Right vs. Wrong
Posted by VickyC on March 24th, 2010
Is Right vs Wrong the same as Dark vs Light? Or is it just as confusing as this wall paper?
Sometimes, life lands us in situations that are completely out of our comfort zones. How we deal with these difficult situations is how we shape ourselves. Do we go with what’s morally right? Do we go with what will be most pleasing to those around us – to not ruffle any feathers? Or do we just not do anything? Over the last few months, I’ve been faced with a lot of these situations.. And although it was stress-inducing at the time, I think that I’ve benefited from having to go through these “emotional trials”.
Yes, you are still reading something written by VickyC.. This isn’t the work of some over-psychoanalytical guest blogger – that was it for today’s words of wisdom.
Ok, so back to my main point. For those of you who aren’t up to date with my current living situation, I’ve been renovating a house to rent out (well, my boyfriend has been doing the renovating.. I’ve been doing the screaming, stressing and crying). But the end is in sight – a lovely family will be moving in this Saturday.. So as you can imagine, there are a LOT of last minute things to get done (I probably shouldn’t be writing at the moment, but I NEED some down time lol)
Being that the house is old, and that there are innumerable property rental laws, we had a lot of work to do to make it compliant. In January, the house was rewired by a family friend. When we returned to the property, after the wiring was done, there were a LOT of bits and pieces for us to fix up.
One thing that I recently learnt about light switches, is that you shouldn’t nail or screw anything into the wall running horizontally and vertically along where the light switch is situated. This is common knowledge to most “electrically savvy” people, as the wires for the switch are supposed to run either horizontally or vertically to the light switch – wires should never be run diagonally, as it’s a safety hazard if Bob The Tenant decides he wants to nail a picture hook into the wall diagonally from where my light switch is and there’s a wire there – he’ll blow up the house! (well, probably not, but you see my point!)
One such switch was diagonally wired – not by 45 degrees, but enough to not “look” right – we could only see it because it was protruding from the wall when we got back after the wiring job was done and the hole needed to be filled properly. Needless to say, when the electrician turned up, the first thing he mentioned about dodgy wiring was diagonal wires. So then I started to worry, “omg, my house isn’t going to pass the inspection and I’ll have to have all of the wiring redone AGAIN”, “omg, if i don’t say something, someone might want to hang a picture and get electrocuted, then I’ll get sued”, “omg, it was a family friend who did the work, so I can’t say anything”, etc, etc.
In the end, I said, “sod it, morals win”. So pulled the electrician aside and asked him about these “diagonal wires”. And he said that it was actually fine – as they’re only slightly diagonal. So, my house passed and I got my certificate.
With things like this, I prefer to go to some company that I found in the Yellow Pages – one with a big giant ad that shows off all of their certifications. Sometimes having your mum’s brother’s mate coming to do the work just doesn’t cut it. Granted, property rental is a business, and I should be looking to spend as little as possible.. why pay 7 people 100 pounds to do a job when I could have had a good company come in and do it for 400 pound. Because sometimes you never know what might happen. Your brother’s mate might come and lay some pipe, and then it bursts and you’re trying to find the guy to get him to fix it, refund you and to give him a piece of your mind and he’s done a runner. It’s just not worth the hassle!
Tags: Diagonal Wiring, Electrician, House, Light Switch, Morals, Property, Rental, VickyC, VickyC.me, Wiring
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lol sweet stuff dude.
Good infomation here, thanks.
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