Quirky houses

One of the fun things about moving into a new home is learning the "quirks" of that home. You would think with a new home that you watched be built, there would be few quirks. Yes, there probably are fewer quirks, but we still have them.

Take Saturday evening for example. I decided to vacuum the bonus room upstairs. I had the Christmas tree plugged in, the space heater going (another quirk of that room), and the vacuum. It's a woefully empty room at the moment. :) I made it about halfway across the room, and then everything stopped. I'd flipped the breaker.

Great. "Electrical problem?"

I entered my "tester" mode, and recreated it with exact same set of circumstances. Yep, tripped the breaker again. Tried a 3rd time, this time timing things. It happens in about 3 minutes. Flipped it again. Then, I tried a different outlet for the vacuum cleaner. Tripped it again. Dh decided to try it with JUST the vacuum cleaner (he's the enginerd), and it didn't trip. Added in the space heater, and it didn't trip.

My bonus room carpet is probably the MOST vacuumed carpet on the planet at the moment.

Plugged in the tree. We tripped it. Hmmm....the tree? We tested a different outlet with the tree lights (couldn't find the outlet tester). Yep, tripped it again. Dh watched the lights the next time, and we think the lights actually have a short in the wire and that our "quirky" upstairs room is actually fine on electrical loads.

I hope so, but I really don't want to take down the tree, re-string the tree, JUST to test the lights.

We're compromising. No plugging in that tree, and doing other electrical things in that room (turning on a TV, playing games, plugging in lamps, running that vacuum again). After Christmas, we'll buy 3 strands of lights and string them together to test the lights theory. At least I don't have to re-decorate a tree again.