20 April 2009

Odds and ends

Tom and I spent most of our waking hours this weekend working at the house. Saturday was mostly spent tying up loose ends in preparation for Sunday's work day. Tom picked up a new lawnmower and I mowed the lawn. My only complaint with the new mower is that the bag for the clippings gets heavy quickly, making the mower difficult to push. The fact that the grass wasn't completely dried from the rain we've been having, and the fact that the weeds were knee-high in places compounded the problem. I don't plan on bagging clippings regularly (I did it this time simply because the grass was so long), so the issue will resolve itself. It looks so good that you can't even tell that the lawn is more than 95% weeds. I've got ideas for landscaping, but that will likely have to wait for next year.

We hung and wired some more recessed lighting. These still need to be wired in to the main breaker box but are otherwise ready to go. I can wire lights and outlets all day long, but I wouldn't touch the service panel if my life depended on it (which it does, which is why I'm not touching it).

On Sunday, we finished the drain and vent rough-in plumbing for the two bathroom sinks and made our basement skylight even bigger. Paul started working on the supply lines for the bathroom, correcting some questionable choices the previous plumbing crew made. Paul also spent a lot of time trying to figure out the funky configuration in our electrical box, and then explaining to Tom how to hook up the circuits. I was there for the explanation, but it mostly went over my head. All I know is: Don't touch the metal stuff, especially above the shut-off breaker.

We spent even more time trying to figure out the lighting in the basement. It seems like it would be wired and working, but if you look at the lights, some of the wires have been cut. We found a notation somewhere saying that the furnace and basement lights were on the same circuit. Our theory is that the load on the circuit was too much and caused the breaker to trip, so they cut out a few lights to lighten the load. I need to find out who did this work so I can be sure to avoid them in the future.

Next weekend, we'll try to finish up the supply lines for the master bathroom and get everything capped off. If we can do that, I'll be able to call the water company to have the water turned on, and pipe-testing will commence. If all goes well, we'll be able to start hanging drywall in no time.

No comments: