My Back Hurts......BAD!!!!

One of the things that’s always been an issue with this house is that it’s DARK. Not as dark as it was originally, when the den had a single light fixture in the middle of a room covered in dark paneling, but dark nonetheless.

Renovations, then, provided a perfect opportunity to lighten things up, especially on the lower level where a decision was made to install six recessed ceiling lights to supplement the lonely bulb that had previously served the entire room.

The problem with installing lights isn’t the fixtures. A tape measure and a hammer, they’re up and in.

The problem comes from trying to figure out how to wire two – or if you’re really ambitious THREE – switches to control them. For those of us who deal with words, this is frustration on a significant scale since the directions for putting them in are almost invariably depicted as diagrams.

It’s like those pictures on the SAT that you’re supposed to imagine folding up to make a particular shape. They are in essence math problems.

Some of us hate math. Even as adults.

What all this means is that there will be many, many trips up and down the ladder to install – and uninstall – and re-install – the wiring to the lights. This can be accomplished only with a significant amount of time spent “hands in the air”, which is not especially comfortable for those of us who spend a significant part of our lives sitting at a desk.

Eventually the lights were in and mostly working.

By “mostly working”, I mean that the new can lights – which are controlled by a single dimmer switch – work as intended.

The old fixture, which is now wired to be operated from three separate switches, one of which is a dimmer and one of which “glows” so you can find it in the dark , well, not so much. That one has a 66% success rating and about a 400% frustration rating since most every conceivable combination of wires has been attempted.

And after it was all done and still didn’t work, someone helpful pointed out that the system I used wouldn’t meet code. Something about all the wires having to be encased in Romex, which means that my single red “jumper” wouldn’t be allowed.

This is why professionals have licenses.

And why some very nice electricians will be fixing those little faux pax when they install the new electric service to the house.