plugging back in

After some quality time in the basement over the weekend I got a little bit more wired up. Another bank of outlets got wired and connected. I actually have a few lights on switches; novel idea, I think the shop light is getting upset since I'm not spending as much time with it.  Seems like a little progress is being made down there, hopefully I get it wrapped up soon and I can check that off the "that needs fixed sooner than later list".  Thankfully that list is getting shorter.  I can get some of those things done and spend a little more time plugging back into life, spring is almost here, time for some new adventures.

turn the light...

most pictures I've taken or have in my archives are worth a thousand words, some of the ones dearest to my heart more, this one is just worth one.  This is the first switch for some lights downstairs, tonight I picked up some wire to run the other switch leads.  Tomorrow I hope to get some more things knocked out down there, if you are around or need something to do, just come on by and give me a hand.  Don't worry, I'm not getting rid of the 'light painting' studio, I know plenty of people want to come back and get more pictures.  What do you think the switches were for? to turn out the lights, not turn them...  well you get the idea.  Hope you had a good friday!

new moon

And you thought I was talking about that vampire movie. This weekend my good buddy helped me out with some wiring in the basement, most of which will be featured in a future post.  Part of the changes that were made allowed us to reroute the wiring for the pole light near the curb. This light hasn't been working properly since I arrived here.  Since it was a beautiful day outside we took some time to get the light working. After some trial and error we got everything operating and the old skool globe is back on!  The photocell even still works.  Of course we popped a CFL bulb in for some energy efficiency.  Now when you come down the street you will know to hang a left at the moon!  Adds a little curb appeal to the old place.  The light is on, I've been waiting for you, so come on over.

breaker breaker

After gutting the basement I really haven't updated things associated with that whole process.  Many little things had to be done to get everything out properly.  One of those things was some wiring.  To make things easy during the demo process I just shut off all the circuit breakers to the lights and outlets in the basement and started going postal on the wiring.  I cut the wiring at all the outlets and lights, then started pulling the wiring back to the panel.  From there just cut the majority of the leads since the panel was pretty accurate with everything. Since I will be rewiring everything in a much simpler way this was the easiest way to get everything out, meanwhile saving as much wiring as possible.  After the fact I ended up with three completely empty circuit breakers and two breakers with leads that only have one light on each.  I can basically get some lights up and outlets in and properly divide them and not overload anything. It worked out really well.  Side Note: I did actually almost get electrocuted.  One of the leads didn't appear as if it was wired to anything, well I cut it, nothing happened.  After investigating why a light was out in the area where my well is, my buddy and I realized that there was a GFI outlet beside the panel installed in between the lead and the circuit breaker, and well... when I cut the lead it immediately threw the GFI protection and shut the power.  Otherwise I would have been zapped.   Don't you wish life had a circuit breaker...  When things get crazy and go wrong or you make a mistake the breaker just flips, everything pauses, and you can just flip the switch and its all back to the way you want in pretty much an instant.  

amped

Well this place had a pretty good electrical situation.  The panel and wiring was newer, and was actually labeled fairly correctly.  But the basement has been turned off because of the amount of wire that needed pulled back and checked.  Today a large part of the day was spent finding out what was going on with some leads for the basement and a some switches upstairs.  A great friend was kind enough to lend me his expertise and help me check and test a bunch of stuff.  Successfully we figured out why the light at the back door wasn't working!  And why the lights on the back porch weren't either! Some insane three-way switching was done for some reason.  So everything has been figured out and now I can get the lights and some outlets up in the basement. Very soon all the electrical will be done and completed. Truly a glorious outcome to that mess. Jump = Pic