It's a slow morning and this is hopefully as entertaining as it is therapeutic for me.
Deceus buys a hot tub
So I awaken from my coma: body and spirit broken. Why has the universe forsaken me, I ask. Suddenly a rouge idea enters my brain. "You know what would take the sting out of doing a shit ton of work to that pool just to close it? A hot tub." Surely there isn't anything worthwhile in stock... Holy shit, look at that, the exact make/model I was eyeballing listed 12 hours ago for $5,000. These things are $15,000 new. Fairly new as well. It's an older lady and she losing her stability so she can't get in/out of it anymore and just wants someone else to enjoy it. Jackpot. I put a deposit down, call the people who put in to get it out and call an electrician. The movers did their part wonderfully. It was out and at my place in less than 2 hours and 40 minutes of it was driving.
![[Image: 21ifshM.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/21ifshM.jpg)
The electrician on the other hand gave the most half-assed "quote" ever. Showed up with his kid in the truck. Glanced around the yard, told me he couldn't use the pool panel since the power feed wires were too small. Incorrectly assumed the 220 outlet by the driveway was only rated for 30A and planned to "maybe" run a line from the crawlspace and dig up the entire yard for the low, low price of $1,750. $300 off if I dig the trench for him. "Fuck that" I said to myself because I'm clearly an idiot. "How hard can it be" will definitely be my last words. So I brush up on residential electricity and start looking at things and boy are they ugly. That double booked breaker the inspector mentioned? It's a 50A RV outlet and a set of 10awg wire going 90ft+ to the pool subpanel. Holy fire-hazard batman. No way that wire is carrying anything close to 50 amps for any amount of time. I take a look at the panel and realized it's going to be a party ... minus the fun.
![[Image: 4CEnxHH.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/4CEnxHH.jpg)
Lizards, lizard shit and dead spiders galore. As an added bonus the post wobbles like it's only one foot deep in mud. Start disconnecting things and plan to run some 6/3 UF wire to it. For some reason the wires just simply won't pull. They won't even budge ... guess it's time to start digging. It didn't take long to start seeing some more ugly shit:
![[Image: Fk1geo8.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/Fk1geo8.jpg)
Conduit pinching some wires and completely packed with clay, that could be problem. But no dice, still not even a budge after I clear all that out. Onwards. Tried to be clever and use my fishing tape to skip some of the dig. Find another blockage 12ft up but can't find the conduit on the other side of the fence so I give up and dig the whole way. For some reason the "straight" conduit hooks a hard right towards the cement because fuck me.
![[Image: EMDJhIy.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/EMDJhIy.jpg)
Found it!
![[Image: TZyntIw.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/TZyntIw.jpg)
What could possibly be in that mess.
![[Image: U1eXFl7.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/U1eXFl7.jpg)
Oh and the post really was hanging on by a thread lol.
![[Image: EcjxrtZ.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/EcjxrtZ.jpg)
Gave up at this point and ran the 6/3 UF through some new conduit since it had no chance of fitting in that 3/4" conduit anyways. Gave up again because that stuff is the hardest shit in the world to work with. Had to buy 4 500ft rolls of THHN-2 but managed to pull it through just fine and get a new post. Picked up my post hole digger and got to work. Remember when it was 30 degrees while I was unloading and all my jackets were still packed up ... well it's 81 now. Good times.
Get get all the wires stripped and cut to length ... and one of the lugs is completely seized. New box it is. Get that in and finish up the wiring. Flip the breakers half-way hoping this is what finally takes me out but nope. No sparks, no fires. Just a hot tub booting up.
![[Image: U3RUUB1.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/U3RUUB1.jpg)
Still have to finish a few things up and have to add some of that mess back in to get my pool pump working again. I got all this done JUST in time for the remnants of a hurricane to roll through.
Hey give me more credit than that.
1. Gave the girlfriend a full 2 weeks to pack up. She procrastinates like no other. I knew this so that's on me.
2. The plan was to cut out early Friday to finish up, load up Saturday, drive Sunday, sign Monday and work while the unloaders did their thing Tuesday. Didn't have a choice with taking time off the day after. The quarterly planning was set in stone at the beginning of the year and was happening with or without me.
