I have a poltergeist! ..or an electrical problem.

Don't replace your electrical panel until you have read this! You could save thousands!

Over the course of the last year I have had all of the following:

• Flickering Lights
• Circuit breakers tripping
• Plugs hot or not working
• Lights dimming
• No power to the house for 30 min or so
• Light bulbs blowing out, even LEDs
• Dimmer switches blowing out
• Ballasts for fixtures blowing out
• My dishwasher and frig blew a fuse often
• Weird sounds coming from my ceiling fans
• Surges where all the lights in half the house would brighten
• Lights that would pop and rattle

It got to where this was happening all the time. Even lights that were off when I left in the morning would be on when I came home. I started to think I had a ghost. Yes, I watch too much Syfy channel!

Over the course of the year I had three electricians to the house and all blamed my electrical panel. The panel is Federal Electric and apparently not a favorite with electricians. But, my home inspector, just last August, said it was fine and might need replacement eventually. But, he assured me no fire hazard to worry about.

The estimates for replacement of the electrical panel were anywhere from $2,300 to $11,000. Yep. I did not add extra zeros, that was 11K on an electrical panel and bringing it up to code. Ouch. There goes the MBA fund!

My heart sank. And I started buying fire extinguishers thinking my house would burn down. Been there, done that. I lived through an apartment fire in 1996. Really scary stuff. And ever since I have a phobia of house fires.

Then the whole block went out, except my house. Guess what? The big green box for the line is in my backyard. Three guys from the electric company were in my yard all morning. Some digging around the box, and eureka! Power restored to the block.

That's when my electrical problem got worse. It got to Hollywood poltergeist levels! I thought Walt Disney's Haunted Mansion and my house were related!

Power to different sections of the house would go out and never trip a circuit. Then without warning the electricity to half the house would be back. No indication to why. Sometimes in the middle of the night things would turn back on and wake me up. In fact, it was often worse at night and on hot days.

Enter the hero of the story, DAD. He said, "Have you called the electric company?" Now why didn't I think of that? 

He went on to explain that there are two 110 lines that go into the house and when one of them has a lose connection somewhere the heat created can cause the connection to break with expansion of the wires. He also said it didn't sound like my panel would contribute to the surges. Sometimes the surges were so strong that my ceiling fans would spin and moan like a ghost and the lights would pop.

I called the electric company and they came out right away. We had a few laughs on the phone when I explained that the lights were right out of a horror film and that I needed to get a priest out to banish my poltergeist. But that it might be good if they checked the lines to my home and the big green box in my yard the guys had dug around when the power went out.

I have to say that Oncor was great. They came out checked it, looks like they fixed it too. I have not had a single flicker. Not a single dimming of lights or surge overnight. Let's hope they fixed  it for good.

Moral of the story. Before you spend thousands of dollars getting your electrical panel fixed, have the electric provider in your area check the line to the house. Funny thing, not one of the electricians who came to the house suggested doing that. Makes me a bit mad. Glad I had Dad.

Lights back on! Working good for 24 hours!

Taking the UGLY out of a worn out rent house

I purchased a home that had been a rental for 7 years. It was known to the neighbors as the smoke house or dirty dog house. The previous owner did many things right, but some things just plain wrong.

What is with the paint color? Can we say PLAIN?

First the trees had to go. They were too close to the house to get reasonable home insurance. They were poorly planted, very weak and dying. 

It took two days for the guys to take them out. They hauled off all the branches in two trucks! Then the stumps had to be ground down. Total tree removal was $700.

Then I added some container plants!

These wonderful stands I already had that were purchased years ago in Canton, TX at their First Monday Trade Days. I do not know how much they were. The plants were hanging plants from a local home improvement store I purchased for $15 each. I removed the plastic hangers from the pots and just dropped them into the terra cotta pots that came with the stands. Easy removal later and they drain well.











I just love pot feet! I got these terracotta pot feet in the section of my local home improvement store near the garden supplies. I really had to hunt for them and the associate at the store had no idea what I was talking about. They are used to raise pots off the ground to drain and dress up even a simple potted plant. They come in sets of three and cost about $6. Look near the drainage dishes for the planters. That is where I found them.  

The red flower is from the dollar store. I have found so many cute things like it there. When they fade or break I just toss them. At just a dollar I can switch them whenever.

Sweet potato vine and Petunia in purple were all I planted in these. I plan to switch that out soon for more heat resistant plants when the heat arrives in late July. They are in a concrete urn a friend was nice enough to give me.

The walk up is better with some grass starting to fill in the dirt. I only used water and some liquid fertilizer.

The concrete planter to the right is from the same generous friend who gave me the urns. In it I planted two Carolina Jasmine plants. They will have yellow flowers on them eventually I am told. Right now they add much needed interest to the garage wall.





Now in the heat of the summer I plan to stop on the outside for the most part and focus on the inside for the remaining hot summer months.