Hi all,

Thursday, March 6
I arrived at the house around 9 this morning.  The crews were scurrying around laying steel mesh and rebar for the RV garage driveway, and tamping the bottom section where they had just added the AB soil.  The concrete crew was already there.  I thought that was very early for a 1 PM pour.  Tom told me it had been changed to 10 this morning.  The first concrete truck arrived before they had finished preparing the site, but patiently waited.  Actually, most of the wait time was time before the 10 o'clock schedule.
 

I was concerned when the first truck ran out of concrete with the job well less than 1/2 poured.  Then I found they had ordered 3 trucks.  Two came fairly early-on.  They had to call to give the quantity of concrete for the third.  They ended up with just the right amount of concrete to finish the RV driveway and two small concrete pads for the front and rear landings from our front deck.  They were there until fairly late in the afternoon power troweling, hand troweling, edging, seaming, and finally brooming it.  It really looks good!
 

I noticed that the gas line had been re-connected and that the system had been pressurized to 30 psi.  I climbed the ladder and the pressure was still at 30.  (Later in the day, it was up to about 32 due to the increase in temperature.)  We can now order the gas meter to be installed.
 

I completed installing all the outlets and switches in my shop, and all but 5 in the RV garage.  I then crawled under the house and fed the phone and cable TV input wires through one of the conduits up to my patch panel.  I still am hoping to have the utilities install their boxes on the garage wall under my patch panel.  I then fed all my TV, computer network, and phone cables up through the other two.  I am now just about ready to start installing the patch panel.
 

Tom and Scott along with a couple helpers went around the new skirting cutting holes for air vents, and installed the trim strips.  The painters are coming on Saturday to do the outside painting.
 

Around 3:30 or 4:00, Ernesto arrived with a wheelbarrow of wet stucco.  He started putting the 2nd coat on the lower walls of the RV garage.
 

The carpeting is set to be installed on Monday.
 

Friday, March 7
When I arrived this morning, Ernesto had completed about 2/3 of the RV garage stucco.  When he finished going around the RV garage, including the sides of the steps, he went into my shop and stucco'd the small edge of the footing wall, followed by the same in the garage.  By the end of the day, he was outside putting stucco on the block footing wall around the house.
 

I went to work installing the final outlets in the RV garage, as well as installing nylon plates on my shop outlets and blank plates over all the garage door control boxes and the mud rings I installed for phone, TV, and data cables run through the conduits I installed.  I had to hurry along one wall, as I was not that far ahead of Ernesto and his stucco.  After finishing the outlets, I powered up the shop sub-panel by connecting the heavy cable feeding it to a 100 amp breaker in the main panel.  I brought up one circuit at a time and checked out all lights, outlets, GFCI's, etc.  It all worked the first time!  Even the 3 way and 4 way switch circuits.  What a relief!
 

With the electrical finished (except, of course, the outside lights which will be installed after painting is complete), I turned my efforts to the patch panel.  I cut a 3/4 plywood panel to 24 x 42 and mounted it to the wall between the house electrical panel and the water heater door.  This is where I located the conduits to under the house and the overhead ones to the shop and RV garage.  I mounted the telephone punch-down blocks and the network patch panel.  I mounted this on a hinge which I had to cut out (Oh for my mill!) and a couple of wooden blocks.  This mounts it along the board, but allows it to hinge out for easy wiring access to the rear.
 

Tomorrow I will start wiring the phone and network cables.
 

Steve prepared the extended back patio and the pad outside the RV garage rear doors for concrete, and nearly completed the outside grading.  Tom and Scott built the steps to the front of the deck and started the ones at the rear of the deck.
 

The painters are supposed to come in the morning to prep and start painting the outside.
 

Saturday, March 8
Well, in spite of the painters having asked specifically if it would be OK to work on Saturday, they never showed!  Not too surprising.
 

I concentrated on my patch panel today.  I terminated all the phone lines to the punch-down panels, then started on the network wiring.  I tried several methods of routing the wires so they would not be disturbed too much when I swing the panel open to access the back.  The hinge I so laboriously cut out will not work.  It stresses the wires too much.  I decided to replace the hinge and mount it differently.  An unmodified hinge, except for 1 added hole, mounted on the side of a solid block of wood worked fine.  I then punched down all the network cables.  Next I put connectors on about half the TV cables.
 

