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The Grand Remodel: The Construction Phase, week 8

We had the solar panel and inverter installation three weeks earlier than expected, woohoo! The next steps include getting the City inspection (next week), followed by a smart meter and sign-off from PG&E (one to two weeks after passing inspection).

solar panels

One of the trickier parts of the framing involves adding a couple more Strong-Walls (steel-reinforced shear walls). The open nature of the remodeled kitchen and dining-livingroom meant removing a load-bearing wall, which originally was an external wall. In order to literally load balance the building, the structural engineer indicated that additional shear walls be added to the existing stretch of that wall. Right outside our bedroom. The stucco has been removed, and now we can see sunlight peep through the small holes made. It seems to be fussy work, since the framers need to carefully drill into the existing foundation, for insertion of the shear walls’ mondo screws. Don’t want to crack the foundation, but also want to avoid hitting rebar, which could break the (rather expensive and ginormous) drill bit.

strong walls horizontal

Due to scheduling wackiness, we now have a different carpentry (framer) subcontractor. We hope the framing work will be completed in the next week or two. But hey! These framers fixed the new bathroom window so it’s straight and lined up with the existing bathroom window.

better window alignment

You may see more photographs at the gallery. There are two pages of weekly albums, so here’s a link to week 8.

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