Re: 2010-2011 D3fhl Official Draft Thread
Homer!
ps How'd the dishwasher project ever turn out? Last I heard it was 1-1 headed to OT...
Ah -- now that I am retired we have all sorts of home improvement projects.....
Rule #1 -- Beware the law of unintended consequences.
Rule #2 -- Never let the wife watch home improvement shows.
Let's start with the kitchen.....
About 18 months ago, honey decided to replace the linoleum floor with stone tile. Nice thick stone tile.....
Now we go to about a month ago. The stove decides to die. Wife sees a sale at the store for a fridge, microwave, stove, and dishwasher for a pretty good price. Nothing wrong with the old fridge mind you, but the new stuff is stainless steel (steal?).
OK, get the fridge in, install the microwave (more on that in a minute), put the stufa di gas in, and then tackle the dishwasher.....
Remember the new floor, and did I also tell you that she had new counter tops put in? Well guess what? The new floor is too high and the new counter sticks out too far to get the old dishwasher out...
The solution?? Bust up the old tile in front of the dishwasher. That gets the old dishwasher out and the new one in. Now comes the fun part. The new DW is an LG. It has lots of bells and whistles. The one thing it does not have is lots of room underneath. AND it expects a flexible water line. Guess what the water supply line is? Yep copper. I manage to kludge the interface and get the water and electrical hooked up. Except a line was not tight enough and had to pull out the DW and retighten (that's where we were headed into OT).
After much consternation, the lines are hooked up, the DW fits in, and we turn it on... Power problems. Figure it out. Old circuit breakers. Replace breakers. DW works fine.
Now the microwave. The MW is hooked up to the same circuit as the basement lights, AND the dining room, AND the kitchen lights. 15A circuit and not enough oomph. Run the MW, the upstairs lights go out, BUT the basement lights stay on. Try figuring that out. Paid an electrician (who also runs a limo service) $200 to come out and trace the problem. Loose connection in a junction box. Fix the connections and now have power upstairs and downstairs. BUT, and I agree, the electrician suggests put the upstairs ona separate line from the basement.
OK, go to Home Depot. Find a Square D 15A breaker. Get the 14/2 wire -- except I need 30 feet of wire. Wire comes in 25' and 50' increments. Buy lots of excess. Get the new box, cover plate, wire nuts.
Turn the power off, disconnect the MW power from the basement line. Rehook wires. Turn power back on. Basement lights up. Now for the new wiring. Wanted to run the wires one way, but ran into a heating duct and had to reroute. Mother-in-law, who lives in the basement with F-I-L, is pitching a thit fit that I'm getting dirt everywhere and I'm going to get electrocuted. Evil thoughts of extending wiring over to her chair quickly dissipate.
Fish the wire around. Hook up the junction box and now for the unknown territory -- the breaker box. I have only one opening left and surprise! everything goes in peachy keen. Turn on the power and everything works!!
Later last night, while I am listening to Clarkson get its collective butt handed to them by UNO, I'm surfing the county government web page and discover that I have to take an exam in order to play with my house's electrical system. F them. What are they going to do? Arrest me?
Now I have a working kitchen. Did I mention we're redoing the Master Bathroom??
