You know, I love my house
Lots of you have heard me say I live in the house my Grandpa built. I do love living here, not just because of the sense of history, but because it has really been the only place I ever called home....even the actual house I grew up in.
Us kids could not wait to come over here when my Grandparents were living.
But....this is not a wax philosophical or nostalgic post.
This is a bitch...a bitch about people who are dead, but just up the hill from me. The house was built in 1948 and an addition was put on in 1960 and a garage built in 1972....
It has been getting colder and I decided I had best service my outside wood boiler and get it ready to start. This is generally not that complex an operation. It entails cleaning any left over ashes from the spring out of the firebox. Dumping a gallon of anti-corrosion/rust inhibitor in the tank. Topping off said water tank. Taking down the two sections of chimney and cleaning them as well as the transition to inside the firebox. Turning on the water valves so the pump can circulate the hot water to the baseboards in the hours (which have zone valves controlling their flow). It sounds more complex than it is.
Once this is done, I generally put a nice layer of cardboard and paper, small branches and then larger logs, so that it starts with one match. Once started, it is rare that it goes out before late April or early May. I even shovel out the ashes while it is still going and then only about 3 times per winter.
But NO!
I did all of the above and then when I turned on the power switch just to make sure the pump would spin, nothing...nada...no power.
I put this in myself. Plumbed it and wired it and ran the circuit myself to the pump house heater circuit (which incidentally, with hot water supply and return lines running through the pump house, is no longer needed).
Ok...has to be a wire nut in the junction box under the stove is corroded or loose. Take out my meter and start checking and tracing. no power on the incoming underground line. I go to the pump house...no power at the outlet for the heat and no power in the junction box where the line comes out from under the house.
Shit! Now I have to get under the house, Which is built on a single course of concrete block and does not have a crawl space but a wiggle space accessed from a pit under the kitchen....Fuck you JH (the guy who layed out the foundation of the house). Down I go. I am not as agile as I once was and there are no steps down into the pit, so lowering your self down just using your arms is a pain....literally. Once down there I find the line coming from the pump house. Check the junction...dead.
Now I have to put my thinking cap on and do my best to see where the line goes. Because of the multiple phases of construction there are two 60A fuse panels fed by a 100A main breaker panel. I have always been going to upgrade everything, but have not had the time. The fuse panels are safe but the wiring is hodgepodge and the only things labeled are what I have had to fix in the past.
I wired this into a junction box knowing that the 15A circuit would be plenty for the boiler controls and pump and since I was no longer using the heat circuit, it would be fine.
Yes, I had already checked all the fuses and breakers, so now, I crawl under the damned house again and start looking and tracing where the wires go. They swing over towards the 2nd fuse panel, so I crawl out and go to it and pull off the cover and look for the romex that fed the circuit. Nothing coming into that panel was really a match, but I took my meter and checked all four circuits which were live. I wiggled wires to make sure one was not broken. I put the cover back on and went back down under the house.
Now I am forcing myself up under the floor joists to get a better view of where the wire goes and shit....it loops around towards the first fuse box...Damn you IJ (who did the wiring for the new addition). I crawl out of the wiggle space and wedge myself back up out of the hole in the kitchen floor and go to fuse box number 1 and repeat what I did at fuse box number 2. No luck and everything is energized. One last time I go back to the main breaker panel and check all these breakers and then take the cover off and check with my meter...everything is fine.
I had to have missed something under the house. I crawled back down the hole and once again wedged myself under where I thought the wire was headed and there it was.....a Fucking switch. A switch that I had likely accidentally turned off this spring when I was wedging myself under there to fix a leak....What the actual Fuck! I can understand a switch to turn off any heater that is plugged in without having to go into the pumphouse, but to switch this you had to pull the hatch in the kitchen and go down in the pit or at the very least hang down and reach....
Boiler is back working and ready for the cold.....but I am hot and don't need it right now....
