More Electrical Confusion

Long-time readers may remember from this post and this post that the wiring in our house is a little strange. Not just because the house is over 60 years old and the wiring isn't modern--it is also suffering from a past owner or two that liked to rewire things and clearly didn't know what the heck they were doing. First of all, we have GFI outlets all over the house. For the kitchen and bathrooms, that's ok. But we also have some scattered around the walls, like in our dining room and office.

We had a strange incident last month when something we had plugged in the dining room went out all of a sudden, and at the same time as something plugged into the shared wall in our downstairs bathroom. We decided to try to tackle the bathroom first. I tried resetting the GFI but, oddly, the button wouldn't depress. It was as if something were blocking the button. We checked the volt meter and, sure enough, no power. We headed to the circuit breakers but nothing was tripped.

We went back to the dining room, totally stumped as to why both plugs died simultaneously and, after a quick consultation with our electrician friend P, checked the plug to the dining room. (Yes, in retrospect that was the totally obvious next thing to check, but it was behind a piece of furniture and it never occurred to us that the problem could be there.) Sure enough, the dining room had a GFI box too. We were able to reset it, which fixed electricity and unstuck the button in the bathroom.

This wiring scheme doesn't make any sense at all and even P can't figure out exactly why these two plugs share a circuit and two GFI plugs. As I said, some crazy electrician lived here before we got the place.

And in what I truly hope is an unrelated electrical problem (because that would be even crazier wiring if it was related), the light at the end of our walkway went out. We figured it was the bulb, but no. Neither D nor I have a clue how to fix it, since the wires aren't accessible. Might be time to call in the pro again. Fortunately, we don't really use the light anyway, so we don't miss it much.