Vaccuum and electrical

Since we have another week or so to go before the plaster guys come, this week is all about finishing up any rough work. 
Have I told the story of the 110 V outlet yet?  OMG.  So, when we first met with the electrician, Joern brought up that we needed place in the kitchen to store our step-up/ step-down transformer.  The electrician jumped on that and suggested instead that we put the transformer in the cellar, and run cables up to the kitchen from the transformer and install 110V outlets.  He told us only to buy outlets when we were home, which we were very careful to do.   When Smokey Old Electrician (may I please shorten this to "Ol' Smokey?")  was in the house last week he informed us that we had a problem: the boxes for German outlets are circular, and our US outlets were rectangular.  Talk about putting a squareish peg in a round hole!  This sent us into a little craze about how to fix the problem easiest and quickest.  The plan was to order the boxes from the US and pay the ridiculous amount to ship abroad, because well, we needed them.  At the end of last week, Ol' Smokey came to us with a possible solution.  In the electrical catalog, he found an outlet that was I guess, multi-voltage.  all we needed to do was to change out the plugs on all our 110V appliances.  We weren't too excited about this idea.  Then, on Saturday night, Joern and I were barbecuing at the house, and I decided to look through the electrical catalog.  My reason was to see what the electricians were paying their suppliers for light switches.  As I thumbed through the catalog, I stumbled upon a two-page spread for export appliances.  Yup.  Export.  Their supplier has outlets for British appliances, Chinese, and- American!  Joern will talk to Ol' Smokey tomorrow, and hopefully, we can fix this mini mess.

But, the electricians were at the house today, and they worked on wiring outlets and switches on the first floor.

Electrical in powder room.

Switches for the stairs to the second floor and for the kitchen.

And, the plumbers were back today!  To install the pipes for the central vaccuum!!  They installed most of the pipes for the vaccuum, and only need to connect the pipe from the cellar to Joern's garage, where we will store the vaccuum.

The blue pipe running from the guest room area to the fireplace is for the vac.

I am very excited about this feature, a toe-kick pan for under the kitchen cabinet. 

Connection for the hose upstairs.

A very long pipe running along the media room.

Hopefully, we see the electricians tomorrow. 

This week's work

As I posted on Wednesday, we have been having a few problems with the electricians showing up.  We understand that they are busy and have a lot of projects going at once, but as Joern said, "We feel like he labels customers by prority: A,B,C, and D, but we're E."  Joern and I both feel strongly that we don't want our workers to be under pressure, this leads to mistakes and not caring.  I would much rather have them take their time and do things right.  The electricians worked Monday, Tuesday, and a tiny, tiny little bit on Friday.  I'm sure they're doing a good job, but it is only frustrating when it means that the plaster guys can't come in next week to start plastering the walls.

Despite all this, I am happy to see that there is progress being made.  It is very nice to know that the rough plumbing is all done now, including our last minute addition of our central vaccuum.  And despite the very drawn out procedure, the electrical is getting there.

We didn't visit the house very much during the week, and when we did, I didn't have the camera with me, and I was too tired to really focus enough to realize that I needed to take pictures.  But, I found my energy by Friday, and I was so excited to get back on track.

It would be nice to split up plumbing and electrical, but that wouldn't really be possible without a lot of cropping.  Honestly, I'm not up for that much work right now.

Here is what our house looked like after another week's worth of work:

First floor

Kitchen.  Outlet boxes have been installed.  Straight ahead will be the outlets for the built-in oven and the refrigerator.

                                         Kitchen sink area.  Outlet boxes for both 220 and 110 Volt.

Water pipes for pot filler and possible water connection for fridge.  Electricity for oven and

range hood.

A proud homeowner and his kitchen.

Electrical running to the fireplace.

Water pipes running from the fireplace.  Electrical running the length of the living room and dining room.

Wires running through the walls in the guest bedroom.

Looking into the guest bedroom.  Orange and black tubes are for electrical and computer network cables.

There are ELEVEN switches and outlets here.  This is the control for our exterior shutters.

On the wall to the right of where all the tubes enter the wall, there is a rectangular cut-out, this is for the central vac.

Second Floor

Children's bath, hookup for washer and dryer, and water for shower.

Water pipes and electrical.

                                    Connection for sink and farther back, for the second "1920's" toilet.

                        Probably the job of the elctricians, the floor underneath the waterpipes was chisled out
                        at intersections of water and electrical.

Master shower.  Controls and water connections for massage shower heads.

Water hookup for bathtub.

The master bath plumbing and electrical, completely roughed out.

Attic

Vent for the children's bath.

                                        Vent for powder room and maybe water in kitchen.

Cellar

Looking down the stairs.  Boxes installed for LEDs along stairway.  Water pipes running out to garage.

Another view of water pipes from mechanical room to Joern's garage.

Water pipes in Joern's garage.  One tap in the far corner, behind our already present mess.

                                          Another tap installed in the front corner.  Why do I see Joern's garage becoming
                                          a man-paradise?

OMG, cables, cables, cables, waiting for the circuit box.

                                        The ever growing pile of drilled out hole debris.  

Hopefully, next week will see the completion of the electrical, so that the plaster guys can get started.  Maybe it isn't such a bad thing because we shouldn't have the pipes installed for the radiant heating before our upcoming Richtfest, on June 11th.  We'll see what next week holds in store for us and the house!