After living here for more than two years and doing nothing to the place beyond hanging a few pictures on the walls, I finally broke down this weekend and messed with the electrical system. Specifically, I installed lighting.
The living room light was a last minute replacement from the people who used to live here. They had a fancy light installed that they were taking with them, so my realtor scribbled “to be replaced” in the contract. They didn’t leave me with a bulb hanging on a bare wire, but it was pretty close. Amazingly, I got used to it, even though I had a ceiling fan sitting in the closet waiting to be installed. As part of my latest war on clutter, it went in this weekend.
Do electricians hate me? Four years of electronics training taught me that black was ground and white was positive. Apparently, black is the “hot” colour in home wiring. This is an annoying fact when you’re installing a 20 pound fan that you have to fully hook up before turning the circuit back on. (Yeah, you really do. Don’t turn on a spinning device when it’s connected to the ceiling by dangling wire. Trust me on that one.) Anyway, after we got that all working, the lights were incredibly bright, which is a good thing since the place was a bit dark, but it’s a bit blinding when you’re in the kitchen. We’re still evaluating to see if the whole thing will come down and get replaced or not, but our preferences may not matter because when I went to put the fan blades on, I discovered that it’s a 5 blade fan and I have… four blades. The thing’s been moved around my place for two years, so it’s possible that I’ve got the extra blade hanging around somewhere, but it looks pretty dumb the way it is. On the bright side, it won’t be very hard to put in a new one later if it comes to that now that the learning curve is past.
I also put up a light in the bedroom. There aren’t any junction boxes or whatever they’re called in the bedroom, just a plug with a switch, so I’ve been searching in vain for a decent sized wall light that plugs into the wall. I finally clued in the other week that I could take any old light and just make an electrical cord for it, and that’s what I did. Sure, there were minor complications, like having to drill a hole for the cord to go through. The $5 drill bit said it could go through steel, so what did I need that $10 bit for? I only needed one hole, so I figured I didn’t have to get all brand name-y on the project, but damn, as it turns out I wish I’d gone with the funky rainbow-finish bit. I had to go through a series of holes using every good bit that I had before I could get the big one to do anything at all, and each operation was performed while holding everything much closer to my groin than I would have liked. Everything worked out in the end though. Ok, I don’t know if my power cord is properly polarized (it’s connected to a light bulb, so I don’t think this matters too much), but there’s a switch on the cord, and so far nothing’s burnt down, so hurray for me.
I wish I’d left the home improvements at that. With the bright lights, I was able to notice the stains in the carpet, and that wouldn’t do. I had some harsh carpet stuff from many years ago, so away I went, spot cleaning on my hands and knees, and breathing deeply. The spots are gone, but I didn’t feel so great last night and the place still smells today. I think I’m going back to vinegar and baking soda. Not that I know if that’ll work, since by “going back”, I’m speaking in a “in time” sense, not personally.
Self improvement was also on the menu, so I spent most of yesterday at work studying .Net crap. As it turns out, two of the three murders this weekend were in offices, which I think makes a decent business case for why I need a laptop. And yeah, that’s the second brutal weekend in Toronto since Bowling for Columbine came out. It’s like someone realized that we had a lot of catching up to do or something.
