Moving day

So sorry it has been a long time since the last post.  We have been a little busy.  

So here is the status.  

The house is about 98% complete.  It still needs "case and base" as Casey says.  

We had our inspection on 7/26.  Essentially we passed and it was approved for Oma to move in.  That said some of the finish was and is still a bit rough for move in. 

There were 2 areas that the inspector noted.  The first which is a California thing and easily fixed was handrails cannot end they have to wrap around.  Not the same in Colorado.  Such is life.  

The second was associated with our sewer.  Did I tell you about the sewer?  Early on in the permit process we had to get the sewer video'd.  They found a 9' piece of WW2 cardboard orangebergh pipe at the edge of the street running up our front under the walls by the stairs.  To get the permit we had to replace that piece of pipe.  

Well I got a few guys out here and they all said the way to do it was using a pipe bursting method.  They would replace the entire pipe from the house edge to the street.  Everyone said it was a piece of cake.  So we dug a big hole, removing the sidewalk in front of the house.  6 foot square and 8' deep.  Then we dug a hole at the clean out in front of the house.  That required deck removal and some serious damage to Annette's plants.  That turned out to be the easy part.  

We had the digging done by our cement contractor and that went perfectly.  It did require that we get an "encroachment" permit.  Then I hired and idiot named Gary (Gary's plumbing) to do the pull.  It took him several hours to get his cable down the old pipe (yep we had no sewer during this process).  The port potty came in handy.  He finally got that with help from Casey and I.  Then he pulled in a steel cable that looked like it was off the golden gate bridge and attached his cone thing to that at the house end.  

All we needed now was some pipe.  This pipe is special and needs to be fused to the final length before the pull.  Well dumb butt Gary doesn't know how to read the clearly marked distances on the video report, or read them off the vide file or use a tape measure so the puts an extra 40 feet of pipe on this beast.  We had 4" sewer pipe running from the front yard up the deck outside our room past the hot tub and all the way to the pond in the back.  

Then the fun began.  They inserted a vertical 2' by 2' steel plate in the hole.  Attached to this were 2 hydraulic rams that grabbed the cable and pulled it about 8" then released and repeated the process.  They got that all hooked up to the engine that drove the rams and we were off and running.  NOT!  The machine started pulling and instead of the cone up top going into the pipe the entire maching just started pulling itself into the hill heaving the dirt up in the process.  This took out the old cable TV conduit that ran along the sidewalk.  Calls were made, things were tried but it was not happening.  Now Gary and his crew were blaming it on the soil and they had never had this issue and the moon and the cats and....  

As it was getting dark we sent them home to regroup and try again the next day.  Casey had become their master carpenter (like he had nothing better to do) and had a plan laid out.  Essentially move surface area.  2 4'x4' sheets of 1.5" plywood against the hill.  then some big timber between that and the plate.  

They arrived in the morning and put the plan into action.  Good news - it worked.  Bad news it ripped out my water main in the process.  A temporary water main - using a hose was fashioned and we limped through the weekend.  On Monday we replaced the main and got rid of Gary - the essence of incompetence.  The next day the new sidewalk was poured and we were back in business.  the reason this whole thing became an issue for the final inspection is because the city wanted the asphalt replaced at the edge of the whole.  Until that is done they won't close the encroachment permit and we cannot get our final if the encroachment permit is not finales.  I just checked and the asphalt is done and the city inspector was leaving the site.  

We had other things going on as well.  The final push for the housewarming party on Friday.

The final repair to the driveway....

 We flipped on the water in the house only to find a leak that was not there before.  I removed some sheetrock and made the fix.  

Then there was setting the toilet and tub.  To do that plumbing had to be moved since the walls had been moved during the final framing.  The toilet was easy but the tub was a pain in the ass because someone (Annette) had to do it from under the house.  Suited up down she went and soon after we heard a cheer of victory.    

Tub plumbing ready for re-work

Toilet goes in

 About this time people began arriving.  Hans and Susan from Hawaii, Katie and then Martin from Switzerland, Elise from NY, Margie from Wisconsin, Sarah from Davis, , Laurel, Patrick, and Will from LA.  They were all put to work.  Trucks were filled and dump runs made.  It was amazing how much crap we hauled out.  Pretty soon the yard was looking far less cluttered and there was light at the end of the tunnel.  

Meanwhile we had a kitchen to outfit.  Casey worked with Katie on cutting in the microwave vent and installing the unit while Sarah worked with me on the kitchen sink/disposal/diswasher.  What a pain in the butt!  Thanks to Sarah we got it done.  

Tools were thrown into Casey's trailer and at 3 we got dressed for Oma's party at 5.  The party was outstanding with lots of friends, neighbors, and family.  Oma was thrilled which was what it is all about anyway.  She got a cake and presents and then Casey presented her with the keys to her new home.  Special night.  

Today Annette is headed up to Oma's with Katie, Elise, Laurel, and Martin.  They will meet Margie and the movers at the house.  The goal is that she will be 100% out by the end of the day.  I am guessing it will be emotional even though Oma is ready to go.  

Tuesday the movers deliver Oma's stuff.  We will put them into the house but not set her up just yet.  

Casey is back on Wednesday.  He needs to finish his stuff so Oma can finish her move in.  I have a couple of electrical items to diagnose that were driving me nuts.  I think I know the issue so it should be done pretty quick.