Do you smell smoke?
OK, we have been through redecorating the dining room.
And, I have been up to my armpits in insulation fixing the air conditioner.
Well, last week the lights in the laundry area were giving me attitude. Not the light bulbs mind you, but the actual light fixture. How do I know this you may ask, well every time we turned on the switch there was a loud electrical crack and the breaker poped off power to a quarter of the house. (Just a little hint, huh!)
To be safe I had an electrition take a look at it to make sure it wasn’t the house wiring. He said he could fix it for just three million dollars, which was just an estimate. (could be more once he got in there).
Of course you and I know this could mean only one course of action.
A trip to Lowes.
The replacement fixture and glass globe were under $14.00, but what concerned me was connecting the right wires. In a house there is no red wire for hot and black wire for ground. Both wires are black. When I asked my helpful Lowes associate, he suggested I grab both wires with the breaker on and see which one gave a shock. … Yeah, right!
I asked if I needed to be standing in an aluminum tub knee deep in water, just to make sure.
He quickly led me to nice little voltmeter that would identify the hot wire, but without all the pain of my first option. (Cost three-bucks.)
I am happy to say we now have light in the laundry area. Once I found the right wire, I turned off the breaker, connected the wires and screwed the new fixture into place. In all it took twenty minutes and cost under $17.00. In all I saved $2,999,983.00. (That’s just an estimate.)
One word of advice never put a 100-watt bulb in a 60-watt fixture. Even if you wife tells you she needs it to be brighter, DON’T DO IT!
And, I have been up to my armpits in insulation fixing the air conditioner.
Well, last week the lights in the laundry area were giving me attitude. Not the light bulbs mind you, but the actual light fixture. How do I know this you may ask, well every time we turned on the switch there was a loud electrical crack and the breaker poped off power to a quarter of the house. (Just a little hint, huh!)
To be safe I had an electrition take a look at it to make sure it wasn’t the house wiring. He said he could fix it for just three million dollars, which was just an estimate. (could be more once he got in there).
Of course you and I know this could mean only one course of action.
A trip to Lowes.
The replacement fixture and glass globe were under $14.00, but what concerned me was connecting the right wires. In a house there is no red wire for hot and black wire for ground. Both wires are black. When I asked my helpful Lowes associate, he suggested I grab both wires with the breaker on and see which one gave a shock. … Yeah, right!
I asked if I needed to be standing in an aluminum tub knee deep in water, just to make sure.
He quickly led me to nice little voltmeter that would identify the hot wire, but without all the pain of my first option. (Cost three-bucks.)
I am happy to say we now have light in the laundry area. Once I found the right wire, I turned off the breaker, connected the wires and screwed the new fixture into place. In all it took twenty minutes and cost under $17.00. In all I saved $2,999,983.00. (That’s just an estimate.)
One word of advice never put a 100-watt bulb in a 60-watt fixture. Even if you wife tells you she needs it to be brighter, DON’T DO IT!
posted by Justa Dad at 11:06 AM
3 Comments:
Your wife knows that you HAVE a laundry room? That is super cool!
Here, The Boss Lady thinks we have a magical clothes cleaning closet. She thinks the auto-fold option must be out of whack, though, since my folding skills are sub-par.
Any excuse to go to Lowes is a good one. ;-)
I have a few electrical projects on my to do list, but have been procrastinating a bit since I'm not at all familiar that type of thing. One of these days though....
Actually one of the things I really need to do is map out all the circuits in the house. The labels on the electrical box have all faded beyond recognition. Right now I either have to go through a trial and error process to find the right breaker, or just shut off all the power if I need to work on something.
A fantastic blog yours. Keep it up.
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