I decided that as long as I kept the locks Steve has a key for on the garage door to the house and the garage door to the shop, i could replace all the other locks with the new ones.  They don't have keys for those locks anyway.  I replaced the front door locks, and the deadbolt locks on Betty's and the garage doors.  Now all the locks except the two for the contractor use the same key.  I can get rid of 4 keys from my key ring!
 

I wrapped things up and headed for home.  On the way home my cell phone rang; it was Betty asking what my plans were.  It was then I realized that we needed to leave for church in about 30 minutes!  We have been attending the Saturday evening service.  We made it just fine.
 

Sunday, March 9
I didn't get much done today, as there wasn't much for me to do!  I can't believe I have run out of tasks (for the moment).
 

I finished putting connectors on rest of the TV lines.  I think I have gone as far on my patch panel as I can for now.
 

I had bought two 4 x 4 panels of 1/4 inch hardboard (yeah, I know - "Masonite"!)  I cut 4 pieces the right size for the attic crawl holes (I am adding another in the garage)  and a couple of pieces to make covers for the two access areas for my conduit "junction areas".
 

Betty and I then went to Home Depot to finalize our selection of outdoor light fixtures, and to get a first cut at choosing ceiling fans for our 5 "fan ready" rooms.  Steve is taking me there tomorrow to buy my fluorescents and the other lights, giving me the advantage of his contractor's discount.  Since I did my own wiring, I am getting the difference in costs, but have to buy my own supplies.
 

Monday, March 10
Today was one busy day!
 

When I arrived, the painters were swarming over the outside of the house calking all the seams and nail heads.  Shortly the carpet layers arrived.  Our carpet is going in today.  Then Ralph and Ron arrived to do the drywall touch up.  I had removed several switch and outlet plates where there was work needed.  The side shop door needed a LOT of work.  If you remember, it was reversed to open outward just as the painters were due for the interior paint.  Small scraps of drywall had been nailed around the edge so the door molding could be installed.  I pulled off the molding to give them a chance to really fix the drywall under it.
 

I headed home to get Betty.  We are rock hunting this morning.  We went to the landscaping rock yard where Steve usually gets his supplies and looked at the various colors of rock.  We selected a golden brown stone called "Cinnamon Brown").  This will be our basic ground cover around the house.
 

I headed back to the house (third time today) after taking Betty home.  On the way, I stopped at the cable company and ordered cable TV service.  They install it Wednesday between 3 and 5.  Steve had said this afternoon would be good to go to Home Depot.  I could not find him, so called him on his cell phone.  He had unexpectedly needed to go to the lot where he is building his own home to meet an inspector.  He offered to take me around 5 today, or first thing tomorrow.  We decided on tomorrow.
 

Meanwhile, Betty had called the phone company and ordered our phone moved from the motorhome to the house.  They will do that on Friday, March 21, our anticipated move-in date.
 

Tuesday, March 11
I went to the house this morning to find Steve and pick up my fluorescent lights and other electrical supplies.  As we were discussing timing, a fellow from the roofing company showed up and said he was there to install the solar tubes!  He had installed many of these before and was there, so I said OK, in spite of having previously cancelled my order.  He said it only took about 1/2 hour each to install them (Yeah, right!)  About 4 hours later we had two13 inch, very bright "ceiling lights"!  One is in the utility room, and the other in the hall. We also had a mess!  The blown-in insulation from the ceiling was everywhere in those two areas, including, all over our 1 day old carpet!  It cleaned up just fine.  After he left I looked on the roof.  There were all his trimmings, extra parts, and some packing materials still laying on the roof!  What else is new?
 

I then went to Home Depot with Steve and bought over $1000 of lights and supplies!  It was very nice of him to make a special trip with me just so I could get his contractor's discount!
 

I went home and got Betty.  Steve's crew has the car driveway formed, and the upper part pretty well filled with AB.    With a couple of boards to help bridge the gap between the dirt and the concrete garage floor, I backed the truck into the garage.  Betty now was able to enter our house for the first time!  After taking her around quickly, I left her to explore while I prepared a couple more fluorescents.
 

