Chapter 28...How To Wire An Outlet And Painting

Off Grid...Chapter 28 Good Morning Everyone! It's time for the week of September 15 of our story. Monday 9-15 Today we went to Lowe's(again) and "finally bought our interior paint. Yeah. We got 10 gallons of tinted sheetrock primer, 10 gallons of paint, and 2 gallons of gloss white paint for the doors and trim. Hopefully we bought enough. We also ordered the tile for the kitchen counter top, it's supposed to be in on the 22nd.(today). We had to stop at K-mart and Wal-mart to pick up some winter items. We haven't spent a winter in the cold since 2002. We bought some winter boots, matching , and some sweats. It's a start. Poor Niki girl, she's a Florida girl and I have no idea how she will like the winter. She might be in shock when she sees the snow. Tuesday 9-16 Now that we have all the paint it's time to really clean the house. First we cleared everything out of the house and Mike got out the electric blower. He blew off all the rafters, walls, and floors. Then he blew all the debris out the door. After everything settled we vacuumed the house. What a dusty mess we made! We did this process 2 more times to make sure it was all clean. Then we let all the dust settle overnight. Wednesday 9-17 We started our day by making a dump run. When we got back home we vacuumed the house again. After that we started putting plastic on all the cabinets and taping everything off. We are using a leftover roll of plastic(like a huge roll of saran wrap) that we've had for about 3 years. We don't let anything o to waste, lol. We put plastic and tape on the kitchen cabinets. And the shower. And the front door. I put the painters tape on all the outlets to protect the wires from the paint. I also covered all the gas and water lines with the plastic wrap. Now everything is covered and ready for primer in the morning. That afternoon Mike ordered more solar panels, another wind generator, combiner boxes, breakers, and another charge controller. He is still trying to perfect our system. I ordered my propane refrigerator that uses "no" electric. I got the Diamond Elite 19ss. It's a good thing I saved money on my cabinets because I just made up for my savings. This is it. Propane Gas Refrigerators Thursday 9-18 Now we are ready to prime the walls. Mike got out the paint sprayer and mixed our tinted primer. We laid out sheets and plastic on the floors to protect them from over spray. Now hopefully we did a good job with the plastic and we have enough paint. Mike is priming the kitchen wall. He is done in the kitchen. Look no more green walls in the bathroom. We are done. Mike did a great job. We made it with the primer. We used about 8 of the 10 gallons so we have enough to do the closets, when we build them. After everything was set up it only took about 3 hours for Mike to paint the house and about 45 minutes for us to clean the sprayer, Yuk, and the paint buckets. The house is now ready for paint. Woo Hoo! Friday 9-19 Today was just a repeat of yesterday except Mike sprayed on the paint instead of primer. Again it only took a few hours and now the inside of the house is painted. We let everything dry for a couple of hours then we removed all the tape and plastic. Now we have to wait for everything to completely dry to touch up any problem areas. We are now ready for the floor to be installed. We made it! The floor should be installed Tuesday or Wednesday(I hope). After the flooring is installed we can paint all the doors and trim in gloss white. After dinner Mike started working on the outlets. I told him to do 1 each time he went down to the house and it wouldn't seem so bad. We have a lot of outlets. We will never use them all but we wanted to make sure the house had them in case we ever hook up to electric, which I doubt. Mike wants to show me how to do the outlets but I'm not sure that's a good idea, lol. Mike also found out that our washer, dryer, and fireplace have been delivered to our propane company. We will pick them up next week(well this week). Saturday 9-20 Today I had to do the usual running around, grocery shopping, cleaning and laundry. I can't wait to move into the house. The motorhome is exploding with stuff. Mostly food and kitchen things. Mike worked on the electrical outlets in the house. Here are the ones in the kitchen. This is how Mike wires and electrical outlet. Do not try this if you have no electrical knowledge. First he pulls the wires out of the box. He cuts them down. He slices the coverings open and cuts off the excess. Then he twists the ground(copper) wires together. Connect the ground(copper) wires to the ground screw. Connect the neutral(white) wires to the silver screws on the side of the outlet. Flip the box over and connect the black(hot or live) wires to the gold screws. Tuck it all back into the wall and screw the outlet in place. Screw the outlet cover on. That's how Mike installs an outlet. He installed 24 outlets today. Later today I got a call from Lowe's and my kitchen tile is in. Sunday 9-21 Today we had to do the "long" shopping trip into Virginia. We went to exit 7(our favorite) in Bristol. That exit has everything we need. Walmart, Sam's, Tractor Supply, Home Depot, Lowe;s, and a lot more. Our goal today was to find a bathroom vanity. We went to Sam's and found a really nice one but it was too small, oh well. We checked the Lowe's there and also stopped at a furniture store. The furniture store was a big disappointment. Mike and I didn't find anything we like. We are in so much trouble because we do need to get furniture this week. What's so hard about plain, simple and not trendy or gaudy? Anyway if any of you know of any "large" furniture showrooms in Elizabethton or Johnson City please, please share. Thank you. We did find a nice and clean looking vanity at Home Depot. So it wasn't a wasted trip. We got the vanity, a sink, faucet, and a mirrored medicine cabinet. We need all the storage we can get. After our long day of running and shopping which is never any fun for us Nicole stopped by. We had a really nice time with her. That's another week in the Mike and Lisa world. I hope you enjoyed. This week we will be getting the flooring, hopefully get furniture, and start moving some things into the house. Yeah! It was cold this morning so we need to get on it. Have a great week and I'll write again next Monday. We should get a lot done this week. Lisa and Mike