I have before me a report from the engineer who inspected the damage to our floor framing caused by the plumber. The repair solution is not as bad as I feared. It consists basically of gluing and nailing a piece of 2×4 to each section of a joist that has been damaged.

The engineer didn’t confine himself to inspecting only the damage to the I-joists. He also looked at the floor as a whole with respect to the load it’s carrying, and he found another problem. This time the problem is the responsibility of the floor plan designer — me. There is a load-bearing wall on the main floor that is offset by a few inches from a load-carrying beam in the basement. The beam in the basement should have been placed directly beneath the upstairs wall. The engineer’s analysis indicated a potential eventual failure of the I joists because of the offset load. The framer doesn’t really think it would cause a problem, but, once the engineer puts it in writing, it has to be fixed.

I’m not a details kind of person, but when it comes to things like building a house, I do sweat the details. I should have seen this problem in the floor plan, and, if not then, during construction. But I didn’t. Fortunately this fix is also fairly simple, but it involves 23 joists.

I could do all the repair work, but I plan to let the framer do it. They will almost certainly be   much faster than I would be.

We also had the well pump installed last week. That will allow the water supply lines to be tested for the inspector’s approval, as soon as we can figure out how to get 220 volts to the well.

I am now in the process of insulating and doing some other things that have to be done before drywall can be installed. Part of that process involved climbing an eight-foot step ladder to work on the garage ceiling, which is about 11 feet high. Last Friday, when I was doing that, I managed to kick the ladder out from under myself, leaving me hanging from a rafter. The drop was not far — four or five feet — but it was onto a concrete floor with several boards lying directly beneath me. I was worried about my knees, but there was no choice but to drop. When I let go of the rafter, I hit the boards and fell backwards. I must have put my arm out as I fell, because I ended up with a sore shoulder. I’m afraid it’s a torn rotator cuff. If so, it will be the second time a step ladder has caused a rotator cuff tear. The previous time was a few years ago when I was staining a post on the lower deck of our current house. I fell from the first step and hit my left shoulder in just the right way to cause a clean tear that left my arm useless. This time my arm hurts when I do certain things, but I can still work with it.

The surgeon who repaired my first tear used to live across the street from Leah’s parents. He’s a nice guy and he did a great job on my left shoulder. The only evidence of his surgery is three small dimples arrayed around my left shoulder, plus a usable arm. I hope I don’t have to give him the opportunity to show his skills on my right shoulder. In any event, I can’t do anything about it until we finish the house. I can’t afford to take a month or two off from the work that still needs to be done on both the new house and the old house.

I was surprised Sunday morning to find a Georgia Power crew parked at the driveway of our new house.

The small (looking) white box at the right rear wheel of the rightmost truck is an old dishwasher that someone dumped at the side of our driveway sometime between Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. They pulled up far enough that they weren’t really visible from the street. The fact that someone would discard a kitchen appliance on someone else’s property gives you some idea of what a substantial minority (I hope) of our population is like here in Georgia. I will call the county to report it Monday morning. I found a footprint from the culprit next to the dishwasher. Based on the size of my own foot (around 10 1/2), the person who did it may either be or be related to Bigfoot.

One of the Ga Power crew said they were trying to catch up on work that has been delayed because of the rainy weather we have had. I’m still surprised they were working on a Sunday.

I first saw them when I left the house to walk the dogs. When I came back home I could hear their little backhoe banging on the rock that underlies the entire building site. Fortunately, they said they had little trouble digging through it.

They laid the cable from our temporary power post to the front of the house where our meter will be. Here is the backhoe working near the contorted maple we saved to haunt our front yard.

Of course we wanted the electric meter to be located at the rear of our house, but the engineer said that they had to put it on the front to minimize the distance they had to run the cable. I don’t think the difference is all that great, but apparently it’s enough that the engineer was worried about voltage drop over that difference.

I didn’t post about the visit by the I-joist manufacturer’s representative. He came out on February 17 to see the damage that the plumber caused. Based on his inspection, he thought it should be relatively easy to repair two of the damaged joists. The third will take a little more work, but it’s nothing the framer isn’t familiar with. The engineer is supposed to provide a letter specifying how the damage can be repaired properly, which I will have to show the county building inspector before he will pass the framing. I haven’t heard from the engineer yet. I hope it won’t take much longer.