And then, there Was Light... At Least Temporarily

Here's a photo showing off the temporary electrical hookup and the new gutters all at once. The downspouts will come later once the driveway is in.



The mechanical inspector came back today and signed off on his final inspection. I still need to have the final electrical and plumbing inspection, and then the overall final inspection.

Ah, Breathe in the Fresh Air!

My A/C guy came today with some helpers to add the fresh air intake to my air-conditioning system. It's a 4-inch vent pipe that takes air in through the eave of the house and mixes it with the air circulating through the return vent inside the house. The inspector will visit again tomorrow and (hopefully) sign off on my HVAC stuff.

I spent a little time today placing wall plates over my switches and receptacles. Still a ways to go with that, but I passed the time while the AC guys were working.

Gutters Up, and Setback on the HVAC Inspection

My gutters are installed now with the downspouts not extending to the ground. This is so the driveway guys can place drains and work without banging up the downspouts. They look good! Pictures to come soon.

My mechanical inspection failed today because they didn't setup a fresh air intake. Because I've sealed the attic with foam, they claim I need to mix fresh air into the circulation system from outside... The new A/C guy (who replaced my original one when he moved out of state) said they should have known that but overlooked it somehow. I thought I had asked the original guy if I needed it. Maybe I didn't. Anyway, he says it "probably" won't cost me anything to add. So that's good.

I paid my deposit for the pavers today and signed the contract. Delivery should be in about 2 weeks, and the process may take about a week once they get started. I need to buy the materials for the drainage and also check to see if the parish is going to have to approve my drainage plan.

HVAC Guy Trying to Finish Up

My air-conditioning contractor has been out to put in the vent covers now that the ceilings are painted. He's moving out of state at the end of November, so he'd like to finish up everything before then if he can. He's selling his business, so there will be someone to take up where he leaves off.

Today, he and his successor are at the house doing some electrical hookups to the equipment in the attic. Tomorrow, they plan to install the condenser unit in the back yard. I'm a little leary about having that valuable piece of equipment where anyone can get to when I'm not there. But I do want my original guy to install it if possible, and I don't want to wait until the last minute when something may happen to prevent him from doing it.

Anyway, I'm trying to come up with ideas for how I could secure the unit until I move in. Maybe I'll install tall fence posts around it and space them so that no one could squeeze the unit between them. I thought of a simple chain-link fence, but if the posts aren't close enough, someone could just snip the fence away and carry off the unit.

Copper Theft!

My bricklayers left on Thursday afternoon. I went over that night to pick up around the yard. Friday morning, my sheetrock guy went over to take care of the walls that will be soundproofed. On Saturday morning, my dad and I arrived to find that some of my copper had been stripped from the house!

They took the entire line of copper from the air handler in the attic to the unit in the backyard, and they got some plumbing pipe. Luckily, that's all. As far as plumbing, they took small pieces from the master bathroom and a good portion of the middle (guest) bathroom. In that room, they got all the copper out of the wall with the bathub faucet. They even broke one line off at the concrete slab...

I filed a police report (for all the good that will do). It's hard to tell whether it was kids, or one of my contractors or their workers, or just somebody looking for quick money to support a drug habit. They didn't take any tools, equipment, or other materials we had laying around. They didn't get to several copper lines that would have been easy to remove. They dropped a couple of pieces on the way out the front door, which may mean they left in a hurry.

So I spent Saturday boarding up the openings that have no doors in the front and installing my back door with a lock. One upside is that I can now say I have the keys to my new house! I also setup security lights inside. Of course, all anyone has to do to eliminate the light is unplug the extension cord from the temporary pole in the front yard, but it's something I guess. I also setup a battery-operated motion detector with a siren just inside the back door.

I would tend to think this was someone who had been keeping an eye on the place over time. They must have known that the brick-layers were packed and gone. And having the sheetrock providing new privacy from the street meant it was safer for them to work without being seen. Did they work in the middle of the night? If so, why did they seem to leave so suddenly? Why did they leave stuff that was so easy to get to? It makes me angry and stressed and also creeped out. Like someone is now watching me and my project without me knowing it.

The plumbers have already been there to replace all that was taken. They had to bust up the concrete where the line was broken at the slab. The HVAC guy has been by to assess his situation and plans to reinstall his line this week. And my electrician needs to look today at one line that they cut in order to get at the HVAC line.

And wouldn't you know that the electrical inspector FINALLY showed up this morning and couldn't get in because the place was locked up! I wonder how far that's going to set me back. He's supposed to try again tomorrow. Yeah, right.

