One of the things I hate the most about older houses, is the color bisque, or almond, or beige…to me, it just looks yellowed. I don’t get it, was it simply that white was harder to make, or was it a preference of the time? The worst part to me, is that they’re still made! Maybe they clean easier or something, but for me, I just think of smokers and age. It all looks yellowed to me…my kitchen is full of it, and my house was full of it.

So, on one of our first of many trips to the home store (we got the “hey, weren’t you hear____day?”, insert “earlier to-,” yester-” etc, we got them all), we picked up contractor packs of outlets and switches. I think this is one of the quickest and most effective ways to update the look of a room.

So, I’m not opposed to working with electricity, but Austin seems to love it, so I let him do it. We went room by room, replacing them as we were painting, or found that we needed a three-prong outlet rather than the current two-prong ones.

Science side note:

Replacing two prong (ungrounded) outlets with three prong outlets is kind of a no-no, electrically speaking. In an electrical outlet, there is a “hot” connection, and a “neutral” connection. When there is nothing plugged into the outlet, these two connections remain separate. When you plug something in, you bridge these two connections and electrons begin flowing through the appliance (electricity!!). The third prong for these plugs is called a ground. This is the connection that allows extra electrons (i.e. electricity) to travel out of the plug system and to a large conductor. These extra electrons can come from faulty connections in your appliance, or external sources. The conductor absorbs the extra electricity and lowers the possibility of electrocution. In some cases, the ground removes electrical “noise,” maintaining consistent electrical output.

A way to visualize this is to think about electrostatic charge. When you become “charged” and start sparking when you touch things, it is because the balance of electrons to protons in your body is out of wack. When you touch something, current flows between you and the item you touch, producing a startling, and sometimes painful shock. The purpose of this current is to equalize your body’s charge.

Guess what’s a REALLY good ground? THE EARTH! Ha, that’s why it’s called a ground…get it….the ground. In fact, I do believe the power companies utilize the earth as a ground, but for smaller systems (like a car), a large block of a conducting material (such as a metal) can work.

If an appliance requires a grounded connection, fibbing by replacing a two prong outlet with a three pronger will at the very least make your appliance work improperly, and could potentially damage it. Not to mention the potential for electrocution. If an appliance plugged into an ungrounded three prong outlet fails, it can charge the electrical box. When you then touch the box, YOU become the ground, and the extra electricity flows through your body. OUCH…and er, maybe death.

In Conclusion: PLEASE DON’T DO WHAT I DID. I do plan to hire an electrician to come out and properly ground my wiring.

Anyways…the whole reason I bring this up, is because of this poor guy:

I found him in one of my outlet boxes. In my kitchen. This is all that was left. I have called him Frank. Poor Frank’s little skull fell out first…I thought it might be a bug, and then upon further examination I saw the nest and the rest of the skeleton. Poor thing, mice are freaky creatures. They can squeeze into very small places. My supposition is that this creature snuck into the box and in the midst of cozying up his new nest, bit into the hot wire. His little body became the ground, and POOF! No more life.

So now almost all of our outlets are white! Woohoo. We also replace our standard switches with the sleek looking flat ones. All that’s left to do is the guest bedroom (currently used for storage) and the bathrooms. It seems silly to me, but after painting, it seems to just brighten up the room, and even make my paint colors pop. Almost as good as painting the ceiling!

I have no photos of this. It’s a boring process, and frankly, telling you how to do it would be pointless. Google it, if you’re interested and want to replace yours. I am not responsible for recklessly plugging appliances into ungrounded outlets! Let’s all remember poor Frank up there…