Wiring

Happy Monday, everyone!  I hope you all had a great Easter - we sure did!  Well, in between all the other work we did!

First, we'll start with another few rounds of I Can't Make This Crap Up:
Look at how each of these studs has a support block on it.  Look closer.  Notice how Every. Single. Stud. has been cut about 18" off the ground?  Yeah, about 80% of the basement walls have been like this:

Hubs and I were baffled for a LONG time over this one, and finally the only thing he could come up with was maybe they had replaced the sill plate at one time.  After a few minutes of looking around, I found this:

Yup.  Replaced the sill plate.  WHY?????

We don't ask "why" anymore.  We just shake our heads, add "fix that" to our mental list, and move on.

This is one of 3 support columns holding up our entire house.  3 joists, sized 2x10, are sandwiched together to support the entire midline of the house.  Sweet.  But um.  Why are there holes in this support....

And no BOLTS holding it TO the joists?????  *sigh*

 Yeah.  All 3 supports are Not Attached.  All we can figure is that with the entire weight of the house resting on these babies, the builders thought it wasn't really necessary.  I mean, they ARE solid and all, but... but.... if the equipment you're using has a PLACE to put 30-cent bolts, don't you think it's worth the peace of mind to spend the extra 4 bucks and 15 minutes and do it RIGHT????

Hubs has already pulled the drywall off this wall.  We haven't added a single splinter of lumber to this basement - we're too busy ripping it all out!  So.  Yeah, look again.  From the outside in and bottom up, that's: concrete, studs, drywall, then MORE wood, then copper piping (part of our radiant floorboards).  So apparently someone didn't think he had to rip out ALL the drywall before re-finishing the basement.  Smooth, huh?

And lastly, we have the ultimate *facepalm* situation:

Are you KIDDING me??????

To my stepdad looking at this - I hear your groans from 2500 miles away.  Yes, yes they did this.  To everyone else going "What am I looking at....?" - this is another one of those un-bolted supports, holding up those 3 midline joists.  What is SO super dangerous about this photo is that ALL THOSE WIRES are DIRECTLY underneath the drywall around those studs.  What if someone had nailed a small photo, clock, shelf, 6" cross, cute sign or other knick-knack into that drywall and the nail hit ANY of those wires?  (I'll give you a hint: it starts with "el-" and ends with "-ectrocution".)  And this appears to be the wiring hub for the entire house - wires come from the electrical panel (over my right shoulder as I took the above photo), to this midline, then run the entire width of the house and up between the appropriate joists.  And just to add an extra little jab in there - I didn't get a picture of it, but the back side of this midline has the same setup going on with the newest set of rewiring.

Oh, "Newest set?" you're asking me?  Yes.  Yes, it is apparent that our house has up to THREE SETS of wiring in it.  And because the original set was done properly - nearly to today's code - when someone rewired with black wiring, they abandoned the original stuff in place.  Cuz...it's HARD to pull stuff that's properly stapled every 18" inside the drywall.  So then the black stuff was abandoned in place and replaced with some white wiring that didn't have a single staple anywhere on it, I believe.  Seriously.  I mean, I'm sure it's rather difficult to staple wiring to lumber when there's drywall over it. I get that.  But it's supposed to at LEAST be stapled right above the switch, outlet, etc to the stud that's right there.

Anyway, all of this talk of wiring leads right into  my next photo.  Hubs decided that exposing and removing the dead wires was a logical next step, considering we have NO more room in that huge dumpster.  (I CAN'T remove anything else from the house for fear they'll charge us for overfilling the dumpster.  And, well, we NEED another one anyway.  So we kind of took a weekend off from dumpster-filling.)  So, he focused on growing THIS pile, instead:

All the dead-in-wall wiring that Hubs pulled out. 

But....remember how I showed you all those mostly-clean pictures I had last time?  Weren't they pretty?  Forget them.  Hubs gained access to all those wires by doing this:

And this.

And more of this.

And all of THAT resulted in this:

WHY do I keep trying to clean it up????

Oh, that's right - I do it to keep Lil C and the dog entertained!

She helped bring this WHOLE PILE out Easter morning.  And it tired her out SO much, she couldn't even stay awake for the photo op.

Waiting on the pick-up crew.

I called this morning - they'll be here Tuesday to take this one away and leave a bright shiny empty one!  So we can start this all over again!  Yay.