3. I called Spectrum twice to verify the house was ready and then to verify my modem was compatible. I've never had an issue getting myself setup until now of course.
Sometimes the universe just aligns to fuck you over despite the best of planning.
Deceus buys a hot tub
So I awaken from my coma: body and spirit broken. Why has the universe forsaken me, I ask. Suddenly a rouge idea enters my brain. "You know what would take the sting out of doing a shit ton of work to that pool just to close it? A hot tub." Surely there isn't anything worthwhile in stock... Holy shit, look at that, the exact make/model I was eyeballing listed 12 hours ago for $5,000. These things are $15,000 new. Fairly new as well. It's an older lady and she losing her stability so she can't get in/out of it anymore and just wants someone else to enjoy it. Jackpot. I put a deposit down, call the people who put in to get it out and call an electrician. The movers did their part wonderfully. It was out and at my place in less than 2 hours and 40 minutes of it was driving.
The electrician on the other hand gave the most half-assed "quote" ever. Showed up with his kid in the truck. Glanced around the yard, told me he couldn't use the pool panel since the power feed wires were too small. Incorrectly assumed the 220 outlet by the driveway was only rated for 30A and planned to "maybe" run a line from the crawlspace and dig up the entire yard for the low, low price of $1,750. $300 off if I dig the trench for him. "Fuck that" I said to myself because I'm clearly an idiot. "How hard can it be" will definitely be my last words. So I brush up on residential electricity and start looking at things and boy are they ugly. That double booked breaker the inspector mentioned? It's a 50A RV outlet and a set of 10awg wire going 90ft+ to the pool subpanel. Holy fire-hazard batman. No way that wire is carrying anything close to 50 amps for any amount of time. I take a look at the panel and realized it's going to be a party ... minus the fun.
Lizards, lizard shit and dead spiders galore. As an added bonus the post wobbles like it's only one foot deep in mud. Start disconnecting things and plan to run some 6/3 UF wire to it. For some reason the wires just simply won't pull. They won't even budge ... guess it's time to start digging. It didn't take long to start seeing some more ugly shit:
Conduit pinching some wires and completely packed with clay, that could be problem. But no dice, still not even a budge after I clear all that out. Onwards. Tried to be clever and use my fishing tape to skip some of the dig. Find another blockage 12ft up but can't find the conduit on the other side of the fence so I give up and dig the whole way. For some reason the "straight" conduit hooks a hard right towards the cement because fuck me.
Found it!
What could possibly be in that mess.
Oh and the post really was hanging on by a thread lol.
Gave up at this point and ran the 6/3 UF through some new conduit since it had no chance of fitting in that 3/4" conduit anyways. Gave up again because that stuff is the hardest shit in the world to work with. Had to buy 4 500ft rolls of THHN-2 but managed to pull it through just fine and get a new post. Picked up my post hole digger and got to work. Remember when it was 30 degrees while I was unloading and all my jackets were still packed up ... well it's 81 now. Good times.
Get get all the wires stripped and cut to length ... and one of the lugs is completely seized. New box it is. Get that in and finish up the wiring. Flip the breakers half-way hoping this is what finally takes me out but nope. No sparks, no fires. Just a hot tub booting up.
Still have to finish a few things up and have to add some of that mess back in to get my pool pump working again. I got all this done JUST in time for the remnants of a hurricane to roll through.
(11-12-2020, 10:50 AM)JPolen01 Wrote: Oh man I wish I didn't see this coming, but I did.
Pro tip: take off work the day before and the day after a move.
The way you function gives me anxiety.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Hey give me more credit than that.
1. Gave the girlfriend a full 2 weeks to pack up. She procrastinates like no other. I knew this so that's on me.
2. The plan was to cut out early Friday to finish up, load up Saturday, drive Sunday, sign Monday and work while the unloaders did their thing Tuesday. Didn't have a choice with taking time off the day after. The quarterly planning was set in stone at the beginning of the year and was happening with or without me.
3. I called Spectrum twice to verify the house was ready and then to verify my modem was compatible. I've never had an issue getting myself setup until now of course.
Sometimes the universe just aligns to fuck you over despite the best of planning.