The carpeting looks really good, but there are several areas that show a line.  I assumed these lines were the edge of the vinyl flooring that was in areas under the carpet.  They removed some of it, but left large areas.  When the factory puts down vinyl, they do the full width of the home-half wherever it is needed in part of the width.  Therefore alongside the kitchen, utility room, and the bathrooms, the vinyl extends into the living room, the hall, and the master bedroom.
 

Betty tried walking along and across the seam in the living room, and was very disturbed by the uneven feel.  I could feel it, but it did not cause the same level of problem it did for Betty.  We decided this problem had to be corrected, and since I had asked them to remove the vinyl from the carpet areas, and they only did some, they needed to correct it.  Steve called Tai, the carpet layer's boss, and he said he would check it out.
 
 

Wednesday, March 12
Fairly early this morning, Tai came by.  He saw the lines I was talking about and said they were caused by the seam tape.  It held the fibers of the carpet up until it had been walked on and vacuumed a while.  He did feel the unevenness and did not know what it was, but doubted it was the vinyl.  He went to the corner of the living room, picket at the carpet fibers a little, then ripped up a large section of it, folded it back, pulled the pad back and exposed the floor.  The vinyl was actually helping match the level of the floor at the marriage line.  The filler the Northlake crew had applied, had a raised bead along one edge, and several significant trowel marks that had not been smoothed out.  Tai cut the seam between the living room and the hall and folded the entire edge of the living room carpet back so I could correct the floor treatment.  This exposed the edge of the vinyl near the hall.  It had been cut way back in a horseshoe shape, which nowhere near matched the seam line we had seen.  We had not felt this edge.  Tai said he would have the installers return tomorrow afternoon to re-stretch the carpet, and I could make any corrections I wanted in the meantime.  I thanked him profusely!
 

I talked to Steve about the situation.  He went out and bought a belt sander and a pack of belts for me to use.  I sanded the entire seam of the living room and applied a little filler.  I also "feathered in" the horseshoe shaped vinyl edge.  With the sander it was easy!
 

I started puttering around with the electrical stuff.   I opened a fluorescent to see what I had to work with.  I had placed all the electrical outlets the lights will plug into near the end of each fixture, figuring the power cord would exit at the end.  The ballast was installed off center with the power leads pointing toward center!  It would take most of my cord's length just to reach these leads!  The wires to the light sockets were quite long.  I discovered I could remove one screw, turn the ballast around, and the power leads would almost reach the end of the fixture, and the socket wires were still long enough to reach the far end of the ballast.  Then I discovered the mounting holes were not symmetrical.  The holes I was going to use were in 10 inches on one end and 15 inches on the other.  I  installed eyebolts into the 10" hole and a new one I drilled in the other end.  I will chain hang the lights from these eyebolts.
 

By the time I had my "prototype" light all modified, wired, and bolted, I had spent almost an hour.  I found this time dropped to about half an hour on the later lights, once I knew what to do.
 

A little before 3:00, the Cable-One installer came.  He was thrilled with my setup.  He was leaving for Cancun in several hours and was happy to have easy installs.  I had expected he would need a ground wire, so was prepared to crawl under the house.  He fed his wire down though my conduit.  I crawled under, pulled the wire about 6 feet and fed it out through a hole in the siding about a foot from the ground rod.  He was funny - and great!  He said in addition to the two lines I had selected for him to connect I had one additional one coming.  The office girl had said two.  He then said being that close to the distribution box across the street the signal would be very strong.  Why don't I select another couple of lines and he would use a 4 way splitter.  About 5 minutes later he said to pick a couple more and he would use a 6 way one.  I thought that was it, but when I checked the finished installation, I had an 8 way splitter with all my lines connected!  I hope he has a great time in Cancun!
 

Thursday, March 13
John and Barbara Cairns are coming to visit us today around 11.  John and I used to work together in the early '60's, and Barbara was in the "Librascope wives knitting group" Betty still attends periodically.  We took Debbie over to their house in the middle of the night and left her with them when Betty went to the hospital to deliver David.  (That was a few years ago!)
 

I finished sanding the last layer of filler I let cure overnight and returned the sander to Steve.  I then hung the four "lantern lights" on the front of the garage and RV garage.  After this, I had time to assemble one more fluorescent, then headed back to the motorhome..
 

