Yesterday my father and I drilled holes and pulled wire to get the electrical rough-in back on track.  I picked the wrong day to forget my cover all and bandanna.  I had sawdust in my hair and down my bra.  Even worst were the cobwebs in my hair when we were pulling and drilling in the basement.

I had hoped the electric rough-in would be complete by now.  Even though my father said this was something we could handle ourselves I had my doubts (really fear of electrocution), so I started this project with contractors.  The first was the company that installed the panel, JTL Electric.  That turned out to be a negative experience, so I turned to another licensed contractor that was referred to me by a friend.  Rick Kinney is a super sweet man, who said he knew “my people”, so he was willing to cut me a great deal.  Unfortunately after three days on the job (2 half, one full), I pulled the plug on him too.  Sweet man, but not the right man for me. On day three I drilled more holes than he had drilled in the two days prior and I hung all, but two gang boxes for the walls on the first floor.  It was at that point that I begin to think the electric rough-in was plausible, so yesterday we picked up where Rick left off.

Earlier that week I placed the remainder of the gang boxes upstairs and got all the can lights and exhaust fans in the master suite hung.  This work is well within my skill set.

In two days we have 8 circuits pulled. While I don’t fully understand what is a “feed”, “pig-tail”, or why/when to use 12/2, 12/3, 14/2 or 14/3 wire, clearly my father has a firm handle on this and I’m feeling good about our tackling the full brunt of work needed to reach the rough-in inspection.  So far this work is actually easier than the plumbing rough-in, which we’re still working on fixing as we did not pass the first inspection.

It’s been a rough couple of weeks dealing with and recovering from some bad choices in contractors, so I needed a good day and good experiences with the ones that worked at the house on Friday.  It was a sunny day and Cincinnati Glass Block and Adleta were shining bright; both performing magnificently!

More windows and these look gorgeous, I can’t be more pleased with the work performed by Cincinnati Glass Block.  Their crew of two arrived early for my 9a appointment and had my 10 basement windows installed within a couple of hours.  It is so nice to have more natural light flooding into the basement.  These windows appear to be larger than the three panel sashes they replaced.  At least half of the windows in the basement were boarded up.  They look awesome and complement the 1st floor windows installed last week.

Adleta is the contractor for Greater Cincinnati Water Works that is replacing my lead water lines and stolen water meter.  Friday was day one of two to get me one step closer to running water.  The crew was awesome.  They were professional and truly skilled. They graciously took out the sidewalk that leads to nowhere in the front of my house for me.  My back will be forever grateful as that was another project I was going to tackle with my cousin Cameron.  I’ll post a Quik video next week once all their work is complete.

I also reached a new milestone, my electric was finally turned on.  Duke Energy completed their end of the service that allowed me to have power to the new electric panel I had installed a few weeks ago.  Between the rainy weather and my paperwork getting mysteriously or conveniently lost, what should have taken up to 10 business days turned into almost a month.  So glad to have that chapter closed.  With electric turned on I guess I can say I see light at the end of the tunnel.

Another layer of makeup was added with the installation of the 1st floor windows and rear door.  As with the box gutters, replacing the boarded up and broken windows and rear door I knew would go a long way towards improving the curb appeal of my home.

I hope I’ll have the funds to get the house painted this year, which will further enhance the curb appeal.  I’ve already got the colors picked out thanks to the 2017 HGTV Urban Oasis sweepstakes.  The house will be Sherwin Williams Sea Serpent SW7615 (I tested this color on the boards around the front door), the trim and columns will be Sherwin Williams Incredible White SW7028, and the doors will be Sherwin Williams They Call It Mellow SW9015.  I couldn’t go 100% with their design choices and use the pink door.  I wanted to pay homage to the original yellow of the house by using it on my doors.  The cool thing with Sherwin Williams’ website is they provide coordinating color options with each color.  I’ll be using some of the interior colors from the HGTV home also and that’s how I found the yellow for the door.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.