Sunday, December 28, 2008

Unnecessary Trip to Town. Unexpected Repair

It got colder in the night, as predicted, and it was raining off and on. It was too cold and damp to do much outside, so it was a good day to go into the next town, and Jay wanted to go with me.

He wanted to stop at our local Kroger's to get a few things and cash a check, so we did that first. It was so chilly we just put the milk and cold stuff in the bed of the truck in a box, so we could have the heater on inside.

We went through rain and bleakness all the way to the next town, but the store I wanted to visit had changed their Sunday hours, and wouldn't be open until noon. So we just came back home.

Jay was looking for something to do, so he put the new halogen bulbs in a light fixture that I wanted to put on the enclosed porch for extra heat if needed. It takes the long T-type bulbs that you mustn't touch with your bare hands. My late DH had bought it for me years ago to put in the grooming room, but it put out so much heat, that we had to switch to fixtures that take the cool burning curly type bulbs. The only electricity out there is a porch light, so we thought we would tie into the wires at the back of the fixture and add an outlet.

When we took the fixture down off the soffit, we couldn't believe what we saw. The blasted contractors who finished the front of the house, obviously had not left enough wire for the light, and had pigtailed, and wire nutted together several splices of wires, but had not put it in a junction box. So we had to jigsaw a larger hole in the soffit, and put all their mess in a junction box. We added some 12 gauge wire, ran it through some conduit to where we wanted the outlet. As there is a sink near there, we had to use a GFIC outlet. It means that the outlet will be controlled by the light switch, but that is OK. Getting all the tools and parts together meant going into the workshop, and shed several times, and the storeroom next door, so I got my exercise today.

Now, the motor home. I got an email from the owner, and he is not coming to Houston after all, so he wanted to know if I wanted my deposit back. That was the reason I decided to buy it, because he would drive it here. I told him I would see what I could arrange before I did that. I can either fly or bus to KY, and hope that the winter weather isn't too horrid for me to drive a strange vehicle the 1000 miles back here. Or get my money back and try to find another one closer, which isn't easy as all the ones that I am interesting in, are in WA or FL !!

A decision making day.

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