spark of hope

After feeling all doom & gloom most of the weekend due to some reactions to the home inspector's photos (which it was possibly unwise to share in the first place), I got some good news today. An electrician from Duhon Electric came out for an estimate and it turns out that the "drop" to my house is just peachy. It's not mammoth by any stretch, but it'll give me at least 100 amps, which should be good enough, especially considering that I need to use less electricity anyway.

The electrician said that, contrary to what the home inspection indicated, the house had no immediate or dangerous issues, and that the voltage should be just fine for powering the tools that'll go into renovating. He gave me a ballpark of about $1,800 to replace the panel, which is old and not labeled. It's also not grounded and has a lot of open slots which are not useful for much except an expedient suicide. Then, as I stood inside relaying the good news to my boyfriend, we decided to take a look inside the mystery box the previous owners had left us on the kitchen counter. Contents: one spankin' new, totally modern electrical panel.

I'm getting a second estimate from my real estate agent's electrician on Thursday, but it's going to be a tough sell at this point. The electrician I talked to today was what I hope every contractor I work with will be like. He was friendly, earnest, smart, and didn't talk down to me. (You have enough people refuse to explain things to you - presumably - because of your gender, you get kind of sensitive about it.) Moreover, he made a clear delineation between what building codes required and actual safety hazards. Though he agreed that the electrical for the whole house should be updated, he seemed to be on board with my proposal that the house go up and down before replacing the panel, and then we go room by room, modernizing the wiring as walls came out.

I would love to think all of the house's needed repairs are going to be this smooth to plan, but I kind of doubt it. I've been rereading Gutted: Down to the Studs in My House, My Marriage, My Entire Life to make myself feel better about my comparably simple remodeling job. It's also good for short little factoids that are at least giving me a basis for further research into construction and stuff. (That and HGTV, which is actually probably doing me more harm than good.) One of the pieces of wisdom it contains is that electrical is the last thing you do because you can put it anywhere. So I can get the panel installed, but any serious rewiring is going to have to wait until I get a plumber to return my phones calls and plan out the central air and heating.

Still, knowing there are good contractors out there who I will get to work with if I can just get the foundation and everything else finished gives me hope.