07SEP (day 45 of construction) – electrician came back to take care final items: connected plugs in way of granite back splashes, & officially connected hot water tank to circuit breaker panel (don’t ask how we were taking hot showers before this was done)10SEP (day 46) – heating sub contractor returned to wrap-up AC/heating: installed heat pump (now we have AC even though summer is pretty much over for the Seattle area), connected gas stove, & installed programmable thermostat
12SEP (day 47) – gutters & downspouts installed; with the modern machinery that forms continuous gutters on site, this took less than an hour
13SEP (day 48) – finish carpenter returned to install microwave, install lock sets on outer doors (one doesn’t work), & install master bedroom double door. Also the propane company arrived to install our propane tank. Obtaining a propane tank was definitely an educational experience! First, way back when we had foundation poured we were asked where the gas would enter the house. We had no idea & depended on the foundation guy’s recommendation. Turns out three months later that his recommendation was too close to a ventilation opening into the crawl space & was against code. So after the tank was installed, Dan had to run PVC piping from the regulator relief valve to a “safer” point. Lastly, Dan asked the tank installer how we were going to bleed off the air from the tank to the stove after the pressure test & get the propane flowing? We were informed that for a fee they would return & do it, but it really was not that hard to do & should be safe for us to do. As you can see the house is still standing!
We were also told that no permit was needed for the tank installation, but one was needed for hooking up the gas stove. When the inspector showed up to check the stove, he asked when we were going to have the piping installed in the ditch we had dug & pressure tested at 60psi for his inspection? Turns out the county could care less about the stove connection, but they have many regulations concerning buried “fuel” lines. Thankfully the inspector did not charge us for his “wasted” visit & we got the proper inspection two days later. Now we have to decide how to “decorate” the propane tank. Dan wants to put a propeller on it, with a periscope, & a Coast Guard racing stripe; to have the first Coast Guard submarine. For some reason Corrie has doubts?15SEP – not really a day of construction but the window screens were delivered; & best of all, the porta-pottie was removed!!!
19SEP (day 49) - “pressure test” of house; the house is so “tight”, that our result was twice as good as the national “green” standard
20SEP (day 50) – bathroom mirrors installed, closet shelving installed, glass doors installed on shower in master bath
21SEP (day 51) – one smoke detector changed into combo smoke/CO detector. Original plans showed CO detector, but this got “whited out” by someone unknown & the plans were approved by county. We showed plan to inspector; but we were informed that the code requires on CO detector if there is any appliance (ie our stove) that burns gas, or if you have any type of fireplace or kerosene heating appliance.27SEP (day 52) – insulation added to air return at top of furnace
30SEP (day 53) – broken lockset to garage man door changed out. Unfortunately, contractor failed to read instructions properly (even though they were in English & Spanish), & the new lockset did not work either. So while the contractor ran off to Lowes to get a replacement, Dan read the instructions & practiced on the two working doors. When they returned Dan re-keyed the lockset & now we have three exterior doors, with working locks, all using the same key.
Although there wasn’t much activity by contractors, we kept busy by:
>>>Corrie continued to prep baseboard & door molding in small patches; Dan then installed the molding as each batch was ready, trim molding completed 29SEP
>>>Dan got tired of waiting for contractor to install interior door handles on bedrooms, bathrooms & linen closet; so he opened the boxes & did it himself
>>>built two small porches, one each for each sliding door. Both these porches will probably be replaced with decks next year, but you have to have a 3’x3’ landing outside every exterior door to pass final county inspection.
>>>we were given wrong info on locating the concrete pad for installation of the heat/AC pump; so we had to enlarge the existing pad
>>>dug a ditch for future propane tank & back filled after inspection; entailed renting a machine Dan calls a “ditch witch”
>>>bought furniture (2 lounge chairs)
>>>spread grass seed & fertilizer; continuing to battle moles; bush whacking
>>>installed propane regulator vent line, & bleeding excess test pressure from propane tank to stove
>>>rented a Billy Goat twice
>>>installed curtain rods & curtains on both sliding doors
>>>Dan got tired of waiting for contractor to install interior door handles on bedrooms, bathrooms & linen closet; so he opened the boxes & did it himself
>>>built two small porches, one each for each sliding door. Both these porches will probably be replaced with decks next year, but you have to have a 3’x3’ landing outside every exterior door to pass final county inspection.
