You may recall from the “excavation” post that we decided to move the electrical service underground to the house. In the past, wires for electricity, phone & cable came from the telephone pole to the house attaching at the roof just above the old front door. This caused pulling on the roof barge rafters during heavy snows and it was messy looking. So we decided to add a trench to move these wires underground, and they now surface near the 1st floor entrance and go into the new electrical panel.
On Friday, July 26th, Tahoe Donner-PUD (TD-PUD) turned off the electrical power to the house around 1 pm. TD-PUD also disconnected the power lines from the telephone pole to the house and pulled the new electrical lines to the house thru the underground conduit.
The carpenters had brought a generator so they kept working thru the day. Larry and Elder took out the old pipe containing the electrical lines from the roof to the 1st floor laundry room. Then they were able to take out the old front door, frame in the new wall and area for the new 6 foot wide window which goes into the new kitchen. Before this is over the 1st and 2nd floors facing the street will have been re-framed completely with new shear wall installed! The 3rd floor framing and existing shear walls will remain. More work than we dreamed on that snowy February day!
On Saturday, July 27th, Stephen Corrales, known as Stevo, came and disconnected all of the the lines into the old panel, installed a new panel and reconnected all the lines into the new panel. This was an all day job. He also untangled some connections which he didn’t care for and the new panel will give us more circuits for the new kitchen and workshop area that will be needed.
On Monday, July 29th, Larry and Elder put in the new kitchen window This was great-more light in the house and windows we could open at will!
The Town of Truckee is closed on Mondays as they work Tuesday thru Friday, so the inspection for the new panel took place Tuesday morning.
Bob was able to make arrangements with our neighbor to plug in the refrigerator during the 4 days without power. He used a battery solar light from Ikea to see and the gas grill outside to cook. He tells me that he also unplugged the refrigerator for a couple of hours each evening to watch the TV news and a program or two. We are so lucky to have neighbors that are so generous to allow us to have this power. I had brought up ice chests and Bob was planning to get dry ice for the refrigerator contents. This made his weekend much more pleasant! He managed fine but didn’t care much for the cold showers (electric water heater).
Tuesday, July 30th, Truckee approved the installation; Tahoe Donner-PUD turned the electricity back on; Stevo, the electrician turned back on the power to the house and the hot water heater started warming up!
Henry's Foxhole "aka Fuxagufer West" 