That electrical supply line really had to go...

This is the old electrical line that brought the power from the service entrance, through the garage, under the breezeway, and into the house. Note the lack of insulation and the lovely patina. Note that the patina is on the ground. Yes. The ground. Ack.



In this detail, note the frayed state of the ground. Note that it has been arcing against the conduit it is running through. ACK.

Finally, note that these photos were taken by A.

Garage floor

The garage floor is taking longer than expected. Either today or tomorrow the drain, shown here, will be replaced with one that isn't damaged.



The building inspector also said that we have to run the wiring here, with the lovely exposed ground, through conduit. This means that we will be replacing the wiring from where it comes out of the panel in the garage all the way to the subpanel in the basement. This is another $1500 that we hadn't planned on. That price includes the wiring for 100 amp service and running additional conduit next to it for the future upgrade to 200 amp service.

Photographs, of course, by A.

Drawing up floorplans and mechanical diagrams?

I want to draw up a detailed set of floorplans. I also want to clearly illustrate where the electrical wiring and plumbing in the house go, both for myself and for future reference for any plumber or electrician I may hire. I'd like to include every outlet and bit of pipe, so that one can see what is on what circuit as well as which pipe is present that is not in use. I'd love to also include the pipe from our old vacuum system, with the hope of using it as a conduit for wiring in the future, but I know that that may be more difficult, given that most of the outlets for the vacuum system have been removed.

This seems like a good time to start working on such a project. I haven't put any insulation up in the attic yet. I have the library ceiling open, which gives me access to a good deal of the plumbing for the two second floor bathrooms.

The best solution I've found so is to just use large format graph paper to draw the floorplan, with a scale of 1"=1'. I plan to use additional sheets to overlay the mechanical systems. While this requires little additional expenditure, it's not as clean as I would like, nor does it allow for easy editing once I've finally inked everything in. Further, short of doing more drawings, it doesn't allow me to show how the plumbing goes vertically through the walls.

The desire to record all this information may seem slightly excessive. Keep in mind that we plan to be in this house for at least the next 30 years, so the knowledge recorded here will build up over time. Given this, perhaps the best way is to just work on paper, as software can change so much.

I welcome any suggestions on the subject.

What is this? (part 2)

Here's a picture of the inside of the curious outlet I described in my previous post. Notable are the weight of the wiring, somewhere around 12 gauge, and that the wiring is in a box.

There are two of these outlets, one in the dining room and one in the front hallway.

Any new thoughts?

What is this?

Help! I've a few of these. I had assumed that they were old phone jacks, but then I noticed that they had five leads...

Light switches and electrical outlets

Virtually all of the electrical outlets and perhaps half of the light switches in my house are original. I find it curious that while the 1920s light switches all still have excellent action, virtually all of the outlets are so worn that a plug will barely sit in them. Did someone underspec the electrical outlets when the house was built? I can't imagine that many switchless items were used, and anyway, the deterioration of the outlets is too consistent - even those in underused areas don't want to hold a plug. Are electrical plugs thinner today than they used to be?

Another curious discovery in the attic

I found this bit of wiring in the attic.



Here is a wide angle shot of the same. It comes up to the 4th floor from places unknown, runs the entire length of the space, then disappears back downstairs. It is secured the entire distance by fasteners similar to those shown here.

Could this have been some sort of buzzer or intercom for the hired help up on the third floor, or perhaps old phone wiring - who needs those pesky grounds, anyway? In the second floor hallway, above the frame of the door that leads to the third floor, we found a spot where it appeared some sort of box had been mounted, of the size that I would expect a doorbell or similar to be.

I'd be interested to hear any theories on the subject.

Should this worry me?

Last night, I finished the rip out for the light fixture in the shower ceiling. It was a beautiful chunk of porcelain, but unfortunately, a bare bulb in such an environment is no longer up to code, and the city chose this as one of the few violations (of the many many that we posess) to write up. The fixture is curious in that it mounts without any visible screws - the screws that hold it to the backing plate are in the socket itself. I'll have to post a photo of this at some future time.

Since this photograph, I've sistered in some 2x3s to hold the drywall flush with the edge of the tile - the plaster and fiberboard combined were about 7/8" thick. But before getting to that point, I took some photographs from the vantage point afforded me.

The following two images are of the same location.



The stud in the foreground at the bottom of the picture is one edge of the shower enclosure.



This is a close up. Note the cracked joist, the tube with a nail resting in it, the wiring joined outside a box, the knob and tube wiring just resting on the ceiling, the beautiful notching and drilling...

The strange part of all this is that I can't figure out the purpose of the copper pipe that necessitated all of this. This pipe, I assume, would be servicing something on the third floor - yet there's nothing there or anywhere near where this pipe appears to run. If it were a radiator pipe, there should be another one accompanying it.

It's just a small crack, right? I really don't want to pull up the floor up there, not yet.

Insulating without rewiring?

My house has no insulation. It is on the large size. Thus, I dread my upcoming gas bills.

I've been installing weatherstripping on the frames of the storm windows and will do the same with the windows themselves, if we have a warm day anytime soon. I've come to realize as I weatherstrip the windows that more cold air seems to be coming in from around the edges of the windows, presumably due to a lack of insulation around the window frame. Given that the exterior of the house is brick and that that there isn't any trim around the windows (just a nice rounded plaster edge), I have to imagine that gaining access to the framing around the window won't be easy.

My bigger question, though, is about insulating the house as a whole. I'd like to be able to blow in insulation, but everything I've read seems to indicate that you cannot blow in insulation where knob and tube wiring is present.

The wiring, while knob and tube, is in excellent condition. Every fixture I've removed is in a box, and on all of them, the insulation is in good condition. The current electrical service meets our needs without any trouble. As a result, I don't feel a strong desire to rewire.

I welcome any thoughts, ideas, and insights on the subject.

Saving money on homeowner's insurance

I've learned, in the course of my shopping for homeowner's insurance, that the insurance companies don't like fuse boxes. This was finally made clear when the company I buy my auto insurance from refused to insure my house when they learned it had fuse boxes. A couple questions to another insurance company revealed a huge difference in premiums if I replaced the second floor fuse box with a circuit breaker. The difference was such that it would pay for the circuit breakers in two years.

This seems like it might be useful for others trying to lower their insurance premiums.