Electrical Upgrades

The second of our major projects has been completed (the first being refinishing the wood floors). Osborne Electric came out last Thursday, Friday and yesterday to upgrade our electricity.

We got tired of pressing "toast" on the toaster oven and having the kitchen lights dim by almost half. We got tired of not being able to run the dishwasher and the washing machine at the same time because all the lights in the house would flicker menacingly.

Three different electrical companies came out to give us estimates. We went with Osborne because theirs was the middle estimate and we'd used them to install the wiring for our dishwasher. I always felt comfortable being alone in the house with the electrician and they were absolutely prompt.

This part of the electrical project included:

• Consolidating the three circuit breaker boxes on the back of the house that had been added as new needs appeared
• Installing a new wire feed to the garage because the old one hung down too low
• Removing the fuse box (yes, a real fuse box (see below)) in the bathroom (yes, it was really in the bathroom) and rerouting all those lines to a new breaker box on the back of the house
• Upgrading our service to 200 Amps

Every time an electrician came to look at our project, they always made comments like, "Wow, I don't think I've ever seen it done this way" or, in the case of the above fuse box, "I'm not really sure what these two fuses are connected to." Lovely.

In the end, the project finished up well. The fuse box will get a paintable cover so when we redo the bathroom, it'll blend in. We have to get the cable company out to remount the cable and telephone boxes that the electricians moved.

Eventually we'll need to rewire the whole house. It still has the original fabric-covered wire. We also have no grounded outlets at all. The old man who lived here before us reversed the polarity on the outlets in the living room. It goes on and on, but the safety issues are now resolved.

Whew. Can't wait for this invoice.