>>>we were given wrong info on locating the concrete pad for installation of the heat/AC pump; so we had to enlarge the existing pad
>>>dug a ditch for future propane tank & back filled after inspection; entailed renting a machine Dan calls a “ditch witch”
>>>bought furniture (2 lounge chairs)
>>>spread grass seed & fertilizer; continuing to battle moles; bush whacking
>>>installed propane regulator vent line, & bleeding excess test pressure from propane tank to stove
>>>rented a Billy Goat twice
>>>installed curtain rods & curtains on both sliding doors
>>>painted master bathroom & closet
>>>installed bathroom “hardware” in both bathrooms
>>>installed last window treatment in small bedroom
>>>painted the pump house to match house
>>>foamed in some minor openings in crawl space, & repaired small damaged areas of insulation in crawl space
>>>installed liquid filled pressure gauge on septic system piping
On 08SEP, Thursday, we were forced to make a garbage run to the local collection center. We haven’t really had to deal with local garbage collection since selling our house back in 2007/08. At RV parks you either take it to the nearest dumpster, or leave it in a plastic bag in front of your RV for pick-up. Sadly not many parks require recycling & we haven’t had to deal with recycling either. As part of the house construction we have accumulated larges amounts of cardboard & plastic shipping material we assumed the environmentally conscious county of Snohomish would recycle. But if you drive the material to the collection center, they will recycle the cardboard for free; but all the plastic is treated as waste & you are charged $20 for a small load. Funny thing is that if we paid for street side pick-up, we would get a big blue garbage can for recyclable materials only; & plastic would go in it for recycling?
Thankfully, Marty our tractor repair guy finally got all the parts to repair our tractor, & spent most of 14/15SEP putting it back together. There were several parts that clearly were well used over the last 55 years; & probably would have caused a major failure years ago on a newer tractor! Apparently older tractors were designed to be “used & abused”, with little or no maintenance, & often left sitting in a field unused for long periods of time. Remember the old Timex slogan – Takes a licking & keeps on ticking? Once the tractor was repaired, Corrie really got started moving dirt & leveling the “yard”!
On Tuesday, 22SEP, we had our septic maintenance firm come out to perform the first of the required quarterly “routine” maintenance on our system. Quarterly routine maintenance you ask? Apparently the county has a problem with owners misusing their septic systems to the point that they “fail” & pump untreated sewage into the ground water. Misuse can be overloading system with kitchen grease & fats; dumping chemicals into system killing the microbes; overloading system with fertilizer (ie laundry soaps) causing the microbe population to explode & then die; etc. So to solve this problem the county forces you to find a maintenance provider & sign a two year contract (ie a total of eight visits); then file the contract with the county. Of course this only solves the problems for two years! So at the cost of $200 dollars a visit, this was the first of our quarterly visits.
During all this, Corrie has been going across the street to our neighbors, Sara & Bob Johnson, to watch Sara train horses. She has gotten so involved in this, that Dan jokes that she will buying a horse & we will be forced to live here full time (even though Corrie hates the rain)! Anyway, a few minor details to tie-up & we should be back on the road to Houma, LA, within a week!
>>>installed bathroom “hardware” in both bathrooms
>>>installed last window treatment in small bedroom
>>>painted the pump house to match house
>>>foamed in some minor openings in crawl space, & repaired small damaged areas of insulation in crawl space
>>>installed liquid filled pressure gauge on septic system piping
On 08SEP, Thursday, we were forced to make a garbage run to the local collection center. We haven’t really had to deal with local garbage collection since selling our house back in 2007/08. At RV parks you either take it to the nearest dumpster, or leave it in a plastic bag in front of your RV for pick-up. Sadly not many parks require recycling & we haven’t had to deal with recycling either. As part of the house construction we have accumulated larges amounts of cardboard & plastic shipping material we assumed the environmentally conscious county of Snohomish would recycle. But if you drive the material to the collection center, they will recycle the cardboard for free; but all the plastic is treated as waste & you are charged $20 for a small load. Funny thing is that if we paid for street side pick-up, we would get a big blue garbage can for recyclable materials only; & plastic would go in it for recycling?Thankfully, Marty our tractor repair guy finally got all the parts to repair our tractor, & spent most of 14/15SEP putting it back together. There were several parts that clearly were well used over the last 55 years; & probably would have caused a major failure years ago on a newer tractor! Apparently older tractors were designed to be “used & abused”, with little or no maintenance, & often left sitting in a field unused for long periods of time. Remember the old Timex slogan – Takes a licking & keeps on ticking? Once the tractor was repaired, Corrie really got started moving dirt & leveling the “yard”!
On Tuesday, 22SEP, we had our septic maintenance firm come out to perform the first of the required quarterly “routine” maintenance on our system. Quarterly routine maintenance you ask? Apparently the county has a problem with owners misusing their septic systems to the point that they “fail” & pump untreated sewage into the ground water. Misuse can be overloading system with kitchen grease & fats; dumping chemicals into system killing the microbes; overloading system with fertilizer (ie laundry soaps) causing the microbe population to explode & then die; etc. So to solve this problem the county forces you to find a maintenance provider & sign a two year contract (ie a total of eight visits); then file the contract with the county. Of course this only solves the problems for two years! So at the cost of $200 dollars a visit, this was the first of our quarterly visits.
During all this, Corrie has been going across the street to our neighbors, Sara & Bob Johnson, to watch Sara train horses. She has gotten so involved in this, that Dan jokes that she will buying a horse & we will be forced to live here full time (even though Corrie hates the rain)! Anyway, a few minor details to tie-up & we should be back on the road to Houma, LA, within a week!
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