by Nathan Stout (of AccordingToWhim.com)
On this exciting (well, more exciting than the normal entry for this series) blog I will cover what I did this last soggy weekend at my mom’s torn up rent house in Joshua, Texas. You know the whole story by now, yadda yadda yadda.
This last weekend I got my father in law to come with me out to Joshua to help with the electrical stuff. When the renters that lived here (sans contract) did a lot of remodeling they got off to a good start then just stopped for no apparent reason. This left a lot of half work and alot of mess. One thing they did was to stop using the central AC/Heat when it broke down. I guess they used electric heathers and window AC units after that. Anyway with that out of the way for some reason he disconnected it and the stove from the propane and stopped using the propane all together (stupid since electricity is so high).
After we took back over it was quickly realized that fixing the far gone central unit was a no go since he hadn’t touched it in years and even disconnected all the gas in the house (for the heater part) we decided we would have to go electric too. To heat and cool the house we decided to go with the largest window unit you could get that could both heat and cool. This would require a 220 volt plug so this was going to further require a new 220 plug at the front of the house under the living room window. This coupled with other electrical issues prompted me to ask for the assistance of my father in law (the all around handyman type).
We arrived and took a look at the electrical. We tested several plugs and switches, Figured we needed to change out a block in the outside breaker box, made a list of what we needed, and headed to Home Depot in Burleson.
After about three more house we still didn’t get finished. There turned out to be a bad breaker block inside the breaker box in the bedroom (that was getting hot and making the living room lights flicker). We couldn’t find out where the hell the stove electrical was connected and were perplexed by a wonky acting master room ceiling fan connection. We did run a new electrical wire to the front of the house for the window unit. I drilled a hole in the floor just underneath the window and then I had to crawl under the house, grab the new line, and drag it to the other end of the house where the breaker box was. It was like I was crawling through a Stephen King movie. A lot of the insulation is ripped up and hanging down along with spider webs. There were cat skulls and all sorts of bones as well as an unidentified dessicated animal arm as well. It was frightening! I made it out alive only to discover that in two more weeks I am going to have to do it again we we re-run the stove wiring.