Water and Lights, Garage Door and Solar

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City of Portland trucks were doing something at the corner of 4th and Jerome early last week. Of course we had to investigate. When I asked one of the workers at the site he told me "we're replacing some valves on the water main junction so the water main can be changed from a 2-inch to a 4-inch pipe. It's because of that new house being built over there."

This is great news for us. While we have to actually pay for that new 4-inch water main pipe, getting this project started is long overdue for what can only be categorized as stupid reasons. Replacing the water main valve is the first step.

Having called the two coats of primer and four coats of paint on the garage walls and ceiling "enough" on Monday, Hank was on site Tuesday installing the garage door and garage door opener.

The new garage door looks so good. The Hardie siding below the overhang and between the windows will be the same black as the garage door.

Our electricians, Bogh Electric, were on site on Thursday and Friday cutting ceiling openings before the light location markings on the floors were covered by flooring, and installing ceiling lights and speakers. 

The plan from the solar company has a large, ~20 inch tall x ~ 10 inch wide, electrical shut off box on the exterior of the house. On Thursday we had a conversation with Jacob, one of the electricians, about how to manage the wiring for the exterior solar shut off. He suggested that Tony Bogh, the owner, take a look to see if there is a better solution. 

Electrical panel, mounted flush, right; new panel for solar, surface mounted, right center;
solar boxes left center and left, surface mounted. Note the flex conduit from the
solar boxes to the gutter below.

We asked Jacob to install a new gutter and replace the flex conduit with regular conduit so the installation will look consistent. This week I'm going to ask Jacob if there is a narrower electrical panel that can be flush mounted for the solar stuff. It needs to be significantly narrower to accommodate the studs behind the wall. This type of thing, and others, could have all been avoided if the solar company had worked with the electricians to begin with. 

Tony was on site Friday with the county inspector reviewing possible solutions to the GIANT ELECTRICAL SHUTOFF ON THE SIDE OF THE HOUSE dilemma. Tony explained that there are several possible solutions he is pursuing. He will review them with the power company and the inspector and let us know this week. If it hasn't become obvious, we are very pleased with Bogh Electric. Not only is their work exceptional, but everyone we have worked with has taken the time to answer questions and left us feeling very confident in their solutions.

Meanwhile, Brian has been working on the deck surface off the primary bedroom. The wood is ipe, a Brazilian hardwood, the kind of wood that you cannot hammer a nail into. It's that hard. You have to pre drill all the holes before screwing the hardwood down. Not that you could tell. In the second photo you can barely see the ipe plug inserted on top of the screw and glued. I love how the natural color of the ipe blends with the stained western red cedar.

Saturday evening Scott and I attended the Fisherpoets Gathering at Fort George, which was very cool. We drove by the house afterward to take some photos of our newly lighted home, after dark. 

Can you tell we're excited about the lights?

Painting and Cracks and Sheens and Conduit

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It's been a frustrating couple of weeks. Ryan the painter was on site and after priming the window frames they looked at the walls and stopped. They called Rob, who called me, and we all met at the house. 

Ryan did not feel the finish left by the sheetrock crew was equal to a Level 4 flat finish. It was now my job to look at every wall and mark flaws in the finish that needed to be reworked by the sheetrock crew. This could be blobs in the paint, an uneven or wavy finish in the primer left by the roller, or something else. Jake the sheetrock guy came back and gave the place a good once over and then handed the project back to the painter.

Ryan came in and finished priming the ceilings and walls in all the rooms. The next day they first-coat painted the ceilings, that's when the trouble continued. Ryan called Rob and I and we met to discuss the cracks in the walls.

I realize looking at photos of white walls is like watching paint dry. Sorry. In the photos above you can see where cracks in the walls were repaired by Jake the sheetrock guy. Interestingly, these cracks were on opposite sides of the same wall in the stairwell and the primary bedroom. There was another crack in the ceiling in the first floor den, close to one of the cantilevered steel beams. Rob tried to diagnose why the cracks were occurring. In the case of the wall cracks the general consensus is the addition of 30 solar panels on the roof and the installers traipsing around up there. As for the den ceiling, we'll have to wait for Brian to chime in.

