Passed 1st Electrical Inspection (Day 308)

On Thursday am, the electrical inspector (from Dept. of Labor and Industries, Port Angeles) was supposed to show up at noon. No worries, Gary Estes (electrician) and I had a half dozen things to complete while we waited for him. However, as we chatted about the remaining things to do, the inspector showed up 90 minutes early (I guess its not so busy anymore).

So off we went on the room to room inspection. He looked, asked questions, and found dozen things we'd missed. Gary fixed all his issues in a couple hours, but caught me on the low voltage part (speakers, cable, internet, etc). Apparently the speaker wire I purchased from Lowes was not rated for in the wall use, but luckily I hadn't gotten to this part of the low voltage wiring, which will be inspected next week just before insulation goes in. Also, Levi Ross had forgotten to pull a permit for the low voltage (thermostats) part of the radiant heating, so Levi will have to apply for this online over the weekend. Then we'll call for the low voltage inspection, probably on Tuesday next.

All in all, it went pretty well. Gary said that the things the inspector found were pretty typical, and if we'd had time to do our last little bit there would have only been a couple of issues. Nevertheless, the inspector put the magic "Approved" label on the meter box, and we're ready to have Puget Sound bring the voltage from the street to the house. I called them and they said it would take 3-5 working days to get the order executed (not the best use of terms, huh). So by Sept. 1, their installation subcontractor will be on site to pull a big nasty cable through the conduit that Darrell Olson and I laid a couple of weeks ago.

While all this was going on, Richard Gifford returned with his little backhoe and filled the trenches and regraded the front of the lot. Our environmental site plan for runoff indicated we'd need 3 dry wells for the roof runoff. Dry wells are pits filled with gravel and landscape fabric, the idea being that they will serve as points for recharge on the lot, rather than having the runoff go to the street and into a culvert or a local stream. This is exactly the opposite of Colorado, where they don't allow you to capture (and use) runoff. The bottom line is that western Washington has plenty of agua, and eastern Colorado doesn't.

But I digress. Richard suggested using an alternate technology for the dry wells. It seems that someone makes 10 ft long mesh bags that have a perforated pipe in the middle, and about 12" of foam peanuts around the pipe. The peanuts act like gravel and allow lots of porosity in the infiltration bag. I couldn't have been easier. Richard connected three bags (screw couplings) threw then in the water pipe trench, connected my drain pipe to this snake-like contraption and buried it all. I expected to see Elmo and the Sesame Street gang show up. No gravel or trucking involved (less $$), and all done in 30 minutes. The dry well in the back yard will have to wait until the power is pulled and this part of the trench is filled. So I'm back onto the low voltage and building some scaffolding on the roof for the masons to use on the chimney. That starts Monday, insulation starts Tuesday, and drywall show start a week from now±. The joint is jumping, for a change.