Chasing Electrical Ghosts My Latest Homeowner Nightmare

OK. The title is a little loud. A little dramatic. Or Maybe it isn't. My latest, hey this isn't working can you figure it out, happened to be electric system related and it was kind of a puzzle.

Last Friday, my wife chortled from the bedroom, hey the TV went off. And so did the alarm clock. I shrunk into my recliner and did what I normally do in this situation. I pretended not to hear her. That worked, for about 10 seconds, then she came down the hall saying, no, it's not working. I'm serious.

I proceeded down the stairs to the furnace room where the breaker box is located. Sure enough, the breaker was needing reset. But it wouldn't catch. Something was making that group of outlets unhappy. It was then, I started my troubleshooting. I went back upstairs and unplugged everything on the circuit. Two bedrooms. Everything unplugged. It still wouldn't catch. I did what most every other red blooded, don't know much about home fixerupers would do. I dropped back into punt formation and put it off till Monday.

I talked with John, one of the engineers here at the station. He said, I have trouble with the plugins in my bedroom. I can't even plug my vacuum in with the bedroom outlets. I gave that some thought, and realized, that when I vacuum the bedroom or the halls, (yes I do vacuum) I usually plug in with the bathroom or hallway plugin. Yep, they are on a different circuit and have that little popper built into the plug.

So, I called Sorlien Electric. I figured since I like the Tor Sorlien commercials I hear on the radio, and since he usually is nice to me at the river during the summer I would give them a call. His name is Tor, I hope that's how he spells his name.

Sue answered the phone at Sorlien when I called. She said she had heard a guy talking about the same problem on the radio. I told her that was me. She said I'll send someone over.

I went home, and thought, Hey I'll try it one more time and the SON OF A *^&% WORKED! (That's not really what I said. What I said would make a sailor blush!)

The guys name is Tom. He was awesome. I was going to send him away when he rang the doorbell. He talked me out of it and came in and said, well, let's see if we can make it NOT work. We couldn't.

Yep, I was feeling foolish, I said I'll pay the service call. Just send me a bill. Then, I said, let me try to plug that iron in where my wife does her ironing. BOOM. FAIL!  CULPRIT!

Tom told me, the breakers they put in bedrooms are very sensitive. It's actually a protection built in to keep you safe. We tried the iron in several other outlets along the circuit and it clicked it off every time.

Ghost found. Demon Exorcised! For now. The whole experience was a home ownership nightmare thing that makes you think renting again sometime in your life isn't such a bad idea.

Got a ghost in your house you had to run down? Let me know.

JD Collins is an inept homeowner who stumbles through most do it yourself projects and prefers to call the professionals like Sorlien Electric!