Thursday, August 15, 2013

Cardinal Homes Blew Us Away!

Remember when the hubs and I, mostly the hubs, took on the project of trying to install the fan on our porch, which turned out to be an epic fail?

If not here is what we started with:

porch, light, fan, menards, junction box

and.....


This is what we ended with:

porch, light, fan, menards, junction box

Then Cardinal Homes LLC blew us away when they offered to help us out and we ended up with this:


The light in our porch was on the same switch as our front light, which drove me nuts for the past 3 1/2 years when I would want to turn on the outside light, practically the entire neighborhood would be lit up from both lights being on!  I always dreamed of having a fan/light on our porch, something to turn on when its so hot out and to keep a cool breeze on those warm sticky days!

 We had a ton of ideas to try to install this fan:


porch, light, fan, menards, junction box
source

Some included rerunning electrical to make each light on a different switch, but we weren't sure how to hold the box to the ceiling since it was just loosely hanging out.

porch, light, fan, menards, junction box

Most of them took way too much time and money and we decided to deal with just having the light on in the porch until we could figure it out.  Right after that fail of a project I was diagnosed with breast cancer and then this project, along with 80,000 other ones went way far on the back burner.

Well before my double mastectomy surgery, my sister surprised me.  A co-worker of hers reads my blog and read about this epic fail of a project and forwarded it to her brother who is the General Manager at Cardinal Homes LLC, located in New Berlin, WI, to see if there was anything that he would be able to do to help out the hubs and I.

We were at my moms and her boyfriends house for a cookout and this is when my sister surprised me, on video, while telling me the news. (Sorry about the blurry-ish video and the language towards the end, but frankly I was so excited that it just came out!)





I was shocked, taken back, in awe, surprised and thought that I had to be pinched!

So a few days later I was put in contact with David the electrician, who came out to take a look at the "situation".  He figured it out that he would re-run the wiring and have one for the outside light, and one for the porch light/fan.  To make David's job easier, Chad and I had decided to help him out and pre-cut the hole in our dining room wall that borders with the porch so the wires could be ran through and down to the switch.  

We thought..."oh easy peasy" and our biggest concern was getting plaster on the floor.  Boy were we wrong. 

The hubs cut a square whole in the wall, and once the lathe came off, almost immediately we were being showered with vermiculite.  We knew that our walls had it, but didn't realize that we were going to have three garbage bags and a floor covered in the crap.  We had dealt with it before in our downstairs bathroom gut job and our kitchen project, but this one caught us off guard.





We got it all cleaned up and David came over the next morning.

David explained to Chad and I that he would be using a Saf-T-Brace, and insert it and extend it out until it reached the framing on each side and "dug" its way in for support.

cardinal homes, new berlin, electrical panel, fan, lighting, electrical update, switches, saf-t-brace


cardinal homes, new berlin, electrical panel, fan, lighting, electrical update, switches, fan, light, menards

David then re-ran the wiring because frankly the wiring going to the light in the porch was probably just as old as the house....

cardinal homes, new berlin, electrical panel, fan, lighting, electrical update, switches, fan, light, menards

cardinal homes, new berlin, electrical panel, fan, lighting, electrical update, switches, fan, light, menards

cardinal homes, new berlin, electrical panel, fan, lighting, electrical update, switches, fan, light, menards

and after a few hours of David working his magic we now have this:

cardinal homes, new berlin, electrical panel, fan, lighting, fan, light, menards, electrical update, switches

cardinal homes, new berlin, electrical panel, fan, lighting, electrical update, switches

cardinal homes, new berlin, electrical panel, fan, lighting, electrical update, switches
Words cannot even begin to express the amount of gratitude that we have for both Davids at Cardinal Homes!!  With their generous offer we were able to check off one stresser that has been bothering both of us for a while now and both Chad and I don't have to worry about our house having any weird electrical issues.

Speaking of how amazing Cardinal Homes is, when David was over I showed him our panel in our basement to see if there was anything they could do to help us out with it.

When the hubs and I were working on our kitchen renovation, like all the other rooms in the house, the electrical was old and completely out of date so we had it updated with some assistance of the father-in-law!  While all the wiring in the kitchen was done we managed to get it "working" in the basement, but it wasn't complete as you can tell.

cardinal homes, new berlin, electrical panel, fan, lighting, electrical update, switches
While the porch light/fan situation stressed me out before David came over and helped us out, every time I would go in the basement to do laundry the unfinished electrical panel stressed me out 1,000 times more. Mine and the hubs' schedule is so jacked up that we never had a chance to have the remainder of the electrical hooked up into the panel, so it stayed like that for approximately a year, give or take.

David and Cardinal Homes came to our rescue yet again and put our minds at ease and now our panel is hooked up and closed up and I am no longer dreading going into the basement.

cardinal homes, new berlin, electrical panel, fan, lighting, electrical update, switches


cardinal homes, new berlin, electrical panel, fan, lighting, electrical update, switches

cardinal homes, new berlin, electrical panel, fan, lighting, electrical update, switches
It is absolutely amazing how although the hubs and I are going through the most stressful situation we have ever encountered in our lives, that its the little things that make us feel so completely blessed.  

Cardinal Homes is fully bonded, insured and licensed.  Not only do they work on electrical, but they also offer free consultations on siding, doors, windows, gutters, soffit and trim, decks, additions/sun rooms, roofing and attic insulation.  They offer 12 month-no interest payments (subject to credit approval).  

My experience with them was amazing and they are punctual, on time and reliable and I would recommend them to anyone who is interested in having any work done on their home!

Cardinal Homes is involved with NARI (National Association of the Remodeling Industry), they rank an A- with the BBB and are also on Angie's List.



Their contact information is:

Cardinal Homes LLC
17500 W Liberty Lane
New Berlin, WI 53146
262-782-3828

 Angies List link for Cardinal Homes  BBB® Accredited Business Seal





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