Red Hot Men and Hawks

I know I am terrible, I knew that would get your attention!

Today there was a flurry of activity around here! The plumbing men from Hawk Mechanical were here to install the air conditioner compressor unit and the men from Red Hot Electrical were here to work on all of the extensive rewiring that the house needs.

I think the men from Hawk were totally amazed that the compressor that they were removing was actually still in working order! It appears that unit has been here since the house was built back in 1963. The outside cover was so sun beaten and faded the side air fins were bent as well as it was a small unit. That is probably why my electric bill has always been so high in the summer time even when I would try to be conservative and not turn the cooling down as low as I would have liked in order to feel more comfortable.

They went right to work, setting up a new type of pad to set the unit on and get it installed so the electrician could hook up the unit. The new pad amazed me. It looks like it is made out of stone, with a pebbled surface but it is like a box cover, rather than a solid piece of stone. I didn’t ask but I am pretty sure it was made out of some type of precast lightweight material. They didn’t seem to have much trouble lifting it and putting it into place.

They will have to return to install the new water heater but I think the carpenters need to return first to do some cutting on the closet area where that will be sitting. Because of the new code standards, they will need to bring the water heater up off the floor, probably at least 12 inches to 18 inches. There was some discussion as to whether they would be able to get to the top of the tank to service it if the closet remains as it is.

The electricians were here all day and will need to return probably tomorrow to complete the rest of the outside work on the patio. They had to run new 220 wiring for the dryer which will be brought into the laundry room from the little outside patio storage room where it now sits. That is going to be such a blessing not to have to walk outside in the winter to put clothes into the dryer! It is going to be so convenient now!

They also had to run new wiring for all the smoke detectors that are now in each bedroom and in the hallway. The new building code requires that each bedroom and the hall leading into those bedrooms have a hardwired smoke detector. Hardwiring means that they have to be wired into your electrical circuitry rather than the battery operated units that you buy at the store.

I felt so sorry for Mike because he was the one who had to go up into the attic, crawl around in all the insulation material, being careful to find the joists so that he didn’t fall through the ceiling and run all the wiring through the holes. Of course it wouldn’t have been quite as bad if he hadn’t forgotten his cover-up jumpsuit! But there he was, in his short sleeved red tee shirt, emblazoned with their yellow logo and a pair of gray knee length shorts and tennis shoes crawling around in that itchy fiberglass blown in insulation which he said was about three feet deep! At lease one of our worries was solved we weren’t sure if we were going to have to add additional insulation to bring that up to code!

They had to also do some major rewiring and reposition a breaker box for the air conditioner unit. The existing connection had a break in the line, where the metal conduit has worked its way loose at a joint and had left the electrical wiring exposed and it had frayed. The decision was made to move the breaker box over closer to the compressor unit and thus eliminate the need to run another new long piece of conduit piping and to attach it to the exterior wall of the house.

Once the compressor unit was hooked up and charged with Freon, I couldn’t believe how quickly the air inside the house cooled down. There was an immediate difference in not only how cool the air was but the volume of air that is now coming through the ceiling duct work.

There was lots of ribbing going on when Doug started to take out the old sensor light unit at the back door. It hadn’t worked in so long, I wasn’t sure if there was a short in the electric switch, the lights were burned out or if I didn’t know how to operate the settings on the unit. After some testing, it was determined that the light unit it self was kaput! He asked me if I had another light fixture of if they would need to go get one, since I wanted another sensor unit installed. I told him nope I didn’t have another fixture but I had plenty of flood lights, and I went to grab the bag out of the shed and low and behold there is not one but two sensor fixtures and one box of two flood lights and all along I thought it was three boxes of light bulbs. As I rummaged around in the sack and pulled out my treasured find, I came across the receipt. They were purchased back in July of 2005! Doug and Mike both began teasing me about my “good intentions” and I told them, I don’t mess with electricity! I had purchased them on sale with the hopes that my son could get up here from Texas and install them for me.

Red Hot Electrical is out of Mc Loud, Oklahoma and also works all over the state of Oklahoma. They not only do residential work but commercial work as well. If you want good dependable workers that know their trade, give them a call

Red Hot Electrical
405-760-3420
Mc Loud Oklahoma

I must say I have been very impressed with each and every crew that has worked on my house thus far. Not only have they been professional and courteous but they have cleaned up after themselves, not leaving a mess for me to have to follow behind and pick up after.

Depending on the weather and how much still needs to be done up in Weatherford, Oklahoma on a project, the roofers should be here either Thursday or Friday but if we get rain as predicted, it may be Saturday before they can begin.

Keep your fingers crossed!