Job 1. Electrical

During the pre-purchase inspection, we discovered that a previous owner had replaced the water feed from the main to the house with PVC pipe. Unfortunately, they neglected to do anything about the electrical ground, which was still attached to the old pipe, and running nowhere. This was clearly a problem, although given that most of the outlets were either two wire - or three pin but had no ground connected, how much of a problem was open to discussion.

In the hopes of avoiding a future electrical fire (or some other equally shocking experience), I decided to install a ground rod. Shopping at the local Home Depot gave me two size options; 5/8" * 8' and 3/4" * 10'. Subscribing to the "bigger is better" mentality, I went with the larger, a coil of armored #6 ground wire and completely the wrong fittings to clamp them all together with.

Another trip to Home Depot, a different salesperson (this one a retired electrician) saw me on the right track and we had progress.

Leaning the ground rod against the side of the house, I started to see why the guy laughed at me when I told him I had bought the 10' rod. The gable at the end of the house is only about 9' above ground, so the first trick was to dig an 18" hole to get the rod started. Back to Home Depot to buy a shovel.

After that I really did start to make progress. Honest. I had made a cap, from 3/4 cold water pipe, to protect the end of the rod while I whaled on it with the hammer. That 10' rod was looking less and less like a great idea. Eventually I got it in though, and ran the cable. It's not quite done yet - I need to shorten the cable, but its better then what we had.