August 2010
During our home inspection it was brought to our attention we had a 1960's pushmatic electrical panel. They were called pushmatics because instead of switches for your circuits they were actual buttons you pushed to turn the circuit on or off. These were not recommended since they tended to leed to electrical fires. Wonderful... cough. After talking with some electricians at work, we found out it wasn't 'horrible' but when they got a surge of power they tended to not trip... making them: a fire hazard. On top of this, after living in the house for almost three months we had started amassing a large list of electrical needs and figured it was worth it to bite the bullet. Also, for those who don't know, my Grandfather owned his own electrical business and I am sure somewhere in Virginia he had started developing a twitch, sensing my electrical deficiencies.
Josh called in an electrician he worked with and we went through the list:
1. Replace panel
2. Add circuit for our new (still in box) dishwasher
3. Install exterior outlet on front porch(yay christmas lights)
4. Change electrical outlets on exterior to GFCI
5. Repair taped together electrical line to cabinet light
6. Install fancy new light in kitchen
7. Add another outlet to back bedroom
8. Correct anything that looked very scary
Randy came out and spent the whole day bringing our house up to some level of code. He also fixed our doorbell for free, bonus. It was our biggest expense to date on the house and we slept a lot better.
Since electrical is necessary, but unfortunately not so sexy. I bought the aforementioned fancy kitchen light and a new globe for the kitchen cabinet light. Apparently, fire safe still isn't quite enough for me. But, when you find a light in the character of your house that happens to be the same lime green of your kitchen, it is meant to be (this was my line to Josh).
Let there be light! and no fires.
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