Adventures In Remodeling: "Miss" Meadowlawn Dr.: It's Electric!

Typical outlet.

One of the last things we did was switch out all the electrical outlets. There were a couple reasons why we decided to do that. Half the plugs didn't work and they were filthy and disgusting.

Electrical stuff has always been a little scary to me. I've seen Eduardo electrocute himself twice, and I think he may have done it a couple additional times when I wasn't there. And I've seen wires spark and leave burn marks on the sides of the electrical box. But I was out of things to do, so I had Eduardo show me, and I ended up switching out most of the plugs and switches downstairs myself. And I learned some really interesting things. The first is that I'd probably switch all the plugs at the beginning of the remodel next time, especially if they don't work well. Sometimes the old outlets feel loose when you plug stuff in, and you have to wiggle it around to get whatever it is to work. But when you put a new one in everything is tight. We did most of the work on the house with only half the outlets available and it was a pain in the ass. The other thing is we had some issues where some of the switches and plugs just didn't work and all, and we spent a lot of time trying to figure it out. The whole front wall of the living room didn't work for example. But as I switched out all the plugs on that wall, I found one outlet that wasn't connected. The plug was there, but the wires in the back were not plugged into it. Once I connected them everything worked! We were going to call an electrician and it probably would have cost us a lot more than the $1 it actually did for me to connect that one plug. So switch out your outlets, then check plugs and switches and THEN call the electrician if they still don't work.

Buts it difficult you ask? Nope. Easy-peazy! As long as you remember a few things. 1.) Male sure the breaker is off. And then double test it to make sure. 2.) Then most of the time all you do is unhook the wires on the old outlet and make sure you put them back on the new plug/switch in exactly the same way. If there were two white ones and two black ones, I'd curl the end of the ones that went on top, so when they were all sitting there disconnected I wouldn't forget which was which (as a matter of fact I'm not even sure it matters, but who wants to take that chance?) You can take a picture of it with your phone if you are worried you'll forget how they go together. Also (I didn't know this until later) if you have a plug that works off a switch, for example the top outlet is controlled by the light switch, but the bottom is a regular plug, then there is a little metal connector on the side of the plug you need to break off so they are not linked together. See pictures below. 3.)Make sure you have the right tools. You need both a flat and philips screwdriver, wire stripper, and pliers. It also helps to have a tiny screwdriver to press the wire release on the back of the switch to remove the old wires (otherwise you have to wrestle it out with the pliers). And that's about all you need to know. If you come across something confusing, or that you haven't seen before you can find how-to videos for EVERYTHING on the internet. I Googled the outlet-on-a-switch thing to learn about that little metal piece that has to be broken off to make it work. You'd be amazed what you can find online!

Anyway, after spending most of my life afraid of wires, I was surprised by how much I really enjoyed learning about them, switching out the old outlets! Who would have thought it would be so much fun?