Another Pumping Day

It was another water pumping day yesterday. We had quite a bit of rain last week, so the basement, once again, had alot of water. I rented a small generator from Home Depot again and hooked up my sump pump to it. I have to wait until I get my electric inspection before I can have the electric company come out and hook up my service. The electric inspection cannot happen until the HVAC is done. HVAC (and hopefully siding) starts tomorrow and will hopefully be done by end of week if not first thing next week. So once the service is connected, then all will be well and the basement will stay dry.

This is the water coming out of the basement via the sump pump. It pumped it out pretty darn quick. It created a nice little stream of water that flowed down the tree line behind my house and into my neighbors property. Good thing it stayed on the tree line in her property as well or I'm sure she would have had something to say.

A relatively dry basement again. You can see how high the water was. It was like a small aquarium down there. I had to wear plastic bags over my shoes so I could make it over to the plug for the sump pump.

As you can see, there was 8 inches of water in the basement! The sump pump pumped it all out in about an hour and a half. The first time I had to pump water out, I didn't even think to hook up the sump pump, so I rented a small pump along with the generator from Home Depot. With about 2 or 3 inches of water in the basement, this silly little pump took about 3 hours to pump the water out. So yeah, the sump pump is a MUCH better pump to use.

Well hopefully tomorrow, I'll be able to take some pics of the siding and some of the HVAC work...

Basement Windows and Electrical

A couple of things have happened since last I posted. The basement windows are now installed. There is a slight problem with them. they are actually the wrong windows, although the carpenter was able to make them work. The windows I bought were actually meant to be installed the same time the cement was poured for the basement walls. But everything is fine. He was able to make them fit and they look perfectly fine.

Electrical was completed this past weekend. Met with the contractor last Wednesday. One of his workers and himself started on Saturday and finished on Sunday. They wired for electrical, telephone, and cable. They also did me a nice favor and plugged up my sump pump and pumped the water out of the basement again. We've been getting alot of rain as of late...

I snapped both this photo and the next one Sunday morning. This is a picture of the wires in the basement. These eventually will be wired to the junction box. I am amazed that these guys can keep track of all these wires... Hundreds and hundreds of feet worth of wiring.

This is a picture of the kitchen. Just random wiring and wiring paraphernalia. Nothing special. :)

No Pictures Today...

Well, the carpenter is officially done with everything now. He completed the basement stairs and framed the headers for the garage so he is done, unless I call him back to fix something. He's a cool guy and I look forward to hopefully working with him again.

I got a little surprise when I went to the site on friday. Went down into the basement and there was about 2 to 3 inches of water down there. It rained quite a bit last week and since the sump pump is not hooked up and working, water just finds it's way into the basement and sits. So Saturday, I spent the day pumping the water out. Thank goodness for Home Depot and the ability to rent tools. I rented a small generator and a small pump. The pump hooked up to a garden hose. Since the pump was so small, it took about two hours to pump the water out. That activity pretty much killed any plans I had for Saturday afternoon!

I spoke with the HVAC and electrical contractors yesterday and today. The HVAC contractor is scheduled to start on Monday and the electrical contractor will probably start this upcoming Thursday or Friday. So that will be good to see some more progress.

Finally... Back to Work!

Finally, they are back to work! Yesterday morning, I dropped off payment to the cement contractor for the work they have done so far (foundation and excavation). The owner apologized for the delay and pretty much said he didn't realize that the job had been sitting untouched for two weeks. He said he had to step in and make sure his guys were on task. I thanked him for it. Pictured here is the prep work they did for the garage yesterday. They put blocks in the front so as to frame where they were going to pour the cement.

Here is a picture today of the garage. The cement is poured and smoothed out. Looks good!
The basement is also done. Nice and smooth down there. With this work done, I can FINALLY call the carpenter so he can put the final touches on the framing and construct the basement stairs. Hopefully that will only take a day or two. Then I can call the heating and cooling contractor so he can get in there and started by end of next week.

Through the construction process, I've amassed quite a bit of garbage... I gotta get a dumpster out there. :)

Everything Stopped

All work has stopped. Just waiting on the cement contractor to come back and pour the basement floor and garage floor. He is holding up the ENTIRE process. The carpenter can't build the basement stairs until there is a basement floor. The heating and cooling guy can't start because there is no basement floor to put a furnace on AND there's no stairs. The siding contractor can't start because he needs the electrician to do the wiring for the outside lights and sockets. But the electrician can't start until the heating and cooling contractor is done. So you can see how everything is dependant on this cement contractor.

I had an inspection for the subsoil (soil that will be under the cement they are going to pour) on Sept. 22nd that passed. Originally, it was scheduled for Sept. 20th, but the genius who scheduled it (the cement contractor) did not leave a ladder at the site to get into the basement (no basement stairs yet), so the inspection on the 20th failed. I had to go borrow a ladder from a friend and leave it there for the inspector. The cement contractor hasn't been back since he put down the subsoil. His explanation (excuse) is that since it rained so much the week of the inspection, that they are behind on their other work, so my job has been pushed back. So this morning, they said this Friday they will be out. We'll see...

Here are some pictures of the basement. this picture is taken from the corner of the house that would be under the bay window on the left side.

This picture is taken from under the other bay window. You can see all the plastic they have on the floor as a vapor barrier.