Monday, November 29, 2010

Rewiring--What an Adventure!?#

Our remodeling project is slowly coming along.  We decided that four outlets with three prongs instead of two prongs would be a good thing for in my sewing room.  Fishing wiring through walls can be an interesting adventure and messy.  This project should have been done before we had insulation blown in the walls, but it was very hot this summer and I didn't want Dean working in a hot attic stringing wire.  Oh well--what's done is done :)  

Even though it's a pain, it's worth having safe wiring in the house.  Once we're done with my sewing room, two out of the four rooms upstairs will have new wiring.  When you live in a 110 year old house, the wiring can be extremely interesting.  People through the years have added on outlets and ceiling lights so when you trip a breaker it can be connected to several different rooms--an outlet upstairs, a ceiling light downstairs, ect.  I think you're getting the picture.  When we first moved in 28 years ago, my Uncle Bob was wonderful.  He replaced the old fashioned fuse box with a new breaker box.  Now we think it's a good idea to replace the wiring and try to have one breaker per room.  The wiring is probably 40 years old.  One thing I have overcome was the fear of sticking my arm in the wall and trying to find the wire that Dean was fishing up through the layers of insulation from downstairs.  He does have a sense of humor with me as his helper.  I'm trying to find the wire and getting more frustrated by the moment.  He comes up and sticks his hand in the wall and pulls out the wire with a silly grin on his face :)  I was looking in the opposite direction.



 Pictured above is a pillow that I made many years ago for a kid's quilting class.  It's sort of flat and old, but a great cushion for the knees when you're kneeling on the floor.  Just in case you're interested--the wiring on the right is the old wiring and on the left is the new.  The new has a ground wire.





This room has subflooring so we didn't have to fish it through the wall, but through the little canal which the woodwork will be nailed above.  I'm thinking about gluing the quarter round to the wood trim.  We don't need any nails accidently hitting wiring!  If it wasn't for my husband, I would have hired someone to do electrical wiring.  It can be extremely dangerous if you don't know what you're doing.
  My expertise is in quilting!



There is one thing for sure.  If you and your husband can do a wiring project together and still have a solid marriage afterwards, you're doing great :)  Dean is up in the attic and he wants me to screw on the nut that is on the left side in the picture below.  It just wouldn't screw on.  I think I dropped it three or four times.  Finally we did get it together!!!  I'm just not cut out for this type of work.




Now I know why I'm a quilter and not an electrician.

Happy Quilting!!!

Kay Lynne

1 comment:

Needled Mom said...

It will be so much safer too. I'd stick to quilting myself too.