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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.
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.
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| 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?