cabbitzilla (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cabbitzilla) wrote2004-02-29 03:21 pm
cabbitzilla) wrote2004-02-29 03:21 pm
The Continued Joys of Home Ownership
Friday afternoon, Soulkiller came up with a brand new trick to terrorize and confound me.
We've had problems with overloaded electrical circuits since we moved into this house; the wiring is 55 years old and such was to be expected, really. So having Megan yell 'Reset the breaker!' from the back of the house is neither unusual nor cause for alarm. Friday evening, she sounded the call, and I tromped to the breaker box to throw the switch again.
But the circuit hadn't popped. I looked at it oddly, then wandered back to my bedroom (also on the same circuit) and flipped on the light. And it lit. So I scratched my head and then shrugged, figuring she'd moved something in the room and the mini breaker on the surge protection strip had popped... or she'd bumped the switch and turned it off. I found the switch in the 'On' position, the breaker still engaged... and that the overhead light in her bedroom was dead too.
This is new. Now this house is laid out with a consistent arrangement; each bedroom has two electrical outlets and an overhead light. The front half of the house (her bedroom, my bedroom, the living room, and the hallway overhead light) is all on one breaker, and the back half (the dining room, kitchen, bathroom, electrical outlet in the hall, and the third bedroom) are all on another. So I did a little poking, and discovered that everything in the house worked... except the overhead light and one of the two outlets in Megan's room. The other worked fine.
Hrm. My mind immediately guessed at a junction box in the attic (which would give a -midget- claustrophobia). My mind also very graciously informed me how ragged my general electrical knowledge is; it was part of the information that the strokes seem to have misfiled for me. Great. But the plus side is that my father is a professional electrician, and he lives close by. So I picked up the phone and tried to call him... and played phone tag with him all day Saturday. Today, we finally hooked up and he came over.
And spent three solid hours making repairs, before he found and fixed the problem that'd prompted my initial call. He found and repaired four different faults before he found and fixed the fifth (that was causing the immediate problem). The trouble is, the first three were all -extreme- fire hazzards.
But folks don't want to believe me when I insist that this house is trying to kill me. They laugh at me when I refer to it as Soulkiller
While he was here, I showed him the two plumbing-related issues we've been having. He thinks they're fairly easy fixes, and will come back when he's got more time. At least that won't require going into the attic.
And off the subject... I'm hungry.
We've had problems with overloaded electrical circuits since we moved into this house; the wiring is 55 years old and such was to be expected, really. So having Megan yell 'Reset the breaker!' from the back of the house is neither unusual nor cause for alarm. Friday evening, she sounded the call, and I tromped to the breaker box to throw the switch again.
But the circuit hadn't popped. I looked at it oddly, then wandered back to my bedroom (also on the same circuit) and flipped on the light. And it lit. So I scratched my head and then shrugged, figuring she'd moved something in the room and the mini breaker on the surge protection strip had popped... or she'd bumped the switch and turned it off. I found the switch in the 'On' position, the breaker still engaged... and that the overhead light in her bedroom was dead too.
This is new. Now this house is laid out with a consistent arrangement; each bedroom has two electrical outlets and an overhead light. The front half of the house (her bedroom, my bedroom, the living room, and the hallway overhead light) is all on one breaker, and the back half (the dining room, kitchen, bathroom, electrical outlet in the hall, and the third bedroom) are all on another. So I did a little poking, and discovered that everything in the house worked... except the overhead light and one of the two outlets in Megan's room. The other worked fine.
Hrm. My mind immediately guessed at a junction box in the attic (which would give a -midget- claustrophobia). My mind also very graciously informed me how ragged my general electrical knowledge is; it was part of the information that the strokes seem to have misfiled for me. Great. But the plus side is that my father is a professional electrician, and he lives close by. So I picked up the phone and tried to call him... and played phone tag with him all day Saturday. Today, we finally hooked up and he came over.
And spent three solid hours making repairs, before he found and fixed the problem that'd prompted my initial call. He found and repaired four different faults before he found and fixed the fifth (that was causing the immediate problem). The trouble is, the first three were all -extreme- fire hazzards.
But folks don't want to believe me when I insist that this house is trying to kill me. They laugh at me when I refer to it as Soulkiller
While he was here, I showed him the two plumbing-related issues we've been having. He thinks they're fairly easy fixes, and will come back when he's got more time. At least that won't require going into the attic.
And off the subject... I'm hungry.