biggerboat's building boondoggle blog
I started this in H&F but this seems a better place for it. These are my H&F posts. A bit long-winded but hopefully entertaining. I'm sure more hilarity will ensue.
I've been debating about doing this, and I sort of thought it might qualify as health and/or fitness so I'm gonna do it.
A little background. I have a very old house that I started to remodel about 10 years ago, then ran out of money and WIM to finish it. I gutted it completely and moved walls and did a lot of interior work. But I never did anything with the exterior.
It is sort of falling apart now. The roof leaks and a lot of the wood siding is so rotten I can stick my finger through it. It needs to be completely replaced.
I just paid the house off so I can sort of afford to completely re-side and re-roof it..............if I do it myself. Another factor is I just got out of a serious relationship and now I have way too much time on my hands. I'm going a little stir crazy.
Now to the health tie-in. The last few years I just haven't been able to do things like this. I used to be able to work sunrise to sundown. But lately I'd be good for about 2 or 3 hours and my back would just tell me to stop. However, due to this forum, my back is really feeling strong again. I think I'm up for the challenge. The other health aspect is mental. I don't feel good unless I have some sort of challenge like this. It gives me something to look forward to. I'm really needing something like this about now.
So, I think I'll sort of log this activity as well as lifting. I'll have to cut back on lifting/running some. Mostly due to time considerations. I'll be working on the house on Saturday/Sunday so no lifting/running on those days.
I haven't committed to this quite yet, but I think I'm close.
On the house front. I went to the city website to see what permits I'll need. It was so confusing that I called, got an answering machine, and never got a call back. So, I went down to city hall to ask some very basic questions. Apparently the appropriate question answerers are only there MWF but a substitute question answerer was available. So, after waiting 1/2 hour the substitute question answerer informed me that he couldn't really answer my question so he told me to come back when the real question answerer was there.
I suspect this will not be healthy in any way.
I tweaked my back Wednesday doing deadlifts.
The back pain has nothing on the pain the city is inflicting on me, though.
Went back to talk to someone again. I at least got the right day. The girl was really friendly and helpful. However, she seemed to not really know what all I was supposed to do. Which, as you will see, nobody could.
The first thing she did was pull up my address.
Apparently, there were 3 expired permits associated with my house. About 10 (or more) years ago, I did a big remodel. I did it mostly myself. The first permit was for an interior remodel. I had to get electrical, plumbing, framing and probably more permits. I remember having each one signed off on. However, apparently there was a final inspection that I never got. This is just conjecture based on what she said and my hazy memory. The second was for a garage. I hired a contractor to pour the slab and I framed and finished it. Apparently the slab inspection failed but the framing inspection passed. I'm not sure how this happens. I really don't recall any of this. The third one was for a bedroom addition. I never did this. I do not recall even applying for this. But, it is there. More on this later.
So I asked a lot of questions and the girl was very polite when she had to repeatedly excuse herself to ask someone else that knew the answers. From what I gathered I can do most of the work on something they call an express permit. However, if I want add a small porch roof I will need site drawings, impervious cover documents, elevation drawings, detailed framing plans and flood plain people approval. At minimum.
Back to the old permits. The girl indicated that I could fill out a form to remove the permit for the addition since I never did it. She then sent me to someone named Tony on another floor to figure out what to do with the other ones. Tony, it seems, did not have his coffee this morning. Either that or he was just an *******. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. He told me they couldn't do anything about any of them since he had no idea if I even did any work or not. Which is problematic since I can't get any new permits with these on their computer. After much discussion he agreed to go back downstairs and talk to the friendly girl. Tony then came up and informed me that I needed a Life Safety for Expired Permit permit. He informed me that I needed to go back where I started (the line that I waited over an hour in) to start this process.
