Elves at Work

The ‘elves’ have been very, very busy around here, and I do not mean the Christmas elves.  I mean the ‘let’s rip that stuff out and see what is there elves’.  This is one reason why a family should all go to church together… otherwise one can come home from church to this…

and comments like…”it sure was a good thing your Mom was at church when we started, she would have had a ‘come apart’ (English word for tantrum), if she’d seen you dangling off of that roof”.

Then there was the “Hi, Mom…come on in and see what we’ve done…”, from Number One Son, as he waved to me out of what used to be the attic window.  Number One Son has been wanting to get in and start ripping out the attic floor ever since it was ‘mildly mentioned’, that we might…

As our old home is actually parts of other old homes, some of the parts have been ‘interestingly’ tied together.  Such was the case with the floor to the attic as it was a complete step up off of the bedroom it was attached to.  There are actually multiple floors here with electrical in between.  Not only that, but the chimney is also here and at some time there was a chimney ‘leak’ which meant at one point the ‘elves’ hit a few years worth of soot.

Always good to be wearing appropriate safety items.

My handsome son who now looks like a zombie…

These elves were tired, so with showers taken, all work ceased while the Sea Hawks were playing, with plenty of loud yelling at the TV.

One of the great mysteries of this old home is the electrical… and I must say it is not a pretty picture.  The good news is that it has ‘worked’ for a very long time, but it is our goal to get the electrical to work for an even longer time…  My Loving Spouse often says things like…”it is concerning” or “down right scary”, so we are working on ‘it’.  So, with a yummy dinner into the bellies of 6 adults at the table, we decided it was time.  Each adult took off to ‘man’ a different area of the house, while My Loving Spouse turned on and off breakers in the electrical box, in an effort to understand what was tied into what.  With shouts of “the bathroom is out, it is on, the bedroom is out, it is on”, we were a ‘low tech’ systematic discovery team.  Then the ‘Head Elvies’ (My Loving Spouse and Number One Son) were back into the attic…to find ‘new’ wire tied into ‘old’ (really old) wiring, ending up with them turning off the lights to the kitchen, pantry and attic and leaving My Loving Spouse with a very bad night’s sleep.  There was a certain mention of an electrician friend down in La Crescenta and our saying…’where is he now and perhaps he’d like to come for New Year’s..’

I believe we’ll be out of some power in some spots for  some time, which is okay as we really do NOT want to burn the place down and Number One Son can pull out the old wire.  It is Christmas, we just need power to the stove to cook the roast and we’ve lamps to run off of the ‘good’ electricity, wood for the fire to heat the room and we’ll be just fine.

So, what are your ‘elves’ up to?