I can’t believe it’s been about two months, but I finally got my two 120V outlets installed in the study!!!

What a learning curve this was… Every time I thought I was done, my electrical tester would tell me there was a loose connection. I rewired the outlets a number of times and finally got the test to show two orange lights meaning that all was good with both outlets. I closed everything up and retested one more time to make sure. The undercabinet one was fine, but the bottom one suddenly showed one orange light, meaning ‘open neutral.’

electrical tester, open neutral is the second one down from the top

I did some research and all of it told me to look at the outlet powering the one showing a fault. The wiring on it was nice and tight. Voltage on both outlets was the same, varying from day to day between 114 and 118, but steady at the same number. Nothing seemed loose and I didn’t have enough wire left to be able to rewire again.

This day next week, I aim to be running around with Miranda getting her prepped for departure. So I’m on a time crunch for painting. I decided that I would take one more look today, then close up the electrical project and admit defeat on it.

I decided that the undercabinet outlet was fine so I turned my attention back to the lower one. I poked the wires a tad and then, oops, the white wire jiggled! Bingo! I used needle nose pliers to keep the wire tight against the screw as I tightened the connection. I put the tester back in the outlet, flipped on the power, and voila! I closed everything up (looks nice, I’ll have pictures once the painting’s done), and tested again. Perfect!

As for the new 12V outlet, I learned a lot from my disastrous first attempt to install a 12V outlet, and this installation was a cinch. I’ll have pictures of that one, too, once the painting’s done as I am very pleased with the neat installation of it.

I cannot believe how accomplished I feel. Now, I need to go get a coat of green paint on so that I can finish the green in the morning and then get a coat of primer of the stuff that’s going to be golden brown!