So, I go back to the window and explain to them what Tony said. They seemed a bit confused on exactly what a Life Safety for Expired Permit permit was. So, they suggested that what I really need to do is re-submit all three permits and get inspections on the work I did over 10 years ago. Even if I didn't do the work. They then put my name in the computer to talk to someone. However, the number of people waiting had swelled considerably and I had already been there 2 1/2 hours so I think I'll tackle this another day.
Hang in there BB.
We are ok. They shut access to the entire county we live in down so we can't go home yet. It looks bad.
So glad you guys are safe.
Initial reports are encouraging for us at least. We think the neighborhood is ok. No power but they brought the sewage plant and water back up. They are allowing people in. Not sure when we'll be going back.
The highest wind recorded in the immediate area was right by our home. But not near as high as south of us
Glad to hear you're ok. Hope the house has little or no additional damage when you're able to get back to it.
screw the house its the boat he has to sweat. high on a lift the wind has leverage on the lift.
The boat is ok.
Also, happy birthday to me.
We came home yesterday, the day after the storm. It was surreal.
There wasn't as much leftover storm debris in the roads as I expected. Quite a bit but the bigger problem was downed trees.
We talked to someone that got in earlier and she said the national guard came through and moved trees at least so you could get a car through.
Almost nobody here yet. Pretty much a ghost town but I expect people will be flowing in today.
No power and no estimate for when it comes back. The power company alert system went down too so im not getting updates.
Fortunately it is cool here. We slept fine.
The house across the canal from us had their seawall and yard collapse.
Did you have water in the house again?
Glad to hear the boat is ok. Have as good of a birthday as you're able to.
Hoping for no further damage on the house.
We might be without power for 4 more days. Ugh.
Sooooo...................
The last few days have been challenging. We had a couple of coolers for small amounts of food but the stores ran out of ice. Gas was impossible to get until yesterday so we've been limiting trips anywhere. Home Depot is out of everything that we needed to get. Charging phones was a huge challenge but we found a neighbor a few blocks away on a whole house generator and she was nice enough to let us charge things. Fortunately the weather has been pretty nice and we've been able to get a few hours sleep but it's hard to sleep when you know how many things still need to get done. Also, we've been under a boil water notice and there was no bottled water to be found.
Then we had another friend nearby whose power came back on and he said I could come get his generator. By that time I was able to get gas. The line wasn't horrible. We got the refrigerator and chargers going, so that was a relief.
We were the only ones on our street that came back to live in our house. It's been a bit of a ghost town but activity is picking up again. Gas stations now have gas and the boil water notice has been lifted.
When we left, we turned off all the breakers. I decided to turn the main breaker back on when we got home and then turned on the breaker for the garage, tankless water heater, and AC. So, I'm taking yet another cold shower and I'm sort of jumping in and out of the water because, well, it's cold. Then all of the sudden it seemed to be getting warmer. HOT WATER!!!!!!!!!!!! I called my wife and by the time she got there I had fiddled with the controls and it was coming out lukewarm so she called me a liar. Anyway, the power did indeed come on. My wife and I hooted and hollered for an hour.
Life isn't normal by any stretch of the imagination but we both started getting back into our routines a little. My wife worked out this morning for the first time in 3 weeks and I hit the gym for a shortened workout. It was nice.
The plumbers are here replacing all the water lines. We decided to do this because the copper coming out of the slab is 50 years old and all the walls are open so we figured this was an opportunity to do what will eventually need to be done.
Still no word on my wife's car. They towed it away before we evacuated but haven't let us know anything more. In the mean time, I decided to file a claim for my truck. It seems ok now but my neighbor has a similar truck and he's having electrical issues. His adjuster said the transmission wiring harness is pretty bad so they totaled his truck. I figure mine might have a limited life now so I went ahead and called it in.
Still no word on my wife's car. They towed it away before we evacuated but haven't let us know anything more. In the mean time, I decided to file a claim for my truck. It seems ok now but my neighbor has a similar truck and he's having electrical issues. His adjuster said the transmission wiring harness is pretty bad so they totaled his truck. I figure mine might have a limited life now so I went ahead and called it in.
