Bakin' carrot biscuits
Ethan was in town for a job interview on Friday and he crashed at my place on Thursday and Friday night. I really need to get around to buying a guest bed. Right now, either the guest takes the couch or I take the couch, and it sucks. I have some friends scheduled to visit on May 20, maybe I can get it taken care of before then.
Having deadlines is good. Without deadlines my entire house has come off the rails. But onto the good news.
My mom came over today and helped me make a complete circuit map of the house. At last. This is at best an incredibly obnoxious task to try to accomplish alone. I had already made drawings of each room in the house with letters assigned to each outlet, switch, and light fixture, so I was able to walk around with my notebook and yell for her to hit breakers until we found which breaker controlled which circuit.
I just counted in the notebook; we did 86 outlets, switches, and lights.
The map served only to confirm my suspicion that the wiring in this house is completely berserk. Popular breakers in the house:
Lovely #15, spanning all three floors of the house with
The two "final" (read on) outlets to rewire are on #18, so I considered diverting them to another circuit to reduce the load. Unfortunately, the only convenient circuit to send them to is #16, which has it the worst of all. So I set about replacing the knob & tube leg of #18 with Romex.
Last seen, I had left these outlets with wire that could fit through the knockdowns in my new boxes attached to the knob & tube with wire nuts:
Old wires
I pulled those splices off and yanked the knob & tube out from the basement, all the way to the junction box where it oh-so-illegally connects to the Romex going to the panel. I removed all the porcelain tubes in the joists to make room for the new cable I'd be running, and that part of the job was done.
Knob and tube carnage
That junction box had two K&T cables running into it (hot and neutral), and since hot, neutral, and ground all come in on one cable, I'd have room for both outlets to come to the junction box. Unfortunately, I was already running the cable for the porch light into that junction box in a completely violating manner, and I would need three free knockdowns to fit it all in properly.
Rather than run two Romex cables across the basement, I decided to splice the two outlets together and run one cable over to the junction box. (This is, in fact, how the knob & tube setup worked, just with sliced up cable and electrical tape.) Electrical tape is not so good here in 2005, so I ran to the hardware store and picked up a junction box.
In summary: Romex from outlet A and B both enter the new J-box where they are spliced with a cable running across to the other box, which then runs to the panel.
A whole lot of cutting, stripping, twisting, and swearing later, it was all rigged up. Two outlets on the left, exit to the other J-box on the right:
New junction box
Rewired junction box
I went upstairs, tested all the wires, put the boxes back into the wall, hooked the outlets back up, and everything worked. I was ready to declare complete victory over rewiring until I realized that there is still one knob & tube outlet in the living room. There is basement access to this wiring, but unfortunately it is under a big heating duct.
Hard to get to
I tried for a while to remove that section of duct but came up wanting. It certainly looks like it is meant to be removable, but just bending the clips down didn't do the job. It is really tempting to just plaster around the outlet with a new box and call it good, but I know I'll hate myself if I punk out just one outlet away from annihilation of the enemy.
After I figure out what to do about that last damn outlet, I can finish plastering. For the record, I have come to hate plaster with a ferocious intensity. When it comes time to do the bedrooms and the main floor bathroom, the cracking walls are coming down and drywall is going up and that is that. I am considering hiring someone to do the small amount of plaster remaining in the living and dining rooms just so I don't have to think about it.
In other news, the plant life surrounding the domicile is threatening to completely take over.
Weeds 1, Walkway 0
Grass in front getting very tall
Yard grass getting tall too
I need to buy, borrow, or steal a lawnmower and cut the grass next weekend. Actually, I needed to do it last weekend. There will be some quality time with me, the weeds, and the gardening gloves, too, but until next time...
Having deadlines is good. Without deadlines my entire house has come off the rails. But onto the good news.
My mom came over today and helped me make a complete circuit map of the house. At last. This is at best an incredibly obnoxious task to try to accomplish alone. I had already made drawings of each room in the house with letters assigned to each outlet, switch, and light fixture, so I was able to walk around with my notebook and yell for her to hit breakers until we found which breaker controlled which circuit.
I just counted in the notebook; we did 86 outlets, switches, and lights.
The map served only to confirm my suspicion that the wiring in this house is completely berserk. Popular breakers in the house:
Lovely #15, spanning all three floors of the house with
- one living room outlet
- hall light fixture
- one laundry room outlet
- laundry room light fixture
- one outlet in the master bedroom
- one living room outlet
- three dining room outlets
- dining room chandelier
- one bathroom outlet
- two bedroom outlets
- bedroom closet light
- one guest bedroom outlet
- guest bedroom closet light
- one studio outlet
- one studio switched outlet
- three living room outlets
- porch light
- one bedroom outlet
- two studio outlets
- studio overhead lights
- bathroom light
- bedroom light
- guest bedroom light
- stairwell light
- two master bedroom lights
- two master bathroom lights
The two "final" (read on) outlets to rewire are on #18, so I considered diverting them to another circuit to reduce the load. Unfortunately, the only convenient circuit to send them to is #16, which has it the worst of all. So I set about replacing the knob & tube leg of #18 with Romex.
Last seen, I had left these outlets with wire that could fit through the knockdowns in my new boxes attached to the knob & tube with wire nuts:
Old wires
I pulled those splices off and yanked the knob & tube out from the basement, all the way to the junction box where it oh-so-illegally connects to the Romex going to the panel. I removed all the porcelain tubes in the joists to make room for the new cable I'd be running, and that part of the job was done.
Knob and tube carnage
That junction box had two K&T cables running into it (hot and neutral), and since hot, neutral, and ground all come in on one cable, I'd have room for both outlets to come to the junction box. Unfortunately, I was already running the cable for the porch light into that junction box in a completely violating manner, and I would need three free knockdowns to fit it all in properly.
Rather than run two Romex cables across the basement, I decided to splice the two outlets together and run one cable over to the junction box. (This is, in fact, how the knob & tube setup worked, just with sliced up cable and electrical tape.) Electrical tape is not so good here in 2005, so I ran to the hardware store and picked up a junction box.
In summary: Romex from outlet A and B both enter the new J-box where they are spliced with a cable running across to the other box, which then runs to the panel.
A whole lot of cutting, stripping, twisting, and swearing later, it was all rigged up. Two outlets on the left, exit to the other J-box on the right:
New junction box
Rewired junction box
I went upstairs, tested all the wires, put the boxes back into the wall, hooked the outlets back up, and everything worked. I was ready to declare complete victory over rewiring until I realized that there is still one knob & tube outlet in the living room. There is basement access to this wiring, but unfortunately it is under a big heating duct.
Hard to get to
I tried for a while to remove that section of duct but came up wanting. It certainly looks like it is meant to be removable, but just bending the clips down didn't do the job. It is really tempting to just plaster around the outlet with a new box and call it good, but I know I'll hate myself if I punk out just one outlet away from annihilation of the enemy.
After I figure out what to do about that last damn outlet, I can finish plastering. For the record, I have come to hate plaster with a ferocious intensity. When it comes time to do the bedrooms and the main floor bathroom, the cracking walls are coming down and drywall is going up and that is that. I am considering hiring someone to do the small amount of plaster remaining in the living and dining rooms just so I don't have to think about it.
In other news, the plant life surrounding the domicile is threatening to completely take over.
Weeds 1, Walkway 0
Grass in front getting very tall
Yard grass getting tall too
I need to buy, borrow, or steal a lawnmower and cut the grass next weekend. Actually, I needed to do it last weekend. There will be some quality time with me, the weeds, and the gardening gloves, too, but until next time...
posted by Ficus at 9:19 PM
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