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Posted over 6 years ago

Electrical, Permits, Doors and Plans

--> Electrical

I called the electrician, who will be working on the kitchen this week, and asked him to tidy up the old wires and to place the new wires for the outlets and appliances in the kitchen. This is rough electrical work. He needs to get the wiring in place so that my handyman can get insulation and put the Sheetrock back in. The rough electrical must be done and inspected, and then the final electrical will be inspected again in the future.

—> Permits

The air conditioning shop wants to schedule the inspection for the HVAC permit. There is only one representative at our City Hall who comes to inspect. We have permits out for several different systems: the AC, the structural elements such as windows and doors, to include any place where a header needs to be installed, and the electrical panel replacement and electrical work in the house. The inspector will come out and inspect each of these systems. In this locale, each permit expires after six months, so we have that timeframe in which to finish work on each system.

--> Doors

One back door has been installed to replace a door that had a rat hole chewed in it. Additionally, the frame around the door had been eaten by termites. Since the house was recently treated for termites, we wanted to get a door in there quickly, and prevent new critters from taking up residence. There was a lot more termite damage along the side of the fireplace than we expected, so that only the paper on the back of the Sheetrock was left intact. Handyman Lloyd needed to frame out the door with new treated wood, since there wasn't anything on which to hang the door, except air.

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A second door was put in place, where previously there had only been a sheet of plywood. See the photo below of the plywood “door?”  See the one board on the left, behind the cross hatching? And no board below that? The termites ate all of that. The previous owners placed this plywood with holes through it for various electrical wires and water hoses for the washer and dryer, but nothing was caulked or sealed. This situation allowed critters to come inside the house.

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A new door will preserve the integrity of the building, such as it is. It will be helpful for a tight seal, so rainwater, termites and rats stay out.

As you can see, to the left and leaning against the post, is a piece of termite eaten wood. The area has now been framed out. The operations needed after this photo include insulation, and the addition of a waterproof membrane to keep the moisture out and protect the materials inside. Siding goes over that. The new door is in place, and egress steps are soon to be built in this location.

—> French Doors

In the near future, the installer needs my handyman to frame out the French doors. These are MUCH larger than the existing doors. There is a line on the wall in the photo below, showing the limits of the new doors.  Handyman Lloyd started the process of removing the Sheetrock in the location where the new framing will be. The idea is to build the frame now, and once the permit is ready and the window installer gets to that opening, we will knock out the interior wood, leaving the frame, to which the new doors will be affixed.

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Lloyd came across this set of supporting beams as he was removing the Sheetrock to widen this entrance. I had to go back to the drawing board, literally. I called the Plan Place to obtain draftsman-generated plans for a new header over the top of that opening. The header will allow us to spread the weight of the house onto a good support, a distance of about 18 inches.

Deck -->

I texted my contractor, Jack Hammer LLC, and asked him to work on building the new deck once we get plans back from the Plan People. We can’t hang external doors that don’t have a step outside. There can’t be a door that leads to nowhere, for safety reasons. Since we are replacing three windows with two French doors, we must have a deck outside those windows/doors. A deck has therefore been added to the plans.

Plans -->

I went to an appointment on Tuesday with draftsman Bob. He came out and measured up the internal spaces where we will need headers. He also measured the outside of the house and made preparations for acommodating the new deck. Plans will be ready next week and will cost about $800. Update: Hurricane Irma hit, and we were without power for a week, and the upshot of the plans is that it took over a month from start to finish.


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