Mike and I had planned to paint so instead we decided to start replacing the old outlets with our new white ones. We found that in order for the outlets to be shut off (and thus safe to work on) in our living room and dining room three different circuits must be turned off at the electrical panel. Which also meant we lost power to the kitchen, dinette, entry way, outside and bar lights plus the plugs in the kitchen. Updating the panel labels is a project for another day. We figured we had some daylight so we would have plenty of time and made a dinner of Pizza Rolls to get started. Totally healthy we know. Then our phone reminder went off to remind us that we had a 7:30pm appointment with a window covering company. Oops.
Luckily the consultant was really nice and understanding. We only had one chair available so we sat on the floor; we had dressed down to work since the floor was so dirty. She said about half her clients are brand new owners and are in various stages of remodel so she was used to it. It took about two hours to go through everything because we got the whole speal: why their products are superior, why other products are inferior, different size options, different mounting options, different color options, different style options, different material options, etc. In between discussions we worked on replacing the outlets. Then she had to go around and measure everything and make an estimate. By then we had lost daylight so we had a long extension cord from one outlet in the kitchen (which was apparently separate from the rest of the kitchen?) which we connected to a flood light. The shutters we want are expensive but they have a lifetime guarantee. And they have a great system that allows you to keep your discount (we got 30% off!) for 12 months after the job is done. So we can do a "phase 1" of the living room, dining room and master bedroom windows and then within 12 months of installation completion (October 2012) we can start "phase 2" and do a few more windows, within 12 months of that completion do some more, etc. The consultant joked one of her clients was in her own "Window of the Month Club."
There are some shutters in the upstairs kids' rooms and downstairs bathroom that will do for now. We will replace them at a later date; the dinette will definitely be in the next phase. For the patio door and downstairs bedroom we don't know if we'll need them because of the covered patio. The bathrooms have textured glass and are high so shutters aren't really necessary. The green house window has a leaky pane so that has to get replaced before we looked at window coverings. We were able to pick out the style, material, number of panels, lever size, moulding, color, etc. all right then. She was super helpful and knowledgeable. We're excited but wish we didn't have to wait until October to have them; they are being custom made so I guess it takes awhile. She even gave us temporary blinds that attach to our windows with removable adhesive so we can have some privacy. So those ugly mustard drapes that are up in our room can come down like the rest.
After she left we only had two outlets left and wanted to finish them off. Several outlets had the three wires coming in (one for each prong and one for the ground) that met with three other wires with wire nuts. We think this happened because either the wires weren't long enough to attach or they are junctioned to the outlet next to it. Mike says this is normal and I found this picture that justifies the latter:
What is not normal and we have to fix was the outlet in the living room wall shared by the kitchen and the outlet on that short wall in the entryway that used to have newells on it. When I took off the cover on the wall shared with the kitchen she found what looked like the outlet on the left above but with another whole set of wires that connected to romex. Romex is a bundle of all three wires withing insulation so it can connect one area to another and safe. But there shouldn't be that many connections. When Mike took off the next outlet (on the short entryway wall) he found what we think is the other end of that romex in the wrong kind of junction box attached the wrong way. We would have had to crawl under the house to pull the wire out and terminate the box and it was just too late for that. We left everything off and went to bed. We're starting to get concerned that there are other unsafe electrical connection in the house; reading sites like this are helpful but still worrisome.
Other developments/ status updates:
- Tim crawled under the house to work on the cable and said the water pipes that feed the water heater are leaking. This is in addition to the water heater itself leaking.
- We had an estimate for fixing the leaking sprinkler circuit up front for <$400 which is not bad but something Mike may want to do himself for that price.
- The back yard christy box filled with water when the sprinklers were
run manually on Sunday (below left). As far as we know, it does not leak
when it is run through the timer. The front and back lawn are the only
things on the timer. When I checked on the christy box it was still
filled with water which means it may not have drained since Sunday!
- The bar area still has a big hole in the wall and is still in process (above right). Mike's dad has actually added to the hole and made one in the other side to update the connection for the washer/ dryer. You can see from the bar area to the laundry room.
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