4.7.2017

Jim headed back out to the electric supply company this morning - he had ordered some parts and needed to make sure they were correct, plus he had a few other things to pick up.

Then it was back to work on the electric.  He first got all the conduit completed from the switch box by the man door all the way over to the switch box by the utility room.  Then he got the power into the switch box for the light.

Then it was time to start pulling wire through this track.  This definitely wasn't easy - besides working overhead and on top of all the boxes we have stored here, there are a lot of twists and turns in this run.  Jim had 6 wires to pull through - the first two went in pretty well but then they got progressively harder.  The next two took over half an hour.  The last two took him an hour and a half!  By then there is so much wire in the conduit that it makes it really tough.

But all the wire is into this switch...

Then check out all the wire into this switch box!  16 wires - crazy!

But then Jim got the switches installed by the utility room.  The switch on the left is the two-way switch with the light by the man door to operate two lights; the switch on the right is the three-way switch that lights up the stairwell.

And the switch box by the man door is now complete - the switch closest to the door operates the light by the door and the utility room; the next switch turns on the outside light by the man door; the last one turns on the two outside lights by the auto bay garage door.

Then Jim had to wire the breaker box and...drumroll, please...the lights work!  Amazing that with all those wires! 

The lights outside the utility room...

 

So...as far as getting ready for the rough electric inspection, the metal shop is done.  Jim will spend the weekend going over everything and tying up any loose ends.  But we are really close!!

 

High 42/low 31

 

4.6.2017

Jim got his new Job Rocker (that's really the name) going today.  He is really enjoying it - he streams Cleveland sports radio talk while he's working - he can now easily connect to the Job Rocker using Bluetooth.  Plus, he can actually see the display for radio stations - a huge improvement!  Thanks again to Kyle & Julia for the perfect gift (and did I mention that it's orange - a huge plus!).

Jim went back to work on the electric today.  He had some frustrating moments looking for a few things that he can't find, bending a drill bit that he needed and had to fix, etc.  But he continues to make progress in the metal shop, figuring out the best way to work this complicated problem.  He had to totally rewire the switch box for the lights over by the utility room because he wanted to use a different receptacle box.  Redoing things is always harder than doing it the first time!  He had to bend more conduit today...

He put up another box on the ceiling to bring wire from the light by the man door over to the switch box so that we can turn both lights on at the same time from 2 different locations.  He had to make a steel blocking piece that he drilled a hole through and then had to fasten all the conduit together to go down the wall and into the switch box. 

 

Another view...he also got power run into the light box on the wall.  He also got the breaker wired up in the subpanel.

 

 

High 41/Low 39

 

 

4.5.2017

Today is Jim's birthday - so Happy, Happy Birthday to my handsome husband!  While I'd like to say that he took the day off and we celebrated all day, for those of you who follow along, you know that wouldn't happen!  But we still got lots of celebrating in today.  Speaking of working all the time, a little recap - Jim has worked 7042 hours on site work and the carriage house - 1009 days total!  He's on another string of 184 consecutive work days - that means NO days off, ever!

So birthdays being no exception, Jim had to start his day by going to Lowe's for more parts and pieces to continue the electric work.

Once he got to the property, he went back to work on the electric in the metal shop by the man door.  In order to make the offset between the conduit coming from the new matrix work by the beam, Jim had to bend a piece of conduit.  He first made a jig so that everything would fit perfectly and then bent the conduit with his heat gun.

 

Jim said he needed 4 hands to glue all this conduit together!  Since that wasn't an option, he screwed this piece of wood to the flanges inside the ICFs to hold that part down so that he could glue the rest.

You can see how the conduit comes out of the box and bends to fit in the conduit at the beam.  This picture also shows that Jim installed the light fixture.

 

Then he was able to start running wire!

 

Wow - look how amazing the light looks!  Jim hung up our first light and got it wired.  We're so happy we switched lights - we think this one is perfect!

When Jim got home, he found a birthday surprise from Kyle & Julia - a new work radio!  This one looks amazing - his old one barely worked.  The display didn't function to see radio stations so you had to just turn the dial and hope!  Plus it's orange - perfect!  Jim can't wait to try it out tomorrow!

 

 

 

High 52/Low 37

 

4.4.2017

There wasn't a lot of work time for Jim today - he had to start off the day by going to the doctor's for his checkup.  After that, he headed in to the electric supply company as well as the Drywall Center for a few more parts and pieces that he needed.  He stopped home for lunch before heading to the property so it was after 1:30 by the time he got there.

He went back to work on the electric in the metal shop.  This is the receptacle box that will go by the man door.  Jim put a box adapter and coupler in the first slot as well as wire clamps in the second slot.

Using his heat knife, he cut another channel in the ICFs - this time for conduit...

He then made a spacer for the back of the box...

