This weekend we were under a time crunch and feeling the pressure! Ivan came and dug the electrical trench on Friday the 23rd. Notice the beautiful rock that was unearthed!!!
We unrolled two 250 lengths of wire alongside the trench and soon discovered that we were 20 feet short with one of them. We had to re-route the wire and have Ivan dig a new trench, going under the driveway, which also meant bringing in the electricity at the front of the cabin rather than on the side! We were not happy about being shorted that much wire! We also needed to feed the wires through a 2" schedule 80 PVC pipe in order to cut across the driveway. Impossible! They did not fit and we didn't have a wider pipe.
Thankfully, our friend Jim Holm joined us on Saturday! He was able to pick up some 2 1/2" pipe to use under the driveway and helped tremendously with all of the electrical work! His great experience allowed Doug to process the job with him mentally and his attention to detail was such a huge asset!
We fully intended to head home on Saturday night, as Sandy was to sing in the morning services at church and there was a Guatemala Mission Trip luncheon on Sunday that we really wanted to attend. However, we were not finished with the electrical work and the basement floor was scheduled to be poured on Monday, April 26th and we had not even begun to work on all of that. So, we stayed over night again and on Sunday we moved all the stuff out of the basement (which was no little task), dug trenches for all the plumbing, fit all the PVC together to plumb for the main, the toilet, three floor drains and the radon tube.
The next job was to rake out the rocks to make it level for laying out poly, which we taped together, then placed 2" foam insulation down like puzzle pieces. Lastly, we had to follow a most confusing diagram to lay pex tubing out across the entire basement floor in four zones, which are called circuits. These tubes are to eventually carry heated water throughout the basement floor as a reasonably inexpensive way of heating the home and keeping the floor and home from freezing. It's now 5 pm on Sunday night! Once we deciphered the "greek" diagram provided by the pex company, we snapped chalk lines so that we could place the tubing 9" apart. The pex came in two rolls, one 300 feet and one 900 feet long. Poor Doug had to wrestle snakes all weekend, trying to unroll that monster with it getting all tangled and even kinked in one place! As we unrolled it, we used a rented stapler contraption to punch plastic staples into the foam to hold the tubes in place. However, the STUPID stapler clogged about every 5-10 staples and proved to be a real dud! With just enough light to finish the job and clean up we left for home at 9:30 Sunday night absolutely exhausted!
On a fun note, when cutting the foam board around the shower drain, a silly fellow was revealed. His name is Mr. Buddy! Everyone who knows Doug knows that the generic name for anything is Buddy. Well, Mr. Buddy is now the Little Chip o' Heaven mascot and can express the mood of the day.
When asked how he felt about the long, crazy weekend, Mr. Buddy silently shared his sentiments...
Me too, Mr. Buddy! Me too!
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