I guess electrical needs to move up my list before I die and my granddaughter is completely lost in this house. That and I need to stop and pee on at least three graves on my way up the hill tomorrow...
Us kids could not wait to come over here when my Grandparents were living.
But....this is not a wax philosophical or nostalgic post.
This is a bitch...a bitch about people who are dead, but just up the hill from me. The house was built in 1948 and an addition was put on in 1960 and a garage built in 1972....
It has been getting colder and I decided I had best service my outside wood boiler and get it ready to start. This is generally not that complex an operation. It entails cleaning any left over ashes from the spring out of the firebox. Dumping a gallon of anti-corrosion/rust inhibitor in the tank. Topping off said water tank. Taking down the two sections of chimney and cleaning them as well as the transition to inside the firebox. Turning on the water valves so the pump can circulate the hot water to the baseboards in the hours (which have zone valves controlling their flow). It sounds more complex than it is.
Once this is done, I generally put a nice layer of cardboard and paper, small branches and then larger logs, so that it starts with one match. Once started, it is rare that it goes out before late April or early May. I even shovel out the ashes while it is still going and then only about 3 times per winter.
But NO!
I did all of the above and then when I turned on the power switch just to make sure the pump would spin, nothing...nada...no power.
I put this in myself. Plumbed it and wired it and ran the circuit myself to the pump house heater circuit (which incidentally, with hot water supply and return lines running through the pump house, is no longer needed).
Ok...has to be a wire nut in the junction box under the stove is corroded or loose. Take out my meter and start checking and tracing. no power on the incoming underground line. I go to the pump house...no power at the outlet for the heat and no power in the junction box where the line comes out from under the house.
Shit! Now I have to get under the house, Which is built on a single course of concrete block and does not have a crawl space but a wiggle space accessed from a pit under the kitchen....Fuck you JH (the guy who layed out the foundation of the house). Down I go. I am not as agile as I once was and there are no steps down into the pit, so lowering your self down just using your arms is a pain....literally. Once down there I find the line coming from the pump house. Check the junction...dead.
Now I have to put my thinking cap on and do my best to see where the line goes. Because of the multiple phases of construction there are two 60A fuse panels fed by a 100A main breaker panel. I have always been going to upgrade everything, but have not had the time. The fuse panels are safe but the wiring is hodgepodge and the only things labeled are what I have had to fix in the past.
I wired this into a junction box knowing that the 15A circuit would be plenty for the boiler controls and pump and since I was no longer using the heat circuit, it would be fine.
Yes, I had already checked all the fuses and breakers, so now, I crawl under the damned house again and start looking and tracing where the wires go. They swing over towards the 2nd fuse panel, so I crawl out and go to it and pull off the cover and look for the romex that fed the circuit. Nothing coming into that panel was really a match, but I took my meter and checked all four circuits which were live. I wiggled wires to make sure one was not broken. I put the cover back on and went back down under the house.
Now I am forcing myself up under the floor joists to get a better view of where the wire goes and shit....it loops around towards the first fuse box...Damn you IJ (who did the wiring for the new addition). I crawl out of the wiggle space and wedge myself back up out of the hole in the kitchen floor and go to fuse box number 1 and repeat what I did at fuse box number 2. No luck and everything is energized. One last time I go back to the main breaker panel and check all these breakers and then take the cover off and check with my meter...everything is fine.
I had to have missed something under the house. I crawled back down the hole and once again wedged myself under where I thought the wire was headed and there it was.....a Fucking switch. A switch that I had likely accidentally turned off this spring when I was wedging myself under there to fix a leak....What the actual Fuck! I can understand a switch to turn off any heater that is plugged in without having to go into the pumphouse, but to switch this you had to pull the hatch in the kitchen and go down in the pit or at the very least hang down and reach....
Boiler is back working and ready for the cold.....but I am hot and don't need it right now....
I guess electrical needs to move up my list before I die and my granddaughter is completely lost in this house. That and I need to stop and pee on at least three graves on my way up the hill tomorrow...
56-60, M
