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Well after two straight weekends of construction parties we went from this:

To this:

To this:

Click for the rest of the photos from this entire project: http://www.flickr.com/photos/reneeviehmann/sets/72157601394459262/

Last weekend turned out to be just Saturday (4/24) because Chris was coming down with something and I didn’t want it.  But the four of us, Chris, Corinne & Sandee got a lot of the little work finished.  We caluked all the screw holes in the trim in order to prep it for painting.  Corinne overcame her fear of heights by climbing up some ladders and then later, climbing on the ROOF to paint all of the roof fixtures!  Way to go Corinne! 

This weekend, Mom & Jimmy came down to help and on Saturday, Jimmy and I (mom was holding down the couch after knee surgery) tackled the siding on the back of the house.  But first, we put together the new awning for the patio, man it was nice to have shade!  Later in the afternoon, Good Neighbor Dale came by to lend a hand.  On Suday, Jimmy and I woke up early to get going.  But when the wind tried to take my new awning away, we had to take it down :(.  Marlyn and Jamie came later in the morning to lend a hand and again, Good Neighbor Dale came by.  We finished getting the siding up between the door and electrical panel, put in the new window and got the eaves of the back wall blocked and caulked.   It was a long two days and Jimmy & I were dead tired at the end of the day.

Monday morning came early and SMUD was there to disconnect power in order for us to replace the electrical panel.  Unfortunately,  Chris was stuck at work and was unable to make it so it was just me and Jimmy again trying to get the panel and siding off in the corner.  Thankfully, the electrician was able to get off work and he joined us at around noon, along with Good Neighbor Dale.  I was busy running back and forth to Home Depot to pick up missing parts and had to go into work to run some reports.  By the time I got back, they were ready for me to call the inspector,  but he had already left for the day so it was looking like I would have to wait until morning to have the panel inspected so SMUD could be called to turn on power.  At this point there were so many other little things that had gone wrong all weekend that I was at my wits end and broke down and cried.  The lady for the City didn’t seem to care. I was SOL. 

I had resolved that I would be without power for the night and would have a quiet evening.  I plugged the fridge into the neighbor’s house to keep from losing all my food when the phone rang and it was my inspector.  He wasn’t to happy to be calling while at his son’s baseball game or that in my desperation to find him or SOMEONE to come out and inspect, that I told the City that I was replacing a electrical panel without a permit.  He came out and inspected so I could have power then told me that I needed to go in and get a permit.  Great.  That’ll be $150 please.  The only reason I opted to do the panel now was because I had a nice inspector that was going to let me do it and avoid having to pay for another permit.  Ugh! 

But all in all, the new panel is in and now I just have to finish the siding in the corner and paint the eaves. Then I can call for final inspection.  After final inspection is completed and signed off, I have to paint the house and get rid of the caulking stripes.  Then the exterior house is FINISHED!  Everthing else (interior, patio, backyard) will get done as time and funds allow.   

I want to thank everyone who helped these last two weekends, Chris, Corinne, Sandee, Jimmy, Marlyn, Jamie, Good Neighbor Dale and Brian.  I also want to throw out a HUGE thank you to Alex, who had a crew at the house for five days in the last two weeks blocking the eaves of the garage, painting trim, and caulking the entire house including siding, doors and windows.    And thanks also to those who helped in previous weekends, Cayle & Holly, Holger, Steve, and Brad.  Also, thanks to Howard for the use of his giant generator on Monday, thank goodness for power to run the tools! THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!!  I have such great friends, family and neighbors. 

Oh and to my neighbors, Ed, Judy & Aura for helping with the awning and for taking out my trash when I forget.  Rose & Leon for use of your power and for mowing my lawn when I run out of time.  Bart & Nicole for letting me park the RV in front of their house while I piled crap at my curb for the city to pick up.  Thanks for looking out for me.

Well that’s all for now, thank goodness.  Once all this is done, I will be having a BBQ for everyone who helped.  Stay tuned…

P.S. If anyone wants/needs a bay/garden window it’s available and FREE.  Single pane 36″x36″ish window with opening at the top.