New Service

The power company (PSE) and Potelco (the power contractor) moved my old service line from my old meter to my new meter. They cut into the conduit, cut the wires, and then spliced new wire onto the old and ran the wire to the new meter location. The splice will not be housed in conduit and instead will be buried in sand. I'll be shoveling the sand.

I spent all day moving the old breakers and wires from the old service panel to the new service panel. The inspector passed me but called out a couple of grounding issues. All-in-all, I was without power for about an hour since PSE decided to leave the power on (Potelco had told them that the wanted to splice the wires while hot instead of turning off the power at the street). It was a lot faster and easier for them. It was nice to flip the breakers and have all the lights turn back on!

It took me almost three months to make this project happen. Getting PSE, Potelco, L&I, and the electrician to talk to each other was virtually impossible. In fact, I had to bypass the electrician and do all the work and project management myself. The Potelco tech told me today that PSE has recently brought the engineering part of the work in house (Potelco used to do this work) and this change has really disrupted everybody's ability to get projects like mine to progress smoothly and quickly. 

In the end, I had to coordinate PSE's shut-off for the morning (this step turned out to not be necessary), Labor and Industries inspection in the afternoon, and Potelco's splice and wire run after the inspection. Even if the inspector had failed my inspection, Potelco could have turned my power back on (if they deemed my work acceptable) because I'm living in the house. This loophole made me feel much more confident as I did my work.

This is perhaps the most ambitious project that we've undertaken in regards to the house. It's still not done (we have to fill in the trench, and address the inspector's call outs), but it's nice to have all the hard stuff behind us. 

Here is a photo of the work pit after Potelco spliced the wire.

Here's a photo of the new conduit run to the new meter location.

Here's the new meter! They took the old one and gave me a new smart meter.

Here's the old meter box. My contractor is going to be so happy tomorrow because he'll finally be able to tear out the old conduit and start siding the front of the house.

 Here is the new service panel. You can see where I took out the old service panel.

 Here's the old service panel. I may scavenge the ground bars from it.

Electric Meter Install

We are a day behind where we wanted to be because of the plumbing fix that ate up Saturday. But we still have plenty of time to finish up the odds and ends by Wednesday morning.

I also made a few changes and additions based on some feedback that I got from a friend who follows this blog. I added bushing nuts to the male nipples were the wire(s) enter all the boxes and service panel. I also added some oxidation inhibitor on the ends of all the wires where they are screwed into the boxes/connectors. A big thank you to my friend for suggesting these fixes/enhancements.

Here is the new siding that I installed, primed, and painted in the location where the meter is going. I had to install new siding because the old siding was too narrow and we are converting the old six foot wide window to a four foot wide window. I decided to paint the siding now because I won't ever get a chance to paint it again.

Here is the meter box and the disconnect box installed and wired. I had to cut the 4/0-4/0-2/0 wires with a reciprocating saw because they are so thick!

Here is the meter box and the disconnect box with their respective covers on.

Here is the lock for the disconnect. I don't think anything more substantial is necessary at the moment.

Here is a photo of the new paint next to the old paint. The old is a bit faded and dirty. The house is going to look SO good with new paint all over it!

I got a nice compliment. One of the young guys on the construction crew came up to me while I was working and said he didn't understand how if I'm an electrician why I stay home all day. I told him that I wasn't an electrician, just a home owner. He just looked at me with wide eyes. He calls me the electrician now.

Electric Meter Relocation Progress

We paid a couple of the guys from the crew to dig the rest of the trench this weekend. It took two guys 4.5 hours to finish it.

The 2.5" conduit on the left is the electric line. The two 2" conduits on the right are the phone and cable lines.

My spouse and I ran conduit and pulled the 4/0-4/0-2/0 aluminum service wire. Pulling the wire was definitely a two person job. I was initially optimistic and tried to get the wire to make a 90 degree bend and a 45 degree bend but had to settle for pulling the wire through only one 90 degree bend. 

