Add-An-Outlet

Notice anything different about these two photos? There's a few, but the most important difference is the presence of an outlet.

When This D*mn House – and lots of others like it – were built around 1940, its original occupants didn’t have too many uses for electrical outlets. Oh, there were lamps and radios and the occasional kitchen gadgetry, but beyond that, nothing. There weren’t even televisions yet!

And a lot of people still didn’t have telephones, so the thought of one that you could walk around with that didn’t even have a cord … stop, you’re makin’ it up!

But almost 70 years later, the lack of outlets can be a real pain in the butt for current occupants who need electricity for almost everything. Phones, computers, iPods, televisions, just about everything in the kitchen, and tools, let’s not forget tools, all need a place to be plugged.

The hallway that runs between our bedrooms and which houses the bathroom in between has always been dark. REALLY dark. And when you run the sweeper, you have to plug it in behind the sofa or under the buffet in the dining room in order to reach the whole space, small though it may be. (And you even need an extension cord to do this.)

So during Lawrence’s last visit, we set out to change all that. The mother wanted an outlet in the darkened hallway and another in the dining room under the window. It looks like someone may have done this once or at least tried to do it; there’s a cover over a junction box with nothing connected to it.

Lawrence said it can be done, it just couldn’t be done that day as it’s going to require drilling holes through the family room ceiling. (Good thing we have plans for that ceiling that haven’t been done yet …) But on this particular day, with a little doing, we managed to get an outlet wired in the hallway. See the difference in the pictures?

It’s still weird to me. After 20+ years of one not being there, it’s occasionally odd to catch a glint from the switch plate that’s been there just a few weeks. The mother is going to put a lamp on that table eventually. For right now, it’s nice to have a place to plug in my phone or my laptop that’s just outside my door when my meager outlets are already full.

I was shocked by the cost of the electrical wire. And we only bought 50 feet! Most of which is still in the package awaiting the next job ...