A Cautionary Tale: Our electrical problem

 When we moved in here almost 6 years ago, I soon noticed a problem with the lights in the kitchen. We have a wall panel with 4 switches on it; two of which have dimmer switches. 

Every time I was cooking and turned on the overhead lights and the under cabinet lights, all the lights in the kitchen/laundry/garage would go off. What a bummer it was, having to go to the breaker box every time that happened. Eventually, I left the under cabinet lights off, so as not to have the problem. 

I asked our handyman about it, and he said the dimmer switch on the overhead lights was faulty. He replaced it and both lights worked in tandem  for a while. Then they started going out again. 

About 3 months ago, my floor lamp, which was plugged in to a floor outlet sort of blew up. The mogul bulb blew out and three smaller lights wouldn't work after that. I removed the floor lamp, and discovered that the two floor outlets would not work any longer. They were where I plugged in my laptop, phone charger, power chair and another floor lamp, so I needed them in working order.  

Two days ago, I touched the wall panel in the kitchen and it was hot to the touch. That was scary enough for me to call the electrician (after years of dithering.)

The electrician came today and repaired the floor outlets (that had a broken wire.) When I told him the kitchen lights problem, he got on a ladder and removed one of the spotlights. Written right on the side of the bulb, it said...."Do not use with a dimmer switch."  Apparently, former owners of this house (we are the 4th or 5th) used the wrong bulbs and he also said that the wrong light fixtures had been used. It seems that at least several of the houses in this neighborhood, which were all built by the same company, have had similar problems. We don't know of any fires, so far, but our hot switch plate was a fire in the making. Lord knows how long it would have lasted before bursting into flames.

He suggested we replace all the pot lights with LED lamps, and we would never have to change a light bulb there again. I don't really like the light from LED lamps, but these had different switches for choice of warm or cool color. We settled on a warmer light and he installed them all within a few minutes. He also replaced the dimmer switch to the proper type.  

All this happened on our 57th anniversary. I have had better presents, but when I consider how one or both of us could have perished in a fire, I am counting it as one of our better presents!!

Another good present we got today is a ramp for Jim's wheelchair, so he can go into our sun room and from there to our back patio, where he likes to smoke a pipe. He has not been able to access that area for almost 2 years, due to a 4" drop from the den to the sun room. The ramp makes it very easy, and once we get his power chair, it will be even easier! Thanks go to our granddaughter Jessica and her brother James, who built the ramp today, after purchasing plywood and lumber. 

I cooked lambchops, mashed potatoes and steamed asparagus for dinner, but I had failed to get anything for dessert. Jessica saved the day by buying several boxes of "Crumbl Cookies", a new shop near us. If you find yourself near a Crumbl Cookies, do yourself a favor and purchase a few. They are rich and tasty! Believe it or not, the one I ate was called "cornbread cookie". It comes with a sweet buttery topping, and it is scrumptious!!