*** Quoting Roy J. Tellason from a message to Carol Shenkenberger ***
RJT> Carol Shenkenberger wrote in a message to Roy J. Tellason:
 CS> Eithr way, due in is the fellow who did a good bit of the work 
 CS> before the most current work.  Free estimates on the way .  
 CS> Small local outfit, but with an *excellent* reputation for 
 CS> quality work according to several other locals I have asked.
RJT> Well that's good,  sounds like you got lucky there.  Not like the 
RJT> place I lived in after the one I mentioned,  which,  aside from 
RJT> having an annoying tendency towet basement,  had a basement light 
RJT> switch where they just ran number 14 wire right out of the hole in 
RJT> the box,  stapled to the 2x4,  no romex or anything...
RJT> I wasn't too happy to see that!
I bet!  Well, he just finished.  He doesnt have an estimate yet but gave me 3 
'ballpark general ideas' depending on what we want done.
Scene 1.  Add outlets (1 each) to the 2 bathrooms, add 2 outlets to Garage.
500$ or so due to labor since the walling in the bathrooms is layered 
hardwoods that have to come down in palces to do it. (alternate idea was to 
put them off the lights up high and it was only about 250$ that way).  Garage 
needs extensive replacement of wires but isnt labor intensive to do.
Scene 2.  Above plus rewire the 2 bedrooms on older type '2 prong' hookups.
Not bad.  As a package, add 250$ (remember, rewire required and quite a few 
outlets involved.)
Scene 3.  Above plus rewire porch so all 11 outlets are not on one breaker.  
Requires we do the 'wall removal and replacement'.  Adds exterior outlet to 
front of house (Xmas lights etc) and rear of house.  250$ as part of package.
Note these are still estimates, not actual figures.  I deliberately asked him 
to estimate on the high end and explained I could budget for high end 
estimates but it was higher, I possibly couldnt pay the bill once due if it 
was much more.
Scene 1 with outlets at light fixtures, (no wall removal required), scene 2 
and scene 3 add up as about 750$.  Discounts are applied to scene 2 and 3 
based on use of earlier scenes.  This, I can live with .  A new buyer of 
this home may not count it as 'worth more sales value' but those of us with 
experience know better in our buying.  I just couldnt afford better so took 
on the task of the needed upgrades to current standards.
Overall:  House in *excellent* electrical shape for it's age.  Problem spots 
are either no outlets in areas we wish they had (outside and bathrooms) or 
not wired to current specs (garage sans laundry outlets, back porch, 2 of 4 
bedrooms).  The bedrooms are a problem as one later owner may want to hook up 
extra space heaters in one, or computers etc.  The garage has a link we had 
been using, but he said it was unsafe and took care of detaching it for us 
for free (just a bad wired extension cord almost to power a light in the 
ceiling and for now we are using a spare lamp off the spare outlet in the 
laundry area with a suitable heavy duty extension cord.).  The porch is 'ok' 
but short of just trying to run 22 lamps at once , not up to the draw 
one would expect to be able to use with that many outlets.
Porch, could run 2 lamps, 1 high powered stereo type unit, and a good sized 
fan most likely.  More would trip the breaker if we also had the outside 
backyard lights on (same breaker and there are 4 sets of 2 halogen types for 
8 bulbs total).
Generally, the plan is to use the 2 breakers that are just 'there' but not 
connected to anything, and only 20 ft from the back porch, to split it up 
better.  Wires run from box, up thru attic crawlspace, down to porch 
connection.  Breaker box itself *fine* and well over the needs of this house.
Get this, the label says 200 amps, but it was expandable and has been 
expanded and I have 250 service available.  No wonder it didnt all add up!  
The prior owner before me had it expanded but didnt update the label.  Now 
with gas heat and stove, 200 is all I should need but I have more to play 
with as far as hookups?
Either way, it's not as bad as I feared.  Pretty much all I want done, is 
under 1000$ total if we do the work we know how to do safely.  Most of the 
expensive stuff, was done for us. (and call me silly, but I feel better now 
about giving the last owner full asking price after this assesment).
                                       xxcarol
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