All-in-all, I'm glad it wasn't much worse (Thank you, Lord!). It served as a wake-up call to get the place secured. The insurance company informs me it might not be worth my while to file a claim. I have a $2,000 deductible to begin with. If the replacement costs aren't much more than that, then filing a claim will cost me more in the long run because my insurance will go up. I'll lose my "no-claim" discount, and yada yada... Gee, I'm so glad I have insurance.


Here is the house with completed bricks after all the scaffolding was removed.



In this picture, you can see where they snapped off copper lines at the slab.



This is the master bath where they broke off small pieces.



Here, you can see the straps that used to hold the AC copper line.



And here are my first real walls of the house: the sheetrock is in place where they need to spray insulation on the other side.

Rough-ins Coming to a Close; Hunting for Materials

Last week, my air conditioning guys finished their work (and he's ready for his first payment). The electrician finished running all his wire on Friday, and my plumber started working on his pipes and vent stacks on Saturday. I've been stressing out over ordering materials that I should have had already, like the exterior doors, the heater/vent/lights for the bathrooms, and some stuff that the plumber needs in order to finish his work. I've got my two bids on this stuff. Now it's a matter of comparing the prices and the different brands offered.

Like everything else, the heater/vent/lights are not a straighforward thing to get. There are choices among brands, among noise levels, among how many cubic feet per minute (CFMs) they can vent, and even among features. Some have a night light. Most don't have a heater. Some just have a fan. Uggh! Make it stop! :)

It also turns out that I'm going to be running all my own telephone, cable, and computer wires everywhere. I originally thought I would be doing that, and then my electrician told me he had assumed he was doing it. That was a relief in a way. I looked forward to doing it so I could say I did something like that on my own house, but then again I know it's a lot of work. He took longer than he planned with the electrical wiring, so he made a deal with me to reduce his fee and let me run the other stuff. So I'm saving money and getting the chance to do something I want to learn about. On the flip side, it's going to take me some time since I'm new at it.

I've decided on my bricklayers. I'm going with the very first ones I talked to. They are cheapest (at $8,020), and their work was very good. The woman I'm working with at the brickyard also highly recommends them. I just called him tonight and setup a meeting tomorrow so he can look at the house.

The brickyard sent me home with a few samples of my Magnolia Blend bricks, along with samples of different kinds of pavers to go on the front porch and back patio. The samples of my brick are all pretty much the same color, so it's not easy to pick out the roof color and the pavers.

As for roofers, I'm waiting on one final bid. The neighbor behind me used them to replace her roof after Katrina. They came out to measure on Friday (and the guy left his ladder), but he hasn't given me a price yet. The owner sent one of his supervisor-type guys to measure, and I asked him to look at where the roof is leaking through the felt. He said he had a guy who could stop by that evening on his way home and fix the felt so it wouldn't leak. Of course, that guy never came. It rained that night, and I found some new spots where it leaked. According to the bids I have so far, I'm going to need somewhere between 55 and 68 squares. A square is a 10ft x 10ft area.

On my latest bill from the lumber yard, they haven't credited me for 3 rolls of Tyvek housewrap I sent back. So I've been on the phone with them to take care of that. I think that's all the brain dump I'm capable of right now. More later...

Rough-ins Commencing

My HVAC sub started his rough-in on Wed. of this week. The plumber was supposed to start this week, but I haven't heard anything definite. With only one day left, I'm not sure if that'll happen. My electrician is starting tomorrow.

The AC guys have the air handler, the plenums, and some of the flex duct run in the attic. I decided to go with an electronic air filter. It is expensive at $980, but in the overall cost of the house this isn't much. I'm considering this to be one of the perks of owner-building: you get to upgrade some things because of the money you save. And I think this will help keep the air cleaner, which means less dusting and cleaning for me to do! Over the life of the house, that's worth it to me.

I bought all my electrical wire, as per my agreement with the electrician. He estimated it would cost me under $1,000. It actually cost me $1,800 for the bulk of it. I haven't bought the main breaker panel or the sub-panel for the garage, not to mention each breaker that goes in them. He's from the Northshore, and everything seems to run cheaper up there.

I bought the gable vents today, and the framers installed them. They also installed the pocket doors I bought on Tuesday. In fact, the framers are pretty much done. I love my framers. They even put blocking in the walls where I'll need to screw the top and bottom of my kitchen wall cabinets. They are very tight and thorough.

I've fallen behind in ordering my exterior doors. I still haven't done it. This may set me back a week or so as far as getting the brick layer in to start his work. I've only been concentrating on the doors part time, and only on the fancy front door (the double doors with an eyebrow arch across the top). The one I really wanted isn't available in the width I need, which is a double 2'-8" door. The ones in this range don't appeal to me as much as far as the window shapes and glass. They range in price from $1,800 to $4,600. Anyway, I need to get my doors ordered fast!

