The Legacy of 3283: Today: Move In...Lots of Words...Few Pictures

It came together. Almost all of it. Not without glitches.

But, we will sleep at 3283 tonight.
We have power and we have water and we have the all-important "pot-to-pee-in."

Andy and Otis from B&L Electric showed up first. They connected the power to the well pump pressure switch and connected the switch to the line running to the well. They connected the garage to the circuit breaker box. They connected the one 'orphan' circuit that remained un-powered. We verified that all the house circuits were working.

Meanwhile, Ben from Bob Tolsma Plumbing showed up. He connected the gas line and properly hung it from floor joists in the basement. He made final water connections in the main bathroom. Then he got a phone call. The two toilets and sink we ordered -- and that were to arrive at the supplier today -- were not on the delivery truck and wouldn't be in until Monday. But, I was told that they would supply a "loaner" til Monday. [I wasn't really sure about a loaner toilet....but better than nothing.]

Next, the four of us -- two electricians, one plumber and me -- stood next to the pressure tank and flipped the switch to send power to the pressure switch and turn the well pump on......

NOTHING HAPPENED

The trained professionals first did exactly what any normal person would do: turn the switch on-and-off and on-and-off and on-and-off. Still nothing. The cover to the pressure switch was taken off. An electrician tested power to the pressure switch: there was power. "Must be a bad switch" said the electrician. "Brand new one." said the Plumber. The electrician looked closer. He saw that the contact was -- in fact -- closed. He then checked the power coming out of the pressure switch: there was power.

This wasn't good, because there is about 60 or 70 feet of buried cable between the switch and the well-head. The trio of professionals, and I, headed to the well. The plumber arrived first and removed the bolted on cover. An Electrician checked power to the well. Nothing. Somewhere in that 60 to 70 feet there was a break in the circuit.

I have learned for this project that both plumbers and electricians have some "non-glamorous" aspects to their jobs. For both occupations, one of these tasks involves the use of a shovel. There seems to be a lot of digging for both. A week or so ago Andy spliced the new supply line to a a wire supposedly leading to the well. The first hole they dug was to find this splice. When they found it..and saw it was still intact...they dug to follow it toward the well. And found a broken end.

When they made the initial connection there were two wires seemingly running toward the well. But the one they connected to was directly adjacent to the water pipe. More digging found both wires that headed toward the well. More testing showed that the "other" wire was actually connected to the well. Andy made another splice and we all headed back to the basement to flip the power switch to the well again. SUCCESS. There was the faint hum of the pump and in a few short seconds water began flowing out the drain valve at the bottom of the pressure tank.

3283 has water.

One electrical issue remained. Our smoke detectors were 'chirping.' There are currently eight hard wired units in the house. They are all tied together. So when one chirps all of them chirp. The Pros said they were properly connected so the chirp was likely due to one or more of the batteries being bad. OK, I'll get new 9 volt batteries, install them and make the chirps go away.

I headed to get the batteries, and Ben went to get my toilet.

Good news: Ben returned with a toilet and a seat. I looked carefully at the box the toilet came in. it was the one I had ordered. Apparently the supplier had one in stock but wanted to deliver the two that were special ordered along with the sink at the same time. This one is fine. The seat is wrong, and will be replaced when toilet two and the porch bath's sink arrive Monday. But we have a fully functional bathroom.

Bad news: I installed new batteries in the smoke detectors and there still is a 'chirp.' I placed a call to the electricians. But I haven't heard back from them yet. The whole concept of interconnected smoke detectors is wonderful....when it works. When it doesn't there seems to be no easy way to isolate the problem. We'll see what B&L can do with the problem. I doubt the final electrical inspection will go well with 'chirping' going on in the background.

It's now about 8:00 PM. Bobbie is on her way here now. I'm still in the hotel....but will be headed to 3283 soon. This afternoon I signed up for cable, internet and phone through Charter Cable. they won't be installed until next Thursday. The delay is due to our desire to 'port' our current phone number from ATT to the new cable phone service. What this means is I will be cut-off from the world wide web at my residence for the next few days. I'll attempt to blog from public internet sites to show roofing and heating work next week. But the blog posts may be short and/or not daily.

So, at the end of the day we are where we hoped to be: Sleeping at 3283.
But we still need plumbing and electrical fixes. Stay tuned.

OK, I wrote a lot of words. Here are a couple pictures of the Pros at work.