Just had a big hole dug in my front yard

[NH-Rob]

The contractor left the skidsteer parked up against the tree for the rest of the day to prevent wandering. I guess that's a compromise between having a nice heated cab and destroying the customer's landscape.

some one should show the contractor how to adjust the parking brake an that ls180. It is easy to do but time consuming. I know on our ls160 if the guys don't put it on all the way some one will drive off with it on and it will need adjustment again.
Rob

 

[Iplayfarmer]

I have some update pictures. The first is of the new porch with the forms all removed. I'm pleased with how it turned out. The second is of the stairs. I need to get some railings put up around the porch as soon as possible. That's a good drop off the edge over the stairs. I have a feeling that I'm going to pick up bouncy balls regularly from the bottom of the stairs.

The third picture is of the inside of the new storage room. I've already committed "the contractor" to give me a corner of the new storage room for my paint and other freeze sensitive stuff.

The last picture is of my next challenge in the process. You can see to the upper right of the picture that the joists have been cut out by a previous owner to make way for pipes to go through. So, I have to replace the joists. I think I'm going to leave the old joists and just marry new joists up against them. The problem is that I have electrical and plumbing running all through these joists. I'll have to remove all of the old stuff, put in the new joists, and then run all of the new plumbing and electrical.

You can see in the upper left of the picture some of the challenge I have ahead of me when it comes to electrical. I have little surprise junctions like this all over the basement. I hate to think that there may be other surprises in the walls that I can't see.

 

[Iplayfarmer]

Here's a post script to the previous post...

The electrician is coming on Thursday to change out my old fuse box for a combination meter-main on the outside of the house. The picture below is of the current fuse panel. I promise it was all that way when I moved in. All I've done is replace a few fuses. I didn't bypass the fuse, I didn't connect multiple wires to a single post. I didn't run power straight off the meter without a cutoff to a subpanel.

After the electrician changes out the fuse panel, I'm going to start the process of changing joists and running new wire. Where that's a framing and wiring project all wrapped into one, I'm going to do it myself. I think I'm going to try to take it a section at a time.

 

[dcyrilc]

Here's a post script to the previous post...

The electrician is coming on Thursday to change out my old fuse box for a combination meter-main on the outside of the house. The picture below is of the current fuse panel. I promise it was all that way when I moved in. All I've done is replace a few fuses. I didn't bypass the fuse, I didn't connect multiple wires to a single post. I didn't run power straight off the meter without a cutoff to a subpanel.

After the electrician changes out the fuse panel, I'm going to start the process of changing joists and running new wire. Where that's a framing and wiring project all wrapped into one, I'm going to do it myself. I think I'm going to try to take it a section at a time.

Sounds like a wise choice to change out the panel. Are you going to have a new panel on the inside?

 

[Iplayfarmer]

Sounds like a wise choice to change out the panel. Are you going to have a new panel on the inside?

No.

We're going to have a sub panel in the basement for all of the new circuits from the construction, but all of our existing circuits will be routed outside to the new meter main.

 

[Treemonkey1000]

Did you ever see the movie "Money Pit"? Looking at some of those pictures reminds me of that. The galvanized plumbing to copper pipe. It looks like wires are spliced together with electricians tape. All of those are things I had in my last house. It had been a barn built back in the 40's. Then fixed up into a house and remodeled years later. They cluged pipes and wiring together just like you have. I had the water feed to the toilet upstairs break one time. It ran for 9 hours before I came home. What a mess! Sheet rock from the ceiling downstairs had fallen. About an inch of water on the first floor. It took a couple of months to dry it all out. That exposed a lot of what had been done. The galvanized pipe you couldn't see daylight through a 5' piece. I replaced all of the Galvanized pipe with PEX pipe. Then fixed up some of the scary wiring issues that they had done.
Thanks for showing us what all that you are having to deal with. Take lot's of pictures so that you can tell the before and after if you want to sell the place.

 

[dcyrilc]

No.

We're going to have a sub panel in the basement for all of the new circuits from the construction, but all of our existing circuits will be routed outside to the new meter main.

I've never been a fan of outside breaker panels. It always seams like you trip a breaker at 2 in the morning when it's poaring down rain. You have to get dressed up and go outside just to go reset the breaker. I'ld recommend replacing the fuse panel with a breaker panel in the same location and the sub panel in the basement. Just my recommendation... It's your house, do what works best for you.

If you have any questions when you get to the electrical portion, let us know. I'm sure I'm not the only electrician on TBN who would be happy to tell you how to spend your money. LOL

Definately have to agree with Treemonkey, lots of pix. But share with us too please. Looks like your concrete contractor did an outstanding job. It looks really nice.

 

[Scotty370]

Did you ever see the movie "Money Pit"?

"No Problem, no problem, Two Weeks........"

 

[Iplayfarmer]

So far all of the surprises are ones we saw before we dove into the construction. So far we're ahead of schedule and under budget.

I got doors put in today. Judging from the frustration of the framer that I had do the doors, I'm glad that I didn't try to do it myself.

 

[Iplayfarmer]

Update:

I finally got my new meter-main installed. I've been waiting 7 years for that. They did a pretty good job except that they somehow completely missed re-connecting the well pump. We discovered this last night at 9:00 after we got home from visiting my Mom. So the electrician came back out and we had water again before 10:00. He was very appologetic.

My house looks like swiss cheese right now because the HVAC guys came and cut openings for another half dozen vents but haven't installed the duct work yet. I have electric heaters strategically placed throughout the house to keep warm. They're waiting for me to re-do the cut joists pictured in post #52 before they run the duct work. I'd be further ahead on it, but my Grandpa ended up in the hospital so I went to visit him; and then today I'm laid up with a bad stomach flu.

I was planning on taking afternoons off this week to catch up, but things are pretty busy at work. I've only been getting off a few hours early at best. I may even have to put on a happy face and go in for a bit today because rumor has it that a customer is on a plane somewhere coming to visit with me to nail down a new development project.

No problems. Minor setbacks. All will be well in the end.