Sista Girl At It Again

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.

 

Water Connection Complete with Fanfare

Today Adleta finished the work to remove the lead line leading into my house and connect the water meter.  The work had an extra element to it as U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt was on hand to watch the festivities.  I was not let in on the planned visit, but my father knew immediately who he was when he walked to my front yard.  I had no idea, but clearly when 20+ people were suddenly on hand just to see a lead line be pulled from the ground and secret service people were poised at the corners of my street someone high-profile was on hand.

Apparently I am one of the first city residents to sign up for the Lead Service Line Replacement Program (LSLRP) offered by the Greater Cincinnati Water Works (GCWW).  The program consists of removing all known lead service lines located within the City of Cincinnati.  To assist in accomplishing that goal, GCWW has established a cost sharing and a property assessment incentive.  The new program is gaining national attention and is quickly being recognized as a model for other water utilities.  They certainly made it a no brainer for me to jump on board and with the professionalism shown by Adleta they picked a great company to do the work.

The three primary guys on the crew doing the work were just awesome!  The most friendly, all about business, but know how to have fun crew you could meet.  As I shared previously they removed my sidewalk to nowhere for me, they graded the front well enough that I can probably just throw seed and straw, they finished my PEX connection to the meter and even connected the ground-line from my electric panel box, so I won’t have to call JTL Electric to complete that final step of his work.  Signing up for the LSLRP program was definitely one of the best decisions I’ve made in the restoring my home.

Check out this video I made:

Bless This House Gathering

I attend Vineyard Church and on the occasion of the 1st Sunday of a new series a group of us will follow the 9am service with breakfast at Cracker Barrel.  After updating everyone about my house one member, Javonna, shared that she had a friend remodeling a room in their home and before closing up the walls each family member wrote a scripture in the wall cavity.  I loved that idea, so as I near the completion of the plumbing and electric rough-in I scheduled a Bless This House Gathering for this past Sunday.

The weather was awful, it rained all day and was gloomy, but the support and love that was inside my home warmed the interior as if the sun was shinning bright.  I actually feel as if  heaven thought it appropriate to baptize my home for the occasion.  Old friends, new friends, and family came out in support and filled my walls with scriptures and words of encouragement.  I’m looking forward to hanging drywall just so I can stumble across more well wishes that I did not find in creating this video:

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My friend Carolyn Wallace, owner of Perfect Brew Catering, provided the food.  Being the extraordinaire caterer that she is, she added warm apple cider to the menu, perfect for the chill in the air.  I had an absolute ball giving tours and sharing how I was making my original vision for the house come to life.  I even allowed my guest to weigh in on which countertop I should select for my kitchen.  My mind is pretty well made up, but it was great to have such strong feedback.

My friends Kyle and Bethany Bradford gave me the wonderful HOME door mat.   They think of everything.  Kyle is the owner of 3S Sales and Service, a fire and safety protection equipment supplier.  He gave me two fire extinguishers when I first bought the house.  I can’t wait to place the mat permanently out front and hope I’ll never have to use the extinguishers 😊

Bee Hive of Activity

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.

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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 20180413_093320that 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.

 

She’s Got 1st Floor Windows

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.

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