Simple Gifts

Ed and his helper, Taylor, started on the stairs right away. Because of where the basement will be dug, they will lay them out to go straight down. Later, he will take off the lower section and turn them toward the deck between the garage and the house. They plotted out where the pier posts should be and set those on Friday. Saturday,the stringers went up.

That was about the point where Ed realized that the main electrical wire coming from the box at the road to the main panel was currently under the concrete slab for the former doublewide, and try as he might, he couldn't pull it. It would have to be re-routed. You guessed it. Right underneath the new stairs. So the stairs were put on hold, and Ed began trenching. Yes, he tried a ditchwitch. Actually it was one that a neighbor very graciously lent us. Problem was.. it was older than Ed...no, really. Anyway it wasn't cutting it (no pun intended) so he just used the backhoe.

In the meantime, Taylor was attaching the steps to the stairs. By Sunday night, we had a functioning set of stairs. They still need a hand rail, so they are a little scary, and they need more lighting at night, but it sure beats climbing up the ladder!

Every day, Ed has been working literally dawn to dusk. The excavator team will be here first of next week do dig the basement, and all the prep work has to be complete. We also have a window of opportunity because the rainy weather has held off. We know that will change in a big hurry.

Tuesday and Wednesday, Lance The Electrician was here, and he and Ed did whatever electricians do to re-wire the main panel and put new wire in the trench.

The phone line needs to be located (underground) and relocated.

There is an existing water line that was buried too shallow and needs to be buried deeper.

Thursday, I had a whole list of chores to do in town and left in the morning. Ed was already outside working. I got home just after sunset, and it was getting cold and dark. Ed was still outside with a shovel.

"I was using the backhoe, digging for the phone wire, and snagged that shallow water line. It's broken someplace underneath the concrete slab.", he said. He looked exhausted.

So, ok, one night without any water. No shower, no flush toilet.

Friday was our 10th wedding anniversary. After laying awake most of the night, Ed decided that it would be best just to cut the pipe at the wellhead and lay new pipe over to the garage. The existing water pressure tank is over 15 years old and probably should be replaced, so we'll just get a new one and put it in the garage. So, we drove to Longview for plumbing parts, got home by 2:00 pm, and Ed went to work to get it together so we could have a shower. Yea!

Not.

As Wally Wright, our Pro Hardware Store owner says, "It's not a plumbing project without three trips to the store."

While Ed fitted stuff together, I headed in for the few parts we didn't realize we needed.

By 7:00 he had everything together. It takes two hours for the PVC glue to dry so we had some dinner and waited for 9:00 to turn on the water to take showers. We were both tired and sticky.

At 9:00, Ed went down to turn on the water and check for leaks. In all the plumbing he has ever done, Ed has never had a pipe leak. The water came on fine, everything looked good, then ...gush. In his fatigue, Ed had primed the PVC pipe and checked fit, then forgotten to put on the glue. Now there was a flood in the garage, and a very tired, very unhappy Ed. He got pipes dried off and glued together. Two nights with no shower and no water. Do we wait up until midnight to shower? No, we do not. Feeling like refugees, we climbed into bed and went to sleep. At least we had a bed and a roof. Could be worse.

Saturday morning, Ed got up and turned the water on for another test. Oh, blessed water! Oh glorious shower! What wonderful gifts we ignore every day!

Sunday morning we went to church. After lunch Ed called the excavator company to see what day they would be here to dig the basement.

"Tomorrow...we'll be there at 6:30." he says.

OOhh kay. Ed started filling in the big trench across the driveway and cleaning up the site. By the light of sunset, we plotted the site on the ground, spray painting as we went, the site plus three feet around for foundation. I'm spatially impaired..it's hard for me to look at a set of plans and get a good feel for how big the rooms will be. For the first time, I could stand in one spot and imagine where the rooms would be. I'm still in a daze.