It's been really dry, and we just set the humidifier up in the bedroom, but really it needed to be in the living room. The problem is that ALL the outlets are behind furniture and in use, so there is no place to plug the humidifier in.
So I was pondering that, and getting more annoyed that every time we want to plug something in in the living room we run in to this problem. Dammit. We need another outlet in there.
So I looked around and decided that the best place is right under the thermostat. And the bonus is that the thermostat wires are already leading into that wall cavity.
So I dug around in my junk piles and found everything that I needed. Cut a hole in the wall that worked out perfectly. Right in the middle of the stud bay. Fished a wire up from the basement alongside the thermostat wires, and called to my son to grab it.
That's when he got interested. He had done an apprentice day with a real electrician and actually learned a lot. So I let him do all the work of wiring the outlet up. I double checked that he put the right colors on the right screws and that they were tight, but he did everything else himself.
Then I went down in the unfinished basement and tied it in to a very seldomly used circuit in my shop. That took about 2 hours because I needed one big wire nut that I didn't have, and had to go to the store and pay my 22 cents to get it. I had to rewire a switch, a switched outlet, and install a junction box, but it was all pretty easy since it's unfinished down there.
And now we have a humidifier going! It looks like that outlet just belongs and has always been there.
This could be in the proud parent thread. Or the what's making you happy thread. But it's here.
Fuckin' A. An outlet.