Grounded

In planning the window seat for my daughter's room, I have struggled with a seemingly insurmountable problem--the electrical receptacle that sits squarely in the center of the wall below the window in question.

It is the only one on that wall, which means it must be the power source for the lights on the two desks that flank it. Unfortunately, that lone receptacle is just that--one outlet, not a double one. Only one place in which to place a plug. The upper segment of the outlet is a switch that controls the security light on the outside of the house, just beneath the window.

Complicating matters is the fact that the outlet isn't even grounded. My first inclination to plug in a power strip there was stymied when I realized that its 3-prong plug wouldn't even go into the 2-prong receptacle.

A while back, I had an electrician come out to give me an estimate on extending power from that source to create two new outlets, one under each desk. The cost was exhorbitant. Even if he surface-wired it, we would have to uninstall the desk that I had already bolted to the wall and the hutch atop it.

This weekend, I finally got around to asking a handy friend about the dilemma. He's an engineer who has built quite a few things around his house and who regularly heads up construction teams to build houses for Habitat for Humanity. In other words, the man knows his stuff.

He explained that we could easily change the receptacle to a grounded outlet so it could accommodate the power strip. He made it sound so simple, but I had no experience dealing with wiring. Fortunately, my husband has done a few minor electrical repairs around the house, and he was game to tackle it. I bought the replacement receptacle yesterday, and today my husband installed it. It only took him about 15 minutes, and that included running up and down the stairs to cut off and turn on the power circuit!

I watched--carefully. This is something I want to learn. Like my sister, I'm paranoid about a lot of things, including getting hurt! Electricity is not something I've ever desired to play around with. But I'm willing, even anxious, to learn the basics. Don't get me wrong, when it comes to big jobs, I'll be the first one to call an electrician. I recently had one come out to change my mother's receptacle so it would accommodate a larger air conditioning unit. In a 50-plus-year-old house, I don't want to fool around with wiring! But for pete's sake, I ought to be able to replace a switch in my own house, wouldn't you think?