Comments | thoughtwire: You Can't See It

thoughtwire

You Can't See It - It's Electric!

Jan 22, 2009 02:47

I would think it's common knowledge today that when you have a grounded (3-prong) electrical outlet, it needs to be connected to a grounding wire in order to actually be grounded. Even if you don't know how to do that, you are probably aware of the concept. Well, whoever installed the outlets in our house was not. Since our wiring is grounded, ( Read more... )

Comments 7

scholarinexile January 22 2009, 12:39:22 UTC

Wow. That's a rather spectacular bit of work. Take a pic and post it on Failblog, I'd say.

And does the February Child still lack a name?

apthetk_oprativ January 22 2009, 23:34:09 UTC

Um... I could say we're waiting until he's born to tell everyone what the name we've picked is. Of course, that would imply we've picked a name...

Worst case, we'll figure something out when he's born...

thoughtwire January 23 2009, 02:39:53 UTC

Unfortunately, I haven't found any that are visible enough to photograph, but if I do I will.

Still no final decision on the name (as she said), but we're making lists of potentials.

apthetk_oprativ January 22 2009, 23:33:06 UTC

Nymph?

( ... )

thoughtwire January 23 2009, 02:41:11 UTC

Why not?

Am I really a dark elf?

pghkitten January 23 2009, 14:04:31 UTC

Ah, one of the world's classic Stupid Previous Homeowner blunders...I believe our inspector found that all of our upstairs outlets have the same issue. We went and put furniture in front of all of them before we got around to fixing them, though. (oops)

I wanted to pass on this link to you two in your hour of naming need: http://www.notwithoutmyhandbag.com/babynames/ It should help a great deal. :)

thoughtwire January 27 2009, 09:11:21 UTC

On the upside, they're accidentally grounded, as long as the screws that hold the outlets in are tight. Which they're not, in some cases. Fortunately I can just screw a grounding wire to the metal box, rather than try to dig the wires out from the wall. As long as I have the right gauge wire for the circuit: 12 gauge for 20-amp circuits, 14 gauge for 15-amp circuits... I'm learning stuff!

BTW, that link is hilarious. Thank you very much!