I guess you could say that it's been a while since the last post if I had to go back and read the previous one to figure out where we left off...
Let's start with the electrical. It took a little while longer than expected, but today is our second inspection. I'm not going to say we passed until I know for sure, but we fixed everything that the inspector pointed out during the first inspection last Monday. He made a big deal out of a little, but frequently occurring, problem. According to him, you're not supposed to break the tabs out of the back of the electrical boxes. The fix was to place a wire staple as close to the box as possible. Not a big deal. We also were under the impression that we could "get away with" simply running the wires to each of the boxes, but the truth was each box had to be "made up" which means all the wires had to be stripped and correctly connected and ready to receive the switch or outlet. So after waiting until Weds for the inspector to give us our orders, we (mostly Gene and Dad) got busy and got everything finished up Thursday through Saturday. I came back Sunday and finished the low-voltage wiring.
Last weekend Luke and I finished the infloor heat in the garage and found the leak in the infloor heat under the master bedroom. (It was in the gauge - phew!) Luke also got to work on some ground level soffits which I think he preferred. I finished the upper level soffits yesterday so all that is left is the front of the garage. Those are waiting for Luke to come back.
The masons have been busy, too. I don't have any pictures, but they completed the front porch and the garage floor and apron. It looks great and it's another one of those things that reminds us that we are nearing the end. Heidi even pulled the car in the garage last night while she was there. With nothing else in it, there is so much room!
The septic and well guys have finished their work as well. For your reference, the well is 360' deep. They went through 130' of sand & gravel, 11' of broken limestone, 147' of limestone (they said that wasn't any fun) and 62' of sandstone. And to drill that they only charged me $24.50/ft. What a deal!
Finally, the excavator was on site to complete the final grade...and the timing couldn't have been worse. Everything looked great...until it rained...and rained...and rained. The ground had all been packed down and the rain was running off before. Now with the newly stirred-up top layer, it has acted like a giant sponge absorbing every last drop. And with it being so ridiculously cold, evaporation isn't exactly happening at a convenient rate either no matter how windy it's been. It's gotten better over the last couple days, but the ground still can't hold anyone up weighing more than Libby. We need a few good days of heat!
I did take my first video of the house, but decided not to attach it. It's about 10 minutes of me walking through the house aiming at the wires in the walls before they all get covered up. If you'd like to see it, let me know! :)
