[charleskieffner]

heres (2) past electrical stories..........

back in 1972, feb 14, i was talking to my aunt margot in new york city. it was her b-day. about 10 pm at night. i was around 14 yrs old. margot was my "HIP" aunt. where my mom was strict margot was cool. anyway shot the breeze with her about werk. she was the secretary to the head honcho at lockheed aeroplane corp. based at jfk intl aeropuerto. she drove a ghia. she was cool.

anyway she states to me" i'll be right back" and leaves the phone. after some time i mentioned this to my folks and we hung up and tried calling again. no answer. next morning at 5am scottsdale p. d. is at our door telling us we believe margot has died in a fire.

we hop on plane. n.y.f.d. used 12 bottles of oxygen on her to no avail.

cause of fire............electrical. both my mom and aunt were born in that house and EXACTLY 20 years to the ******* DATE.............there was another electrical fire.


now.................fast forward to 2008. back in february i was faced with a huge dilemma on 2 of my backyard outbuildings. both were termite infested/rat infested/rattlesnake infested buildings of substantial size that were 27 years old. and they needed a infusion of cash and labor like nobodys biz.

3 truckloads of crap wasted sun rotted termite food out, and 3 truckloads of lumber put back in ONE BUILDING!

other building had roof collapse from crap roof and 4" of rain. so new roof and new drywall there.

one building had already been stuccoed, other was T-111 siding that the sun had killed. so new T-111. while this "fun with wood" expedition commenced had the fun filled giggles of watching outlets ARC like a MO-FO when any power tool plugged in. as we continued on this got to be a real safety issue.

finally after pouring $2500 of concrete floor in one building, (2) 5' x 9' foot doors for bike/quad access built, i coughed up bucks for an ELECTRICIAN! a real bonifide IOEW union alaskan pipeline electrician who jus so happens to enjoy mass quanities of miller lite like meself.

after explaining my issues...........first words out of his mouth were..........."these buildings are ILLEGAL" ie. RED TAGGED/CONDEMNED/NO OCCUPANCY/NO ******* BUENO!

so............after finding exposed exterior ROMEX, crap outlets, wired wrong outlets/wired wrong lights/bare wires/sunrotted wires/rat chewed wires.............i was facing a wallet meltdown.

my solution as always...............BUY MORE BEER! hit home depot..........buy new light fixtures/new GFI's/new outlets/new switches/new ROMEX/new breakers, and install myself and have pat my ex marine corp IOEW alaskan pipeline electrician do the "HOT WIRE " stunts while i watch mega voltage arcs at night all the while its still 110 degrees out at 9pm at night gulping beers down, being the gopher/wire stringer/outlet installer etc.

thats what the hell i have been doing since february this year. all the while at werk dealing with contractors on a 37 year old flat roof 10,000 sq foot nightmare of a home amongst a million other thangs i do for a living.

dont be cheap with:

roofs
electrical
plumbing

it will bite you in the ass big time..............EVERYTIME!