Reciprocating saws and brute force!

Renovation - Day 2

Recriprocating saw and brute force.

Deconstruction:  We got a late start today since church took priority!  More de-construction.  I don't say demolition, since that implies total wreckage.  We've learned that plunging in with a sledge hammer isn't always the best approach.  Of course, that doesn't mean there isn't demolition!  Crowbars and a recriprocating saw were the 2 most used tools of the day.   We still have 2 more rooms to clear out.

Neighbors:  We met the neighbors on both sides today.  Sounds like a really stable neighborhood - the lady next on the south has lived there for 23 years and with the exception of our house and one across the street, they're all owner occupied for years!  That's encouraging.  We also got some of the gossip -

Water:  Diego inserted a faucet right above the shut-off valve for the house.  He'll do an air pressure-test and if that's good, then we'll as the City to turn the water back on.  We still need to replumb the house, but this will at least give us one source of water and the ability to manually "flush" the toilet. 

Electricity:  On Friday Diego noticed that some outlets worked, but other didn't.  My husband, the Hardy-boy detective, discovered that we only had one leg of electricity coming into the house.  Translation?  Apparently there are 2 legs/wires of electricity that comes in from the street.  Each leg has 110 volts for a total of 220 volts.  We called Xcel and they sent someone within 20 minutes.   The power comes into the house through some tree branches.  The branches were weighing on the wires and effectively broke one of the wires.  A definite fire hazard, according to Robert,  my favorite electrician-friend.