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So on Friday, I'm upstairs doin' my usual lazy day-off thing-- foolin' around on the Internets and playin' video games. Then Dad calls up and requests "five or ten minutes of your time." I instinctively knew it would be more than that, but I didn't know how long it would end up being.
We've been living in this house for 18 years now. And the light switch for our downstairs bathroom (the powder room, as we call it) has stopped working. Dad, being typical Manguy, decides he can do the repair himself. As soon as I realize what we're doing, I knew that he'd already had the brief argument with Mom (her position being "you should get someone who knows what they're doing to do it for you") and he'd gotten a new light switch. My job was simply to hold the flashlight for him.
So we figure out which of the fuses in the basement is the one that controls the circuit for the powder room (not simple, since the labels were ... not labeled in a sensible way), shut off the power to that circuit while Mom goes and naps, and get to work on the fix. Takes us about 15 minutes or so, since some of the copper wires were stiff and didn't want to stay hooked onto the screws on the switch.
We have a fourth wire that doesn't have a screw, however. Dad and I look at the switch, see a little copper-jacketed hole, and figure it goes in there. We get it to go in, flip the fuse on, and the switch for the light works!
...but now the fan in the powder room DOESN'T work. Dad is confused by this. I am confused by this. Dad figures they can get an electrician to come out later to figure out why that stopped working and he puts the panel back on the switch.
...but then I realize that the lights in the kitchen don't work either. Appliances in the kitchen all still work, but the lights don't.
Dad and I are even more confused, and grumble because now the electrician call is even more important.
...then I go back upstairs and realize that I have no Internet connection. Our wifi is working, but there's no internet connection. I go and reboot the router, but it still won't connect to the internet. That this happened while this other electrical thing is going on cannot be coincidental, but I'm of the impression that maybe something went wrong on Red Checkmark's end when the power to the router went out.
So I call up Red Checkmark, and after looking at the box in the basement, we realize that the Red Checkmark internet box (or whatever they call it) is on battery power. And in such cases, it will only provide power to the phones, not to cable and internet. I thank the Red Checkmark rep I was speaking to, and inform Dad of the bad news.
Dad and I now realize we need to get an electrician out NOW, because while Mom will grumble and complain about no lights to the kitchen, she'd be able to make it a few days without. But she will hit the effing roof when she finds out her internet isn't working.
We try calling the electrician who did the wiring, but get the wrong company (who don't do residential jobs), but they recommend another company. Dad calls them up, and is told that the next available non-emergency appointment isn't until Sunday. Dad's about to politely thank them and hang up when the rep says she'll ask if they can put him down for an emergency appointment, in which case they could have someone out that same day, for the appropriate fee. Dad readily agrees to this. They approve the job and say the electrician will call about 30 minutes before he gets there.
Meanwhile, suddenly our Red Checkmark Internet turns out to be MAGICAL. Because suddenly we've got internet again. The router still isn't showing a connection, and the box in the basement still shows battery power, but we've got internet! We go about the rest of the afternoon/evening, order in some takeout from Corner Bakery, and wait.
The electrician turns up, takes a look at the breaker box, then at the switch we'd been working on, and he gets to work. Takes him maybe ten minutes, if that, to get us back up and running.
Turns out that last copper wire WAS supposed to be on a screw, but neither the original switch nor the one Dad had bought had that last screw there. So the electrician put one in, hooked it up, and now everything was back to normal.
Moral of the story-- Don't assume you know what you're doing when it comes to home repair. Do your research ahead of time if you insist on DIY repair. And be ready to call a professionalif when you screw it up.
We've been living in this house for 18 years now. And the light switch for our downstairs bathroom (the powder room, as we call it) has stopped working. Dad, being typical Manguy, decides he can do the repair himself. As soon as I realize what we're doing, I knew that he'd already had the brief argument with Mom (her position being "you should get someone who knows what they're doing to do it for you") and he'd gotten a new light switch. My job was simply to hold the flashlight for him.
So we figure out which of the fuses in the basement is the one that controls the circuit for the powder room (not simple, since the labels were ... not labeled in a sensible way), shut off the power to that circuit while Mom goes and naps, and get to work on the fix. Takes us about 15 minutes or so, since some of the copper wires were stiff and didn't want to stay hooked onto the screws on the switch.
We have a fourth wire that doesn't have a screw, however. Dad and I look at the switch, see a little copper-jacketed hole, and figure it goes in there. We get it to go in, flip the fuse on, and the switch for the light works!
...but now the fan in the powder room DOESN'T work. Dad is confused by this. I am confused by this. Dad figures they can get an electrician to come out later to figure out why that stopped working and he puts the panel back on the switch.
...but then I realize that the lights in the kitchen don't work either. Appliances in the kitchen all still work, but the lights don't.
Dad and I are even more confused, and grumble because now the electrician call is even more important.
...then I go back upstairs and realize that I have no Internet connection. Our wifi is working, but there's no internet connection. I go and reboot the router, but it still won't connect to the internet. That this happened while this other electrical thing is going on cannot be coincidental, but I'm of the impression that maybe something went wrong on Red Checkmark's end when the power to the router went out.
So I call up Red Checkmark, and after looking at the box in the basement, we realize that the Red Checkmark internet box (or whatever they call it) is on battery power. And in such cases, it will only provide power to the phones, not to cable and internet. I thank the Red Checkmark rep I was speaking to, and inform Dad of the bad news.
Dad and I now realize we need to get an electrician out NOW, because while Mom will grumble and complain about no lights to the kitchen, she'd be able to make it a few days without. But she will hit the effing roof when she finds out her internet isn't working.
We try calling the electrician who did the wiring, but get the wrong company (who don't do residential jobs), but they recommend another company. Dad calls them up, and is told that the next available non-emergency appointment isn't until Sunday. Dad's about to politely thank them and hang up when the rep says she'll ask if they can put him down for an emergency appointment, in which case they could have someone out that same day, for the appropriate fee. Dad readily agrees to this. They approve the job and say the electrician will call about 30 minutes before he gets there.
Meanwhile, suddenly our Red Checkmark Internet turns out to be MAGICAL. Because suddenly we've got internet again. The router still isn't showing a connection, and the box in the basement still shows battery power, but we've got internet! We go about the rest of the afternoon/evening, order in some takeout from Corner Bakery, and wait.
The electrician turns up, takes a look at the breaker box, then at the switch we'd been working on, and he gets to work. Takes him maybe ten minutes, if that, to get us back up and running.
Turns out that last copper wire WAS supposed to be on a screw, but neither the original switch nor the one Dad had bought had that last screw there. So the electrician put one in, hooked it up, and now everything was back to normal.
Moral of the story-- Don't assume you know what you're doing when it comes to home repair. Do your research ahead of time if you insist on DIY repair. And be ready to call a professional
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