Let there be light, sort of......

Let there be light, sort of....

February 21st -- The electricians arrived bright and early this morning before 8:00, in their armored truck and with an employee that they recently hired.  With the boom in building here, they have been working like crazy and are trying to build their business.  They have made a lot of progress from our first meeting when it was just the two of them with a panel van that barely started.

Here is a shot of their armored truck, which they told me weighs 35,000 pounds -- that is one seriously heavy truck:

The architect and contractor showed up at 10:00 and it was a fun meeting to check in on the progress.  Living among what I used to call the ruins sometimes makes it difficult to realize just how far this project has come.  It was fun to get a sense of the project from the leaders of my dream team, and because we are getting close, the mood was jovial.  

Later in the day when I returned home, I could see the progress made to install light fixtures, set the electrical boxes -- switches and outlets -- and prep the install for the ceiling fans and the in-ceiling speakers.  They made great progress:

The first sequence of photos shows the carriage lanterns exterior to the house, with the two that frame the door from the dining room to the deck; another one mounted on the east end of the mudroom that will be opposite the door to the greenhouse

There is another carriage lantern at the rear-entry door.

And here is the fixture that is outside the door to the covered deck off the master bedroom.

Not all of the lights that were installed today actually work, but at least there are some working lights in the house now!!!!

Here are the two mini-pendant lights over the little breakfast bar in the kitchen.

Here is a view of the mini-pendant lights and the ceiling fan as I am standing in the gathering room.  The ceiling fan has a remote control and will mostly be used to circulate warm air from the fireplace and to keep the room cool in the summer.

There are outlets and switches in the kitchen, as well as almost all of the under-cabinet lights, but they are not yet working:

The electricians just started to work on the in-ceiling speakers, and used the template to cut the installation hole for one of the speakers, as shown here:

Here is a shot of the lights over the vanity in the 3/4 bathroom off the gathering room.

There are two semi-flush mount light fixtures in the ceiling of the kitchen along with the under-cabinet mounted light fixtures.  Another blue mini-pendant light will hang over the sink, in front of the window, but that hasn't been installed yet.

The same style semi-flush mounted light fixture was installed in the guest suite bedroom and that one works!

The canister lights in the master bedroom have been installed, along with the trims, and those are also working.  They will also locate the speaker wires buried underneath the sheet rock on the south side of the ceiling and soon install the speakers.

The canister lights in the hallway outside the master bedroom have also been installed and are working.  These throw a really nice light into the closets.

At 4:00 pm the electricians had decided that they had a productive day and told me that they will be back tomorrow -- Saturday, but will arrive at 9:00 am, instead of 8:00 am.  That works for me.

They are hoping to have the rest of the interior light fixtures installed and most of the switches and outlets.  They will also need to wire the green house with two new circuits and put in some new outlets in the older parts of the house that I am living in.  They will also install the four in-ceiling speakers in the gathering room and the two in-ceiling speakers in the master bedroom. It isn't clear when the kitchen appliances will be wired and when they are whether I'll be able to use them yet.  It will be a weird transition to remember how to use kitchen appliances other than the microwave in my temporary kitchen!

After the contractor and architect left, the head of the framing company stopped by to see if the windows for the greenhouse had been delivered -- not yet.  The full light door for the greenhouse was ordered today, so if the weather continues to be good and these materials arrive, they should be able to work on the greenhouse next week.

I have been working on the bathroom fixtures -- towel bars, TP holders -- which is a challenge since the plumbing fixtures wont' be installed until the middle or end of next week.  As the contractor mentioned, the plumbers have taken on a lot of work and it has been a challenge to get them back to do the finish work.

I'm looking forward to seeing how much more of the house will have electricity and lights by the end of tomorrow's work day.