I had a little wiring project to do over the weekend – had a broken electrical outlet to replace. It had been broken before I moved in, but I don’t use that room on the third floor a lot and there wasn’t a rush.
I had a new outlet and cover and a plan. I plugged my radio into the unbroken outlet, turned it on, and aimed it down the vent. While in the basement I listened for the music and when it stopped, I would know that I had the right breaker.
Which is quite clever – only had two set-backs.
1. 80% of the breakers were labeled “General Purpose”. Really, who does that? Just leaving them blank would have been better – I could have written them in myself once I figured them out. I had to re-diagram the chart and make several random guesses before I finally found the right one. The music went quiet and I headed upstairs.
2. The old outlet fell apart in my hands – good that I was replacing it – and I checked the new one to see where the wires would go. One side had two arrows pointing to two holes – one labeled white and the other black. It wasn’t the same configuration as the old one had, but I figured that this new one was set up different. I put the white one in the white hole, the black in the black, and put the outlet back in place and put on the cover. Back to the basement and flipped the breaker back on – and it instantly tripped itself.
Swearing, I headed back up to the third floor to investigate. Turns out I had misread the back of the outlet. That one side was only for white wires – not Black, but Blanco.
[Insert head-shaking here]
Even with my Sesame Street grasp of Spanish, I should have caught that. But the lighting wasn’t good and it was cramped work-space. That’s my story, anyway.
I struggled to get the black wire loose and moved it to the correct position – then plugged the radio in again. Back to the basement and threw the switch to success and music. Then back off and back to the 3rd floor to put the outlet back in place and add the cover. Then back down again to turn it back on – then back up for the clean up.
I got a good workout, replaced the outlet, and tried out some new swear-word combinations. My minor house projects continue – next up, the ceiling fan on my back porch.