And now we're underground...

The nice folks from PSE finally got off their asses and got the contractor out to convert the overhead electrical connection to underground last Thursday. It took them about 2 plus hours to do the work from the time they showed up to the time they left, but we were without power for only about 1/2 hour.

Now that the line is gone, the front lot is clear and we don't have to really deal with the creep anymore. Although, I did tell him that the framers are leaving a lot of trash around. He promptly cleaned up the area. Nice.

After the underground line was run, it's now our responsibility to fill in the trench. Since my spouse dug the trench and weed-whacked, I did the filling.

One more thing... my spouse found raspberry bushes amongst all the 4 foot grasses and weeds. And a few raspberries were ripe! She had raspberries in her backyard growing up so she was really excited! I was pretty excited too because I like raspberries! There aren't a lot, but it's a start. Yeah for raspberries!

Let's Mow the Lawn!

We bought a weed-whacker. Time to attack the jungle! The whacker is gas powered and was just able to cut the mass of grass and weeds. My spouse did all the whacking. I just watched and took pictures! Actually, I do quite a bit of work from home and that's what I was doing.

Here are a couple of pictures of the yard before the whacking.

Here is my spouse whacking the jungle down!

Here she is taking a deserved water break. She's so dirty!

Here are some shots of the tamed jungle.

My spouse was not so interested in preserving the beauty of the flowers that graced the yard, but she did make me a stunning bouquet from the felled flowers!

Flies and Framers

For some strange reason, big fat flies like to hang out on the fence between the front lot and our lot. Lots of them. My spouse thinks it might be the port-a-potty (Honey Bucket brand). I think it's just a temperature thing.


I called PSE (the electric company) and LNI (the Washington State Safety Agency) on Friday. I told them that I saw something that I considered unsafe in my neighborhood. I said that a house was being framed under a live electrical wire and that the framers were just draping the wire over the house they were building. They didn't seem that interested.

However, LNI and PSE showed up on Monday and shut down the work on the house. The representatives were shocked by what they saw. The framers had to go home halfway through the day on Monday and didn't work at all on Tuesday. PSE was calling Potelco (their contractor) to speed along the process of moving the electrical line from overhead to underground. The PSE reps couldn't get a hold of the engineer on the project to get a full story. They couldn't get Potelco to give them any answers either.

I figured that the site would be shut down until the line was moved, but the framers showed up this morning (Wednesday). Can't keep the flies away.

The front lot owner called me and asked if I knew when the line was being moved. I said I didn't know. I was ready if the front lot owner accused me of ratting him out. First off, I asked LNI to not mention that I (the neighbor) was the whistle blower. They have a policy of asking whether or not you want to be identified. Second, I could claim, and rightly so, that I was just asking PSE/LNI whether or not I could be sued if someone got hurt by the electrical line while working on the front lot (since the front lot owner once threatened to sue me for exactly that). In fact, I did ask that question and was told that I could be sued for anything but that it very unlikely that charge would result in a decision against me. However, the subject never came up.

I think I'll call LNI again this morning.

Cabinet Hardware

We recently picked up some cabinet hardware. We had spent some time a while ago touching lots of different knobs and pulls and had settled on a style of knob and a style of pull that we both liked regarding feel and look. We hadn't quite yet decided on size. After doing some 3D modeling of the hardware on our proposed cabinets we felt very excited about the 1 1/2" knob and the 6" pull and went out and got some.

My spouse could not wait to try them out. She even took them to work for show and tell. Everybody in her office fondled the hardware and gave their hearty approval. Here are a couple of pictures of the knobs and a pull in context.

My spouse swapped out the crappy old knobs and a pull for the new ones just to get a "feel" for things. They really look and feel great! Can't wait to do the kitchen! The finish is oil-rubbed bronze. It's a really dark finish that will wear with use eventually showing a bronze color where it gets touched the most.

Photos of Destruction!!!

Firday night's entertainment... get the attic space cleaned up!


Rolling up the carpet Saturday morning because the mess will be easier to clean up.


And the demolition begins! Here we are in the living room pulling off paneling. Each wall was different. Some walls had two layers of wood paneling; some walls had one layer of drywall and one of wood paneling; some walls one layer of dywall and two layers of paneling; and one wall had a layer of brick veneer, one layer of dywall and one layer of wood paneling. We may have gained 10 square feet or more in floor space during the demo!

Here are a couple of photos of the different wallpaper patterns that we found.


There was some pencil writing under the brick-work that said Dave+Carole in a heart.


We also found an old paper hornet/wasp nest!


The big beam in the middle of the room is being supported by a 2x4 on either end and supports the roof trusses.


The ceiling was made of 1/4" thick drywall. No wonder the ceiling was wavy!


We found some old signs of rats, too.


We vacuumed up as much of the mess as we could with our new wet-dry shop-vac.



On Monday we took down the pole in the back yard. First, we tied it off so it was less likely to fall on the house. We started with the reciprocating saw but didn't make much progress. I burned up a blade right away so we tried the jackhammer. My brother-in-law's roommate and I traded shifts on the jack-o-fun-ride-hammer.








The pole had way too much concrete around it so we used the saw again. After two more blades, the pole came down.


My spouse found a bee that had been caught my a spider the same color as the yellow poppies!


Many thanks to the brother-in-law and his roommate! Together we managed to lower our standard of living even more! Seriously though, the demo was so much easier with these two slamming holes in stuff.


Now we just need to talk to the consultant guy. Once he comes, maybe we can actually start putting things together again. We're crossing our fingers we can move everything we want to move and not bring the house crashing down on our heads.