Green eyed monster

I have been debating whether or not to write this post.  I am a little worried that when you hear about our latest upgrade that you will be filled with envy.  But, I would rather that you hear it from me.  Once the word gets out on the street I can't be responsible.  "What?!" you are thinking, the suspense must be killing you...  A fabulous vacation?  Trip to Disney?  Countertops?  New living room furniture?  A real driveway? Alas, no.  The price tag may be the same, but come on, this is so much better...

[drum roll here]

Yup.  A brand spanking new electrical panel.  Two in fact.

When we moved in we got this little gem.  The trouble is the main breaker would trip.  Randomly, without warning, we would be plunged into darkness.  We thought at first maybe moisture was getting into the panel when it rained, but it didn't seem to be weather dependent.  We would walk down to the basement and flip the main breaker and all would be fine...until the next time it happened.

The husband spent many hours labeling what wires go to what switches...

The problem is one of two things...a faulty main switch or something too awful to mention.  Now regular folks in a regular house might just replace the main and be done with it, but as you should have figured out by now, we are not regular folks living in a regular house.  The existing panel is old and has some corrosion.  It was recommended to replace the entire panel.

The corroded beast

Okay so replace the electrical panel, not too terrible, right.  Well, the wires to the panel come through the bulkhead.  And then if you look at the wires themselves, well they travel quite a distance, through the tulip tree, the scotch pine and then out to the pole on the street.

Electrical Wires where they attach to the house

Wires through trees out to street

So we decided to replace the panel and also move the service to the other side of the house which is closer to the pole near the street...which means adding a second panel, then tying the two together and dealing with the north side of the house (i.e. strip siding, cover in Tyvek and re-side in fiber cement) to attach the new electrical panel.  Eventually the wires will go underground which should help prevent them coming down in a storm.

Stripping the east side...

Progress on the siding...


Someone is excited about the siding being finished!


The new meter arrived early last week...along with the town electrical crew...


The connected new service, wires travel a much shorter distance to the front of the house...


You will notice that I don't seem to have photos of the new electrical panels...  Nope, don't even think you are getting down in the cellar to see them...  Friends do not let friends ogle their electrical panels.  In fact, no matter how much you beg, I am not letting you down in the cellar.  Friends should just stay out of cellars (at least mine)!

Phase II - Internet Connectivity...Check!

Last Night we moved the Cable Internet and Phone line from the dining room into the remodeled office.

Ready to fish the Internet line into the new wall...

Of course, nothing is without its challenges...  The fishing line broke off and created a bit of a dilemma as to how to get the cable into the box...  Thankfully the hallway is still unfinished and we were able to remove a piece of wallboard to fish the wire that way... Someone put the wallboard on extra snug (and then added a door) so there was a bit of cussing...

The husband stuffing himself behind the now-removed wallboard to fish wire through to box on other side...

Line in, desk moved, Internet and Phone re-connected. Amazingly enough, everything is WORKING!!

The wall before...

The wall after...more mess...

I heard a rumor that the hallway might be next...note to self, finish wiring before putting up the wallboard!

A shocking new find...

I mean that title literally.

[caption id="attachment_627" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Seemingly innocuous wire sticking out of wall..."][/caption]

Apparently there is this wire that sticks out of the wall, up by the ceiling, over the cabinets in the kitchen.  We've never really paid any attention to it before.  It's white, the walls are white.  We have no idea where it goes or why it is there.

Just for fun the other day T got out his wire tester and what do you know...it's live.  Not really too surprising (except to anyone who touched it), but it is sitting next to a metal canning pot.

Yes, I realize that you do not mess with electricity and even the AC current in a wall outlet can be fatal.  I guess I am glad it is up at the ceiling and that no one has apparently touched it.  One more item for the to-do list...  Maybe also time to brush up on:  Avoiding Electrical Shocks for Dummies

Also a reminder of why we don't play with electricity...

[caption id="attachment_92" align="alignnone" width="300" caption=""I guess it was live""][/caption]

I love this photo.  Credit due to Mike Kemp/Rubberball Productions/Getty Images

Happy New Year!!!

