House Build

Thanks, the amount of work that has been done in the past couple days has been tremendous.

Shawn

 

Some pics from the past few days

Work is going well, placed concrete for the 2nd floor beams and columns on Friday and started pulling forms today. Have had a bit of drama and the electricians, plumbers and one of the wife's brother in laws are gone; need folks to show up when they have committed to and do the work. Unfortunate for the wife as she has the task of dealing with things. Other than a few minor issues we continue to press forward.

Shawn

 

Where did you get that electrical panel may I ask? That is a beauty!

 

The panel is from Italy and the breakers are Korean. European din rail style panel and found it in one of the electrical shops in Afghanistan. I like the more compact din breakers, plus I wanted single pole breakers. It seems like all you can find here are 2 pole breakers and it is against (US code) to run a neutral through the breaker unless it is GFCI. I have a neutral bus and ground bus so other than the GFCI breakers each circuit comes off the bus.

Shawn

 

A few pics from today

My stomach was a bit twisted today so I did not touch a piece of wire and spent most of the day drinking green tea and sitting at the nipa. Feel better now so will be back at it tomorrow.

The main work going on is the rendering and removing the rest of the wood from the 2nd floor beams and columns. We are going to have a lot of space on the roof, should really be the place to hang out.

Shawn

 

Have to apologize for posting the same picture 2 days in a row...still having problems with the camera and computer "talking" to each other so pics I thought were deleted are still there and not all pics are actually being taken. I think the camera will need to be replaced as I need to hold/push the cable in to be able to download...

Shawn

 

Not surprising Shawn, and I feel for you as sometimes, we can loose precious photos, when this happens.
We had the same problem when we built, so much dust, In the End our daughter spent 1/2 hours dry cleaning, the connectors we found Blowing the camera from all angles, with a hairdryer, did a lot of Good.

Hope you get Sorted, New Equipment like cameras, is an added expense, I guess you don't need, at this time.


JP

 

Jack...the camera is pissing me off a bit but after 20 minutes was able to get the photos to download. Guess it is time for a new one or just have the wife take pics with her phone. I think I'm having issues with both the camera and my computer. We actually plan to have a dozen or so photos printed out and framed to put them in the hallway when the house is done; a before, during and after; we think it will be cool to do.

Shawn

 

A good Wednesday

I'm starting to think the house will be finished before the nipa...the wife has put a floor in the "attic" area, which workers are going up and taking a nap during their lunch hour so I guess it serves a purpose. I did not even ask what she is working on now...

Rendering is going pretty good and that was what all the workers (short of the carpenters working on Cherry's Nipa) were doing today. I wanted a smooth finish for the interior walls but the wife likes the rougher texture so it was an easy compromise, plus a quicker finish.

I was able to get a lot of electrical work done today; rough in, pulling wire and started wiring the panel. I've always pulled wire as I go along, don't want any surprises when slabs or walls are finished. I will need to clean things up a bit with wire ties once I've pulled all the wire into the panel so it will look better than the pic showed. The panel I was able to get is a surface mount panel so the conduit is also surface mount; but my plan is to build some plywood "boxes" that will have stucco mesh and be rendered/painted the same as the walls so I don't think it will look too weird...I just liked that panel and could not find a flush mount one.

I should have all the circuits straight tomorrow but have to put some time into figuring out how the previous electricians roughed in the lighting and 2nd floor circuits...still at a loss on how they could screw things up so badly for a hand full of circuits. I also have a switch for the kitchen light that is 4 foot off and keep walking away from it but will need to think about how to fix it without busting out columns, beams and roof slab.

Shawn

 

The only problem going that route is that the "neutral" leg will always be live. Think of it as another hot leg. You can get zapped pretty good and not be able to turn off the "neutral" leg. That is why fluorescent lights will glow slightly when you touch them even though the switch has been turned off, and that is the reasoning behind using double pole breakers here.