# What were the morons thinking... **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 9, 2000, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-morons-thinking/36231 "2000-10-09T05:50:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mblackwell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5fc32e/32.png) [@mblackwell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mblackwell)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2000, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-morons-thinking/36231/1 "2000-10-09T05:50:46Z")
…when they wired my house? The goat felchers put the kitchen, 3 bedrooms, and almost all of the lights in the house on ONE FUCKING WUSSY LITTLE CIRCUIT BREAKER!! It really fucking pisses me off that I have to turn off the damn TV if I want to use the microwave. If the fridge kicks on when 2 TVs are on BAM! Don’t these morons know that people want to be able to use more than one appliance at a time? GRRRRR!!! The worst part is that my computer is also on this circuit, almost EVERYTHING is on the fucking circuit. GRRR!!! It makes me want to rip the circuit breaker pannel off of the fucking wall!!! I guess thats a pretty pathetic rant, oh well. btw, the house was wired like this when we moved in. ---
**Author:** ![Lazarus7](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/67e7ee/32.png) [@Lazarus7](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lazarus7)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2000, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-morons-thinking/36231/2 "2000-10-09T06:31:58Z")
Nasty assed morons!! (just feeling your pain) ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2000, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-morons-thinking/36231/3 "2000-10-09T07:02:56Z")
Gotta sympathize with you there **mblackwell**. Moved into a new office during the summer. Plugged in a fan and, look, no functional fan. Did it again with a new fan, look, no fan. Got out my voltmeter and presto! 220VAC on a regular wall outlet (two hot legs wired on it). **F** king lucky I didn’t plug my computer into that same outlet, like I was going to!\*\* I feel your pain (anger included at no extra cost). ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2000, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-morons-thinking/36231/4 "2000-10-09T16:14:24Z")
These things aren’t too hard to fix on your own. My house is the opposite. We have outlets in the floor, outside, all over the place. I swear to you there is even an outlet in the woods 100 yards from my house. The last occupant must’ve been terified of being more than 10 feet away from an electrical source. All you need is a drill some electrical wire, and some breakers. I’d also recomend a good how-to book. You’ll be able to fix the problem surprisingly easily. My sympathies though. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2000, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-morons-thinking/36231/5 "2000-10-09T16:27:05Z")
I live in a house built in 1829, and the outlets make no sense at all. There are about six in the bedroom (where I need, maybe, two) and only two in the living room—along adjoining walls! So I have to plug my computer, printer, TV, VCR, clock and lamp into those two outlets, all next to each other! Makes arranging the furniture rather diecy. ---
**Author:** ![redtail23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3e96dc/32.png) [@redtail23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/redtail23)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2000, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-morons-thinking/36231/6 "2000-10-09T17:25:20Z")
That’s OK…we almost blew up our new stove discovering that the builders (30-some years ago; what did the previous owners do?!?) had nailed **through** the wiring in the kitchen, effectively reversing the polarity & removing the ground for the sockets on the whole wall above the countertop. And there’s no logic to the wiring - one plug here and another over there and one more in the other room and a light fixture somewhere else - that’s all one breaker! Repeat process multiple times for the rest of the house. It’s an adventure any time we cut off a breaker to do electrical work: wander the entire house to find what clocks or appliances have also been cut. (It would take a multi-dimensional map to chart all of the breakers - so far, it’s not been worth the effort it would require.) But, of course, they wired the outlets for the major appliances (stove, refrig, washer, etc.) ALL TOGETHER!!! Like Scylla said, get a good book & you can fix a lot of it yourself. Just be careful - always cut the power & test when you’re done. Scylla - sounds like the house I’d build. I hate rearranging furniture around outlets. Put 'em everywhere, I say, and you can always find one when you need it! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![tygre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c4cdca/32.png) [@tygre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tygre)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2000, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-morons-thinking/36231/7 "2000-10-09T21:16:07Z")
Oh MAN, do I feel your pain, mblackwell! We have the same situation. Everything on the same damn breaker, except a few odd outlets. Aren’t old houses FUN? 😛 We’re in remodelling hell - why oh why does no one want to work? Really, we’re nice people, and we will pay you! Just show up and do some work! We desperately need to get our house’s exterior painted. We’ve called 6 painters for estimates. Guy #1 gave us a bid, said he’d start 2 weeks ago and never came back. Guy #2 bid over 2x what #1 bid (and way more than we could afford) and has no openings anyways. #'s 3-6 have never shown up for the estimates, so this weekend hubby gets to hang his ass off a ladder and paint, which he does not have time to do, and take away time from his paying work! grrrr. –tygre ---
**Author:** ![Idnew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/278dde/32.png) [@Idnew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idnew)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2000, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-morons-thinking/36231/8 "2000-10-09T22:22:44Z")
How about an asshole that rewires an old house and puts everything in your kitchen and diningroom on one circuit. You turn on the coffee maker and it shuts down the window a/c, you turn on the microwave and it shuts off the coffee maker and everything in the diningroom. To top it off you have a panel full of circuit breakers and even blank spots. So when I remodeled a house I watched them like a hawk on their wiring to make sure nothing was going to knock something out and put in plenty of wall plugs. Ooops better not get started on electricians I guess. Their not all morons. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2000, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-morons-thinking/36231/9 "2000-10-09T23:49:36Z")
Oh yeah? The idiots who had our house before made the fan in the living room-ceiling fan-on a plug. We took it out recently-the wiring went through a WOODEN tube. What did the idiot want to do-burn the whole fucking house? ---
**Author:** ![mblackwell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5fc32e/32.png) [@mblackwell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mblackwell)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2000, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-morons-thinking/36231/10 "2000-10-10T02:13:36Z")
> [@](#): > > _Scylla said_: > All you need is a drill some electrical wire, and some breakers. I’d also recomend a good how-to book. You’ll be able to fix the problem surprisingly easily. I know it isn’t very hard to fix, but it will be a while before get around to it. > [@](#): > > _Eve said_: > I live in a house built in 1829… My house is pretty old too, built around 1900 I think. tygre, we are painting the exterior ourselves. So far we only have one wall painted and now its too cold to paint. I’m going to be living in a multi-colored house for a while. Thanks for the support everybody. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2000, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-were-the-morons-thinking/36231/11 "2000-10-10T12:18:38Z")
It’s not just old houses… We just had ours built. I don’t know how it happened, but every plug and switch on the right side of the house came off a single circuit controlled by the kitchen overhead light switch - if that light was off, so was that side of the house. Similar arrangement with the hall light switch and the two bedrooms on the left side of the house. And I’m pretty sure the electricians weren’t responsible for THIS, but the hot and cold water to the kitchen sink were reversed. Whatever happened to pride in a job well done?? \