Ceiling Paint

The drywall is done and primed, and now I have painted the ceilings with some flat ceiling paint. The next step is to install some lights so we can see to paint the walls.

Here are a couple of photos of the 3rd bedroom.

Primer and First Layer of Paint

We hired one of the contractors to come back and paint the exterior of the house. He has primed the exterior and even painted one layer of the final color on the front side. The house is really starting to look like a house! The painter says he likes the shade of blue that we picked.

Porch Window

When we changed the design of the porch roof we had to order a window for the newly created attic space. It has taken a long time but the window finally showed up! I picked it up and installed on the same day. I also installed the trim around the window and the metal flashing strip above the trim. I think we made the right choice in adding the window detail.

Nook Window

I finally installed the window on the east side of the nook. The old window was six feet wide. The new one is four feet wide. It's nice to have a window again instead of plywood.

Transplanted Madrona Tree

There was a madrona tree growing in the back forty part of our lawn. I transplanted it back near the blueberries since the trackhoe was flattening the back forty. It does not look happy.

Spreading Gravel

I spread four yards of gravel over the course of two days (mostly the second day). I spread it over the parking area and also make a path to the garbage cans and the lawn. The gravel is about 2-3 inches thick in most places. I had about two wheelbarrow loads left over. Now, at least, we don't have to walk through a mud pit to get to our cars.

I love my landscape rake!

Earth Moving

We had an earth mover guy here last Thursday and Friday. He had a small track hoe and a dump truck on site to add drain rock around the foundation walls and to grade the slopes around the house. He also installed the crawlspace access wells and the vent wells.

He delivered two truck loads of recycled asphalt for our driveway (the price was really good), and he trucked off about six loads of dirt from the giant pile.

The grade from the house to the lawn on the west side is problematic so we're going to build a little deck there to make the transition work better.

Here is the north side of the house after grading.

 Here's the west side of the house after grading.

Here's the south side of the house after grading.

We had the track hoe level the south side of the yard as well.

Crushed Gravel

Summer is over and the it's started to rain at least once a week. This means that it's a muddy mess on the north side of the house. The earth mover guy dumped a bunch of recycled asphalt in the driveway, but we chose not to have the asphalt run up to the house. 

Instead we had four yards of crushed gravel dumped in front of the house and now we have to shovel and rake it over all of the parking area. Fun! We purchased a landscape rake to aid in this process.

Deck

The decking is almost finished being installed. There are two more pieces needed (we ran out). They'll be installed on Friday. Then we have to seal the deck. We'll eventually make some nice stairs for the front and side.

Siding Complete

The siding on the house is complete! Now we have to let the caulking cure and then paint (about two weeks).

Roof Work

The roofers installed the new shingles on the 3rd bedroom and the porch yesterday. They also installed a flapper vent for the range hood and a solar attic fan. It took them half a day. We used the same contractor that we used for out original roof so we get the same warranty. North Creek Roofing has been really good to us.

Flapper vent for range hood.

Solar attic fan.

New 3rd bedroom roof.

New porch roof.

New Door and Hardware

We've have the new door for a almost a month sitting in our construction/staging shed. The contractor installed it on Wednesday. We then installed the door lever set, and now we have a real locking door! We're going to leave the protective cardboard on for a little while longer. It's really strange having a real door again!

North Side Windows

The north side of the house is now sheathed, wrapped, and has windows installed.

New Conduit Runs for Cable and Phone

I back filled the trench with about 12 inches dirt. I did this by digging a second trench only 24 inches deep directly adjacent to the 36 inch deep electric trench. This allowed me to elevate the cable and phone conduits so that they are not directly next to the high voltage (which is better for data quality). I covered the electric wire splice with sand (as per code). Then I cut open the cable and phone conduits so that I could pull the cables out and reroute them to their new location at the corner of the house.

The coax cable pulled out very easily and then I used a 90 degree sweep and a 45 degree turn to elevate and turn the conduit run. It was really easy.

The phone line would not budge! I pulled on it from down in the pit and up at the house. No movement. I figured the only way to move the phone line was to cut the wire and splice new wire onto it so I called Frontier to see if I could get some new phone wire. I told them I had an open pit and was hoping to drive by one of their service yards and pick up some wire and a splice kit. I ended up speaking to three different reps and they told me that someone in the Washington state division would call me back shortly. I had mentioned (nicely) that I was willing to just cancel my service and then order new service so that I wouldn't have to pay for any of wire after they told me they were going to have to charge me to the wire.

I got a call back with in fifteen minutes from a Washington area manger who told me that a crew coordinator was going to call me in about thirty minutes. I got the next call and the crew coordinator was at my house in about an hour and a half. He was very puzzled how I was able to get such quick service and attention. He told me that my work order had come from the Washington vice president of Frontier. I have no I deal how that happened! We both laughed about it! My spouse thinks this event is karmic balance for having to wait so long for the electric meter relocation project to move through the bureaucracies.

He puzzled over my stuck wire and eventually tied some wire to my wire and pulled on it with his truck. The old wire came loose after two tries! It had been stuck because some of the PVC adhesive that was originally used to put together the conduit had adhered to 3 inches of the wire! he checked the wire and deemed it fit for use and ordered a tech to be out at my house the next day to install a new Network Interface Device (NID) box. I thanked him for his really great and fast service!

I then ran the phone wire through the new conduit.

Here is the work pit and trench after I back filled the electric trench with sand and dirt. And the cut open conduit for the cable and phone lines.

Here are the two new runs of conduit (with cable and phone lines inside).

And here is the work pit with the rest of the sand in it. I shoveled about a cubic yard of sand. I tried to get my seven-year-old and three-year-old to help shovel but they weren't interested.

The tech showed up the next day and installed my new NID and connected my wire. I ran the wire from under my house to the NID and made that connection after he finished his work and left. I had to troubleshoot for 30 minutes because my phone still didn't have a dial tone (if that is even the right term anymore since nobody dials anything). It turns out that the tech either didn't seat the incoming wires correctly or I needed to unseat the wires in order to get some residual electric charge to dissipate. I was finally able to get the dial tone and now the phone line works again!

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.