The "HOLE" Job

Our foundation is finished and the basement floor has now hardened. Before the space around the foundation can be backfilled we have to add the plumbing, electrical conduit and foundation drains that are below grade. The water and electric power have always been buried and enter the crawl space under the old house. I opted to leave the electric service entrance where it was with plans to upgrade it in the future.

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The water line was rerouted into the new basement and through a rather complicated manifold to distribute water to the new house, old house and also to two outbuildings. The manifold was placed at the lowest point in the water system and a drain line added to allow for draining the old house or new house independently or the entire system. Provision was also made for adding a commercial water filter if we should ever need to add one.
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We added an underground valve in the main water line far enough from the foundation so we could drain the system back beyond any chance of freezing. An outside water hydrant was added on the house side of the valve to not only have a source for water for use outside but also to allow air into the line if we ever want to completely drain water from the line where it enters the building.

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Two 100 amp services feed the house. One for lighting and outlets, the other for mechanical and service equipment. This minimizes the voltage fluctuations at our lights when an appliance such as the electric range or clothes dryer is used. The two feeds were extended from the original service entrance through underground conduit into the new basement load center. We have two identical main panels in the same area as the plumbing manifold.
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Changes in technology were on the horizon when we planned the addition. This included how electricity might be used in the future. Every outlet, switch and light fixture is wired independently to one of several junction boxes. This will permit changing how we use a switch or what it controls or the voltage or power source for that item. It is a matter of changing connections in the junction box without having to run any new wires. This more than doubled the amount of power wiring in the house. Any light fixture or outlet could easily be converted to 12 volts DC.

The house is also prewired with at least six pairs of telecommunication inside wire and CAT5 local area network cables. A central Uninterruptable Power Supply powers outlets in important locations throughout the house. The house is also equipped with a 17.5 kW emergency generator with automatic transfer in case of commercial power interruption. With the flaky service we get from Green Mountain Power, this generator is more than just a novelty. We have had more than ten outages in the last year, some lasting up to five days. More on that later.
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Our new kitchen was designed by my wife, Doreen, as a "galley" style kitchen with a lot of room compared with the old cabin facility.The double sink is part of the couner top without any ridge at the opening. The deepest one available was selected making it easy to handle large items. The view from our kitchen is toward the town road and our detached garage and is directly above the water supply manifold, keeping the water lines as short as possible.
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We chose the bssement for laundry facilities with the appliances adjacent to the main power distribution center and water manifold with the hot water heater centrally located adjacent to the chimney. This keeps the hot water lines to all the household fixtures reasonably short. There are no water lines in any exterior walls. You will understand why when the shell of the house is installed.
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I'm getting a little ahead of myself here. We haven't even ordered the house yet.

Our next page will take you through the preliminaries . . .

Page last updated 24 April 2015

Page Revised 22 October 2022
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