Monday, December 14, 2009 - Electrical and Lighting Plan

It is a process that will drive you crazy, but one that will fill you with excitement as well. As much as I feel like I often have to direct this project from my office 10 miles away, I am excited to see the progress made each and every day. Each time I walk out of the back door of our house I look back over my shoulder at the addition and am amazed we are getting closer and closer to being finished.

Alright, closer and closer is technically correct, but we still have a long way to go…at least six weeks. I won’t be able to tell until daylight breaks Tuesday to see if they were able to match-up shingles correctly. Instead of ripping off a five-year-old roof, we asked our contractor to match shingles the best he could. The first set brought over Sunday was too light. He decided to go to Murfreesboro without one of current shingles to get something darker, and came back with shingles too dark. He made another trip back to the ‘Boro and hopefully found something close since he shingled the roof with them. In just a couple of hours we will see if he was right.

The biggest frustration Monday came wit our electrical/lighting plan. We walked through the house with our contractor on Saturday pointing out exactly where we wanted every light, fan, and electrical outlet. When I came home today, about half of the lights and wiring for fixtures was incorrect…even after I presented him with a detailed list the night before. My case was certainly bolstered by my architect coming by tonight as I was climbing out of the addition with my list. We walked back through and he confirmed what was out-of-whack and even pointed out a couple of other things that need changing. So, I have just finished writing out a new list of changes and have spoken to the contractor to make sure everything is fixed and placed correctly on Tuesday.

Hopefully the basement will get completely wired as well Tuesday before it gets called in for codes inspection. Unfortunately, with all of the great progress we have made in the last 10 days or so, we could come to a great big grinding halt waiting for the inspector to stop by. A day or so delay won’t be a big deal. That allows us the opportunity to check and make sure everything is exactly how we want it before the drywall goes in. Anything longer than two days will pretty much render us done for the week.