The utility/laundry room. I've been dreading this fix-up.
It's not that the room needs a lot of work, it's just that the work that needs to be done is a pain in the ass, and worse, reminds me of an episode in my life I'd rather forget: my electricians.
You see, about 7 years ago, I hired two guys - a father and son - to rewire my entire house. The son was married to one of my best friends, and both he and his father were licensed electricians. I hired them party to help them out, and partly because everyone in town said they were the best.
Besides, they were willing to work here in Calhan, whereas just about every other electrician I called wanted an extra $400-$600 just because I was "outside" their normal working area (Colorado Springs).
Well, as is true with most any major house repair or remodelling job you do...nothing goes the way you plan. In my case, because both the father and son had full-time jobs, they were working on my house during the weekends. Of course, they didn't show up every weekend... what should have taken oh, 3 or 4 weekends at most, stretched into a full year.
Then, the son and my best friend split up. This divorce became worse than the War of the Roses or Kramer vs Kramer - I wish I was exaggerating!! Because the son felt I was "taking sides" because I stayed friends with his now-ex-wife, he and his father dropped my job completely. Simply refused to finish it, leaving me with quite a mess. The entire situation got VERY ugly, and was much the stuff of gossip around my small town...
It's not that the work they did wasn't done well or correctly or to code - it was - the problem was the job was HALF DONE, and no other electrician I called would finish the job. They all wanted to start from scratch, and of course, charge me a premium because I'm so "far away" from their normal work areas (about 35 miles) they all wanted to charge me a premium.
Well, I'd paid the father and son $800, out of an estimated $1700 total cost to rewire the whole house. Best estimate I received from one of the few willing electricians to finish (actually completely redo!) the rewiring was $2340. Since at the time, my business had just failed (to add insult to injury!) it wasn't a price I was able to afford.
So now I'm stuck with a house that has been half rewired. Half the house going to the new circuit breaker box, half the house going to the old.
Which, to be honest, isn't a problem... the electricity works fine, and at the time I bought the house ten years ago, there was only one code issue with the electricity: Part of the house still had the original 1928 knob-and-tube wiring, which meant I could not put insulation into the walls or the attic, was a potential fire hazard, and was a code issue. So when I decided to get that knob-and-tube wiring replaced, I decided to go ahead and just replace the remaining wiring throughout the house, which all dated to the remodeling done in 1958 (but wasn't considered a building code issue).
I always wanted to add a BUNCH of extra outlets, as most rooms only had one outlet, I wanted to install a whole-house surge protector, outdoor lighting, and run power to the garage. The garage had power at one point, but a prior owner pulled it out when a tree knocked the line down and never reinstalled it. I also wanted to install a larger circuit breaker box in anticipation, at the time, of eventually building an extension onto the house. Thought it would be prudent to have that set up at the time, so I wouldn't have to deal with swapping out circuit breaker boxes in the future.
So the father and son electricians did get all of the knob-and-tube wiring replaced, and did a mighty fine job of it, I must admit. They got the front bedroom, which I use as an office, wired with tons of extra outlets, like I wanted. The power lines to the ceiling fans in the office, living room, and master bedroom were all replaced, along with the line to the front porch light. They even replaced and reattached the meter to the side of the house - something that was done completely wrong and missed by my original inspector - and arranged for the electric company to replace the line from the pole to the house (which was actually attached to the gutter - wrong!!)
But... they never finished the wiring in the bathroom, so the new GFCs don't work. They never rewired my bedroom, the back room, the utility room, or the basement, most of which is using 1958 wiring, which is fine, but much of it isn't grounded. Same in the kitchen - some of the wiring is grounded, some is not. They did dig and run the wiring to the garage, but it's not hooked into the circuit breaker or live in any way.
So I sit here living with two different circuit breaker boxes - the old and the new - and part of the house is modern wiring, and part of it is older wiring but not a code issue, and part of the older wiring is not grounded, but isn't considered a code issue unless I actually start to work on it!! The code issue is complicated due to grandfathering of the work the father and son team started on - at the time, no building permits were required - and grandfathering of the existing 1958 wiring... grrr... you get the idea, it's complex.
In a nutshell, the power works fine. It's considered safe, if not necessarily up to modern day standards. It will pass inspection, but having two circuit breaker boxes (plus a third in the garage that isn't attached to anything) will cause questions.
And to make it worse, much as I would love to just tear the whole thing out and get it entirely redone... price quotes now are in the $2500-$3000 range, including redoing work that is ALREADY done, that is ALREADY at code (actually exceeds code), because I can't find an electrician willing to come in and just rewire the parts of the house that are still using the 1958 wiring!! ACK!!! Not that I could afford it... but seriously, to do the rewiring that remains to be done, should be able to be done for less than $1000. Not that I can afford that...but it is something I am prepared to grant as part of the house purchase when someone makes an offer. Meaning, I'm willing to provide cash back to bring the entire electric system up to date at closing. An expensive buyer concesion, but one I've accepted I'll likely have to make... really sticks in my craw, it does.
So anyway, every time I go to do any work in the utility room, I see those two circuit breaker boxes. I see the never-finished damage to the drywall above the circuit breaker box, done when they rewired that whole thing. I see the gaping hole in the floor where the line now (properly) goes, heading to the meter. And I'm reminded of a very ugly, very frustrating, time in my life.
On the other hand, now that I've fixed the wall and floor, I have less reminder of that time in my life!
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