My Own Private Idaho: Three Days of Weird

I need pie. Apple pie. But the apples on our place aren't ripe yet, so I picked up some at Albertsons today - Granny Smiths, Fujis and Braeburns. It's cooling on the kitchen counter now, so it's time to blog about the last three days of weird.

Water in the hole!

On Wednesday, our well digger came up and installed the pump and set up the control box. About a half hour later, he called me from his cell phone to ask if I had a garden hose. I drove it up on my ATV and found out why he needed the hose; the hydrant was clearing 60 gallons a minute - right into the well plumbing/wiring trench, under the foundation, and into the crawlspace. Yesterday, after being chewed out by our builder, he came up and set an exhaust fan in the crawlspace. But, there's still water, and a layer of mud on the membrane covering the crawlspace floor. That's going to be replaced.

The grit that entered the water system plugged up the kitchen faucet, but the plumber was able to dislodge it. The laundry tub was another story. Water just wasn't getting through, even though water was entering the input. Finally, the plumber took apart the inlet tubes and found a small rubber plug that the manufacturer, for reasons unknown, installed in the tubing. The plug comes out; the water flows. That's fixed.

We bought some beautiful rectangular, undermount sinks and drains by Decolav for the bathrooms. Bad choice. Apparently, the Decolav drains don't quite fit snugly in the Decolav sinks. One was pulled and replaced by a traditional pull-up drain; the other was secured by judicious use of silicone sealant. Fixed? Maybe.

Laundry chute - way cool

Three plug, four hole

Last weekend, Karen and I moved in the clothes dryer. This week, we've been running through clean clothes and were looking forward to doing laundry this weekend after finish carpenter completed the laundry chute from the master bedroom closet to the laundry room. Not going to happen. Seems our eight-year-old Whirlpool Duet dryer is out of date.

It has a three-prong plug; the current outlet code calls for a four-prong plug. The outlet will be switched out to a three-prong.

Today, the fireplace subcontractor converted the natural-gas fireplace to propane (which had been planned for months) and hooked it to the propane tank. "So," I asked, "where's the switch?" Appropriate question. Apparently, there are two ways to turn on the fireplace: 1) a wall switch - not installed by either the builder or the subcontractor, or 2) a remote control. We're taking option 2, for, how much? Well, we'll find out Monday.

And last, but not least, the builder ran two stair-landing lights from the same switch, a move the builder's rep called "Stupid." Yes, it was, and we get to pay for the fix - the electrician adding a second wall switch so the dome light and a spotlight for our antique carousel horse each has its own control. Not happy with this one. But, I will say, the builder's reps have been putting in a lot of time and effort supplementing the subcontractor work. We'll see how this works out.

But, there's been a lot of good stuff going on. The electric work has been done and approved by state inspectors, as has the plumbing. The mechanical inspection is Monday. Nearly all the house has been painted and looks great. All the kitchen appliances have been installed, though the refrigerator door handles still need to go up. The fireplace is installed, but still needs to a tile border and, perhaps, a mantle. The kitchen cabinet hardware is mostly up (had to order five more drawer pulls from Home Depot). The floors are done, but this weekend I'll be installing stair tread covers and stair nosing. The porch and balcony decking goes up tomorrow and Monday. And on Monday the septic backfill and grading will be done.