Figured Id make one last thread to collect all of the odds and ends projects.


First one is a leftover from the electrical thread. We got the conduit / wire run to the shed via that sunken electrical pull box, so we were finally able to get a walk behind skid steer to put all of the dirt back where it goes.

We bought a couple dozen sand bags and filled the bottom part of the trench to give the conduit a soft base to live in - in process of adding the sand, you can see the new shed conduit too:




Then we filled the trenches about 75% with original dirt and manually compacted it. Laid in the metallic electrical caution tape:




Then finished the top fill layer / started watering it in:



While we had it, I also cut down the area for the sidewalk to connect the man door to the driveway - Ive about had my fill of tracking in dirt every time I go out there. Need to get a pallet of concrete ordered for it.



Mapped out all of the rest of the circuits I want (trying to preplan for everything so once we put up drywall it's one and done). Got the wire all ordered up:



That's about 100 feet of 2 guage AL SER (for a single big circuit across to the other corner of the garage - hopefully for a CNC mill at some point). Then I got a 500 foot roll of 6 gauge AL SER to do all of my other big 240v circuits - welder, compressor, lifts, HVAC. A bit overkill for some of the circuits, but it was vastly cheaper to buy a full 500' roll of the largest stuff needed rather than individual lengths of 3 different wire sizes.


Ive been working on my second 20A wall receptacle circuit inside (the first one being the code mininum 8 outlets / 1 per car stall). Im adding 1 or 2 outlets per wall to fill the larger spacing gaps in the original circuit. Im mounting these down low in the traditional spot to use them in case I need to leave an extension cord plugged in for an extended period. It'll also make it easy to ID which box is on which circuit in case I need to have a few high draw items plugged in at the same time.

While Im at it, Im also cutting in 3 external facing boxes on that secondary circuit (one on each side wall up close to the front, then the code required HVAC service one in the rear).

A little ugly as I havent washed off the stucco cutting dust / painted it to match, but it's in and functional:




Lastly, Ive started prepping for the mini splits. Poured a couple of concrete pads last weekend and got them drilled out for the stand (that bracket in the middle of the picture). Need to epoxy in some allthread to get the units mounted up so I can figure out where the disconnects will go / where to run the feed wires to inside.



Working back there has spurred another project as you can see from the pic - I need to get a gutter across that back edge. The whole back wall looks crumby from all of the dust / dirt from the roof being washed down the back wall every time it drizzles a little bit.

Picked up the parts this weekend, hoping to stick the gutters up next weekend.


Also trying to think through exterior lighting so I can get those wires in place as well. Im thinking one of those 16"+ metal gooseneck ones over each bay door. Then maybe a couple of switched high mount flood lights on the left side wall to light up the yard (existing street lights already light the back and right side pretty well, and all of those lights across the front should keep it well lit too - would be nice to be able to light up the yard for parties and such, especially since the garage now blocks all of the street lights from hitting that area).

 

Dude! This is awesome! And I think shy of the roof issues, you did this all yourself! AWESOME! And getting to use it will be great!

 

Im finally starting to turn the corner on this all being worthwhile which is really helping motivate me to start mapping out these finishing projects. Up until the electric turned on for the first time, it wasnt much more useful than a glorified storage unit. But now with power, Ive been able to start knocking out some long neglected maintenance. Ive even got the DD GTO back out there again now that both my power RV gate is fixed and Ive got a working garage door opener.

At this point, each of these projects will just be more icing on the cake.

I do really have to focus and get my butt moving on AC though. We've already topped 100 a few days and it gets pretty toasty in there even with the doors open / fan on. Certainly tolerable for necessary work, but not nice enough to voluntarily go hang out for fun projects yet.

 

Got the AC units mounted to the slabs. Those Quick Sling brackets are nice! The threaded legs made it super easy to level too (to counteract the drainage slope of the concrete).

I really needed to get that step done so I could figure out which stud bay the power and refrigerant lines will go into.

Unfortunately that's as far as I got this weekend with them. I got the disconnect boxes marked out, but my diamond hole saw for the stucco didnt show up until end of the night Sunday.



I did start in on gutters too. Didnt quite go to plan. Id bought fairly large drip edge (3" down, 4" onto the roof deck) back when we did the roof in the hopes of slipping the gutter up under the lip of it. Unfortunately between the rubber roofing going around the edge under the drip edge / excess glue from the roofing material and trying to get 10 feet of it tucked under all in one shot, I just couldnt get it in place alone.

So I pivoted to doing what I did on the covered patio - insert a 6" tall piece of aluminum flashing under the drip edge to sit inside of the gutter. Makes it a lot easier to mate up as it's a lot more flexible.

So I got about 25' of flashing up, but only the downspout end and first 10' section of gutter actually installed. Oh well, it should go faster now that Ive got a viable plan. To be fair, I also quit this project about mid day as I was absolutely baking on that roof as we neared 100F.

I do think Im second guessing my downspouts too. Id originally planned to just do 1 on each end to keep it cleaner looking, but that's an awful lot of roof to drain through a single gutter with just 2 spouts. I think Im going to add a 3rd, but it'll have to be offset from center to one side a bit to avoid the new driveway location.

 

Got both disconnects and the localized surge protectors installed. Hope to run the whips tomorrow.