A Bad Day Was Overdue...

A Bad Day Was Overdue....

February 23 and 24 --  Things have been going fairly well on the construction front so that it was really only a matter of time -- a bad day was long overdue.

The electricians are very hardworking and stayed from 9 to 4 on Saturday.  On Sunday, I cleaned up and thought again about how in construction there is also destruction.  The beautifully painted walls were now marred with fingerprints, new holes that would need to be repaired and repainted.  The once cleanly swept floors were again littered with drywall dust, strips of discarded wire and plastic wire insulation, packaging material that the light fixtures were once shipped in, and other detritus.  Even though the electricians did do a cursory clean up before they left, it was still a bummer to see more mess and the need for more wall repair and paint.

It was also nice to see the light fixtures that I selected actually installed and to see my new house in literally a new light.

Here is a wall sconce that is opposite the linen closet in the hallway of the master bedroom suite.

Here are the light fixtures above the vanity in the master bathroom.  Mirror and medicine cabinets, along with towel bars and other accessories will be installed soon.

Throughout my experience living within the construction zone, I was pretty good at remembering a fair amount of detail, in addition to having taken lots and lots of photos, of which only a small number have been posted on this blog.  I was positive that there was a canister installed over the kitchen sink that had been covered by drywall.  I let the contractor know this, as well as the architect, but both told me that was impossible because the lath and plaster construction would not hold a canister and that I had mistaken an "electrical whip" for a canister.  Unfortunately, I didn't have a photo.  So, I ordered a third mini-blue pendant to hang over the kitchen sink.  The electrician cut into the drywall and put his hand into the hole to pull out the electrical whip.  As he did, he called my name and told me that I was correct and that there was indeed a recessed light canister in the ceiling.  Too late, I had already ordered, paid for, and received the blue mini-pendant light, but at least I was vindicated.  

I scoured through the photos I took of the framing, plumbing and wires within the studs and framing before the sheet rock encased the walls to see where outlet boxes, whips, recessed cans, pipes, plumbing vents and other things were that had been covered up by dry wall. The electricians would frequently knock on my home office door and say, please look for a photo of "X" because I think there might be a ________ (fill-in the blank) "speaker wire," "an outlet box," or "electrical whip" that I can't find."  Sure enough, I would scour my collection of photos, find what they were trying to locate, and print out the photo.  The photo helped them to poke fewer holes into the drywall to find the hidden item.

The ceiling of the gathering room now has recessed canister lights, a ceiling fan, low-voltage "wall washer" lights and ceiling-mounted speakers for the surround sound system.

These photos show how the "wall washer" light fixture will "bathe" the wall with light, although I will need to spend some time adjust the wall washer trim to "aim" the light.

The "wall washer" fixture in front of the fireplace has a "pinhole" trim so that it won't "wash" the future flat panel TV that will be mounted there.

The 3/4 bath off the gathering room has lights above the sink that nicely shows off the edamame green wall color, although these photos are distorting the color.

The under cabinet lights have been installed in the kitchen.

The flush-mounted ceiling lights are in the kitchen.

A bronze wall sconce has been installed near the skylight at the top of the staircase leading to the upper level.  Between the skylight and this new fixture, I am amazed by how dark this area was before.

The outlet and trim for the AV cords has been mounted for the future TV.

The AV case has its trim with various cables and audio plugs.

Early Sunday morning it occurred to me that the wires for the TV included a co-axial cable, typically used to connect to an antennae, cable service or a satellite.  I have often vowed that I will be the last person on earth to have either cable or satellite service as long as such entities refuse to offer "pay as you go" subscriptions.  I rarely find anything to watch, despite the 500 available channels, many of which are in languages I don't speak or include so-called reality shows which are a kin to watching a train wreck, which I won't watch.

I digress.  The main point is that a co-axial cable connected to the TV and going through the wall to the AV cabinet is really not going to help me.  So, on Monday I asked the electricians if it was possible to thread more cables through the hole in the wall that would exit to the AV cabinet.  I downloaded the manual of the new "smart" flat panel, high tech TV I bought to try to determine which connectors and cables I would need and if it would be possible to thread them through the wall to the AV cabinet before the trim was set and the wall closed.

To make a long blog post even longer, I had to dash out to a computer supply store to buy the appropriate cables in long lengths for the electricians to thread through the wall while the wall was still open.  Here you can see additional cables, including an ethernet cable (to connect the smart TV to the home computer network), an HDMI cable and an optical audio cable that will both be connected to a digital AV receiver.
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The plumber started to install the Toto toilets, here is the first one in the 3/4 bathroom:

Then things started to turn south....electrical circuits started to fail, there were wiring problems, and the electricians determined that they would need to expand the electrical board and circuits for the house.  Off they went to the electrical supply house and began to install an additional panel with circuits.  They were still working after dark, and by 7:00 pm, after an 11-hour-day on the job, they needed to call it a day, but only a few circuits were working in the house.  

Fortunately, the circuit that powered the refrigerator was working, but when they left it wasn't clear whether there would be heat in the house overnight.  At the same time, there were additional problems...a trim piece for one of the plumbing fixtures was missing; the lock sets I ordered were delivered, but they all needed to be re-keyed to the same key and I needed to find someone to do that, and well, I could go on, but I won't.  



I kept thinking that tomorrow will be another day.