The motto for 2012 around here is:  no new demolition until we finish something! We have learned that it takes much less time to destroy things than to put them back...

T is busy rebuilding the walls of the office.  It looks like two of the original windows have been removed and filled in with scraps.  He has the outer wall insulated and is working on the back wall which a carpenter's nightmare and requires a lot of new framing.  We are going to insulate the back wall as well (originally it was the end of the house).  The room beyond it was an old porch and has very little insulation and is always cold.  We usually shut that room off in the winter, but right now it has no door.

Fantastic new years discoveries:

1. While ripping out the back wall framing, T managed to put a hole in the baseboard pipe.  So now we have to empty a drip pan every day. He tried clamping it, but it still leaks.  In fact I think his fix made it leak more.  It looks like he may need to shut down the furnace and drain the lines to repair it.  What a great time of year for no heat...
   
   [caption id="attachment_598" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Leaking Pipe"][/caption]


2. During a particularly heavy sideways driving rain storm we discovered that we have a leak.  Because the back wall is torn apart we could see the rain dripping down the inside of the wall.  This means yet another delay as he has to fix the flashing where the old porch (aka playroom) attaches to the main house.  There is no end to the fun.


3. We ripped out all the old wiring and many, many junction boxes buried in the ceiling and walls, not to mention a live wire that disappeared into the dining room ceiling and didn't go to anything.  So while the new wiring is roughed in and inspected we have to wait until the wall board is up to connect it.  Basically we now have no power in that room.  Not sure when we will be back on the grid (see #1 and #2)...and yes Virginia, this is affecting progress on the bathroom.
   
   [caption id="attachment_601" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="The current state of the bathroom"][/caption]

Here are some quotes for you...

T:  "So, what do you want for Christmas this year?"

Me:  "A floor in the bathroom"

T:  "No...really."

I did not get one.

Me: "I need to take down the Christmas tree soon."

R: "If you leave it up the mice won't chew it."

After getting pulled over for speeding...and finding out my license had expired (another reason I hate January birthdays - don't worry he did let me go straight to the registry to get it renewed):

R:  "Mom, can we go slow this time?"

Jack bought Rory a Christmas present this year with his own money.  Rory was dying to know what it was, but Jack would not tell him anything because he wanted it to be a surprise.  Rory was trying to wheedle some clues out of him and finally came up with this:

R: This isn't a question about the present.

J: Okay.

R: Where did you buy the present?

J: ???!!!

How to electrocute your husband...

Not my actual husband - from Mike Kemp/Rubberball Productions/Getty Images

Step 1.  blow a fuse in your home
Step 2.  decide to fix it yourself
Step 3.  go in basement and switch all the off fuses to on.
Step 4.  test - fuse still blown
Step 5. go upstairs to sub-panel and switch all the off fuses to on.
Step 6.  test - fuse still blown
Step 7.  report problem to husband who explains that when a fuse is blown it does not go to "off" but rather to the middle and you need to click it to off then on to reset (oh!)
Step 8.  Reset tripped fuse by following step 7.
Step 9.  test - all power is restored
Step 10.  Don't reset all the others back to "off"
Step 11.  Forget to mention that you switch everything to "on"
Step 12.  Wait for yelling when wiring projects commence...

Disclaimer: No husbands were actually hurt in the writing of this blog.  Slightly shocked and stunned maybe, but not actually electrocuted.

Upgrading the thermostat...

Who would think you would have enough to blog about replacing a thermostat? Easy, right?!

Well, two days of no heat and after sneaking in a phone call to Dad... I at least realized that we didn't blow up the furnace (phew)...

Did a little Internet research and found someone else with a similar situation who had purchased a defective NEW thermostat. Decided to return that one to the store and try again. What do you know - the new one was defective and the next one installed very quickly!

Words of wisdom...

• Sometimes it really isn't you!


• There are only so many wires and so many slots




• 




• It really is okay to cross low voltage wires and start up the furnace - sparks aside!!

So we are back to having heat - and we can program the settings for energy savings and the town will refund us back $25 so it's win win all around.

The only downside is my husband's little temper tantrum where he took his frustration out on the poor wall - which is when I took over... Luckily it's small...just one more thing to fix I guess...