Phil and his crew of three painters worked on the house all day. They had to touch up all of the windows because they had missed a part that's exposed when the windows are open. They also touched up the baseboards and crown moldings. And they painted the front door and sprayed a coat on clear varnish on the double doors leading to the family room.

Phil said one of his painters will return on Monday to finish up.

Early this morning, Bonanza Heating & Air Conditioning arrived to fix a gutter downspout and tied down the A/C condenser pad.

I went with our neighbors to Boething Tree Farm and looked for a tree to plant between our houses. They selected a Ginkgo Biloba tree in a 36" box, so I called Daniel Mendoza to let him know. Daniel told us to tag the tree; he'll pick it up on Monday.

The plumbers from SCM Plumbing came and moved the cutoff valve closer to the range.

They also secured the gas line to the attic furnace.

Ekrem and Dave from CBE Electric Co. finished putting while-in-use covers on all the exterior outlets.

They also pounded a 10 foot long grounding rod into the ground, about three feet from the edge of the basement, near the main panel and connected it the to grounding bar in the panel.

When I arrived at the job site this morning, Brad was just finishing up with the city inspector. The inspector asked for about eight or nine items to be fixed, including:

• the gas shutoff valve for the range must be within three feet of the range

• torque down all of the bolts in the electrical panels
• add while-in-use covers on all the exterior receptacles
• secure the A/C condenser pad to the ground
• some outlets were not working (they were probably turned off at the breakers because we only have temporary power)
• add insulation to the attic access panel
• add vacuum breakers on the handheld showers

Overall, the inspector said Brad did a great job, especially since this project has a basement, but he'll have to address these items and then call for another inspection. Hopefully that will happen early next week.

Ekrem showed up right after the inspector left and started to work on some of the items that needed to be corrected. I also told him about the light switches in bath #2 that didn't work, and he fixed them.

Later in the morning, Dana came to install the closet rods in the master closet.

He also started to install the flip-up cover above the vent hood in the kitchen, but he was very embarrassed to find that somehow he had miscalculated and ordered a panel that was about 3/4" too short! He'll need to order a new panel which will take a few weeks.

And finally, Tony came to the job site to stain the oak threshold at the front door. He's going to try and match the color of the walnut floors.

Brad called early this morning to say the cleaners had showed up to start working on the house. This was somewhat unexpected for us because we are in the middle of creating our punch list, and there's blue tape all over the walls. We told him to have them concentrate on cleaning the doors, windows, cabinets, and floors. They'll have to wait until Phil is done with paint touch-up before cleaning the walls.

When I arrived at the job site, the garage was all cleaned up and they were working on the kitchen and master bathroom. Brad came by a little later and I talked to him briefly. He needs to have the paperwork from SolarCity showing they passed their inspection because he scheduled his final inspection for TOMORROW!

National Construction Rental showed up around 11 AM and removed all of the construction fencing in about 15 minutes. Here's what the house looks like now.

And here are two pictures of the cleaned kitchen.

When I arrived at the job site, Josh, from SolarCity, was there waiting for the city inspector to show up. The inspector had wanted him to check the torque on the bolts holding the panels to the brackets. He had also wanted a sign on the inverter indicating where the DC disconnect switch is located.

Brad showed up later. He called National Construction Rental and scheduled them to remove the construction fencing tomorrow. It will be nice to see the house without the chain-link fence.

I spent the afternoon, moving stuff we wanted to save, from the garage to the storage room in the basement. Also, Argonaut Window & Door delivered our window screens sometime today -- they were all stacked in the back patio. So I moved all of them to the storage room too. Whew -- that was tiring!

Later in the evening I received an email from Josh describing how to turn on and off the solar power system. I suppose that means he passed the inspection.

We met with Brad today and walked though the house to discuss the punch list items. He asked us to write it up in a list to give to Phil, so we'll work on that this week.

Brad told us that he got the fire sprinkler installation approved by the fire marshal last week. He just needs the SolarCity approval and then he can go for final.

He called National Construction Rentals and asked them to remove our construction fencing. They'll be coming out on Wednesday to take it down. Yeah!

He also said he would call Edgar and have him come out to clean our our garage and remove the last of the construction debris.

After Brad left, a couple of plumbers from SCM Plumbing, Gabino and Antonio, came by to check on some things. First they verified that the sewer ejector pump and alarm are working properly. We filled up the sewer tub until the pump turned on and emptied it. Gabino then showed me what to do in case the alarm goes off (indicating the water level has risen above the float for the pump).

While we were in the utility room talking about the pump, he suggested that I install an expansion tank on the water heater. Since water expands as it heats up, it needs a place to go. But because of back flow valves, the water can't push back into the main supply. Expansion tanks are installed in the cold water line between the valve and the water heater to give the water somewhere to go.

Next the plumbers fixed the sump pump in the lower courtyard. The pump was pumping, but the water wasn't going anywhere. They disconnected the pump from the pipe and that cleared out whatever was causing the problem.

While working on the pump, Gabino noticed a problem with the bubbler box. He explained to me that the pipes from the sump pumps are at a lower level than the through-curb pipes leading out of the bubbler box (he said they should be higher). When the pumps are operating, the bubbler box fills up with water, but before it can overflow out to the gutter, the water starts to flow back into the pipes leading back to the pumps. Additionally, because the rocks they used in the bubbler box are smaller than the diameter of the pipes, they can flow back into the pipes and clog them up. I'll have to show Brad tomorrow if I see him.

Towards the end of the day, I checked on the inverter and electricity meter. When the panels were first powered on, the meter read 4558 kWh. Today, four days later, it read 4518. So right now we're generating about 10 kWh (net) each day. Woo Hoo!

We decided that I should try and take care of the easy punch list items. That way we can let Phil focus on the more difficult ones. So yesterday and today I worked on patching and painting walls -- I did the bedrooms upstairs and the some of the rooms in the basement. I will take care of all the walls with flat paint and leave the trim, ceilings, and glossy surfaces to Phil.