Divorce Disaster Diverted!

Wow, have I ever learned a lot!

First off, I learned that, as wonderful as I believe my hubby is, and as much as I WANT to believe he can do anything, he's not Bob Vila.

As Gail on the GDT pointed out, he's more like Tim Taylor!

LOL (love you, hunney!)

To his credit, it wasn't ENTIRELY his fault!

He was just trying to impress my parents - so I guess they're partly to blame, too!

You see, they were supposed to come over on Sunday for a wonderful meal I was to prepare for them. I had been waiting all week for it - I was so excited that I had the chance to cook for them, and my brother, sister, and my niece.

Sunday afternoon rolls around, and Bob - uhh, Donovan (my DH!) - decided he would change the outlet under the cupboard in the kitchen, b/c it was cream coloured, and the thought white would look nicer and cleaner. He wanted to prove to my parents that he CAN be handy!

Well, he got his big Home Depot book out and followed the instructions to a tee - and next thing y'know, the whole house has shorted out!

(This is what he did to my outlet - where it all started!!!)
Dinner was cancelled, I was MAD (b/c I told him before he even got his toolbelt on, "NO, don't bother!"). My dad came over and attempted to fix the problem.

They managed to get everything else working - lights (that wouldn't work until the element on the stove was turned on!), the mic, little things like that. But the stove itself wasn't getting power, and we soon discovered, neither was my dryer!

Anyhoot, my dad figured there was a problem with the oven. So we called a repairman to come out and see what the dilly-o was. He came by this morning, and said the oven's fine. Next step - call an electrician, the repairman said.

We instead called MB Hydro, just in case there was anything they could do.

Turns out (and this is where I start feeling like I gained a few blue-collar brain cells!) there are 2 power lines that run to the house - a 110, and 220. Well, the 110 line was working just fine, that's why we were able to have working lights and smaller appliances, like the nuker. But the 220 circuit was fried, and that's the amt of power the oven and dryer needed.

SOOOO, the hydro dude got out all his equipment, went up to the power lines behind our house, pulled some tricks out of his bag, and VOILA! We're back up and running!

So, to my hubby's credit, it wasn't ENTIRELY his fault - buddy from hydro said the connection was really old, and would have eventually gone on it's own. My hubby just helped expedite the process of the connection getting fixed!

Now we have a nice, pretty new outlet in our kitchen!

And my parent's still aren't convinced Donovan can do handy-work around the house! lol

What an ordeal! I'm just glad we're back up and running. My hubby has learned a few good lessons - 1. Don't try to do any electrical work on your own; 2. ALWAYS listen to your wife. I was soooooo close to divorce! HAHA!

On another note, this sure did make us appreciate electricity! Thanks, Louie the Lightning Bug!