We’ve been thinking about a kitchen remodel in a year or five, and that got me to thinking about the one big addition we’d like to make to the kitchen appliances, a double oven. So, always planning ahead I thought I’d go ahead and run another 220 service to the area of the ovens.
This makes more sense because the basement ceiling is all torn up (wrong description: I tore it up to fix a persistent draft due to bad construction) and that made tearing out more of the basement ceiling to get to the oven an easy decision.
I planned a route, and ably assisted by an un-named co-conspirator, down came more drywall. Then we went to Home Depot to buy 220 wiring; we were dissuaded on discovering the wire we thought we needed had to be special ordered for the run distance we were going to need (circuitous routing of a circuit).
We came home to decide whether to order a huge amount of cable the size of my wrist, and had an idea we should have before we did in the drywall: we looked up the Amps needed for the double oven.
Guess what? I currently have a 50 amp service. The most I need for the biggest double oven that we could possibly need? 40 amp, exceeded by what’s installed currently.
See why she’s a saint?
Hahahaha! Wow! Thank goodness you’ve got Mrs. Gruntdoc! Lucky lucky you! Anyone else (read: my mom) would’ve freaked out if their hubby did that! Lol unnamed co-conspirator, funny stuff. Thanks for giving me something to laugh about all day! Hahaha, 40amp . . . priceless.
Welcome to the club!
While you have the chance, you may as well do the prep work for the quadruple oven that you and the Saint are about to talk yourselves into.
Just think about that never ending stream of fresh baked warm cookies!
Mmmmm, cookies.
Wires. Cookies. Mmmmmmmmm.
Ah, a content (data) problem.
Mine tend to be process. Like the time I was going to change a faulty shutoff valve to our downstairs bathroom sink, put the wrench on the 70 year old valve, and successfully snapped the pipe off inside the wall.
So you don’t do this yourself: the proper technique is to apply something like locking pliers to the pipe to hold it steady while you then use the wrench on the valve. If you have plastic pipe in your home, put the pliers and wrenches away, and maybe just call a plumber (another separate episode).
Now, the other side of this argument, that can redeem our tomfoolery and lead to great fun and ownership of interesting tools.
One of my criteria for deciding about a job at home is to understand whether the only thing keeping me from doing this job or that is that I lack some particular tool. Then you just do the math, and say, “Ok, if I paid someone to do this, what would they charge? And what would this tool cost to do it myself?” Most of the time, you will find that this is an easy excuse for buying that tool and coming out financially ahead. And usually it only takes one job to pay for the tool.
Plan B: I have also come to ask for gifts in the form of gift cards to Home Depot.
That is so not funny. Has any one told you to “Do your Homework/Research” before the tear-out?
Reminds me of the time we tore out a living room wall because the elec. conduit looked like it should lead to boxes for sconces. It didn’t. But since the wall was out, we had them put in and enjoy the ‘new’ sconces!
Run the extra line in anyway. You never know when you will have a hankering for a true commercial-grade espresso machine.