Two coats of BM matte finish on the garage walls

The other problem we're having with the paint is striping in the finish. We spec'd Benjamin Moore Regal Select for the walls and the ceiling in a matte finish. We've never had any issues using it. Ryan uses Miller paints, almost exclusively, and has been having a very hard time getting an even finish even after primer and two coats of paint as in the photo above. 

Three coats of BM matte finish on the garage walls

Three coats of BM matte finish on the garage ceiling

The same striping can been seen even after three coats. Ryan wants to use Miller ceiling flat on the ceilings and we agree. It was my mistake, I think, to spec matte finish. I read the construction specification wrong. Yesterday Ryan repainted the garage walls and ceiling with the eggshell finish from Miller to see if he can get a better finish. We'll be looking at that today and make a final decision on the wall paint.

In the photo above the solar components are on the right or east side wall of the garage. The exterior wall is the left or west wall. Stan the Solar man informed me last week that we need an exterior shutoff next to the meter for the solar system. He recommended a conduit run up the east wall, across the ceiling and over to the west wall by the electrical box and through to the exterior. The question is, why wasn't this spec'd when the walls were open and accessible? Scott isn't having any of it and neither am I. 

Thank somebody, Brian is back this week.

Prepping Walls, Installing Solar and Birdwatching

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Things were moving fast inside the house last week. First up, the tape and mud crew came back to sand and smooth the walls and in some cases mud over areas. The gentleman above made walking on stilts look easy, he even climbed stairs. And then he was reaching above his head sanding, marking areas that needed attention and mudding. I have trouble walking in my Keens.

We met with Brian and Ron Moore, the trim guy who is also the window and door guy, Tuesday morning and walked through the house. On Wednesday we had a two hour meeting with Joe Sopko, the steel guy, for final measurements on the fireplace cladding, bracket templates for the deck stanchions (because of the cantilevered steel beams it's more complex than you might think), and the steel shelf in the primary bath.

Living room, facing east

Kitchen, facing south

Butler's pantry and refrigerator/pantry cabinet area, facing west

Mid-week the "finish guys" came in and did the final sanding and touch up. There is one stubborn area in the kitchen ceiling that they had to take back to sheetrock, carve out and redo. They promised they would make sure it was perfect before the job was done. They covered the remaining windows and doors and started priming. In the photos above you can see the area on the ceiling where they cut out the seam and mended it. So far, no cracks.

Primary bedroom, facing north

Primary bedroom, facing west

I thought priming was the job of the painters, but apparently the sheet rock guys aren't finished until they have a smooth primed surface. Seriously, everyone had their undies in a bundle over the Level 4 smooth finish. It's the standard in the midwest where we're from, so we didn't understand that it's a big deal in the PNW. They have to finish the second floor, stairwell and then tackle the first floor and garage. Hopefully they'll be done by the end of next week.

We had some unseasonably nice weather this week so the solar guys showed up on Thursday, Friday and Saturday to get the solar panels installed, 30 total, and the wiring run from the roof into the garage.

And here we are with all the panels installed! I failed to take a photo of the wires in the garage today, so I'll update with those photos next week. They won't move the truck until the wiring is complete because there are some final steps they need to do on the roof right before they finish. Honestly, as excited as we were that the truck arrived, we can't wait for the truck to be gone.

You may notice in the photo above the small blob above the wire. After I took the photo with my iPhone I looked up and saw the bald eagle and hoped I had captured it in the picture. 

Yes! Not that it's a grand photo by any means but we have seen this eagle before. We think there's a nest in the trees to the northwest of the house. I was able to photograph it a couple of weeks ago. It was a foggy day and we were meeting with the painter and Scott noticed it perched on the evergreen to the northwest of the house. Hopefully we can watch a lot more eagle activity this spring!