Nov 14 - never ending

I forgot that on Saturday night, we had toilets not flushing.  Thinking that perhaps something done by the driveway work had broken the main sewer line from us to the street, I called a plumber.  The riser in the driveway had been "weeping" and there's no way that I was going to open up a sewer geyser ! 

The 24x7 plumber on call was actually not very far away so he came, popped off the cap on the riser -- we could see standing water just a couple of inches down -- and using his snake, unclogged the blockage that was only about 4 feet away, straight down at the elbow.  As it turned out, I could have done this and will, if it ever blocks again, but was quite happy to pay his $145 per hour plus $45 for the call.  Toilets are something that you need ...

Yesterday, Monday, I was rushing all day trying to keep up with these guys.  As I was discussing some things with Eric, the boss, I noticed a "spring" in the ground.  No, that's not a spring, that's a broken pipe.  Fix that.  Later, digging in the downspout 4" pipe, we had another broken pipe.  Fix that.  Later, at dusk, as I tried the sprinkler system, an eruption at the same place ... yikes ... that has to wait until this morning when I'll have to pickup a sliding coupling, which is the easiest way to fix that.  Rats.

I also did a bunch of electrical work, running power along the side of the house in a conduit, replacing buried wire, then in the back, conduit and boxes from the ground up to the soffit.  Today they're supposed to start work on the "outdoor" kitchen, which will cover that area.  I've still got water plumbing to do there as well as gas plumbing.  Yikes, yikes, yikes.

What else ... likely forgetting stuff.

I'm not 100% happy with the way that the work is being done, but that said, I don't want to hover over them and tell them how to cut travertine, how to put down thinset, etc.  It's not the way that I'd do it.  I'm guessing that I've done a lot more thinset than the fellow doing this work, with all my tiling work at the cottage.  I'm just hoping that the work holds.  I'm not convinced that it will.

At the end of the day it will look good. 

The driveway is coming along nicely, about 1/3 done.  They need more gravel base for the end of the driveway and along the side walkway. 

Onward ?  Eric figures that they'll be finished on Wednesday.  I'm doubting that, but end of the week shouldn't be any problem.

Onward !