Electric Pole Installed; Slab Contractor; AC Bids

My dad and I installed the temporary electric pole before Thanksgiving. My electrician/friend said that I'd need to add a 220V receptacle to pass the parish inspection. I bought most of the pieces I needed from an electrical supply store (the receptacle, a metal box to mount it in, a circuit breaker with GFI protection and a weatherproof cover). On the weekend after Thanksgiving, we went to Home Depot to buy the rest of what we needed (mostly conduit and fittings). Then we installed it. (Hooray for Jerry, an HD employee who was really helpful & knowledgeable.)

My electrician is coming to inspect it before he calls for the parish inspection. This is good since I don't want to electrocute anyone!! The funny thing is, he says that the 220V will probably never be needed during construction. But the parish requires it. At least I should be able to reuse components of it in the house.

Chain-Wall Leakage
While we were there, we also repaired a spot along my chain wall where sand was seeping underneath into the neighbor's yard. Their lot is low, and water from a rainstorm found a spot to break through under the wall. So we dug it out from both sides and filled in some concrete underneath about 4-5 inches deep and maybe 18-20 inches long. Neither me or my dad knew of anything else to do to fix it. So hopefully, it does the job.

Slab Contractor
I think I might have found my slab guy! There was a crew working on a slab up the street from my lot. I stopped and got their information. Since then, I've let him take my plans and look them over, and I've gone to see a commercial slab he did recently. It was well done, with no honeycombing or voids. Just one depression in the top where some rain water had settled. (I don't expect it to be 100% perfect.) So this looks like it might be the guy. He says he uses the vibrating rod to make sure the concrete settles everywhere. Now I just have to get him to call me back with his price! It's been a few days. I've called him a couple of times. He tells me he's been waiting to talk to his partner, who has been out of town.

Air Conditioning Bids
My preferred air-conditioning contractor has had some business and family problems that kept him out of touch for about 3 months. But he finally gave me the quote today: $14,200 for everything I wanted. That includes a 16 SEER Trane system, 4-ton, with variable speed air handler (vertical installation in the attic), electrostatic air filter, etc. While I was waiting for him, I got a couple of other bids: $12,200 and $7,900. These other two are quoting brands other than Trane. I'm not sure why the third guy is so low.

The Gears of the Bidding Process Turn Slowly... and Other Delays!

I've had a few breakthroughs in getting recommendations for subs in trades that I was having trouble with. For example, I finally brought my plans to the excellent framer across the street from me. Although timing may prevent him from doing the work, he gave me a price and he also gave me names of a slab guy, a plumber, and a recommendation for a lumber yard. When I called the lumber yard, she gave me two other recommendations for framers. My mom's friend gave me the number of a plumber he really recommends. I also had the Laplace concrete company to refer me to two other slab guys.

I've visited three slabs now done by people bidding on my job. Each one has had its weak points. Either the top was rough/uneven or the brick ledges and sides were a mess. I'm not sure how much of the sides I should worry about since they may come back and finish it off later. But the top definitely needs to be level, flat, and smooth.

I made my first attempt at a permit this week. Right away, the plan reviewer found things he needed clarified in a letter from the engineer. Apparently in Jefferson Parish, any part of a structure that's less than 5 ft from the property line needs to be fire rated for one hour. Two walls of my garage, and the overhang on one side of the house are within this limit. So I'm working on getting that letter now. At the same time, the reviewer told me the wall between the house and the attached garage needed to be fire rated and he was able to just write that in on the plans. If he could write in notes about the interior wall, why couldn't he write in the notes about the exterior walls?

Oh, and the permits office told me that they have nothing to do with giving me my address number (which contradicts what they told me over the phone). When I told him I didn't know the address number, he seemed aggrivated. So he sent someone around to figure it out. In their computer system, my lot and the neighbor's lot (which was one big lot at one time) still had the old house that straddled the dividing line. Eventually, they were able to determine that my house number is 624. During the visit, he pulled up aerial photos of the area to verify that there were indeed two lots and that a new house had already been built on the adjoining lot. I wish I could have gotten a copy of that photo, even though it was taken shortly after Katrina and still had all the trees on it.

On the positive front, the power company is on schedule to have the new utility pole installed by Nov. 1. Then I can have my temporary electricity feed off the new pole. Speaking of electricians, I'm waiting on two other electrical bids and my HVAC bid.

When visiting a slab today, I met the owner of the house who told me three things to make sure I have before my final inspection:

• Your house number posted (and make sure the numbers are large enough)
• Any steps are the right height/size, and
• Your mailbox installed

He also told me about another company besides the citizen's FAIR plan for obtaining wind and hail insurance. It's Republican Insurance. A quick Google search revealed more than one match. I'm not sure which one he was talking about, but he said you can save a lot by going through them.