 

That way, when the box is in place, it's at the perfect location to account for the drywall.

 

 

 

Jim installed another box on the mounting board he put up yesterday...this will be used to bring all the wires together.  Then using one of the pieces he picked up this morning, he was able to install a conduit elbow that makes the conduit transition perfectly from the wall to the box.

 

 

A better look from down below looking up at the ceiling...

 

 

Things are really coming together with Jim's plan for the electric in this area!

Jim had to come home a bit early too - the fellow that called about the printer over the weekend came and bought it!  One less thing to worry about!

High 44/Low 38

 

4.3.2017

This is the picture from yesterday...Jim's matrix of conduit to be able to get electricity where it needs to go.  He will need to replicate this on all sides of the beams but is a great first step to coming up with a solution to make this all work!



The sun was out and it was a bit warmer so Jim actually did the first outside work of the year (snow plowing doesn't count!).  He put the extender in the boxes for the outside lights and then pigtailed all the wires.



He put covers on the boxes by the auto bay garage door.

 

Then he started working on a plan to get wiring through the insulated concrete forms.  He started with where he wanted the receptacle box to be for the light switches when you first walk in the man door.  He used his heat knife to first cut the shape of the box and then cut slices so he could get all the pieces out.  As an aside, you can see how well the concrete filled in the ribbed design of the back of the ICFs.

 

 

Once that was done, he started cutting the foam up to where the conduit comes into the wall...

 

Jim took a break at this point and got the Bobcat out.  The driveway had been soft and the cars had made some big ruts - so while things were still pliable, Jim smoothed some of those areas.  We'll have to get more gravel at some point but the ground is firming up now. 

Then it was back to working on the wires for the lights.  At the top, he cut the foam around the conduit so that he could cut the conduit and have it recessed into the foam wall.  Then it leaves a perfect path for the wires down to the switchbox.

Using the hammer drill to drill into the concrete deck...

So that he can attach the mounting block for the conduit.

At the end of the day, he did more insulation.  These areas are very intricate and take a lot of time.  This batt first had to be pushed into place from up in the attic and worked into this little area.

Putting the adhesive on to glue the tabs to the steel...

Cutting more insulation...

...for more complicated areas!

High 54/Low 39

 

 

 

4.2.2017

Jim spent a little bit of time and put the now newly-cleaned printer on Craigslist this morning.  By noon, he had already gotten a call and someone is coming out tomorrow to look at it.  Fingers crossed for a quick sale!

This is a picture of the completed header over the utility room door - Jim had to add another stud and put all the grommets in before running all the wire to the smoke detector box and getting that all pigtailed.

Today it was back to the big problem of trying to figure out how to run wires in the metal shop.  This is a before picture...thankfully, we had made pass throughs at various points by drilling holes through the ends caps on the decking and putting in little pieces of conduit before the concrete was poured.  But they are at slightly different angles - Jim had to make a piece of connector, heat things up and bend them so that everything was straight.

Then this is the beginning of starting to work the problem...he put pull elbows on the ends of the conduit connection that led to another pull elbow...  (There was a better picture of the completed row but I somehow deleted it!  Stay tuned tomorrow!)

Next, Jim made more of this mounting blocks and brackets...

Then mounted it on the ceiling...

After that, Jim did a little insulation in the time he had left.  He worked on the custom areas - this one around the light in the master bedroom...

Then he got all the tops of the wall areas completed...

...and even started with some ceiling insulation in the master bedroom!

 

High 51/Low 24

 

4.1.2017

 

April Fool's Day - I think the trick is how did it get to be April already?  Our Winter Storm Warning didn't really amount to much here - a couple inches of slushy ice/snow on the windshields and grass was about it.

 

Jim spent some time this morning at home working on fixing his printer.  He's getting ready to put it on Craigslist and wanted to get it cleaned up, which was no easy feat - it seemed to have colored laser dust everywhere!  But he got it cleaned up and ready to list.

 

 

Then Jim headed out to the property - unfortunately, he forgot his phone so no pictures today!  But he went back to work in the metal shop on the new wall.  He got the holes bored through the steel for the wires, put the grommets in and ran the wire.  He got the smoke detector all pigtailed out and the wires into the breaker box.

 

The next task seems insurmountable at the moment - running the wires for all the lights and receptacles in the metal shop.  All of the wire has to be in conduit but between the insulated concrete forms on the wall and the metal deck on the ceiling, Jim has to come up with a good working plan.  It's not being made easy with all of the things stored in the shop either - not a lot of room to work, set up ladders, figure things out.  But I know Jim will figure out a good plan - he always does!  I always remind Jim of the west wall - if he could figure that out, he'll figure this out!

 

At the end of the day, he went back up into the apartment and did some more insulation work.

 

High 40/Low 29