Teased & Christened

Electricity was turned on yesterday evening and the air conditioning company showed up this morning to get the AC up and running.  The upstairs unit had a leak and they didn't have enough freon to recharge it, so they got the downstairs up and running before they left, promising to be back "later".  While the upstairs stayed hot, the downstairs unit cooled to a comfortable 80 degrees before it crashed.  The AC unit wasn't draining, and when the condensation built up in the pan, the moisture sensor shut the system off.  

As for the christening - the girls did water play this afternoon in their kiddie pool.  After they were done, they took a bath in the air tub.  And at some point, Emily peed on the floor!  Anyone know where we can find Backyardigan underwear for little girls?  I think we could potty train her if we could find some "Pablo" underwear!

We (almost) Passed!

Just a few items to fix before the inspector comes back out this afternoon.  He let us slide on a few things (like not having the master bath vanity).  The drop-off on the back side of the house is more than 30", so, as I type, David is installing a handrail along that edge.  The electrical failed on a couple of items - no arc fault to the bedrooms (I caught that yesterday), water heater not connected (David's catch), no cover on the breaker box, and a loose ground wire to the meter.  All small enough that since there is an electrician here fixing these, the inspector is going to call the power company to authorize power once he gets back to the office.  He'll have to take pictures this afternoon when he comes back, then there's a bit of paperwork at the code office, and we'll be able to pick up our certificate of occupancy sometime next week!

Maybe I'll be able to sleep tonight without having nightmares of Richard Herrin (the head of the code office) coming out to nit-pick every detail during the final inspection!

Electricians a No Show

The electricians are supposed to come tonight so that we can have our inspection in the morning.  We'll see.  Here are some pictures of the house - blue above porches, exterior ceiling fans, stair rails, carpet in the girls' rooms, platform below the house to access the breaker panel, etc...

Today's The Day

David is calling for the final inspection this afternoon.  Best case scenario is that we get the CO (Certificate of Occupancy), have electricity turned on tomorrow and move in over the weekend, ending our 10 years of aggravation of dealing with the code office.  A more realistic scenario is that we fail some minor items (I suspect we will fail plumbing since we don't have a vanity in the master bath), but that we can turn on electricity tomorrow, fix the items over the weekend and get the CO on Monday.  And then there's the scenario that is keeping me up at night - the one where they say they won't give us a CO until the house is 100% finished - all doors installed, base molding in, kitchen cabinets complete, etc.  That's another 3 months of David working full time to complete.

Cooktop Installed

Here it is - the cooktop installed in the aluminum (not stainless) insert:


I think I need to clean David's cell phone's camera lense - either that, or it's set to take low resolution photos.  Anyways, you get the idea.

Measure Twice, Cut Once

But also make sure that you are cutting for the correct appliance.  Apparently I printed the booklet for the Kenmore cooktop but ended up purchasing the GE.  Unfortunately, the Kenmore installation booklet was never tossed.  It didn't help that there are no brand names mentioned in the booklet.  And of course the Kenmore cut-out size was larger than the GE, or it wouldn't have been a problem.  The countertop we are using is a stainless steel table top that we picked up at an auction 10 years ago for $15.  Everything is designed around this, so tossing it and starting over was not an option.  The two solutions to fix the opening size were to use either wood or marble to create a ledge for the cooktop to mount in.  Then David remembered that he has a couple of sheets of stainless steel plate, so he will use that instead.  Just another story for the house!

 

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