Privatization and Low-Hanging Wires

The dirt guy can’t get his trucks onto my property in order to deliver the dirt because the trucks won’t fit under the wires.

It turns out the telephone wire hangs too low over the driveway. I estimated it is about 10′ above the driveway, and code is 15′. Even the tiny house wouldn’t fit (it is 13’6″).

Before I purchased the property, there was no driveway so it is understandable why it was never noticed or corrected.

Showing low-hanging wires too low over the driveway

I called 311 (city services). They inform me the city doesn’t own telephone poles, thus thanks to the magic of privatization, they cannot help me. They suggest contacting either Centerpoint (who own the poles) or AT&T (owners of the data wires), or both.

Centerpoint: get lost, pal

Warning, touching wires will kill you and hurt the whole time you're dying

Centerpoint tells me the wires on top of the pole are power and they maintain them. The lower wires don’t belong to them (that part of the pole is leased to other companies), so they aren’t responsible. So sad, too bad.

Telephone poles are divided into zones, with the higher the zone, the more dangerous the wire. Wires on the very top carry the most voltage, and wires on the bottom carry the least.

Nevertheless, it isn’t advisable to go around playing with any wires: the wrong voltage can kill you.

AT&T – Cower Before Us

AI-Generated: poorly-maintained telephone poles and tangled wires

The lower wires are the ones blocking my access, which means telecom. Upon calling AT&T (motto: “We make it hard so you’ll stop bothering us!”) the automated phone system helpfully suggests using their website “for faster service”.

Going to the page, I’m unable to do anything as the problem reporting tool assumes you are a customer, and keeps asking for my account number.

Back to the phones!

After being on hold for a while, it takes three transfers to get me to the right person. Each time I have to explain that I’m not a customer, my property is not a building, and this is about not about downed lines.

Finally, I get to the right person, explain the situation and they tell me they’ll send out a repair tech.

A month later and the work is still not done so I call again. The tech calls me the next morning saying he’s at the site, can verify the lines are sagging. He can’t raise them high enough because the telephone pole is leaning. You know, the pole they don’t own and have no control over. He says he’ll tighten the line and try to get Centerpoint to come fix their pole. I’m not going to hold by breath.

Try the PUC?

In desperation, I search for a solution online and discover there is actually a state Public Utilities Commission! The point me to the City’s Administration and Public Affairs department. There isn’t a formal complaint procedure (‘contact the utility and then contact APA if you aren’t satisfied’), so I follow the state PUC’s procedure:

  1. Try to resolve the problem with the utility
    • Document when, with whom, discussion notes and outcome of the call.
  2. After a sufficient time passes days (undefined, but I assume 20), contact the PUC
  3. If the complaint is legit and documentation indicates a good-faith effort to resolve, the PUC will contact the company.
  4. The company has 15 days to respond to the PUC.
  5. The PUC will investigate and determine if there was any legal malfeasance.
  6. If the company is at fault, fines will be assessed.

Step 1 – contact AT&T (again)

The last time I contacted AT&T was over a month before, so I contacted them again, documented who I spoke with, the date and time, and took notes about what was said.

Step 2 – wait

The clock starts and I make note of when I need to verify the work still isn’t done. A week before the deadline, I check the site and discover they finally fixed the wire!

Wires shown at proper distance above the driveway

Lessons Learned

Privatization has not resulted in lower prices and/or better service. It has resulted in higher prices and 💩 service. But freedom, I guess, whatever.

Next time, I’ll follow the PUC procedures, stay on top of it and hopefully that will result in a faster fix. All told, it took about 18 months to get this resolved.

Grade and Fill for Dummies

Things have been pretty quiet what with all the world-wide pandemic and all. In the meantime, I started planning a fence, but two things stopped me cold:

  1. The price of wood went through the roof
  2. The neighbor’s elevation changes caused more water to flow onto my property than normal
  3. I discovered I have several depressions significant enough to accumulate an excess of water
  4. Excess water will accelerate wood rot
  5. Wood rot will kill my fence fast

Ugh.

Wood? Wood!

Good news everyone! The price of wood came down!

Wait, no it didn’t.

Okay, we’ll pass on the wood for now.

Elevation, smellivation

I had to get an elevation survey in order to know how much dirt I would to grade and fill the property. Turns out most places I called never heard of them, but two did, one that cost way more and one that cost way less. The cheaper one was fishy, so I paid for the expensive one.

Before the surveyor came, I had to clear the jungle out and pile up all the trash donations people had provided me.

No more jungle!

Now I have some calculations to do. If the amount of dirt to grade and fill is lower than 1000 sq ft, I don’t need a permit. Stay tuned!

Driveway is in!

That was quick! Just a day or two delay due to rain, and the guys finished quickly. I had to call them to come tidy up the site a bit: the culvert pipe was clogged with mud from the construction, and they took care of it promptly.

The Driveway

Adding a Driveway

Getting the property prepped starts with being able to actually access the property. There’s a drainage ditch next to the road that has a dirt (mud, if you’re nasty and rainy) culvert covering a concrete pipe, but it isn’t clear if it is sturdy enough to support driving the tiny house across it, let alone trucks and cars.

This means we need a proper driveway.

Not dead yet!

Just a quick check-in. I have a bunch of old posts and photos I need to publish to catch you up to the current state.

I’ve run out of cash for building, and I have a big expense coming up: windows.

I would like to buy them all at once so I can get them all installed and be done with it. We’ll see!

See you (hopefully) soon!

Installing the roof

Installing Ondura is fairly easy, using nails that have a rubber washer near the head to prevent rain intrusion.

The manufacturer says you can install it over anything, so I decided to lay down Corning Weatherlock-G, which is a ice and water barrier. It is also rough on the top side, so it is possible to (barely) walk on it and not slide to your death. I used the same nails  on the Weatherlock as I did on the Tyvek .

Installing Ondura

Getting the roofing

In my original plan, I was going to get a metal roof. After doing a lot of thinking and research, I scratched that idea because, well, metal scratches. Because the house can move, if it goes under a low-hanging tree, a metal roof will get scratched up. This can cause it to rust, which is bad.

Regular shingles are out also, because they tend to fly off during high winds (or, in this case, when driving on the freeway).

I was turned on to Ondura by another Tiny Houser, and couldn’t be happier. It is lightweight, strong and very easy to work with. You can cut it with a box-cutting knife, jig saw or table saw.

Picking up Ondura from the store

Additional reinforcement

One area that requires additional reinforcement is the short wall — the one adjacent to the door. It is framed with 6×6 cedar posts, for strength.

As per the plans, in order to keep them from bowing, I threaded a 1/2 rod and anchored it with washers and nuts.

Threaded rod between 6×6 beams

After the rod is installed and tightened, it is time to cut off any excess:

Threaded rod excess

Installing the roof

We start with the bare rafters, and install 3/4″ plywood for the roof decking. The plywood has to be thicker because it must withstand the weight of the other roof elements (waterproofing, shingles), but also any ice or snow that may accumulate.

In a normal house, the rafters would be closer together, but we can get away with them spaced a little farther apart (~ 23 inches) because the house is so small compared to the plywood.

Interior looking up at a tarp covering the rafters

Installing the roof decking

Exterior with roof decking

Exterior view of the loft