A Post about a (Lamp)post

Back in May, we had a electrician come give us an estimate on how much it would cost to fix the severed wire that led to our lamppost. And the answer was - not cheap. His price of $380 did not even include digging up and then re-burying the wire, just the electrical work and putting the wire into a PVC pipe to reduce the chance that we would cut it again. He sweetened the deal by agreeing to throw in an electrical socket at the post, which was pretty enticing since we don't have any outdoor outlets for holiday lights. We agreed to call him in the fall, once our lawn and garden were dead - no sense in tearing up a trench during the one time of year our yard looks nice.

And we did. We tentatively scheduled him to come in early December. And so, in what I hoped would be labor-inducing work, I used a little trowel to try to find the wire. I started in the garden area, since I was almost certain that was where the cut was (the light used to work - it stopped working sometime around when we dug up all the invasive grass, though we'd seen the wire at that time and tried to be careful).

And I was right! On both accounts. I found the cut in the wire in the flower bed AND I went into labor that night. So the project was on hold for a little while (during which we hoped no one would break their ankle in the trench on the way to our door).

Then our fabulous electrician friend, P, told us we'd be crazy to pay the electrician so much for the work and offered to do it himself. We originally planned just to fix up the wire right where it was severed, but P suggested that we should still go through with the original plan to re-run wire all the way to the post and put in a socket. In fact, why not install TWO sockets - one at each end.

Friends are awesome.

And so I cancelled the electrician and one sunny day in December, P and D got to work.

Step one - buy supplies, including PVC pipe that doesn't quiet fit in the vehicle:

Step two - finish digging the trench (we'd stopped once we found the cut wire, since we thought we might just be able to fix the isolated spot). This goes a lot faster with giant shovels and lots of help - and not being over 9 months pregnant (actually, I didn't participate at all, just watched while everyone else did the hard work).

 Step three - run the new wire through the pipes:

Step four - install electrical boxes. This turned out to be more difficult than everyone expected, because our lamppost is cast iron and broke several drill bits. There was a lot of magical electrical work going on too, but that part is beyond me, so I'll skip over it. This is definitely not a true step-by-step guide here.

With fancy new electrical boxes installed onto the lamppost and the house, the wire laid enclosed within PVC pipes even at the corners thanks to the PVC elbows, and a quick test to make sure everything worked, our team even buried everything back up -

And the grass is looking so sparse this time of year that the covered trench is barely noticeable. We just have to remember to throw some seed on there before spring.

In total, $100 in parts, some beer, some hard work, and it's even better than if the electrician had done it. And a lot cheaper. And more fun, since I got to hang out with good friends.