That's The Way the Cookie Bounces

And so it begins... Yes, I know the phrase is "That's the way the cookie crumbles" or "That's the way the ball bounces", but I picked a title which more closely matches how most of my projects go. Usually, I'm close to getting it right the first time but I don't always hit the nail on the nose. Oh, there I go again...

The calm before the storm

We're adding an addition to the front of our house and the contractor partners doing the foundation are about ready to start. They wanted to get the wires marked so one of the partners told Nancy to call Gopher One (one stop shop for marking) to get the lines marked. Which she did. They told her, "no". They told her if we are not doing the digging ourselves, the contractor needs to make the call. She searched for a phone number and called the contractor and told them they need to call. One step forward and two steps back.

I decided to take a stab at identifying the wires coming out of the side of the house. Let's see. I know there's a wire going to the garage, and two going to the septic. Except, of course, there are 5 wires, not 3. So I start digging along each. The one going to the garage took a strange route. It went along the front of the housed. I kept expecting it to head toward the garage but instead, it went under the sidewalk. Then I started digging on the other side of the sidewalk and sure enough, there it was again. Turns out that wire goes to the air conditioner on the other end of the house. Back to search for the garage wire. I found that and dug a more expected route toward the garage. But then there's a wire coming out of the meter and into the ground. WTH? It seemed to head toward the center of the yard. I don't have anything I know of that would be there. And why would it come directly from the meter rather than the breaker panel? Hmm... maybe a security/utility light? Sometimes the electric company will install a utility light and they charge a flat fee rather than charge for the electricity. I'll call the electric company the next day.

When does this head toward the garage?

Never! It never heads toward the garage...

I call the electric company the next day. They tell me that if it were a security light it would have come off the transformer. I'm not convinced. They tell me if I want to check it, I need to hire an electrician who would arrange to meet them so they could remove the meter and he could deal with it. They said it's not their responsibility because they only deal with wiring up to the meter. They also told me when I get the wires marked for digging that they will only mark their wires and I'm responsible for anything coming off the meter or our panel. Huh? Wasn't the whole idea of this "one call" system supposed to be so people don't kill themselves? Seems like it's morphed into something that doesn't really accomplish what it was originally designed to do. I left it at that. I thought about it a bit. Really? Here's a wire coming out of a meter. The meter has a seal on it so that I cannot open it without their permission. But it's not their responsibility? It's mine, but I don't have access to it? B.S.!

So, I gave the wire more thought and came to a conclusion. If it's a wire that isn't in use, it may already be disconnected inside the meter housing. If not, I can carefully cut it one wire at a time and tape it up. No way do I need to hire an electrician for this.

I checked it tonight with a tool that's supposed to tell me if there is power in a wire. It indicated there was no power. Now I have to decide how careful I have to be. Do I trust the tool with my life? Not really. I strip some of the wire protective jacket and carefully cut the wire one wire at a time. The operation would have looked to the casual observer as if I were disarming a bomb but one can't be too careful... Success!

Now to step 2. The A-Frame canopy (thingamajig is the technical term) must come off the front of the house. But first I should remove the porch light so I don't damage it in the process. That shouldn't be difficult. However, I was shocked to find out it still had power to it. Literally, shocked!

With the light gone, a little crowbar action to see what I was up against, then a chain and the tractor. Presto! It came tumbling down. Well, half anyway. I'll get the other half tomorrow.

Light gone and I got a look at how it's attached to the house.

I think I can pull it off the house with the tractor. What could possibly go wrong? ;-)

I know what it looks like, but no, Nancy didn't go up and knock it off with the broom. Of course, the phone quit and didn't capture the actual removal. 1/2 to go.