The weekend update

While I can't say it was a good weekend, I can at least claim to have been productive.

I met with the electrician by myself Friday. Adam is sick, so he kept his germy self at our rental home all weekend, and here is what I found out. We can save some time and money by stripping all the outlets, switches, light fixtures, ceiling fans, etc. Easy enough...We also talked cost. Lots of the outlets are in the floor (because of the aforementioned concrete walls-- bad for rewiring, great for insulation.) and these outlets are on a couple of circuits that run under the floor. The lights and switches are on other circuits that run overhead in the attic. Our city ordinances want each room to be on its own independent circuit. That means using up one entire circuit and breaker slot for 2 or 3 outlets and a light. That seems a bit much to me. But because the house is old, some things may be grandfathered in. Until the inspector comes and helps us parse through that, and the electrician actually gets started, we won't know how much money this whole thing's gonna run. He has said, though, that it should be less than the $9400 original estimate. Fingers crossed-- and I'll keep the blog updated on that. I had the hardest time getting even a rough idea of cost when we bought the house, so hopefully this will give someone else at least a figure to work from. (and FYI-- house is about 1460 ft2 with a mixture of plaster walls, sheetrock over plaster, sheetrock over concrete and a completely exposed kitchen. Also has a ~250 ft2 detached garage and shop. Dunno if we'll be wiring that or not...)

It could also be a week or so before he gets started-- this wasn't in anyone's plans.

So I got moving on it this weekend. I managed to get all the switches and outlets unhooked; and I got the blades and lights unscrewed from the ceiling fans. Boxes and ceiling lights/fan motors are next.

Maybe it's all for the best, since this seemed to be the PO's idea of a job well done:Nevermind the bad patch or the splice that I had to cut through because they didn't use a little splicer cap-- it's the newspaper that's shoved around that splice that makes me confident in this sample of DIY handywork.

Also in weekend news-- finally mowed the yard. Now that we've moved into a neighborhood where the residents take care of their grass, we had to step up and buy a mower. I took breaks from the electrical to put the thing together, and when I lost my light in the house (no electricity=no after hours work!), I mowed the yard. And I have to say that it was the most fun I've had trimming any grass.