Plumbing and Electrical Begin

I finally pulled some Romex and inspected it. About an 8-ft line in Will's room between two outlets, severe discoloration in the jacket, adjacent to A/C tubing which was completely corroded - a good candidate I thought. Cut the wire in half, then stripped it. Gleaming copper. Smooth to the touch (I can feel the corrosion elsewhere). I'm pretty comfortable that the electrical is adequately protected. HOWEVER, I've also done some soul searching about risk, cost, time, etc and decided to spend $150 on some wire and start changing it out - see how tough, how much, how long... ie, get some experience with it - see how it goes... I still haven't decided completely. So...


Long trip to Lowes. Bought 500 ft of wire. Started Phases 6 (Electrical) and 7 (Plumbing) today. David finished the rough-in (framing) of the wall safe, and then re-wired Will's room; I stubbed-out the plumbing in the kids bathroom - which was remarkably easy - I like that PEX plumbing.


In other news, A/C is repaired - thank goodness, the risk of a mutiny by my key volunteer was increasing daily. I spoke to several vendors today - Indoor Air refuses to quote duct replacement only - will provide a quote for total replacement (that I asked for 2 weeks ago) "today".. but since the day is almost over, I guess not actually today either. Another vendor is coming tomorrow to quote new ducts. My 'preferred' drywall guy has also stopped returning calls, and owed me an updated quote days ago... I also called another drywall company about 2 weeks ago - finally a call back today and meeting tomorrow after the duct guy. I'm starting to worry that the vendors will upset my schedule more than I ever will...

Also on the logistics front, spoke to Sen. Mark Warner's Office today. They sent a letter on Apr 8 which promised a response in 30 days... so, I called them to find out what's up - they told me my problem had been addressed - great - I was granted a forbearance on my mortgage... um... that's not what I wrote about. I did that myself without any help. Oh.. what was it that you wrote about? !!insert scream here!!! Ugh, I need to send them another letter (they actually asked for it, unbelievable). I called the IRS myself as well today - same response. I guess it was better than Sen. Webb's office - they just sent me a form letter about his position on air pollution (it's bad, apparently)...

...and David finally passed me in MH put in - 199 to 196...