Life at the Birdhouse: Slightly Less Lengthy Post with Pictures

The painters finished up on Friday. The color of the walls is called Summertime while the baseboards and trim around the doors and windows is white. All the interior doors are painted and on site, ready to be installed. We have shelves in the closets and utility room and sills on the windows (YAY!! One thing lacking in the old house).

On Saturday Bob (the builder) was over to help us lay the electrical wire into the conduit and then down into the trench that Rich dug several weeks ago. My part in all if this was to help dig out the soil that had fallen into the trench in the couple of weeks it had been since they were first dug. I tried using several different tools, but honestly the one the worked best and was least back breaking was a small garden shovel. Keep in mind that we had a central Texas monsoon the night before so the ground was muddy and soaked and a cold front was blowing so it was maybe 50 degrees with a 20 mph steady wind. The trench is only about 4 inches wide so my knuckles were scraping roots and hill country rock for 90 feet. But, I do it all for love of my country.

The electric wire (we ordered 92 feet of it) came spooled on a, well, a spool. Bob used to be an electrician before he became a general contractor, so he knew some ways to make the job a little easier than it would have been if it were just Rich and I doing it. We put a metal bar in between the spool and rested that on two ladders.

Rich stood on the ladders to anchor them while Bob dragged the wire from the house to the electric pole 80 or so feet away. Remember this isn't like extension cord wire, this is three thick wires twined together.
Then we would push the wire through one 10' section of grey conduit. One person would hold the end of the wire (think tug of war type stances) while the other person would walk the pipe down to the middle of the trench. Do this about 8 times and then repeat process from other side. Then the pipes are glued together and put at the bottom of the trench. The electric company is coming out tomorrow to install a new meter. After that, voila, we will have underground electric service to the new house. On a sidenote, it is nice to know how to do all this because as soon as we find time we can convert the electricity from the old house from overhead to underground - especially the part that goes DIRECTLY over the pool - that has always concerned me.

The trash dumpster was delivered last week. After trying to move soggy debris from demo pile to dumpster by hand, Rich/me and George/Vicki chipped in for a front end loader for the tractor. That will make transfer much less back breaking once it is installed.

Yesterday the masons came and built the fireplaces. They are the most impressive thing that has been done at the house in a long time. They really make a world of difference. And we have quite a bit of stone left over that will be really good for landscaping purposes.