9/28-30/10 I went up to Camp Serendipity for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

I arrived at 1:00 and immediately noticed a number of big King Boletas mushrooms growing in the parking area. Bert and Ernie greeted me right away. They got their usual hugs and biscuits while I unloaded my gear. I went up to the cabin and found a shrew in the mousetrap in the crawlspace. I reset the trap and went down for lunch.

Before I went in, I harvested two nice medium sized mushrooms. All the rest were huge but already infected with bugs. I sliced up the mushrooms and added them to my lunch menu.

After lunch, I called the building department and scheduled an inspection for the next day. Then I went up to the cabin to work. I replaced the breaker for circuit 10 with an AFCI breaker that I had brought with me. Unfortunately, there were two wires connected to the old breaker, and there is only room for one hot wire on an AFCI breaker. So I reassigned the wire intended to power the kitchen hood to circuit 12 instead of circuit 10.

Next, I started the process of swapping the 50 Amp circuit I had wired to the dryer receptacle with the 30 Amp circuit I had installed for use in the crawlspace. I didn’t change anything in the distribution panel but just redirected the wires and replaced the 50 Amp receptacle with a 30 Amp receptacle that I had brought with me. This reassigned circuits circuit #26 and circuit #37. I erased the old descriptions in the panel cover and re-wrote them to be correct.

I dismantled the old 50 Amp dryer receptacle and pulled the old 6-3 wire out of the wall below the receptacle. Then I got the 10-3 wire from breaker #26 strung through the floor joists and up into the receptacle. I installed the new 30 Amp receptacle and the dryer circuit was complete and should now pass inspection.

During the afternoon, I stopped to feed the chipmunk several times when I went outside. I took a nice shower before I quit for the day.

On Wednesday, I finished the swap of circuits circuit #26 and circuit #37 by taking the big 6-3 wire out of the wall and ceiling where it had run, and routing it down to the crawl space where I left it coiled up for future use by a welder or whatever other 240 v use I might have.

Just after lunch, Larry stopped by for a visit. We went up to the cabin where he looked over the recent progress. We had a nice chat. Soon after he left, Mark, the building inspector showed up. In the course of his inspection, I learned about what I need to do for guard rails and handrails, among several other things. Mark left me with a list of seven things I need to do before final inspection:

1. Install filler blocks behind each joist hanger attached to a TJI.
2. Finish installing the log treads on both outside staircases along with handrails and guardrails interior and exterior.
3. Install smoke detectors.
4. Run a 6” line from outside to a hole under the wood stove to serve both as fresh air/whole house exhaust and for combustion air.
5. Maintain clearances for stovepipe vent through roof and between wood stove and staircase.
6. Install kitchen exhaust to exterior.
7. Provide a copy of the engineer’s revision to the plans for the inside stair support.

In spite of these shortcomings, Mark approved installing the ceiling insulation. That was the only critical item to me at the moment because I want to get the ceiling insulated before winter so that I can keep the plumbing from freezing. The rest of the items can wait.

After Mark left, I dug four or five holes above the sewer drain line to uncover the electrical conduit. I discovered that the depth of the conduit was 14” for the 30 feet or so across the roadway, and it was somewhat under 12” from the building out to the roadway. This came to me as bad news. To achieve the required 18” depth it would require more additional fill than I think is reasonable. The other option was to dig the entire run up and pour 2” of concrete around the conduit. That would be a lot of work.

To comfort me in my disappointment while I was digging, I was visited by the chipmunk and the gray jays. They happily took the peanuts and cheered me up in the process.

I got some good news, though, when I went inside to take a look at how I was going to install a 6” stovepipe through the front wall for the combustion air/ventilation requirement #4. There was plenty of room to make the hole through the sill log, but the question was whether I could avoid hitting the rebar in the log when I cut the hole. What I discovered to my relief was that since I hadn’t chinked between the first two logs on the inside, I could lie down on the floor and actually see the rebar between the two logs. That gap will eventually be covered by a baseboard, but now it is open. That was a relief.

I took a shower and went in for the night thinking about and worrying about how I was going to meet all those requirements.

On Thursday morning, I called Dave Westerman, the electrical inspector, and told him what I had learned about the depth of the conduit. He agreed that exposing the pipe and pouring concrete over it was going to be a lot of work. But then he told me that if the circuit were protected with a GFCI breaker, then the pipe need only be buried to a 12” depth. This was wonderful news. I could certainly install a GFCI breaker, and I could wheel in enough additional fill to cover the pipe adequately for its entire length without too much trouble. Since I had already dug the holes, Dave asked me to leave them so that he could see the pipe at the next inspection.

After breakfast, I went up and put rocks in or over the holes I had dug and then covered them with dirt so the holes won’t be a hazard. I may not get the next electrical inspection before winter sets in. I also cut grade stakes and stood them up in the holes before I covered them so I will know how much fill I need when I bring the fill dirt in.

Next, I called Gale Insulation Contractors and requested a bid for insulating the ceiling. The guy I needed to talk to was out so I left my phone numbers so he could call me back.

I spent quite a bit of time studying the wood stove and mulling over alternatives to complying with the clearance requirement #5. I need to do some research on the Internet to learn the exact requirements for the make and model of stove that I have. It might be that the best alternative is to move the stove farther away from the staircase, and I did a lot of thinking about the engineering problem of moving it. I need to do a lot more thinking about this problem before I do anything.

Bert and Ernie visited me for hugs and biscuits when I went in for lunch. I left for home at 1:45.