Hello my friends. My apologies for the silence over the past few months, but we took a much needed hiatus from this journey. Now that we are back and all rested up, I am ready to share more stories. And let’s just say there is no shortage of those to come. I wish I could say that things were magically completed while on hiatus. That with a blink and nod of the head, like a Jeanie, the house is complete. Sadly not the case. There are still many horrors to share. But I have to say there are also some positive stories.

So to start the new year on a high note, I will share a happy story around the electrical rewiring of our little farmhouse… where we address the faulty wiring, bringing it all up to code. But for you thrill seekers, don’t worry, as we will later take the steep dive down the other side of the roller coaster screaming in fear at the top of our lungs.

Electrical – finding a contractor

As you may recall from Remediation – Down the Rabbit Hole the electrical in this house is a disaster and amazingly the house never burnt down. Once we recover from the shock of the wiring nightmare, the horror story oddly enough turns into a positive experience on this turn of the rollercoaster ride. What you may ask? There is finally a positive. Ok, well not quite a rom com or a comedy, sorry… but a definite feel good story.

As with every feel good story there still needs to be some sadness woven throughout. So our sad part? We end up rewiring pretty much the whole house. But do not despair… As this is one of the few cases where we actually find a reputable and excellent contractor to work with. Because seriously let’s admit our skillset pretty much ends here. But the contractor we choose is timely, knowledgeable and price competitive. And given our experiences to date with contractors… what more can you really ask for.

My motto on this house is lowered expectations and hopefully we end up pleasantly surprised. But sadly I had reached a point where I was not sure I could lower my expectations any further! But here is a case of being pleasantly surprised. Which is great news as this is definitely not an area of the house you want to mess with. Something no one sees but is critical to the integrity of the house.

Electrical work completed

So what did we actually do? Well let’s see… we start with them assessing and mapping all the electrical in the house to determine what needs to be done. And as I said… they determine pretty much everything needs to be done. A permit is pulled as this is work that requires full permitting. Our first step is to upgrade the panel, cutting the power to the house for them to install the new panel. We rewire the whole basement and workshop; add more lighting in the basement; add wired smoke detectors in halls and bedrooms to meet new code; rewire the entire kitchen to fix the crazy rats nest of wires and for the new kitchen layout; wire the den, half of the living room, install pot lights throughout house, add some additional plugs, and perimeter motion sensor lights outside.

The first phase of roughing in the wiring took about two weeks to complete, and past the inspection with flying colours! Yay… happy dance! Only one item is found…. a plug that is buried to far behind the wall. The reason, because the wall was a plaster wall the thickness of two sheets of drywall, and then another layer of drywall added on top. This will become relevant in another post about drywall, where the horrors return. But again, we are staying positive here. They will need to come back once the renos are done to do all the finishing work. Whenever that may be….ughhh… right, sorry, still trying to stay positive here. But it is so hard to do!

Directing electrical work from afar

The interesting part of this story is that as they are doing the electrical, we are unfortunately not there, as we are back in the city. This results in many texts between us and the electrician around dimensions and where electrical should go. Location of the island? Size of the island? Cook top? Range? Hood fan?

Ummm this may not be a wise decision for us not to be there. I have to say I am not entirely sure what we will walk into when we get back. My husband tries to guide as best he can, but given I am the only one with intimate knowledge of the kitchen layout, the electrician decides it is time to play the ‘call a friend’ card. Well that friend would be me… Thankfully I have an aptitude for visualization, as the electrician does the walk through of the entire house by phone… no not FaceTime or Skype… phone. I know don’t say anything, video would have solved a lot of issues; and simplified the process. But why start doing that now?

So over the phone I visualize… switch here, pot light there, do you want this here or there? The only hang up… the lights over the island. As I don’t want holes in the ceiling until the island is in place and we know exact dimensions. Thankfully the electrician says we can wait to do that once the kitchen is installed.

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Completed state

Once we return, we head to the house and meet with the electrician… well now he is definitely a character. A bit of a comedian… a cool cat with a conflicted soul… a bit like James Dean. One of the most entertaining house walk throughs I have ever done. In the grand scheme of things and given things were done over the phone, things look really good and everything now meets code. Big sigh of relief… that makes me feel so much better. Knowing what a fire hazard this place was and now that it is safe is so important.

Only a couple issues…. The pot lights in the living room… although I thought this was clearly communicated, unfortunately not clearly enough as the pot lights are in the wrong spot. So we have to add two more. The joys of not being there when work is being done. So now we have additional lights than planned. At least it will be bright! In the grand scheme of things pretty minor!

One other issue was the electrician could not figure out the mapping to the exterior light on the deck. Why?…. well because the wire was cut when installing the support for the beam in the wall, and they just buried the wire in the wall. So my husband and I had to bust a hole in the wall to fish the wire out. The only question? Why the heck would someone do that? Sorry digressing again. The positive is that it was all easily addressed (ok… minus the hole in the wall) and we now have a code compliant safe electrical system in the house.

Some closure

Excited now, as this allows us to close up the walls and do the drywall, where hopefully the house starts to look like a house again. The house starts to share this excitement as it starts to shift and stretch testing its new nervous system. Realizing that most of it‘s pain is now gone, it smiles and I think it is about to run a marathon. Hold on there house, there is still much more training left to do before you are ready for that. With a sigh it settles back in for the rest of the surgeries and make over. But how much longer will this take? Hopefully not much longer. I am not sure my husband and I have much left in us! As for now, I am done, and am going to sit back, put my feet up and enjoy this moment.

Join me as I raise a glass and toast a new year, a successful work achievement, and, you my friends and followers! Stay tuned for the rest of the journey where the suspense, thrills and chills return.