a winnable condition-precedent fight is either conceded or bet on.
2. The rock and the tank are textbook differing site conditions (type I against the geotech report; the tank as an unknown unusual condition); recovery for the direct costs is strong. Missed: the core entitlement undervalued.
3. The no-damages-for-delay clause bars delay damages but not time extensions, and the owner's continue-working direction with knowledge supports the active-interference exception for the acceleration and extended-overhead components. Missed: whole damages categories abandoned or overclaimed.
4. Pay-if-paid: enforceable as written against the $410,000 only to the extent owner nonpayment is the true cause; it does not authorize withholding for the schedule dispute, and prompt-payment interest runs on wrongful withholding. Missed: the receivable strategy aims at the wrong obstacle.
5. The lien: the 90-day clock runs from last furnishing, 71 days gone, 19 left; warranty-crew presence does not restart it. Record within the window for defensible amounts: the $410,000 contract balance plus documented direct-cost claims; including the full $1,328,000 with soft acceleration and overhead numbers risks overstatement forfeiture. Missed: the deadline passes or the lien self-destructs.
6. The cure notice: respond in writing within seven days with a cure plan (remobilization schedule for accessible work, claim reservation); pulling the warranty crew during the cure period is the wrongful-suspension default the clause needs. The client's "let them sweat" plan is the single most costly available mistake and the answer must say so. Missed: Stonebriar converts its claims into its own default.
7. Day-by-day sequence: cure response first (seven-day fuse), corrected formal notice and claim package immediately, lien recorded well inside day 19 for the defensible amount, payment demand with interest, then the forum per the contract. Missed: right actions in a losing order.
8. Posture: negotiate from the lien and the interference record; the differing-site-conditions entitlement plus the owner's directive makes settlement, not maximalism, the value-preserving path. Missed: leverage burned on the $1.3 million bluff.