Let There Be Light!

Saturday 10/24/09
The cabinet contractor installed the cabinets in the kitchen, bathrooms, and laundry on Wednesday, October 21st. Deb and I spent Thursday night purchasing all of the outlets, switches, and lights (including light bulbs). On Friday after work I picked up the wood stove and borrowed the Escalera (a manual fork lift) from Dennis at Gallery of Fireplaces. Once home, I packed all of the electrical stuff neatly (sort of) around the wood stove in the back of the van. Tim arrived in Vacaville around 8pm. He had time to play “A Real Good Looking Boy” and then we jumped in the van and headed for Almanor. Deb had a school function Saturday morning but drove up in time for Saturday dinner and a Sunday visit. Stan and William drove up Friday night a little ahead of Tim and me. The weekend goal was the installation of all of the finish electrical (all outlets, light switches, and lights), delivery of the wood stove, installation of the laundry sink, and weather sealing all exterior doors. Tim, Stan, Will, and I started work Saturday morning at 8am. We had the house swept and most of the material laid out by the time that Cynthia and Ed arrived (around 11am). I also had to install the laundry sink and tie in the furnace condensate drain to the laundry sink tailpiece. By 6:30 pm Saturday we had the furnace running and a majority of the finish electric installed. Time for a BBQ dinner with Cynthia and Deb. Up early on Sunday for buttermilk pancakes and then back to the cabin by 8:30am. At around 12pm we had all of the circuits wired and were ready to flip the first circuit breaker and test out the wiring. Let there be light! The fist circuit to be tested was of course the lighting circuit. The circuits all tested fine with a few minor issues such as an electric outlet that had not been installed and a screw from a light fixture that penetrated the underside of a wire nut. It was a great weekend. A big thank you to William, Stan, Cynthia, Ed, Tim, and Deb.

October 16th Friday:
I took the day off so that I could meet the insulators at 10am so that they can install the last bit of blown in attic insulation. When I arrived at the cabin I noticed a PG&E truck down the street. Turns out that they were installing a new transformer for our cabin plus several of the neighboring residences. I asked the lineman if he could also adjust the wires to our overhead service because the first PG&E installation left the wires hanging down around 30”. By 3pm the new transformer was installed and the lineman had trimmed our overhead service wires quite neatly. The sheetrockers at around 1pm and began getting ready spray the texture. I helped them get the paper on the floor and cover windows with plastic because they need to finish early Saturday afternoon so that the texture will be dry enough for Tim and I to paint on Sunday. Jed and Orville finished the texture Saturday afternoon around 3pm. Tim and I rolled the primer and paint on the garage walls Saturday from 3pm to 7pm. On Sunday morning Tim and I were at the cabin by 7:30am to get ready to paint. From 9am to 12:30pm we sprayed primer. We took a short lunch and began the final coat of paint around 1:15pm. For the final coat of paint I was spraying and Tim was back-rolling. This slowed us down considerably. We finally finished painting at 7:30pm. Twelve hours and 50 gallons of paint! What a day! We cleaned up our mess and headed back to the Dusty Road cabin by 8:30pm and were on the road for home by 9:30pm. I got to bed at 1:00am Monday.

October 10th Saturday:
This weekend I brought up 25 gallons of primer to spray the walls after the tapers finish. Jed’s crew finished taping and touching up the sheetrock joints on Saturday. The taping mud must dry overnight so I had to wait until Sunday to spray the primer. Saturday was a warm day so I set up the extension ladders and caulked joints at the siding and trim around the windows and building corners. On Sunday morning I covered all of the windows and doors with plastic (Deb and Dorothy helped with the windows and doors so that I could set up the paint sprayer. Dorothy is always a great helper). I started spraying at 10am and finished at around 3pm.

October 4th, Sunday:
With only Sunday to work I only had time to tend to a few details. I fixed the stair head room by cutting out a 36” piece of sheetrock adjacent to the stair landing, cutting the double rim joist from 12” to 9” deep, and installing blocks so that there is now a small tapered ceiling that matches the slope of the stair. Luckily Scott was on site with his beam saw and was able to cut the double rim joist for me (my saw would not cut the entire depth of the double joist). I cleaned up and did a few other minor projects. Using a small sheetrock saw I cut holes in the upstairs closet ceiling for the three ducts that connect to the fresh air unit.