gah.

[mandolin]

Postponing the weekend report, I just spent 7 hours finding out more about the Elephant. Skip the next cut if you don't want to hear it.

Well, we got the dehumidifier, got the window units, and guess what?

We can't plug 'em in yet.

To make a long story short - whoever wired this house must have been on acid when they did it. There's a 3-prong plug here, a 2-prong there, and all the circuit breakers have been labeled by amperage - ranging from above 100-amp to 15-amp - but there are no labels to indicate WHICH circuit goes to what wall/room. And of course, NONE of the 3-prong plugs are anywhere near where the units are going to be. (And I refuse to just forget about it and sleep in the former garage.)

So I need to con my neighbor's brother-in-law and Kent into taking a look at the wiring and figure out what the hell goes to what.


However, I've discovered that my immediate neighbors are very nice. More later; I need to crash.

Comments

[marag.livejournal.com]

Ugh. Sounds like our house, where the hubby ended up rewiring everything.

[jennies.livejournal.com]

Aya aya aya aya....

Yikes. Good luck with that.

I'll check with my grandmother; she used to have a bunch of three-prong to two-prong conversion things (she lived in an old Brooklyn brownstone, which had predominantly the old two-prong outlets). I know she got rid of a *ton* of stuff when she moved down here, but maybe she's found some in a box. (Or maybe my other grandmother has some. My parents're headed back up to Boston this weekend; I can have them look...) And don't quote me on this, but they *might* still be sold in stores. Possibly. They're not really something I ever have cause to look for. But they might be there. I mean, there are plenty of older houses/apartment buildings that still have the old-style outlets, so it would make sense to sell the adaptors. (Hmm...come to think of it, could you use that Radio Shack adaptor you brought to Ireland? I remember it was the one rated for lamps and things, but I can't recall if it had a 3-to-2 adaptor on it.)

Anyways. Good luck. I'll keep my fingers crossed for ya. And when my giant man-eating chicken project comes to fruition, you're welcome to release one upon the bright-eyed gnome that wired the house without labeling the circuit breakers or putting them in a logical floor-plan order. ^_^;

[kevenn.livejournal.com]

The three prong to two prong adaptors are totally sold in stores! You can get them at Home Dpeot for around 75 cents a piece! :D

[weirdweb.livejournal.com]

That's the problem - you're not supposed to use adapters with some of these units. I checked. :(

[violetbloom.livejournal.com]

I sympathize. Hope you get things worked out. *hugs*

[jennies.livejournal.com]

Yiiikes.

In that case, how 'bout extension cords? I happen to know where a bunch of Carroll County School extension cords have ended up, and I bet they'd be happy to leave Mom's car. ^_-

Seriously, though, my family routinely strings five or six of the things together (electric-taping the joins for safety) so that we can do everything from vacuum the cars to string the entire house's Xmas lights and power the weed-whacker. And I want to say I saw Hood ACs pulling juice though extension cords in several different dorms. (Like Meyran, where the windows on 4th floor were a solid 8 feet away from the nearest outlet...)

If not...hm...maybe they make multi-plug thingies (like surge protectors only sometimes without the surge protection) with two prongs. Or (and I'm not vouching for this, but Grandma did it sometimes and never burned the Brownstone down) you could remove the third prong from a cheapie surge protector/thingie. As I understand it, that third prong is just a grounding wire; removing the lead doesn't compromise the electrical capabilities (but it does mean you might want to unplug it in violent thunderstorms...).

Anyways. Good luck, and try to keep smiling. If things get to be a bit much, give me a call. I have learned the locations of Annapolis' best ice cream parlors and chocolate fondue restaurant, and they make for excellent therapy. Plus the ice cream shops do take-out pints...