Yes, Jane, It's Always Something......

Buy a house - invest your money! Good grief!!

Okay, I'm laughing, but seriously, it's always something around here. Last week I let a friend stay with me for a few days while his transmission was being repaired. He, in turn, got my new security system up and running - Woohoo!

Then Wednesday evening, my handyman comes over to install a new ceiling fan in my spare room. My ex's son had installed something in my old one so that it could be operated with a remote. Then managed to take the remote when he moved out. Light worked - fan didn't. Yea. So Tommy takes down the old one (I can yard sale this one!), and tells me that the wiring up there is a nightmare, but he can make it work. He installs the new fan (beautiful!), and off he goes. Around 12:00 midnight, my son goes to bed. No electric in his room! Yikes!

So my house guest, who is an electronics wizard, gets a ladder and takes down the ceiling fan. And exclaims that the wiring is a nightmare! I knew that already. So, being an anal retentive nerd (albeit, a loveable one!), he proceeds to "straighten out" the wiring, and says he can't believe the handyman had left it that way. Which creates a short ......now only half the power working now in the spare room..... Bugger!

Of course, I call Tommy, and he comes over the next day. My son and friend are home, and I'm at work. I get a text from my son: "Mom, please some home now. They aren't playing nice." Wonderful. Please kill me.....

So, I come home to find Tommy pacing on my front sidewalk, and my friend fuming in the house. Bottom line, there's a short somewhere and it's beyond either one of these men to fix, so I have to call an electrician. Yea.

The electrician show up and happily manages to fix the problem in about 30 minutes. Apparently, when my dumbass ex's dumbass son (Remember, they renovate homes for a living.....scarey!) installed the thing in the ceiling fan, he assumed that the wires in the junction box closest to the wall switch were in the wrong place, and pulled the ones that actually controlled the wall switch over. He caused the wires in the junction box to cross, but not touch. Tommy had said that he wanted to put another wire nut on the continuous hot wire, but didn't have one, and apparently, since it wasn't tight, it wasn't making proper connection enough to power the other room (?). So, when anal retentive nerd friend decided to "straighten out" the wires, he assumed that the wires where in the right place and pulled them further, causing the crossed wire to touch and short. So, eighty bucks later, the electrician corrected everything, Tommy reinstalled the ceiling fan, and all is well....

Except for now, it seems that my sprinkler system is not sprinkling. Bugger! I'll call Tommy and see if he can get to the bottom of it.

Yes, Jane, it's always something......!