My Old House

Issues and Events involving our Home in Independence, Missouri
My Old House on Winner Road
8/22/2004

And I didn’t have to do anything!

Filed under: Bedrooms,Electrical and Lighting — Admin @ 9:25 am

Well, today was a work-day for me.

But while I was gone, a friend of my wife, Donna… and her husband, Steven, came over.

You see, it turns out, Steven actually did some of the electrical rewiring on our house back in 1983. But he admits that it was mostly external / outside wiring that he did.

He looked into that “shocking socket” problem we have been having in the NW bedroom.

I don’t have the firm details, but Terry tells me that he “did something to put in Ground” at both the light socket and at the ceiling light fixture itself.

He also gave her a shopping list, telling her to go get a few things from the hardware store. At some later date, he’s going to put in some extra fixtures to help solve a problem for Terry: There’s currently a light near the washer and dryer in the basement…. a light for which we cannot find the stupid light switch!

Apparently, Steven couldn’t find it either, so I don’t feel so stupid. (However, I swear that the Realtor knew where the switch was for that thing when we toured the house before we bought it !) So, he plans on putting in a switch for her for that light. I know there’s something else she said he was going to install, but I’m not sure what.

I kind of wish I’d have had a chance to talk with him. I’ve been thinking about possibly planning some additional wiring projects:

1) Put a receptacle in each room that has ports on it for cable, telephone, and possibly a left speaker and a right speaker jack.
2) Replacing the current smoke detectors with hard-wired smoke detectors.

Yeah, it’d cost money. But I think I could do some of this work myself, once I’m comfortable with cutting through plaster walls a bit and using a fishtape.

We’d also been thinking about hiring somebody to install a ceiling fixture in the master bedroom, so that Terry could have her ceiling fan back, so she might get a better night’s sleep. Plus, I’m mildly annoyed that there are no electrical boxes on the outside of the home… plus there’s a work-bench area in the basement that could use one.

Some fun projects for the future !

8/21/2004

Fix the Shocking Socket !

Filed under: Bedrooms,Electrical and Lighting — Admin @ 10:46 am

The NW bedroom had a “shocking” surprise for us the first night in the house. We slept in that room on that night and both my wife and I got electrical shocks while turning on and off the light switch! We had been careful after that to touch ONLY the plastic “switchy-thingy” (the part that actually moves).

Well, today I decided to try to fix it. I opened it up and was surprised to see that one of the main wires basically has 4 inches of exposed, uninsulated copper !! This piece appears to be sqeezed somewhat into the fixture and part seems to be protruding a bit outward, towards the switch plate. I …



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