I’m ok at handiman stuff, but only stuff I give myself leeway to redo or complete and think “good enough” Electrical work isnt even close to the scope of stuff I’d take on myself. I admire anyone who does, but I know my limits
The biggest can of worms that have been opened though is my partner heard the word fire hazard and now I dont think have the option but to do it if I ever want her to sleep again.
I come from a family of builders; while I’m not in the business myself I’ve got no fear of electrical systems especially low-voltage stuff. zapped myself a few times on 110V but that’s how you learn.
my brother’s father-in-law is a retired sparky and he did all of the final connections in my house so it “meets code” but most of the cabling and lights and wall sockets were installed by myself, brother and father. same with the plumbing, my buddy is a ticketed plumber so he did the soldering connections from copper to the new PEX. I had a teammate come in and install the bathtub and shower downstairs, rest was me.
you’d be shocked with what you can “get away with” when it comes to building… But when it comes to your MrsLS’ peace of mind you just KNOW you’re going to get stuck with a bill.
Best of luck.
Yeah, its amazing the things you do differently when it isnt just you. The first hurricane I went through with Apollo I just hunkered down. We lost power, but no real damage, but the next morning I walked to starbucks to buy coffee and recharge my devices. It was nice and cool so I got a second cup of coffee and stayed a big longer. BY the time I got back to the house, poor Apollo was sitting bolt up right in the corner of the bathroom with back up against wall. It was a very on guard position and was clearly just freaked out by the whole situation. I was ready to deal with a few days of no electric (and AC), but as soon as I saw his distress I packed up my car and drove 100 miles until I could find a pet friendly hotels who had room for us and stayed until my electric got turned back on.
If this was just me I’d probably find a way to take a short cut on it. Not because of the money per se, but because I hate spending money on shit like this. But the second she says its gotta be done, then its gotta be done.
Fly me over, I’ll re-wire the house in a week.
Cloth, fuck me….
am surprised it’s not aluminum. post WW3 when the US Govt was eating up all the copper in the world to build their nuclear project, they started wiring homes with aluminum. not realizing it would oxidize and create all sorts of problems when you tried to pair it to other metals. So a retrofix fix was to basically solder copper pigtails to the ends of the aluminum wiring (sealed from oxidization using a coating, I think?) and then connect modern sockets/switches/fixtures to the copper pigtails.
But the worst system was called “knob and tube”
Did I miss a WW? I’ve only read about WWs 1 & 2.
No spoilers please. 
Something tells me, there won’t be any books written about WW3.
@GermanRed will undoubtedly tell us in advance, don’t worry.
You can now put an advance order for the WW3 book on Amazon. No confirm dates for delivery yet though.
Jnr hits 17 next year. Just ran details through the insurance on a car we don’t own yet as I want a manual for the test. Just me and Mrs £550. Add Jnr (I was expecting £3000) £1200! Result! Off the buy the Volvo…
Just ran it for a 260hp T5 and it’s £985! My parents let me drive their VW Polo which had an anchor instead of brakes.
My first car was in such bad condition that it stalled if you didnt keep the revs really high when slowing down. And once it stalled it was a bitch to restart. I developed a technique when approaching roundabouts that required me to turn my right foot 90 degrees so I could come down on the accelerator and brake at the same time. Fun times.
I really wish Jnr was driving one of my early cars. For example don’t open the rear passenger door, don’t use third and whatever you do, don’t put more than half a tank of petrol in. The quirks of our cars from the past are lost on the modern generation. But if I buy a Volvo, we will be doing wheel bearings and reluctor rings together. Everyday is a school day.
1973 MGB was my first car. it "nickel and dime"d me to death. dual SU carbs required a special tool to tune so every oil change at the shop cost me $250.
Next car was a 1990 Honda Civic Si. spent $250 on an entire brake job on that car it was bulletproof.
One of my early cars as a young teenager was an old Hillman Minx Estate… Dark miserable, depressing grey colour. Built like a tank it was, but talk about an ugly looking car, it would take the biscuit for that. Not exactly built for speed in its heyday either, so 25yrs down the line, once you hit that magical top-speed figure of 38mph, you were getting bounced all around the inside. It was about 25yrs old when I got it in the early 80’s, with a column gear change that allowed for a leather bench seat that stretched from drivers door, to passenger door. No adjustable seat in this thing, you could either stretch your legs out fully and hope they reached the pedals, while also hoping your butt could still have a ledge on the seat, otherwise you took it into the garage for the mechanic to attach a set of wooden blocks on them.
The thing with hard smooth leather though, on a seat that you plop your arse on sitting behind the steering wheel, especially when it has been constantly shined up to a mirror finish by numerous other arse’s whose number probably stretch into the low thousands since it rolled off the factory floor… the thing with sitting on it, or ledged on it as I was driving, if I turned right doing over 20mph… my arse went one way sliding over to the passenger side, while my white knuckled ‘hanging on for grim death’ pair of hands had to remain tight around the steering wheel. My arms would instinctively lock themselves at the elbow, and had to remain fully outstretched trying to steer the car around this right turn, while not being able to lift my head high enough over this massive dash board it had. Only when you hit a straight bit of road again, was it possible to haul your arse back behind the wheel.
Worse still if you had one or two passengers up front as well. Going round any bend, would either have me squashing them against their door, or alternatively, them squashing me against my door, similar to riding the Waltzers ride in the fairground it was… Never kept mints or wine gums in the glove box in that car, used to keep motion sickness tablets to hand out :0)
Yeah, that’s the way it was in those days
Bloody hell, that’s a blast from the past! My parent’s had a Hillman Hunter when I was tiny.
I had a Hillman Imp van when I was a student. Amazing how many people I could get in the back on cushions. I had to travel backwards and fowards to the south coast from Liverpool before the M40. Apart from being gassed by fumes, I was shaken to pieces and deafened with the engine under the floor behind the two front seats
I’m still tossing and turning over the purchase of a 62 Sunbeam Alpine (Series 2). as my dad put it, I have to choose between fishing and the car.
The names Bond… Semmy Bond :0)
yep that’s the one. black on black.