Here is the other end of the wire run. I purchased a duplicate service panel so that I can pre-wire it with the big wire and then move over the breakers and wires from the old service panel after the power company shuts off power on Wednesday. We have to move the service panel because the new wire run feeds into the house in a location that won't allow us to keep the panel where it is.

The new electric meter location and new service panel is by far the most ambitious project we've taken on so far on the house. I'm hoping the inspector is happy with my work.

Leaky Pipe

My intention on Saturday (today) was to run the new service wire from the panel to the new meter location. I instead found a leak and spent my time repairing it. The heating system installers had pierced the drain pipe for the kitchen sink when they were drilling exploratory pilot holes. Two holes pierced the drain pipe all the way through. One hole was only on the top.

When I was feeling around on the top of the pipe, I felt what could have been another hole or two, so I didn't take a chance and cut out two feet of the drain pipe (I couldn't see the top of the pipe, only feel it). Turns out that the suspected holes weren't holes at all, but it was better to not take the chance.

Here are the hole on top of the pipe.

Here are the holes on the bottom of the pipe.

Here is the gloop inside the pipe. 

Here is the gloop on my coveralls. It also got in my hair, eyes, ears, and on my face. It was kind of foul, but at least it was only kitchen sink gloop and not bathroom gloop. And sink my household is mostly vegetarian, the stench wasn't too off-putting.

My anxiety of doing the new service panel wiring run has been overshadowed by the horrible plumbing leak, and now I am excited to do the electrical work.

Siding

This siding is almost completely installed on the west side of the house. Looks like a real house!

Here are the old French doors installed in the new location.

The trim and siding installation has begun.

 Here's the front of the house with a little trim installed.

Siding progress.

More siding progress.

Siding mostly done!

Sheet Rock

They crew hung sheet rock from Wednesday through Friday. The rooms really feel time rooms now.

The office/playroom.

The guest bedroom.

The 3rd bedroom.

New Porch Eaves

The new porch now had a roof and eaves. It really feel good to have the new design at this stage. The porch is the visual focus and obscures the rest of the house (which was the original intention of having a prominent porch).

One of the contractors didn't do a great job on the eave so it got fixed the next day.

The trim board along the eaves makes the porch roof seem like a real roof!

Ghost Closet No More

The crew is beginning the sheet rock install. I decided now was the time to bust through the wall into the ghost closet so that after the drywall is up we can access the 3rd bedroom. The kids are fascinated with the new access point. 

It was really weird pulling the old drywall off along with the wall paper. The smells of the previous tenants were released. Ghosts of cigarette smoke and meaty dinners seems to float into my nose during demolition.

I have been saving the old door that used to be on the 2nd bedroom. Now it's a temporary door into the 3rd bedroom.

Hall Bathroom Fan/Light

The heating/cooling system duct work ended up bumping the existing bathroom fan and light fixture out of its spot (a register/vent replaced the fan). I've been planning on installing a new fan/light in the hall bath for a year or so. I feel like putting it in the shower area will help reduce condensation on the ceiling. I finally installed the new fan/light! It was really easy, and it works really well! I may just install the same fixture again in the master bathroom. I used an adapter so that the light is an LED instead of a florescent light.

More Rhododendron Growth

The rhododendron is definitely still alive. And it seems like it will be very bushy very soon.

Front Porch

The front porch construction has begun. The contractors had to first explore the house face and decide if it could hold up the porch. They decided it couldn't and rebuilt it. The cut out all of the old pole/log cabin construction. 

Here you can see three different roof lines.

Here is an old attic access panel.

Here is some of the pole/log construction being exposed.

Here is the north side fully opened up. The contractors reframed the entire attic area and even flattened the face of the house. It was very undulating previously.

Here are the posts for the porch standing tall.

Here is the roof of the porch outlined. We were going to do a hip roof, but the framing was too complicated so we decided to do a gable roof. This turns out to be great because we obscure the house even more and get extra storage in the attic!

Here is a cardboard study of an additional window for the porch.

Here is a 3D sketch of what the porch might eventually look like.

Most of the porch framing is done. Yay!