Friday, March 14
When I arrived at the house fairly early today, it was swarming with workers!  The maibox man was forming the concrete support for the box, which he then hand mixes in a wheelbarrow.  The concrete crew was there getting ready to pour the car driveway.  Steve's crew was cutting mesh and rebar and laying them in place on the driveway.
 

About this time Danny and Derirck, the garage door people showed up with the doors for both garages, and unloaded all the panels, tracks, a huge commercial opener, and a lot of hardware.  It was then he threw me a blockbuster!  He said he just discovered the commercial unit needed 4 conductor cables for both the controls and the IR safety photocells.  He had previously told me 2 conductor which is what I installed.
 

My priorities now changed!  I spent over an hour crawling in the garage attic and then the motorhome attic pulling some 8 conductor cat-5 cable in place of the 2 for the main door control.  This was quite a difficult task as the areas were very low clearance at the edges of the pitched roofs, but had the advantage that I could pull fairly short sections at a time.  It worked!  I was able to pull the new cable right through the same staples in the walls that previously held the 2 conductor wire.
 

I tried the same technique to pull 2 new wires along the edge of the RV garage door.  It was a total failure!  I was able to pull the cable about 12 feet of the 12 1/2 feet needed.  There was a staple just a few inches below the top plate that I just could not pull the wire through!  The first wire I tried finally pulled apart where I joined them.  I thought that maybe I could get through that staple with the second wire now that there was only one wire in it.  No luck!  We will go to backup plan #1.  I will drill a couple of holes through the ceiling tight against the corner of the door framing.  I can then run wires along the surface where they will not show TOO much.  What a disappointment after thinking I had all these wires pre-installed!
 

By the end of the day, the RV garage door was fully installed, but not the operator.  They will be back tomorrow to install the operator and do the car garage door and operator.  I also have a finished driveway, caps installed on the west wall, re-installed carpet, and all 4 fluorescents hung in my shop.
 

Saturday, March 15
When I got to the house, Nigel was working on the car garage door.  He was supposed to be working with Derrick, who was unable to come.  I caulked the outside lights and installed the outside RV outlet and utility outlet on the corner of the RV garage.  I then scrounged a couple of the lights that come on all the new houses, but are removed and replaced with the owner's choice of light.  I told Steve that these lights would be fine as door entry lights in the back of the house.  We have new antique bronze lantern lights in the front.  I then went to mount the two floodlight fixtures I had gotten with Steve the other day.  They will not work!  They require a box with 4 inch mounting centers rotated about 35 degrees from horizontal.  My boxes are 3 inch centers set level.  Bummer!
 

After helping Nigel a bit holding heavy parts up while he bolted them in place, I went to Costco and bought 2 motion sensor floodlights with fully shielded bulbs (and including bulbs).  The mounting system is much more flexible and user friendly!  I bypassed the motion sensor and installed the one on the back wall of my shop.  I procrastinated installing the one on the side of the RV garage, as the wind has gotten fierce as the start of a storm system that is due tonight.  I really don't want to work at the top of a ladder (or even outside) in those conditions.  The electrical work is now complete except for this one fixture!  I still have a number of fluorescent lights to install, but they just plug in to finished sockets.  They don't count!
 

When I left, Nigel had finished the garage door installation and had just gotten the upper and lower limits set.  As happened last Saturday, Betty called me and asked what my plans were.  Church is in less than an hour!
 

After church Betty and I drove back to the house.  It was all locked up!  Even though there is no opener on the RV door yet, there is a slide bolt.  The garage door is locked by the operator on it.  I entered by the front door, through to the garage and found the owner's manual with two remote control units on it.  They had been programmed and both work the garage door.  They are 3 button units and will work both units when finished.  I took the manual and the remotes and we left.  Now no one but we can enter our house.  I will talk to Steve Monday morning to see what they need from here on.
 

The movers have instructions to deliver our things NEXT Friday, or as soon after as their schedule allows.  This is very scary!  Steve keeps assuring me we will have a Certificate of Occupancy before then, but I still worry.  I will ask for his assurance again Monday while there is still time to re-schedule.
 

Till next time,
 

Dick
 

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