Little Signs of Progress

Where the hard-wired wall clock used to be...

Three-color ragging: dark yellow base, then white, then medium-yellow on top

It might not seem like much, but the electrical work has turned a real corner (or rather, floor). We've started swapping out the part of the electrical system on the first floor that is fed via the second floor. This almost exclusively means light fixtures and switches - in EVERY room, including the front porch. Last Saturday, the electrician snipped one tiny little wire (to investigate what it is connected to) and 1/3 of the downstairs lighting went dead! You should have seen the look on his face - neither of us could believe that one single circuit was feeding light fixtures up to 75 feet away! Let me detail what was on this circuit: two kitchen lights and their switches, a wall sconce in the hallway, an overhead light in the hallway and also in one of the bathrooms (and their switches), one outlet in the guest bedroom, one outlet in the living room, the ceiling fan and switch in the sun room, and the ceiling fan and switch on the front porch!!!! Keep in mind, this circuit originated back by the laundry room (easily 75+ feet away).

This is a hole I expertly cut in the attic floor to reveal the wiring leading to the switches for the kitchen lights and the hallway wall sconce.

Also connected to this circuit - a "leg" to the ancient hard-wired clock in the kitchen. That was snipped and the wire mole removed... and the clock is already in the Macon landfill. The previous owners had painted AROUND the clock, so there was a square turquoise spot on the wall now... those who have been to our house also know the kitchen walls have a faux finish on them, which means this was not just a simple spackle-and-paint job. Except, that it actually turned out to be! The folks at Sherwin Williams showed me how to make a "cabbage rose" out of a damp rag and after about two minutes of "ragging" the spackled-sanded-primed spot, voila! See the pics for yourself! Martha Stewart, you have a new rival!

Done! Now, just have to figure out how to fill-in that hole in the molding where the wire mole used to snake through.

Discarded wiring - approximately 100 feet of asbestos-covered knob-and-tubing and also some much newer aluminum wire!

Not forgetting the original intent of having an electrician over - to insulate the attic - this is the area above Daniel's bed. It has R-19 installed in the rafters, then a blanket of R-30 rolled perpendicular on top. Below is the same space back in June 2007: