TGIF 3

Wednesday morning the Solar City folks showed up an hour later than they said they'd be here. A different crew than Tuesday and a bit more eager to get to work. One of the first things they did was to tape off a zone around the house which made the place look like a crime scene. Fortunately, there was no need to call in the Coroner.

Although the installation takes less than a day, we're going to have to wait at least five weeks before the system gets activated. Why? Well, there needs to be a fire inspection, a county electrical inspection, and a PG&E inspection. Patience, patience, patience.

As the Solar City guys were pounding away on the roof, on the other side of the property the Tombleson crew were busy finishing digging the holes for the steel I-beams. Apparently, the ground was quite hard and it took them longer than they expected. It was very, very loud on Steinback Mountain which made it easier to justify going into campus early.

When we returned home Wednesday evening, the solar panel installation was complete and the I-beams were delivered but not yet in place. That took place Thursday.

Also on Thursday, Dirk from Monterey Glass showed up to measure the shower window for the guest house. Dirk is married to Carol who we know through the amazing Imagine College program that has its summer workshops on the CSUMB campus. Dirk helped us find the perfect windows last summer when we replaced all of the original glass with dual pane windows. The window we're speccing for the shower will have an openable window at its top that will be the same size and shape as the transoms above the other windows. We needed to decide whether we wanted it to open into the shower, out towards the trees, or to slide right to left. We chose right to left.

After Dirk left, John Laughton showed up with another catalog. We're needing to rethink the vanity's open bottom shelf because the sink's waste pipe is going to be lower than we expected and would be visible. So the vanity's two shelves with one drawer will now be covered with two doors instead. John brought the catalog so we could choose some metal pull-out shelving specifically designed for areas below sinks. The catalog has all kinds of cool cabinet accessories so we're going to hold onto it for a few days to see if there's anything we might want to incorporate into the BBQ room or main house kitchens. Speaking of the BBQ room, John said he's almost finished with its cabinetry. He also said the cabinets have been very popular at his shop with everyone commenting on how cool they were. He said they first are attracted by the unique smell of the stranded bamboo which draws them over to where the cabinets are stored. John said they've become quite the conversation pieces….

This weekend we'll be clearing out the BBQ room, moving all of its contents down to the garage. Dave says they'll start removing the cabinets and bar starting Monday.