Well worth the money!

Have you ever had something done to your house, that you thought was a little pricey, but knew it needed to be done? Of course with anything that HAS to be done, it could be cheap and I would still think it's pricey. That's only because I could easily think of other things that I could have bought with that money. We got bids from 2 other contractors and went with the best price.

Today we had Rusty come to our house. He is an electrician, and the husband of one of Greg's teachers from a couple years ago. In a matter of a few hours, he put in an new electrical panel, ran a new wire from the outside box to the inside box, and installed additional plugs in the garage. He also fixed a little glitch in a plug in Emily's room. He also found that we had water leaking into the closet that the electrical box is in. Those walls inside there aren't drywalled. He fixed that too!

Part of what we originally planned to have done was in the kitchen. If any of you have been here for parties, you may well be aware that in this house... we do not run the microwave and toaster oven at the same time. Turn on the coffee pot and whammo, you're heading for the circut breaker in the basement. It is the suckiest of problems to have in a kitchen. The idea was that we were going to install a new microwave above the stove. After doing a lot of research, we found that it wasn't going to be possible. The cabinets are only 12" deep over the stove, and the microwaves are 16" deep. Not to mention they are 16" in height too. That means that if I make sauce in my BIG stock pot as I usually do, I won't be able to see into it to mix it. So... we nixed that idea. We figured we would just come up with something later.

So while Rusty was installing the new box, he found out that the old box had 4 breakers running to something that wasn't labeled (it was like that when we moved in), so he had no idea what it was to. The 4 breakers were going to 2 items the way they were wired. So, he was thinking it was probably the kitchen. So, when he finished, he said he may have fixed the kitchen problem. Can you imagine that?!

So tonight, while I was making dinner, I had the toaster oven going, the microwave, and I thought about turning on the coffee pot, but didn't because I didn't want coffee. I ran the two things for as long as it took to cook chicken tenders and make steamed green beans. Nothing happened. It didn't trip the breaker. So tomorrow is the true test. Den and I are going to try and see if we can trip the breaker in the kitchen. If not... then problem fixed!

It was SO worth the money to have this done. Rusty works for a private contractor but does other jobs on the side. He said that winter is his slow time and is looking for side jobs. So, if you need an electrician, he comes with our highest recommendation! Let me know and we will forward his number to you.