Uh, Does This Look Safe To You? or if you are our insurance agent please do not read this post

My hubby is actually quite a handy guy and I am pretty handy myself, but lately things around here have begun to get a little out of control...

and maybe even a little dangerous

(which hubby denies)

and since I can't get Sparky the fire safety dog

(I tried)

out here for a proper inspection I thought I would see what everyone thinks of this and if anyone has anything like this going on in their house

For a little background- we have an extra room upstairs that has been my mother's room, my daughter's room, my studio and now it is our "gym"

(ie the room we never use)

which means it has some exercise equipment and some tacky plastic wall mirrors that tend to give you a funhouse kind of body

(well, at least it gives me something to blame)

Back when it was my studio and I needed a particular kind of light, in a particular space, hubby installed a particularly outdated ceiling light from our garage.

Somehow and for some reason he wired this light into the ceiling so that when you want to turn the light on you stick this little plug to nowhere into the outlet below the light


(yup, you heard me right)

plugging this little plug into the outlet causes the ceiling light to light up



(try to ignore the beautiful popcorn ceiling surrounding said light and stay with me here)



So anyhoos, about a week ago hubby and I were having some kind of little to do while "working out" in our "gym" that resulted in my saying how things around here never get done and hubby saying

"like what- what doesn't get done around here?"

and me looking at the plug and then the light - plug, light, plug, light

"what, you want that fixed?"

"yes, I want that fixed- I'd like to go to bed at night knowing we are not going to burn the house down. "

"you'd like to go to bed at night not worrying about the house burning down?"

(hubby loves to mirror my issues back at me in an argument - for years I've wondered if he secretly sneaks home in the afternoon to watch Oprah - this does not make me feel better, this only makes me want to jump off the treadmill and stick the little plug to nowhere ... somewhere)

so tonight at dinner he lets me know that he taken care of our little "problem" with the disclaimer that there really is no "problem"



(not sure this is quite the same as a properly wired plug or a properly installed fire alarm, but you can see why I keep him around)

8 comments

Caroline said...

Read your article and saw your shop, not sure if you are interested. Love all about you.
I own a gallery in Honesdale PA. Would love to have your work there!
www.philiphonegallery.com
philiphone@verizon.net
Sincerely
Caroline

Unni Strand said...

Wow! That's a great tip for our home too! We don't have any fire alarm upstairs, -my man says we don't need it since we sleep downstairs...

Lynn Lunger said...

Well, maybe the actual process of "how it works" isn't a hazard...

1. You asked him to fix it since it bothers you... peace of mind for those you love is priceless.

2. Ummmmm ...yeah. Upgrading is always nice. :^)

3. You can buy switch/outlet combos. If he wired the light himself then that should be easy to install.

4. It's a gateway fix. It starts with electrical tape as the fix-all... next thing you know duct tape is holding everything together. It can get ugly. ;^D

Sherry said...

I have a feeling your house is as old as mine. We still have some original copper wiring in my attic studio. Nothing as creative as this, however.

Jane Pierce aka zJayne said...

Here's what I adore about your blogging... it's like I'm sitting there almost spitting coffee while you're telling the story... I so am in the stream of the words and listening!

Too funny... he's a lucky duck - tell him! ha! call him a duck..ha!

Wild Woman Jewelry said...

ditto for me...your writing is a hoot! love it and pass the butter!

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