More electrical

More electrical replacement. Still a few odds and ends upstairs, but started on the downstairs. I folded and called a pro to come and inspect for a few hours - make sure we're doing this right, and also to help me with these crossed circuits - I'm struggling. Just left a message, but we'll see what it'll cost.

I was hoping to have inspection by Friday and insulation this weekend, but that appears unlikely. Tomorrow David will work downstairs more, but in the evening we're planning to take the kids to a Tides game, and on Weds David is leaving and Uncle Joe and Joey are arriving - so probably not too much progress the next two days. It'll probably work out for the best though, still a lot to do and no need to rush. We'll push through it this weekend, try to get to inspection Momday or Tuesday, and start insulation after that.

Don't let your babies grow up to be electricians

Good progress. Plumbing is actually kinda fun. Got to solder new shower plumbing in the kids bath today - that made the morning. Then came the afternoon...

Electric work stinks.

We re-wired, and re-wired, and re-wired. Cut back, new junction box, splice, replace, new wire, not enough slack, pull staples, strip wire, hand cramp on wire nut, shocked!?! What? Another big surprise - the third floor and living room circuits are connected to each other. Not sure how or why, but pretty sure it isn't right. Not really safe I'm sure - Mike will tell ya. Thanks to Mike, by the way, for helping out again today - and sorry about the jolt. And thanks to David for pulling the bulk of the load on electric so far. Sorry plumbing is more fun.

It really was a productive day; the detail work is just more tedious than the earlier demolition. My baseline schedule allowed 9 days for electric and plumbing, and my new schedule shows 15 - we're 6 days into it; will be more than 9, but I can't see it being 15... Just need to be patient and get through it.

Tomorrow - more electrical. Plumbing is stalled waiting for 4 PEX stub-outs and new tub and shower fixtures for the master bath to rough in. We haven't cleaned seriously for a few days - need to get to that again soon too.

Plumbing Progress

More odds-and-ends progress today. Moved the refrigerator connections, re-plumbed or cleaned the downstairs PEX as necessary - undid the upstairs showers, but ran out of parts to re-connect. David worked electrical - installed three junction boxes to close out some of the upstairs circuits, installed the fan connection in Will's room, installed nailer strips needed for the drywall installation (some sub-standard drywall work previously - imagine that).

Found a few more pieces of CD today under the kids bathtub.

Tomorrow, re-build master shower, re-plump kids bath, run speaker wire into dining room, pull out outlets/switches downstairs, run thermostat wire, run doorbell wire, move telephone wire to foyer, spend a couple quality hours with a shop-vac. Volunteers welcome - though I may send you into the crawl space to pull wire...

Data Arrives

Good progress today. More scrap-up this weekend. Big news - fiberglass scheduled to arrive on 6/11. I think this will be pretty good timing - we're continuing to make great progress.

Other big news, finally finished logging all of the removed drywall. If you've ever talked to me about it - I'd usually estimate 70% of the drywall was Chinese; I must know what I'm talking about because here's the count:

Chinese Drywall Proved by Stamp 130
Chinese Drywall Proved by End-Tape 90
Unmarked - Suspected Chinese Drywall 103
Domestic Drywall Proved by Stamp 83
Domestic Drywall Proved by End-Tape 28
Unmarked - Suspected Domestic Drywall 15
Unknown (missing data) 18

323 pieces of Chinese drywall of the 467 that we removed, by count: 69.2%.

Today: 0%

Electrical Progress

Today, David and Geoff replaced nearly all of the electrical wire on the second floor. Jen and I decided to replace everything accessible, but leave the 20-odd lines that run into the breaker box. Those lines are generally located in the crawl space (downstairs), attic above the insulation, or garage - all where there was no CD - and also the lines where there was CD was generally perfectly fine anyway. Replacing the rest is an inexpensive risk reduction, but replacing the last run was just deemed to be too much of diminished return to bother with. I can sleep at night with this decision.

Today, I met with two vendors - one for drywall and the other for ventilation replacement - both very positive meetings. Then another trip to Lowes for another 500' of electrical wire.

Tomorrow, finish the second floor wiring and take a big bite out of the downstairs. It's been two days since the last air-washing, so that it also due. If I can get to a little more plumbing, so much the better.

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...

Catchin our breath

Relatively slow CD day. David did some more cleaning; I went back to work. Geoff loaned us their whole house fan - David and I installed it in a horizontal orientation in Abby's room blowing out of the window. It will provide some nice ventilation for a couple weeks.

I can rant about Lowe's web site. I bought the plumbing supplies I needed online last night, and arranged to pick them up - should save me some time so I could get something done tonight, right? Wrong. Wrong parts, not enough parts - took me 40 minutes in line while they tried to decide if I had already paid, or owed, find the right stuff, ugh.. painful. I'll just shop in person from now on.

Tomorrow, David will frame the wall safe, and when I get home, we'll start on the plumbing. I'll probably finally cut into some of the house circuits to take a look. Or maybe put it off some more...