To get you up to speed: Bought this house 2 years ago. Mistake #1, which I take responsibility for, was not getting a complete and dedicated electrical inspection. Mostly out of ignorance, I assumed that the inspector we used would do a pretty thorough inspection himself. He pointed out a few minor things electrical-wise, and did advise that he did not do a complete electrical inspection…but even then I assumed that obvious, glaring issues he would point out. Not the case, not the case.
He was worthless in general, for the record. But again, my responsibility.
So basically as soon as we took possession of the place, started finding things. Switches that went nowhere. Why was there no bulb in either of the hallway light fixtures? Oh, well it’s because they don’t work. Replacing ceiling fans, the boxes were astounding messes of splices and junctions. I knew I needed to do something, but hey, re-wires are involved and expensive.
Two straws recently broke the camels back, though. I have known for a while now that the previous owners just created random branches wherever they needed them. It’s a mess. But after Christmas I was up in the attic to put the tree and some boxes up there, and there is a junction box sitting on top of the insulation. Just hanging out, not attached to anything. Chilling, if you will.
“Well shit,” says I, “that probably wants to be positioned otherwise.” So I follow one of the cables and THERE is another square junction box BURIED under the loose insulation. Not attached to anything. Just going for a little cellulose swim, if you will. Not cool. Not. cool.
So yeah, most of that had to do with the garage area, so I have been wanting to mess with that for a while since there’s only one receptacle in there. But then I realize just how spidery that mess gets. It goes…more or less everywhere. Garage door opener is on it, the lone receptacle in the garage is on it, a receptacle in the adjacent living room, the fan/light in the living room…and it goes somewhere else form there. I believe it also goes to the fans in two of the bedrooms. It might also to go the light fixture at the bottom of the basement stairs and the back porch light. I can’t figure out where else the exterior receptacle on the deck comes from, so it very well might be on the same circuit.
The today, I wanted to simply replace one of the single-bulb ceramic fixtures in the basement with a receptacle in which to plug a fluorescent fixture. So this is what I discovered:
First of all the circuit in the basement that the light fixtures are one doesn’t even originate in the basement. It comes down from above in the void around the sewer vent. It is the supply that powers both bathrooms (they are back-to-back). Who knows what else it does while it’s up there. But once it gets down here, it goes to several single-bulb fixtures, before it splits off and goes back upstairs to a wall receptacle in a bedroom and in the opposite direction goes up to somewhere else. Could be the mystery hall lights, could be a receptacle. Hell if I know.
Almost forgot…every circuit is on a 20A breaker. Annnnd I have yet to find a single scrap of 12 AWG wire. It’s all 14. Some grounded, some now…you know. No big.
So I must remedy this. No way can I afford to pay someone, so I’ll be doing it myself a stage at a time. Probably end up having to pull about 10 fraking permits to do it like that, but oh well.
Step one is to diagram this fucking mess so I know what I’m dealing with. Then I can decide what SHOULD actually be.
Just have to figure out what to do in what order. I have 1 open breaker, to start with. So I think I’ll just do some thinking and figure out what I want to use that for, first.
Anyway. Rambling, but it’s freaking overwhelming. I can do it, it’s not that, just damn. So much and it’ll be such a pain in the ass.
Guess I won’t have to worry about my house burning down, though.
Comment or whatever. I’ll probably update this as I go just to keep myself sane and see if anyone catches a problem.
