"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them."- Albert Einstein
I found this quote today. It really reminded me of our house. Sometimes I cause the mechanical problems in the house, but usually I am the one trying to fix the problemS the previous owners created. We moved into our house a few days before Christmas four short years ago. I should have known that when I turned on the shut-off valve to our clothes washer and water sprayed – not from the hose connection, but from the shut-off valve itself – that we were in for a bumpy ride. When we are fixing things and find something odd we usually just shake our heads. When a contractor tells of a problem we never flinch. We simply say, "I'm not surprised. Nothing about this house is surprising." Actually, a few weeks ago Jean had a post about recent things we've discovered.
Right now my task is putting up new can lighting in the basement. There was a suspended ceiling that seemingly was put together with odds and ends from a dumpster. Some of the ceiling was taken out after we moved in when the spiral staircase to the basement was replaced by a standard staircase. This summer we took the rest of the ceiling out. We left two of the four florescent fixtures to give some light, but it was pretty drab. One thing that I needed to do, besides put up different lighting, is remedy the ceramic light fixture that also served as a junction box for several other wires, including an extension cord to plug in more florescent fixtures, as well as a converter that screwed into the light socket to make it an electrical outlet. It scared me. It was so unsafe looking.
When I got the first bank of lights installed on the existing circuit, everything still functioned. Then, I went after the scary ceramic light fixture from an electrical inspector's worst nightmare. I took out the part that functioned as the light socket/electrical converter. I took out the extension cord. I wired the rest back together and put a proper junction box cover on it. But, the mess no longer worked. Worse yet, it caused the washing machine's outlet on the floor above, not to work either. CUSS!
Anyone who knows me well knows I obsess when I can't make something work. We had to go to Lansing. I was grumpy – because I was stumped. Yesterday I went back after it. I traced wires to their origins. What I couldn't trace by eye I hypothesized where they were coming from and where they were going. I dismantled the mess. Separated what I thought the main components were. Eureka! And it works! Tonight I attempt the second part of my grand experiment with electricity. It should work. If it does, I will try and post the wiring diagram that I sketched out for the second half of the grand experiment. It makes me thankful that Jean lets me talk out loud to her has I attempt to problem solve, that she trusts me enough to problem solve, that she loves our kids and the purity of their ears enough to remove them when a project makes a move that I haven't figured out how to counter yet, and that she is simply so beautiful.
Many of the previous installs and "fixes" in our house have not been brilliant by any stretch of the imagination. It makes me wonder, though, when someone says, "Nice job Einstein!" why isn't that a compliment?
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