October 13, 2003:
     9:10am: Went to the City office this morning to look into getting permits for the underground stuff.  They were closed at 8:30 when I went so I will go again real soon.  Started thinking that if the bid for this part comes back too high, I might attempt doing the underground stuff myself (ourselves).  What the hell. If it's going to cost THOUSANDS of dollars for someone to come and dig our yard up and put some plumbing in, why can't I just do that myself. I remember Marty and I digging a much larger and more pain-in-the-ass trench for a plumbing company when we were 17.  No reason I can't pick up a shovel now.  The only problem with this is that once I have a trench dug, I'm not sure what I need to do underneath! Well, I can always learn.  ANYWAY...We'll see what John Palmer has to say when I have permits and he gets me a price. Kriss and I have the dollars, so we have the power and we've signed NOTHING with either of the contractors so far. I hope it works easy and cheap, but if not, we just have to say "we can't afford it now, we'll have to put it off" to the contractors and go for the next step ourselves.
     10:20am:  Got back from the city, where they gave me piles of more information and news that I would have to run AROUND the site with the sewer. Application and permit fees (a couple hundred maybe) and some more plan approvals upcoming.  Here we go. 
     Went home and called Jim Bily the city inspector who approved the site/drainage plan and left a message. He'll call later I hope.  Then I called John Palmer who said I should tell Bily what we were doing and get a permit to put pipe under the addition, rerouting would be trouble.  Also asked palmer about price and he said $4200. Kriss and I think this is reasonable and we'll go with it.  I didn't tell him that yet, but I will. I first need to talk to Bily and let him know what we're going to do.  We'll see.
     I had a bit of reservation this morning (lots) and a sinking depressed feeling as I did not know what the future needs would be. Now that I have a clearer picture my spirits are up a bit. Feeling good, Lewis. Anyway...the days go on and we still look forward to starting. Hopefully THIS WEEK ! AAAAAAHHH.   

October 14, 2003:
     8:30am:  Went to the city office again and talked to Jennifer Campbell about the plan that I had in hand for replacing the sewer pipe.  She put me in touch with an engineer (Jim Strike??~spelling? Last name?).  He looked at it and said all was fine, but that we'd need to have a licensed 'side sewer' guy. John Palmer is not yet licensed with the City Of Redmond to do that stuff.
     9:00am: Got to the city office for the water line replacement permit and got a call from the sewer inspector Jim Bily. He wants to meet on site, so I went and met him and he said he'd talk to the sewer engineer and see what we needed for sewer.
     10:00am: Jim Bily sees me back at the office of the city where I picked up our permit for the water line (paid for) and tells me that as long as we use either SCHEDULE 40 ABS or if the sewer is already CAST IRON that we're cool.
     10:20am: Told John Palmer that the city needs for him to be on the list of side sewer people. He says he'll go down and take care of that today.
     WOW. That's an interesting morning.
     10:25am:  Right now. Going to call Scott Tallman and let him know where we stand.

The existing water heater. I took this photo as the permit for the sewer line asks for info about size of water main, but as it turns out that info is unnecessary for the permit. The picture remains though, and pictures are cool!