Down in Flames

Literally, that’s how the kitchen light fixture fell out of the ceiling last night. Dave was replacing light bulbs in one of the fixtures that has never worked. It still didn’t work with new bulbs, so he decided to take it apart to see how it was wired. When he got all of the screws out, it started sparking. Obviously, he let go of it and it fell from the ceiling in a shower of sparks! Then it kept smoking and sparking. Honestly, I was looking for a fire extinguisher.

So, we stood there looking up at the hole that it fell out of and I said, “It looks like there is a cord plugged into a light socket.” We decided to call my father (he solves all of our electrical puzzles). I called him: “Daddy, we were taking down one of the kitchen light fixtures and it started shooting sparks all over the kitchen. It looks like there is a plug in there and the cord is melted. What do I need to do so that this house doesn’t burn down tonight?” He said, “I’ll be there in a minute.” :) Meanwhile, I’m thinking, “What have we done?! Our new house is going to burn down.”

He got there and diagnosed the problem immediately: “What you’ve got in the kitchen is complete bullshit.” Thanks, Dad, we were afraid of that. :) However, it was fixable and he helped us straighten it out so as to prevent a fire.

Apparently, someone along the way decided they did not like the original light fixtures, which are recessed in the ceiling with a single 60 watt socket. Instead of just replacing the original fixtures the right way (by taking them down and wiring new ones in the ceiling), that someone used little plugs that screw into light sockets to wire in new fixtures. The new fixture had three 60 watt bulbs, and it was wired to a piece of extension cord, which was plugged into the original 60 watt socket. 180 watts of electricity flowing through a 60 watt socket = FIRE. It sparked when Dave was working on it because the insulation on the extension cord was fried. It fell to the floor because the wiring inside the extension cord had burned to a CRISP.

Daddy got the cord and the screw-in plug out, and we put a single light bulb in the original socket. It worked fine. No smoke or sparks. We found two more lights that were done the same way, so we fixed those as well. I had planned to replace those fixtures; I just didn’t know it would be immediately.

The pictures below are the plug that screws into the light socket, and the burned extension cord. Right after I took this picture, it fell entirely apart.

In other house news, the people will be here next Monday to start refinishing the hardwoods. I picked out the stain color on my way home yesterday. It's going to be Gunstock, which is warm medium brown color. After that, I can paint.