If you've been paying attention, you know that the septic system (tanks and drainfiled) was installed last fall. It's been sitting in the ground waiting to get the pumps and controller hooked-up to electricity. I was originally thinking this might be a DIY job -- just run some wires through the underground conduit and plug them in to the box. But the more I attempted to prepare the more I realized it was time to call in a professional.
I've been stressing because I need to get the system certified with the county before the permit expires in March of next year. And remember that the ground will be covered PERMANENTLY with snow in a handful of weeks, and that snow won't melt until May or June of next year. So all this needs to happen before the snow flies in earnest -- and the snow has already flown for the first time this year!
Problem has been that no electrician on the west side of the mountains was able or willing to go up. Westsiders will happily take an hour to travel 10 miles in some of the nation's worst traffic, but drive for an hour to Stevens Pass? That's too far.
I got a referral from one of the neighbors at Yodelin for Jerry @ Pump Tech in Wenatchee. He had availability Thursday morning to come hook it up. And Washington Eastsiders (East-of the-mountains) are accomstomed to driving.
Jerry and his sidekick, Josh, showed up in the morning just before 11 am and were done within 2 hours. They had a hard time running their fishtape through the conduit, and just as they were going to give up, they got it through. Then they connected at least 8 different-colored wires to it and pulled them through the conduit from the septic tank to the right sid of the electrical box.
Josh w/ Pump Tech is feeding the wires from the septic tank through the conduit.
Jerry w/ Pump Tech mounted a GFCI outlet on the outside of the house for the pump controller to plug in to.
The end result: pump controller box w/ alarm mountained on the building and plugged in to the GFCI circuit (which also provides an outside electrical outlet for occassional use.)
Enjoyable guys who knew exactly what they were doing. (Thanks, guys!) I called my septic installer (Dickinson Construction), and he will be up to do the final drawdown in the next couple days. After that's completed, I should be able to sleep better.
One giant step for Ipê.
I've been foraging around for Ipe (pronounced "ee-pay") or some comparable to use for the horizontal siding in the front door alcove and on the ceiling over hang, as shown directly below.
Ipe is expensive and not everyone carries it. It's hardness make it ideal for wet weather situations (like decks), but most contractors don't want to work with it because it wears out tools and is hard to work with. The best prices I could find on it were online, but any savings were erased by shipping/freight costs.
I stumbled across East Teak, who had a Craigslist ad for 1x4 Ipe at $1.79 per lineal foot. The cool thing is they are located right along Highway 2 in Sultan -- I've been driving by them in *every* time I drive to and from KnArrow Haus. The less expensive Ipe is priced a lower because it's not as uniform in color and may have slight bends in it. But for my small siding project, it's perfect. Katie and I visited them on Wednesday morning, placed an order, and I picked it up Thursday morning.
Picking up my load of Ipe on my way up to KnArrow Haus on Thursday
I stacked the Ipe just inside the front door where it will be installed.
Headed back up on Saturday with Katie to get the paper and window flashing on the front of the house at the top where the Hardie Panel will be installed.
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