October 29, 2025 - Basement Electrical - Concrete Work - Garage Vines - Workbench - Cellar Entrance - Bed+Mattress - Furnace Checked Out

My Blog Reflection

Our greatest responsibility is to be great ancestors.

Jonas Salk

October 29, 2025

Today John and I finished the basement electrical upgrade at Alexa's house. There were only two wall outlets in the basement when we started, one for the washing machine and one for the furnace. The furnace is plugged into an outlet rather than hardwired to a switch. I may change that in the future.

The basement lighting consisted of a bulb screwed into a porcelain ceiling fixtures in six places throughout the basement. Each porcelain fixture had a receptacle for a plug. All of the light fixtures are controlled by a switch at the top of the stairs and each fixture had a chain to turn individual lights off and on. This picture shows the ceiling fixture. Very old school.

We installed five four-foot LED double bulb light fixtures and five receptacle drops throughout the basement. All new outlets are GFI protected. Adding these outlets, as well as future outlets for the garage, required the subpanel John installed earlier. John also found several circuits with two wires on them. He separated those out as well. I will have a job tracking down all the circuits to properly label them in the electrical panel and subpanel.

October 31, 2025:

We got Homer out of the storage unit to winterize him. It is sad how little we were able to use him this summer.

In devastating news, I learned this afternoon that my good Michigan friend, Chris, died this morning after being on Hospice less than a week. I will so miss him. We met as next door neighbors at an RV park in Florida some years ago and we just had an instant connection. Those connections don't often happen particularly as we age. I am so glad Kelly and I got to visit with him in Michigan in August. He and I hugged and cried knowing we would never have another chance to see each other. 

November 1, 2025:

The concrete contractor arrived at Alexa's house this morning and started cutting out some old concrete to pour new concrete. The new concrete will divert water from the house and allow for the burial of the downspout drain pipe as well as a conduit to add electric to the garage. I will meet him there on Monday to supervise the burial of the downspout drain pipe and the electric conduit. This project will be a big improvement to the back entrance from the driveway and garage.

November 3, 2025:

The guys arrived at 7:00 a.m. and jackhammered out some old concrete to get the downspout drain under the concrete and way from the house. Also in the same trench will be the conduit to run electric to the garage.

I was on the scene to install an elbow and a "Y" for a cleanout on the downspout and to glue on elbows on the electric conduit so that it would stick up out of the concrete for future connections. This is a picture of the downspout drain pipe heading toward the backyard with the electric conduit underneath.

The electric will enter the garage at this point. From there we can run lights and outlets, and hopefully a garage door opener.

Here is a picture of the poured concrete. It is a big improvement over having to step over the drain pipe and for installing conduit for electric to the garage. A bonus is a little sitting area where weeds used to grow.

November 4, 2025:

Alexa and I hauled off the broken concrete to a ditch on John's farm where it will slow down erosion.  

By luck I happened upon a decent workbench with a vise for sale on Facebook Marketplace. After unloading the concrete Alexa and I drove to Festus, Missouri, purchased it, and loaded it in the truck. Once back at the house we let the bench sit in the driveway overnight to keep it off the new concrete for another day.  

After I left Alexa got busy painting the cellar doors. Here is a before and after picture. She did a great job.

November 5, 2025:

It was a nice day for working outside so we got busy cutting the huge vine off of the back of the garage. The vine was up to six inches in diameter in areas and had become "one with the downspout, the gutter, the wall, and the roof".  Here are a couple of pictures. I never saw anything like it. The vine grew between the siding and the soffit area, as well as over a third of one side of the roof. We had to tear a large portion of the soffit and facia off to get the vine loose and out from between the soffit and siding where it was growing inside the garage.

It literally wrapped itself around the gutter.

It also totally wrapped itself around the downspout completely filling the large gap between the downspout and the garage wall.

It has been a long time since this gutter functioned properly.

Here is the vine wrapped around the gutter and headed up on the roof.

The vine grew between the shingles on the roof. While pulling and cutting it off a couple of pieces shingle came off as well but no major damage that I could see.

Taking advantage of the weather we then decided to tackle the dead tree which sat about ten feet out from the porch in the backyard. It was so rotten we could push against it and it would move. I used my Sawsall with the large pruning blade we used on the vine to cut a large branch off, which could have hit the garage, and another that could have it the porch when the tree fell. Then Alexa and I literally rocked the tree trunk three times until the entire tree fell over in the backyard. I'll bring the chainsaw over the cut the wood up next week.

We then moved the workbench into the basement. There is a walled off corner in the basement which will make a great work area. The door into the area is really narrow so we had to remove the door to get the workbench in.

Alexa then got busy scraping the loose paint off the cellar entry walls and vacuuming up the debris. I told her I would not repaint it. Just let the rest of the paint flake off.

Alexa's new bed arrived so In the late afternoon Alexa, Kelly, and I put the bed together. Alexa then cut the mattress open. I took a video of the mattress expanding but it was too large to download.

November 6, 2025:

Gary came over in the morning and checked out the furnace. He cleaned the burners and vacuumed everything out. It is working like a charm, ready for winter.

Alexa is staying busy unpacking boxes and putting things away. Once her sheets and window shades arrive she will be ready to move in. She is a hard worker.