When we moved to Milwaukee 18 months ago we knew NOBODY. L went to work and made friends with a guy by the name of Tony. Tony and his wife Stephania are Italian. Which means nobody is a stranger. We had been in town only a few short weeks before we had not only met both of his parents, his sister and brother, but her parents and grandfather. They have adopted us!
I bring this up because only "family" would do what Tony did for us yesterday. As you will recall my last post was about the light that couldn't be shut off with the switch in the office. I called Tony yesterday to ask his advice on the wiring inside the wall. He was in the middle of working on refinishing all the wood work in what is soon to be a nursery. Being "family" meant that he would stop what he was doing and come take a look so that I wouldn't electricute myself or burn down the house.
He got way more than he bargained for. There were 5 wires behind the light switch. There were 8 wires behind the fixture itself! Two of the wires behind the fixture supply power in to the living room to the outlet the currently runs the television. Two of the wires control power to the dining room chandelier. Two of the wires are the main power wires that come from the switchbox and finally the last two actually connect the fixture to the light switch. All of the black wires were together and all the whites were together which meant the outlet and lights worked in other parts of the house (the parts that had NOTHING TO DO with the office) but wouldn't let the office light switch work.
Behind the switch there were two wires that connect to an outlet in the office, two wires that run from the fixture to the switch and a mystery wire that I never did come to understand what it was for.
Three hours, a run to Home Depot, and lots of swearing on my part (and I was pretty much just watching at this point!) and I have a switch that turns off the light in my office.
This weekend my plan is to go help "family" paint their nursery.