Things happen fast. The insurance company told me they are going to total it and will tow it away today. Yikes. Had to scramble to buy another truck.
Electric question for markfnw.
I opened up a receptacle to find a cluster **** of wires connected together.
The power coming in has four wires. The red wire is capped. It is aluminum.
There is a wire going on that is aluminum. No clue where it goes right now.
There is a second wire going out that is aluminum. It goes to another outlet.
There is a wire going out through the wall that is copper. It connects to at least one outside outlet, maybe two. I haven't figure that out yet. This one had to be replaced because it has turned black.
There is a wire going out to a light switch. It is copper.
It appears as if they pigtailed some of the aluminum neutral wires.
It appears as if they pigtailed some of the grounds.
It looks like they put those purple thingies on the black (hot) wires and pigtailed the copper.
The box that holds this mess also has a receptacle in it. It has a neutral from the light switch connected to it, a neutral from one of the purple thingies that is attached to the incoming wire, and a black/hot wire attached to a purple thingie that is pigtailed with several other hots.
I doubt that I could possible put all this back together the way I found it. It would be nice to simplify things. One thing I can do if it helps is replace the aluminum wire that goes to another receptacle with copper. Easy enough to get to. I don't know if I can get to the other outgoing aluminum, although as I type this it seems like it would make life much easier if I could.
I am probably not explaining this correctly but if you can decipher this mess, let me know.
Is the switch a 3 way switch? Was this outlet a switched outlet from the switch? Gotta keep that **** straight before you start taking it apart, lol! Any pics from before you disconnected anything?
Is the switch a 3 way switch? Was this outlet a switched outlet from the switch? Gotta keep that **** straight before you start taking it apart, lol! Any pics from before you disconnected anything?
LOL, that would have been great advice last week 
The switch is not a 3 way switch. It goes to an outside light. It is newer work with copper.
The outlet is not a switched outlet.
I think what I might try to do is figure out where the second aluminum wire goes to and replace it with copper. If I can maybe get rid of the mix of copper and aluminum it will make it easier for me to conceptualize what the heck is happening.
Or, I'm wondering if I just add a junction box instead of having the outlet in the middle of all the mess because there is a second wire coming out of it going somewhere. It might help simplify things in my mind.
It's pretty much going to be just blacks to blacks and whites to whites as long as there's only one circuit in there. The only thing you should probably check is the wire coming from the switch because sometimes, if the light is fed from the box you're in instead of the switch box, the wire to the switch will use the white as the hot to the switch and the black as the hot from the switch, the switchleg. That way they don't have to run 2 romexes to the switchbox. As always you're welcome to call or facetime if you don't get it figured out.
Thanks. Fortunately I don't need that circuit so I can take my time.
It's really getting crazy here. The streets in all the neighborhoods around me are not very wide and people are parking everywhere on the street. You have to wind around and wait for oncoming traffic. Plus there are tow trucks, POD trucks, and dumpster trucks everywhere blocking the entire street while they load/unload.
Everyone was pretty patient at first but now people are getting really testy and impatient. People are trying to go around when you simply can't go around and they are just making the cluster worse.
Still no word from progressive on our cars. We had a delay on my wife's because progressive said the car wouldn't start (duh) so they couldn't get mileage so they couldn't finish the claim. Hmmm...... We got that sorted out, though. No word on mine yet.
Trucks are expensive now. Going to get my wife a new car today.
We got some FEMA money. It wasn't near enough to cover everything, but it was substantial. However, they are requiring we carry flood insurance. From what I can tell, they won't take the money back if you don't get insurance, but you'll never get FEMA assistance again. The problem is flood insurance is ridiculous here and it wouldn't take long before we've spent what FEMA just gave us.
Is it like Texas where they distinguish between flood and rising water insurance?
