Underground America Day

May 14th was Underground America Day but it came and went without me realizing it. Besides Underground America Day, it was also National Dance Like A Chicken Day and Root Canal Appreciation Day.

Our Water System Had To Be Repaired

We have water again (sort of). I got a well service to come out to work on the problem. I dug up half the trench to find the leak, but it turned out to be in three different locations along the pipe. We ended up having to dig almost the entire trench in order to find the last location where the water line had been pulled loose. It was loose at the pvc connections.

This ordeal costed me $120 to get it fixed, and now I have all this dirt to have to back fill into the trench. I'm leaving the trench open for a while because at least I know where that line is now, and before we run the propane, water and electric lines to the house, I want to make sure we can avoid damaging them again.

The day was a bad day, but at least now we have a new electrical pole and I can now dig a trench for those utility lines to the new house.

The well needs to be shocked now. The system was open and so it's not sanitized. Rachel and I will shock the well with bleach and wait a day and then flush the system. So, we'll be without usable water until after the system is shocked and then flushed.

One Step Forward / One Step Backward

It feels like every time we make a little bit of progress, something happens and we step backwards and there's no progress at all. It was like that today, and as of right now, it is a step backwards, not forwards.

First of all, we needed a power pole added for the new house. I marked a place for it to go so that it would be conveniently located, yet clear the water pipe from the well head to the shed where the pressure tank and other water-related stuff is. Well, the auger that the power company used was huge and powerful, but it wasn't powerful enough to not be moved by the rocks we have in our ground. It moved too far to the south and got into our water line. It broke the water line, but somehow didn't seem to hurt the power to the well. So we had to shut the circuit off because the well was just pumping water like crazy and it went all over the inside of the shed and out on the ground.

Now we have the new pole for electricity to the new house, but we don't have water. Now I have to fix that.

So I had to start digging a trench from where the damaged pipe is, over to to where it enters the shed. I had a tough time even finding someone that could come out and work on it, and finally got a guy that is located 40 miles west of Tulsa, and so he's going to have to drive this long distance (at an additional charge) to get out to our location and fix this mess.

And when this is all fixed, we'll have to shock the well again because now the water system has been compromised. So we'll be without drinking water for a couple of days until we can get that cleaned up.

The Cap Blew Off Again

The cap blew off again and we still haven't gotten any callbacks or follow up from Burnett, Inc. I was supposed to call the salesman today but I was busy with other things and he wasn't in the office when I called. I'll have to escalate things.

Even with the rocks I had weighing that section of cap down, the wind gusts were enough to blow the cap off. I put it back on, but weighed it down with additional rocks.

I believe that the cap is an issue because it was a rushed job. I thought it was odd that they could do the entire thing in about an hour and a half, and one guy was doing it while the other guy was picking up their tools and getting ready to leave. I was amazed when they finished and left.

I was hoping that they would've been out last week and replaced the cap and done it correctly, but they didn't. I'm disappointed that I paid. Every time we do this we pay before the job is done and we always end up regretting it.

Shouldn't have paid balance on the siding

I now regret paying 90% of the balance on the siding job until it was properly finished. The salesman showed up that day and pressured us and so we agreed to pay 90%. That was a mistake. The work still hasn't been done and this weekend, we had strong winds that blew the cap off. These winds weren't the 70mph winds we sometimes get. These were merely 30mph gusts and the cap should've been able to hand that.

Click here to see.

I'm a bit frustrated. The company, Burnett Inc, has called us a couple of times, indicating that they want the balance paid, as if the work has already been done. It hasn't. They acted as if it had been.

I even received a call last Thursday from one of the guys that had done the installation, and he asked if he could show up after 17:00 to finish the job. So it appeared that they do intend to finish the job, but the thing is, he was wanting to do it after 17:00, as if to say that it's a lower priority than their day jobs. And the guy never showed up, so it's definitely not a priority for them.

I don't like to have these confrontations, but I'm going to have to call the people at Burnett on Monday and remind them that we're waiting for them to finish the job. I also plan to tell them that we're never going to pay a balance again until the work is complete. This was a mistake to do it this time. We were trying to be nice. We were trying to do the right thing, and unfortunately, they have not done the same.

No Callbacks, No Progress, Frustrated

I'm a bit frustrated this last few days. We were told by the siding salesman that we'd be contacted with regards to the issues we raised the past weekend. We expected this call on Monday. We expected it on Tuesday. It didn't happen yesterday. I'm frustrated. It seems to me that their lack of followup is a sign that they do not intend to make things right. I'm glad we didn't pay them the last little bit.

I'm frustrated that we haven't gotten a callback from the concrete contractor that I spoke with late last week. He was supposed to call and come out on Tuesday. That never happened.

I'm frustrated that the first electrical contractor we gave a plan to hasn't called us. He was supposed to get back with us this week, but never called. He wouldn't even come to our site, and we had to take the plan to him. And of course, we don't see how he can get a clear picture of what we need when he wouldn't come on site to look things over.

I did get a second electrician out to look over the site and I gave him a copy of the electrical plan so he'd be able to make notes on it while walking through the site. He said he'd get back to us, so I'm hopeful that maybe he will in a week or so.

I have determined that we'll need to get another storage container rented and brought out to the site. We had one a year ago, but finished using it in August or so and saved money by not renting it any longer. We need it for a while now, to clear out the house and let whichever electrician room to do his work in the section of the master suite where some of our building materials are currently stored. We'll need to put them in the storage container.

I don't know of a good spot to put that container, but I suspect it'll be between the house and the road, and I can live with that, although it means covering up the spot that I was hoping we could put some of the excess concrete when getting the slab poured.

I haven't done as much in this last few days as I had hoped. I haven't been feeling as well, and now that I might feel better, the weather is going to turn bad for a couple of days.

I'm frustrated.

It has almost been a year since we broke ground, and we still don't even have the sub poured. We don't have the electrical work in the slab done. I'm frustrated. My hopes are that the frustration will force me to make things happen. It's motivation, I guess.

On a lighter note, if there is one, I've also been frustrated with this hosting site. I've been trying to upload pictures for a few days, and they aren't there yet. I'm going to have to put in a technical support issue report and hope that it'll be resolved soon.