Emma was back down again this weekend trying to tidy up her house for another viewing. One of the biggest cock ups was the light fitting in the downstairs loo.
The ceiling had been damaged by a leak from the bath and despite my warnings Emma had fitted a new plasterboard ceiling and left the light fitting hanging unsuported.
Over the last two or three months (seems like years) I have had several cracks at fixing it, despite the obvious difficulty of nowhere to fasten it in place. Anyway, the first time I tried the whole bakelite fixture fell appart leaving me with a spaghetti like mess of exposed wires (three bare earth wire!!) and I was unable to figure out where they connected to the replacement ‘rose’.
So Emma grudgingly got somebody to fit the wires in the correct order but, hadn’t got the sense to have them fasten it all back in place.
At this point I had my first attempt at fastening the ceiling rose back together only to have one of the wires drop free and Emma’s gluing (suspect Copydex) dropping the whole lot free again. To complicate matters further, turning the fuse off set her alarm shreiking like the diy demon himself.
Time and the darkness of the room, plus the need for Emma to confirm it was alright for me to drill and plug the ceiling to fasten everythin in place again ment another postponement. I had also noticed that she had purchased an ordinary drop down cable fixture and this got walloped by the door every time it was openned or closed.
So I had a second attempt but, forgot my torch and had to abandon another effort. I decided to spend a mighty pound on a head torch so I would have both hands free, which as it turned out proved very useful.
So despite Emma abandoning her post on the fuze box, I managed to get stuck into the nitty gritty of the job today. First I fixed the ceiling rose into place and then fixed tightly into position the lose wire Emma had know about. After a short break to give the neihbours headaches a rest, I then tackled the clearance of the door. I needed to cut about four inches off the cable and refasten all the connections.
I managed to carve part of my thumb with the stanley knife (blood sacrifice to the demon) and felt a bit more confident as I managed to get the last tight fitting wire into the terminal and fastened up securely. Door open – door close. It worked. All that remained was to see if the blasted light actually came on wihtout exploding. It did. I cannot for the life of me understand why the modern wiring in houses is so complicated.
So I had done all that I could and at least it looks a lot healthier for prospective buyers. I doubt it will have much impact but, it was another minor triumph over the DIY demon.