The Wire (s)

The wire saga has finally come to an end. You first read about it here. Then again here.

A brief recap: The wires that were hanging off of the side of our house had to be hooked up to one of the electric poles on either side of our house. Sounds simple enough but, this couldn't happen until our neighbors signed the waiver that said wires could cross the plane of their property.

Until the wires were taken care of the appraisal was pushed back and so was our ability to convert from a construction loan and into a permanent loan.

We needed the owners of two houses next to us to sign off on the waiver. The electrician failed to obtain the signatures during the (actual) construction phase so Mr. C asked that we get involved and be "neighborly". Unfortunately, the task wasn't as simple as knocking on the door and asking for a cup of sugar. Both houses are rented out so tracking down the owners was our first hurdle. (Thank goodness for the internet and a girlfriend who knows her way around it.) Getting the owners to return a phone call or respond to a letter was a whole other saga and physically obtaining the signatures was the worst. One out of three of the property owners was particularly awful to deal with. But, after I established contact and after Mr. C bribed each and every one of them (seriously! this is what our world has come to?!) we finally were free and clear to have the electrical company, BGE, come out and do the install. 

Here is an old picture of  what the wires looked like for the past 6 months. 

Now, the view looks a little more like this. 

Wait. Where'd the wires go? Confused? Yeah, well, apparently the wires were installed on the "wrong" (South) side of the house because the signatures that we received were from the neighbors on the North side. 

So BGE came, scoped the scene, said "nope", and left. The electrician had to come back to move the wires from one side of the house to the other. 

Another request that BGE made was to make provisions so they could get their 25ft ladder out the back of our house. With the tiny back patio and a fence something creative had to be done. So Mr. C cut out a gate in the (once solid) privacy fence.

The gate opens up into the neighbor's back patio. No need to ever open that thing again so we have since put locks on it. It's not exactly what we wanted but, hey, it got the job done. 

Not only did the wires near the roof have to be moved but so did the electrical box.

After this mess...

... was all cleaned up.

And moved over.

BGE was asked back out to the house and the wires (finally) were installed.

Three cheers now, HIP HIP HURRAY!

It is hard to believe that this seemingly simple task could've been so drawn out and frustrating. 

If I were to share any advise to fellow renovating, home owners, I would say to get going on projects that involve neighbors, city permits, electrical companies in the beginning of the renovation process, (& by get going, I mean full court press). You never know what kind of snags you may end up with along the way.

Never thought we'd be so happy to see some wires in the air.  

 

 After all, where else are the birds supposed to sit in Charm City?