other people's mess
I realize that when there's a right way and a wrong way to do something, some people will choose the easy way, but I can't see how what this guy did was any easier. It certainly turned out to be more work for me.
We have a light switch next to a door frame, so close that the switch faceplate and the door molding overlap by 1/2 inch (1.25cm). Seems to me it would have been fairly simple to cut half an inch off the faceplate. Instead, the back of the molding was carved out to fit over the faceplate. This isn't a problem - unless you need to replace the light switch. You can't remove the light switch until you remove the faceplate, but the faceplate is trapped by the light switch and the molding. You have to either remove (or break) the molding, or cut (or break) the faceplate. (It's a bit of a bother for painting, too.)
I thought I had cut far enough through the faceplate for it to snap apart cleanly, but it broke into odd shapes. I had to take another faceplate and trim it the way the first one should have been in the first place.
The other challenge was finding the right circuit breaker. When the switch is broken (open circuit), you can't identify the circuit by flipping breakers. I have a circuit list (made by flipping all the breakers a lot when we moved in), but I was questioning it when the breaker did not turn off the lights on the other side off the room. But the list was correct; 2 different circuits for one room's ceiling lights is typical of the wiring throughout this house. Some rooms have wall sockets on 2 (or 3) different circuits. (You could argue that it's not a bad thing, since tripping one breaker doesn't leave the room dark.) Putting both sides of a wall on the same circuit would make some sense, but that's not consistent either.
We have a light switch next to a door frame, so close that the switch faceplate and the door molding overlap by 1/2 inch (1.25cm). Seems to me it would have been fairly simple to cut half an inch off the faceplate. Instead, the back of the molding was carved out to fit over the faceplate. This isn't a problem - unless you need to replace the light switch. You can't remove the light switch until you remove the faceplate, but the faceplate is trapped by the light switch and the molding. You have to either remove (or break) the molding, or cut (or break) the faceplate. (It's a bit of a bother for painting, too.)
I thought I had cut far enough through the faceplate for it to snap apart cleanly, but it broke into odd shapes. I had to take another faceplate and trim it the way the first one should have been in the first place.
The other challenge was finding the right circuit breaker. When the switch is broken (open circuit), you can't identify the circuit by flipping breakers. I have a circuit list (made by flipping all the breakers a lot when we moved in), but I was questioning it when the breaker did not turn off the lights on the other side off the room. But the list was correct; 2 different circuits for one room's ceiling lights is typical of the wiring throughout this house. Some rooms have wall sockets on 2 (or 3) different circuits. (You could argue that it's not a bad thing, since tripping one breaker doesn't leave the room dark.) Putting both sides of a wall on the same circuit would make some sense, but that's not consistent either.