New Siding Project – Part 5
Late last week, Harland formed up the mystery hole beneath the foundation and then filled with concrete.
A few days later he pulled away the forms.
Then he finished the patio and sidewalk forms, brought in some gravel for both, and then built a re-bar gridwork, also known as reinforcing rod or re-rod.
We’ll be pouring concrete soon!
Meanwhile, last night I came home to this:
Harland had been wearing his electrician hat all day replacing the circuit box with a new one.
He figured as long as he had buried the electric line outside and had to connect it to the box, he might as well put in a new box. And good thing too as the old one had a place where the electricity had been arc-ing which is kinda dangerous.
Holy crap!! My husband had grown a third eye!! And it glows!!!!
He had a hard time installing the new box. It was bigger than the old box and barely fit in the space, and the wires entered the box in different places than the old.
He said, “This is why it’s hard to get an electrician to do re-model work. If this was new house construction, I would have been done long before now.”
Since the electricity had been off since noon, that meant no air conditioning and the windows were open. It was hot and kinda miserable for Harland.
But Kitty had possibly one of the best days of her life.
A woderfully hot house and open windows perfect for sitting and watching the outside world. AND – a bonus: When Harland moved the drier out of the way to access the circuit box, he discovered a bunch of her toys that had “escaped” from her and were “hiding” under the drier: A toy mouse, 2 binder clips, several wads of aluminum foil, and a little ball. Harland said it looked like a “lost & found” for Kitty.
Anywho, as I put away some groceries, Harland finished up and got the power back on.
Ahhh….I closed the windows and enjoyed the air conditioning. Poor Kitty. But she did have fun playing with her long lost toys all evening.
Hopefully today or tomorrow, Harland’s brother will come over to help him pour concrete for the patio and sidewalk.
More to come…
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
A new circuit box?? I’m impressed! Is there anything Harland can’t do?
Suzanne what direction does the patio face? Just curious, did the hole have anything to do with Miss Snake entering or leaving the ‘basement? I can’t wait to see the next chapter!
The patio faces east.
We decided to put vinyl siding on because our heating/cooling bills are heinous. So before the siding, we will put on a vapor barrier, and then some foam board insulation. BUT, before we could put on the siding, we had to remove the old outside basement stairway because it was in the way. AND, while we were at it, we removed the patio near the old basement stairway because it was sloping towards the house causing rainwater to drain towards the house. AND, as long as we were removing the patio we decided to remove the front sidewalk as well because it had large cracks in it and was coming apart. AND, as long as we were trashing the yard we decided to trench in the electric line so we don’t have to worry about the line coming down in an ice storm. AND, since we were running in a new line to the house we decided to put in a new circuit box. We hope to have the siding on before we are too old to care anymore. 🙂
Peace be with you, Susanne, Harland and Ms Kitty
Peace to you and yours too, Carol!
Love your “New Siding Project” mini-series! I think it’s worthy of production on one of those home remodeling TV shows, like “This Old House.” It’s a great example of the issues people encounter when remodeling older homes–you start out with one project focus and it mushrooms from there!
Thanks June! We NEVER fix just one thing in this house. It’s always a multitude of things that go at once. Like when we re-wallpapered the living room and ended up putting in a new floor and fireplace insert while we were at it.
I am sure Miss Kitty was a big help to Harlan!!! And look at all the extra new “toys” her dad surprised her with. You can tell by the look on his face he was determined…..
He’s the man with a plan. 😐
Good job Harland and Miss Kitty the Supervisor. What a job this is turning into but you will be so grateful especially this winter all snug in your buttoned up little home. And the walk will be so much easier to shovel, sweep as well as walk on. Can hardly wait for the new siding. More please!
My-oh-my! That was quite a day for Harland-the-HandyMan! And isn’t it fun when old toys show up like that? The furbabies are just sooo happy!
Once again “Way to go Harland” execelent electrical work and I could not have done better myself,
What people do not realise is that there is a limit on the life of the electrical equipment inside your house. Replacing the breaker box and the breakers gave you a small but significant savings to your electrical bill. As well as making it safer, arcing creates ozone small amounts are good for ya but the arcing it self can be dangerious as well as cost u money on wasted electricity.