38. Boys Playing With Blocks

You are in for a treat today:  lots and lots of pictures.  Don and the guys were working on the retaining wall out back, but first let's talk some more about my never-ending wiring project.

Remember the reason I'm showing you all this - to take some of the fear out of it for you, should you want to try this on your own.  Number One rule:  always start by shutting off the breaker.  And, as Jake and Bobbie always remind me - don't believe anyone else has shut it off for you, even your grandma.  Do it yourself.  When I began the work today, I thought I remembered leaving the breaker off the day before.  Oops... I got a little buzz to remind me that I didn't.  But it didn't hurt, and no CPR was required.

Once you've got the breaker off, what harm can you do?  If you wire it wrong, when you turn the breaker back on it will shut off again.   Rule Number Two:  take things one little step at a time.  Just follow the circuit, you can't do the whole thing at once. 

This picture shows what's called a "pigtail" which is a whole bunch of wires all wired up together.  One black wire is the HOT coming into the box.  Another is HOT going to the exterior GFI on the back porch.  You can see that two of the wires are unattached, each will go to it's respective switch, one for the overhead lights as you come into the kitchen, and one for the exterior light.  Once you get all the HOTs in the right place, the rest is easy:  all the whites get pigtailed, and all the grounds get pigtailed.  If there are red wires, that means you have a three-way switch which is two switches for the same fixture.  I don't want to go there right now.

This is everything right before I put the switch plate cover on.  It used to be a "three-gang" with two switches and an outlet, but I eliminated the outlet so the center panel will be a blank.  Good thing, with all that crap I had to shove in there.

This is the cute exterior light I put up - I've had this thing floating around my house (from a yard sale, of course) for years, didn't know what to do with it.  It's already all rusty, ready for the salty air!!

And this... whoopeedoo ... is the exterior GFI outlet.  I will have to replace that box, since I'm going to have a nice watertight outlet cover on top, but I hooked it up to make sure I had the wiring working right.  Switches and outlets are so easy - they come with instructions and you just shove the wires in the back and tighten a screw on each. 

Now on to the exciting part!  This is Don cutting block for the wall.  I didn't realize it until I looked at this picture, but he's actually mitering the corner.

Here we are after some of the progress.  You can see what's left of the original wall on the right.  It's sad, but once they got there, they realized it was leaning too much to use it, so they busted it out along with the foundation and they're going to lay the whole thing fresh.  That corner on the right is where the mitered blocks were used.  It looks really tall, but the yard inside will be level with my bottom step.  I know I'll love it.

Here is one of the guys doing his thing - makes it look easy.  Have you ever tried to get concrete to behave?!  He looks like he could be whistling while he was doing this but he was actually listening to some grungy rock.  It's fine - whatever makes 'em happy. 

Here's a shot towards the end of today.  The wall will tie in with my neighbor, Mr. Leete the architect's wall.  It's actually just inside his property line, but he was cool with it.  Gives me about another foot of width on my little back yard.  He is paying for his part of the wall, but they are all tied together with rebar and concrete will be poured in the top so even if someone backs into it it will be a minor fix.  That wall won't come down again.  My fence posts will be set in brackets right in the concrete on the top of the wall!

Next topic:  These are a couple of doors that came out of the kitchen that I won't be reusing in there.  They are in my studio at home now - I have an idea to make them into headboards for the beds at Grandview.  Maybe give my heat gun a try, and see how much paint I can get off.  I would just sand them a little bit and leave them alone if it was old paint, but somebody primed over them, and never painted the top coat.  Icky.

Last but not least, I have been remiss about logging my thrift- and garage-sale finds for a couple of weeks.  I got a trash can that I'm going to use for recyclables in the kitchen, some storage containers (in Florida EVERYTHING has to be airtight), a space heater for the bathroom on those chilly mornings in my dreams!  Some more curtains, cute plastic dishes, a pizza pan, a pillow and some bubble bath.  On the left is a dog bed given to me by my friend Judy - brand new, totally classy, and FREE!!

Balance Forward:  $245

$32  lots of misc.

Remainder:  $213