Inching closer

So… the thing that has most held us up is getting the gas capped, at the street, by PG&E. When I applied for service changes in February, they took my application for electric but not gas. So, when I called in May to have the electric swung to the temporary pole and ask for gas disconnection, we needed to start ALL THE WAY at the beginning with another application for gas changes. That then put us the actual date out to the cutoff until July 7. Uggh.

Finally July 7 arrived… yeah! I had emailed my contact on the 3rd to confirm but never heard back from him. But, given it was the long weekend I figured what the hey. I truck over to the house at 8AM on Monday the 7th… No sign of PG&E. At 9:30, I started to call and email with a vengeance. I called my contact, emailed him, called him again, called his boss…NOTHING. It was not until 11:30 that I heard back from his boss. He knew nothing but said he would check and let me know. An hour later I get a call from another guy. Start the spiel all over again. He knows nothing but will check. Said would call right back. Nope… guess again. After 45 mins I call him. No answer. 15 mins later he calls to tell me, bad news. Not going to happen. Seems there is some sort of emergency and they can't make it out. Mind you, this is now over 5 hours sitting waiting in the garage, on a lawn chair, with my batteries slowly dying on my phone and iPad.

I blow a gasket, mostly because does no one ever call to say that plans change??? Also, the week was planned so that on Monday gas capped; Tuesday, sewer capped; Wednesday, sewer cap inspected, Thursday, march to city to finalize our application for the demolition permit. The delay with PG&E was now going to set me back… it was just a matter of how much. And I was pissed about that too.

By 2PM I am back on with his boss who tells me in reality the reason that my work was not done is that many people called in sick. (The 4 day weekend was not enough for them, I guess). I was assured that I would have the work done first thing in the AM and I would get a confirmation phone call.

I get the call Tuesday at 7:40. They are leaving the yard shortly and will be there at 8:30. I go to the house. Arrive 8:24. And sit again… until 9:10. But, at least they show up.

I am DEATHLY afraid of gas… natural gas lines and propane tanks. Regular gasoline and butane, not a big deal. I think it is the magnitude of the boom and fire of the first two. As the crew was jackhammering the street to get to the pipe so they could cap it, I got the heck out of dodge. Pronto.

I checked on them from the car, down the block, about 1/2 hr later. And, they were working… I even got a picture!

And they were done by about noon from what I hear. But, as I feared, the schedule is set back a week. I had to cancel the sewer being capped on Tuesday and lost my spot. They are trying to get it done sometime later in the week. It does not really matter because West Bay Sanitation only inspects Tuesday-Thursday so we will miss that.

Hoping next week is better and we can get the demo permit all signed off and begin!

In case you could not figure it out, I HATE PG&E more than National Construction Rentals. I did not think anyone would take that crown but someone did in less than a month!

Quiet Day

Today is an admin day. Setting up appointments and going through bids is the order of the day.

Monday I have to apply to have the sewer temporarily capped. Need to stop in at the city to confirm what else I need prior to starting demolition.

Next Tuesday we get construction fencing and the power switched to the temporary pole. 

Other things that we need to do before we get our building permit:

- Arborist letter saying we protected our trees (we get that after the fence goes in) 

- PG&E needs to cap our gas. (We are scheduled for July 7 (YUCK) but trying to move that forward since PG&E screwed up. 

- Road Impact Fees! (Have to see the city for that one…) 

- City approve structural plans. Submission is imminent, approval takes a week. 

Next week we have to select vendors so I can begin to schedule for after demolition. 

Estimated guess for demo start at this point, provided we do not get pushed up in the schedule by PG&E… July 10. Then 2 weeks for deconstruction… so getting to ground breaking is getting closer! 

First Inspection, Passed.

Yesterday National Rentals came back to fix the temporary power pole that they dropped off two days before but did not install properly. 5 minutes to hook the ground to the actual panel and check the rest of the circuits led to an all good.

City inspector came at 11:20 (only had to wait 20 mins!) and it passed.

Approved! 

So, next week PG&E comes to swing the power from the house to the temporary power pole. That means that no electricity in the house after Tuesday but we can pull from it on the front long, if necessary.

PROGRESS!

Waiting waiting waiting

I think my symbol for this stage of the process will be the spinning beach ball that Apple uses while it is "working". Made the decision to be at the site at 8 since national rentals would be back for their 3rd visit in as many days to fix the ground issue. Well needless to say, they showed up at 9:25. I will post an accounting of time spent at the house waiting for vendors in a later post.  That count should be interesting. Maybe I will ask OH to build me a widget to track it on the blog.

In 20 mins I have to go to the house waiting for the city inspectors again. We'll see how much time is added to their tally above the 1.25 hours from yesterday.

Where we are now…

Just for reference.

This is a picture of the house last fall. In all its glory.

And, here is where we are now. Tree gone and a big yellow blob on the dead front lawn. 

Well, it is only going to get worse before it gets better! 

And so it begins…in medias res

This will be, hopefully, a chronicle of the house build we are doing. I can already tell that this blog will be filled with trials and tribulations and hopefully, lessons learned. I should have started a few weeks ago but with school, a move, and some travel, I was not able to set up the blog before now.

As of today, we are working on finalizing the building permits. We are out of the house, the asbestos removed, the gardens farmed out to others, trees cut down, the temporary power pole and portable toilet have been delivered. 

Still a few hurdles to go before the city says we can deconstruct, but we are moving there slowly but surely. 

Today's frustration was having a city inspector come to check on the temporary power pole installation. My dealings with National Rentals have been a very frustrating experience this week. They did not show up on Monday, which meant I had to cancel the inspection set for Tuesday. They show up on Tuesday and deliver the thing, but it has the wrong cover on one of the things on the panel… so they had to come back this AM to change that out. The inspector shows up at 12:15 and fails us because the ground wire is not connected to the actual panel. They grounded it to the actual earth, but did not hook the wire to anything. So… they are coming back for the 3rd time in 4 days tomorrow. Then, another inspection. Hopefully it will pass so that we can have PG&E come to move the power over. (Ironically, the city inspector asked for my temp electric permit… which her building department did not give me…I think she let that slide because it was her own folks who messed that part up. They gladly took my money, just never gave me a paper to go with it that she says they should have.) 

As of now, the only thing that is holding us up is the gas shut off. I will go into that whole PG&E debacle at another time.