We have light!

When I would tell people we were rewiring our house, they would almost always have the same reaction: something relating to blowing ourselves up, starting on fire, or electrocuting ourselves. Which, when my dad and Kevin were first talking about rewiring the house, was my reaction as well. I mean, it does sound like a scary project. Especially for someone whose electrical understanding consisted of teaching fifth graders how to make a flashlight out of pop cans and duct tape.

What I realized, as the project went on, however, was that it's actually pretty simple, and pretty benign. Kevin says it's like paint-by-numbers. As far as danger goes, it's hard to mess up rewiring to the extent of starting your house on fire. And the house is much safer now than it was before. The smoke detectors are hardwired together so if one goes off, they all will. We put in arc-fault circuit breakers for all three bedrooms. Also, the whole thing was checked by an inspector.

The only scary part was when Kevin installed the circuit breakers. The main power to the house is shut off, but there is still live power coming into the box. It is considered safe to work on, as the power would be pretty hard to accidentally touch, but it still made him nervous. I sat on a five-gallon pail beside him for moral support, though I was armed with a wooden broom handle and a cell phone. We flipped on each circuit breaker together.

I think the whole project came in a little under a thousand dollars. Most of that cost was in the circuit breakers and wire. The boxes, outlets, switches and cover plates were all pretty cheap, but we installed over fifty.

Light fixtures were one of the least expensive aspects, actually. I rewired the originals from the upstairs, and (gasp!) spray painted them antique bronze. Before anyone freaks out, they are metal, not worth a whole lot, and pretty darn ugly. Now, I think they look quite nice. I would say they were each about ten dollars to restore. I also rewired the cool porcelain fixture that used to hang in the foyer. It's going in the downstairs hall. The new foyer light is the one at the top of this post. It was cheap at the Depot. Don't mind the bad plaster job in the photo, just hasn't been fixed yet.

Anyway, point being, electrical work is not so scary. Especially once you're already in over your head financially and your moral has been strangled by extension cords. We've decided to take a project break and build up funds and energy. One can only go so long peeing by camp light before the ripped-up house thing gets old.

An open letter to my sister

Note: My sister moved into our house the day after we did to do an internship in the cities. Yesterday was her last day at our house.

Chris,

We, Sarah, Kevin and Arlo, would like to apologize for robbing you of your innocence. Parts of the life you once pictured, an old house to fix up, a dog to play with, have been tarnished in the short time you've been with us. These are the specific incidents I feel like we need to apologize for. If there are others we've forgotten, please remind me.

We're sorry the floors of the first room you lived in were so slanted your furniture wouldn't stay in one place. We're sorry that when you tried to clean the tub, it turned into a two-day project requiring plumber's putty and a gasket. We're sorry that you came back from a weekend away to find extension cords running throughout the house and wires sticking out of your walls. Most of all, we're sorry that when you left a month later, there were still extension cords running throughout the house and wires sticking out of your walls.

Arlo would also like to apologize for ruining your idyllic visions of life with a dog. He is sorry for throwing up all over your window. And eating it when you went to find something to clean it up with. He's sorry for jumping on your bed and getting mud all over it. He is sorry for sucking on your pillow, stealing things and running away with them, and getting dog hair all over your bed.

Anyway, I hope this covers most of our wrong-doings. Understand that we meant no harm and truly enjoyed your stay. Know that you're always welcome, and that future visits will not be so painful. We hope.

Love Sarah, Kevin and Arlo

More lessons learned

Push button switches are cool. Or at least that's what we thought when we saw them during the showing. There were three in the house, all on the same wall. We figured they must have skipped that wall during the electrical updating. No big problem, Kevin took home electrics in high school, he could fix it. Except, that wasn't the only thing. There was the fact that the foyer light was operated with a pull chain. That most of the light fixtures seemed original to the house's first wiring.

Hmmm.... The house has new electrical, right?

Well, no, not exactly. What it has is a new circuit box updated to 100 amp. There is a little Romex in the basement, but other than that, our wiring could serve as a museum exhibit: Wiring Throughout the Ages. There's a little of everything, mostly knob and tube. Scary.

Now, the thing about rewiring is, once you get going, it's hard to stop. everything is connected. So what began as an upper floor rewire soon became an upper-floor-and-most-of-the-main-floor rewire.

Our house is a weird design for a bungalow, which I attribute to it being relatively early on the scene. It was built in 1907. It has an upper floor with three bedrooms and a hallway. All of the bedrooms have slanty ceilings. The bathroom is downstairs, off the "hallway of doors" characteristic of bungalows. We have an eat-in kitchen, living room, dining room and huge foyer. The stairs are not hidden, but a fixture of the foyer. Anyway, the reason this is significant for the electrical is that we have scads of crawlspaces. Five, to be exact. Which makes rewiring a lot easier. We really only had to cut out a section of ceiling in the main floor hall, and everything else was accessed through crawl spaces.

Along the way, we've found some questionable wiring practices. My favorites:


Though we are not doing the bathroom or kitchen rewire yet (we're waiting until we remodel), we found this gem while removing our old stove. The wood paneling is the wall, gray linoleum the floor. That pipe is the gas to the stove. That snakey thing is Romex wire, coming up from the hole for the gas, and going into an unused outlet. From there it goes up through the wall to a light fixture with an outlet on it where the stove was plugged in. Real safe.







Next we have wiring installed under the quarter round in the master bedroom...









and a nail going right through the wire.








We are sooo close to being ready for the rough-in inspection, and I think after this weekend, we can start the fun stuff (new fixtures!). Until then, we have three working outlets in the house, and a lot of extension cords. Wish us luck.