The Adventures in Electricity Continue

We’re now on Day 3 of No Power in Two-Thirds of the House, including all the bedrooms, all the bathrooms, the sewing room, and part of the kitchen.  I was in the attic for three hours Saturday and part of another hour yesterday, trying to make sense of it.  So far I’ve concluded several things.

1. The cable I have to tie into is BC, and probably dates to the house’s original construction, seventy years ago.  It’s horrible.  The rubber insulation around each wire is brittle and crumbles at a touch; the inner braid has age-browned badly, so telling the black (hot) wire from the white (neutral) wire is VERY hard; the paper wrapping around each wire’s insulation is brittle and flies into flinders as soon as you try to do anything with it.  Flexing the BC (required in order to splice on Romex) tends to break up ALL the layers, increasing the danger that something will break up inside the cable and allow arcing and fires.
2. I don’t know where most of the wires that meet in the receptacle above the kitchen light even go to, much less what they do exactly.  Nor can I think of an ideal way to figure out what each of them does.  This means I have no idea what’s safe to tie back together, and what shouldn’t EVER be tied together.
3. I do not have money to have most of the house re-wired, which is what it really, really needs.
4. I cannot call in a proper electrician, because as soon as he sees the rat’s nest of wiring up there (not to mention the actual rat skeletons and mummies, and the mess of filthy blown-in fiberglass “insulation,”) he’ll refuse to touch it for anything less than a complete re-wire.  (See 3.)

I do have a couple of possible avenues to explore about What To Do, including maybe tapping into an Old-Dyke Network I used to know some people from.  (I am eternally amazed at the resources a network of middle-aged lesbians can manage to provide.)  I’m also devising ways to find out, at least, which of the four cables is the live one running from the breaker box.  In the meantime, I have the Aladdin lamps mostly tuned up and running for light, and we’ve moved most family function into the living and dining rooms, which are on a different circuit, for the nonce.  Heat and cooking are gas, and the fridge, washer, and dryer are on their own circuit, so we can be warm, clean, and fed.

(But if anyone has some practical how-tos, even up to hands-on volunteerage, I’m listening and can probably be induced to minor bribery.)

Put your butterfly back in your carafe.  Fnord.