Seeking My Inner Tim Allen
filed in Family & Life, Geek Stuff on Jan.17, 2006
One of my first projects as a new homeowner was the installation of an over-the-stove microwave (Maytag MMV5000 Series). This microwave was a nearly new hand-me-down from our realtor (who happened to be renovating her own kitchen). This is a powerful microwave – at least in comparision to the little counter-top microwave we’ve had since we were married 6 1/2 years ago.
Anyhow, this installation was a task that gave me pause. I honestly didn’t know where to begin. You see, above our stove was an electrical box that was covered up. When I uncovered it, I discovered three sets of wires coming into the box. These wires were very old and did not look very reliable. I knew I had to test them, because if they worked, I could then pull them up into the cabinet above to give the microwave electricity. So I went out and bought a Volt-Ohm-Meter (digital, of course). I read the illegibly-small instructions and, when I had finished, realized that I still did not know how to operate this thing. This is the point that I called in an expert – my dad.
My dad showed up that afternoon and grabbed my fancy new digital Volt-Ohm-Meter, and said “Huh… I’ve never used one like this before [read: fancy and digital instead of old and reliable].” He then immediately proceeded to test the lines without so much as a glance at the instructions. The wires, he soon discovered, were dead and so it became clear that we needed to seal up that box and install a new outlet in the cabinet, running a new cable downstairs to the electrical panel… which of course I was completely clueless about.
Long story short – he helped me install a shiny new outlet in the cabinet, run 12/2 cable from that outlet into our basement and to the electrical panel, install a new 20 Amp breaker into that breaker box to run the microwave, and finally to hang the microwave under the cabinet. A task that I had set aside a full Saturday to complete, ended up getting done between lunch and dinner, thanks to my Dad’s help.
It’s these sort of home improvement tasks that I will eventually get better and better at as time goes by. But for now, it’s nice to have a handy Dad to be able to teach me things like how to run electricity through your house safetly – mainly because, I hear being electrocuted isn’t as fun as it sounds.
Anyone want our old counter-top microwave? Let me know!
January 17th, 2006 on 7:44 am
Good job hun =)
January 17th, 2006 on 9:50 am
Wow…for a second, when I saw the link to the “copper heist” story, all I knew was that it was from Waco, and I thought you were perhaps referencing the story of the pastor who was electrocuted in his baptistry.
I’m glad to see that that is not the case!
January 17th, 2006 on 10:41 am
No, it wasn’t that story Greg. However, that story did come up when I googled “electrocution” but I didn’t think it would be in good taste to link to it.
January 17th, 2006 on 8:23 pm
ehhhh….i didn’t understand half the words in this blog. i don’t think im ready to buy a home. 🙂
January 18th, 2006 on 8:39 am
Yea, this kind of stuff really freaks me out. Luckily Kenny is pretty good at these things – and when he’s in doubt he has house-veterans like his dad and my dad to call in questions to. I’m so glad because I’d be callling in electricians, plumbers and all assorted handy-men because I’d be afraid the house would explode if I tried to do it.
February 2nd, 2006 on 12:56 pm
What I want to know is how the Dads of the world know all this stuff. They know car parts, how to rewire and install new wires, how to build new parts of the house, practically anything! And it seems like lots of the new generation of dads did not receive this training. In the absence of my dad, I actually had a boyfriend in highschool who, upon hearing my car make terrible noises, decided the best he could do was SNIFF under the hood…Yikes. Amazingly, that didn’t lead to a definitive diagnosis.
Glad your dads are there to impart their knowledge to you, Kenny. Erin is lucky to have you!