New Year’s Day
Most notable news: no more ladder needed!
My multi-skilled neighbor Lenny built some stairs for the front door. Technically, they are temporary for construction phase only, but he built them solid as a tank, so when it’s time to put in the for-real front entry, I think we’ll be able to re-use these. He was just finishing up the railing when I arrived about midday today.
Also new, but less pleasant: the electrician has installed the meter socket thingie that the power company needs to connect the power to — but he put it right on the front of the house, not where it was supposed to go, around the corner on the gable end. Dunno why, and it really messed with Lenny’s stairbuilding, as the ledger-board that the stairs anchor to was supposed to extend from the doorway to the corner of the house, because of another modification that I have in mind: swapping the front door with the window (on the left, above), so I can have a proper 36” front door (the window has a 36” rough opening now, so minimal re-building needed. I think.).
Anyway, Lenny tried to tell the guy when he was there yesterday, but you can’t tell a builder guy how to do his job, so the meter box was slapped onto the wrong spot. I texted a photo to the contractor, and he phoned right back, agreeing that it needed to be redone. An hour or so later, the electrician (let’s call him Sparky) returned and by the end of the afternoon, the meter box had been moved. Turns out there wasn’t any technical or code issue with the gable location, just Guy Attitude, I guess.
Below left, the WRONG location; then the new location (never mind those remnants of the old garage roof — they will be removed and new siding put on the whole end). At right is the new service panel in the basement, to replace two old ones that were both full. It’ll be considerable work for Sparky to trace and confirm the circuits — some went to outbuildings that no longer exist, others may have been snipped off when the garage was cut away. But then it’ll be clean and have slots to spare.
My own goal for the day was to continue deconstruction, and above all, make sure that the Very Expensive Dumpster was as full as possible before it’s picked up on Wednesday. Lenny’s 3-pound sledge worked wonders on the heavy-as-hell countertop from the bathroom, as well as the cement that formed a bed under the fiberglass tub. Bonus dumpster dumping included the the cruddy toilet and one bedroom’s worth of icky carpet and pad.
All that smashing and dumping was so satisfying (plus I was working fast), I forgot to take pictures—only this one of the carpet unlaying-in-progress:
And, no, it’s not hardwood under the carpet, only particle board.
I’m not sure if I’ll have new carpet put in, or a hard flooring and splurge on area rugs where the bare feet are likely to hit ground.
Carpet’s nice and cozy but once there’s furniture in the room, it’s a colossal pain to wrassle a vacuum-cleaner around to keep it clean-ish.
What do you think about carpet?
Final image:
A majestic view from the front door and the grand staircase.
And there’s that well-drilling rig, still sitting there, seemingly abandoned.
Should I send the well company an invoice for storage/parking?
Do I dare climb up and look in the cab—maybe the guy took a break and died, choked on his gas-station donut. Eww.
Happy New Year, y’all!
