What's a fuse? My experience with an old house...

[CTyankee]

Our house is a wonderful house built in prewar USA. We bought it from a lovely Orthodox family who lived there because they could walk to shull on the Sabbath from it.

So I'm up the next morning ready to make coffee and toast. I plug in the coffeemaker and the toaster and start both and KERFLUEY!

So we couldn't figure out what happened and asked our new next door neighbor and they said "You need to check your fusebox."

And I said "what's a fusebox?"

Needless to say, that wasn't a great welcome to the neighborhood!

Hubby is Jewish but Reform and had no clue. Our very first "repair" went to upgrading the electrical service in our house.

[hlthe2b]

1. Oh, I KNOW. My grandmother's big old historical brick house (had once been a 19th century tavern)

had a fuse box in the basement, which was always a scary place for my sister and I above and beyond all the strangle little passageways and rooms upstairs.

So, yeah, I've dealt with that since I was a very young child, but I must say I've often wondered where they get replacement fuses nowadays... Obviously, they must be available.

[CTyankee]

3. I really think my real estate agent should have known that and warned us about it.

This was over 30 years ago but still, that should have been checked out. My guess is that my agent didn't know the service wasn't up to standard but still...

[SWBTATTReg]

5. This is what inspections are for, by either the city/state jurisdiction or you, or perhaps other

entities. If a person was really on top of the ball game, they would do the inspections regardless, if required or not (I did, for peace of mind). You can't blame the 'real estate agent', when you are in the room too.

[CTyankee]

10. I'm sure our real estate agent "assumed" like us.

The house otherwise is a jewel. I guess you'd say "good bones." We've done a lot to update in the past 30 years. For one thing, it had rope and pulley windows and when the rope gets old it snaps and the windows slam down shut. We got that upgraded in the summer and I was keeping one window open with a tall brick.

Central air conditioning was next. Then the kitchen (old stove you had to light with a match) and I found out we had gas so we could replace our gas stove with another. Now that is what a lot of cooks like and I do too, but the old stove had to be lit with a match.

[SWBTATTReg]

20. A house, with 'good bones', as you say, is always a treasure. If you have one, sure it may be ...

dirty, ragtag, and in need of lots of TLC, but it's worth it. Of course it'll take a lot of time, and money, this is definitely where the term 'sweat equity' comes into play.

These houses usually were massive, well built (for their time), using skills usually not available anymore or long gone, or priced way out of the market, to replace features not easily replaced (price-wise).

We have tons of older brick buildings in STLMO, tons of neat architecture, w/ facades and/or other rock features that can't be replicated easily (or cheaply is the word I should use).

My first house in STLMO was from 1907...Your rope and pulley windows reminded me of putting in new windows into this house, doing it in 3 stages (I couldn't afford the whole thing in one big shot). It was expensive, but worth it, as I immediately noticed that my utility bills went down by 1/2 (I had the old 'Spring' glass (windows made w/ this kind of glass), I kept the old 'Spring' glass, I don't even know if it's being made anymore.

The one thing I do miss now, is my gas stove (I have electric now, my SO bought it before I had a choice in the matter, so maybe one day?)...

Your house sounds really neat. Perhaps you kept a somewhat running journal of your adventures?

Take care, and be safe and well out there.

[CTyankee]

21. I figure my house was one of the last houses built in our neighborhood before WW2 when no

new homes were built as factories had to go on wartime footing (just as no new cars were built since their factories were then building tanks, jeeps, and trucks). I live in the Westville section of New Haven. Some of the very august homes are nearby and contain stained glass windows which are quite lovely. We are not too far from the Yale Bowl where we spend a lot of time during Yale's football season, the height being the year of the Yale-Harvard Game every other year. Last year The Game (as it is called) was cancelled because of Covid and we were distraught, tho neither of us went to either school. We also have the many storied New Haven Green, a lovely spot for cycling, walking or lunch on a bench.

Hope springs eternal for our life to re-emerge here.

[SWBTATTReg]

23. Hope springs eternal for our life to re-emerge here.

A noble sentiment, for all of us, everywhere!!

[marble falls]

2. A fuse is hint to upgrade your circut box!

[CTyankee]

4. Oh, NOW you tell me!

I guess I must have assumed it was all up to date electricity.

[MyOwnPeace]

9. You didn't find any pennies in there, did you?

Honestly, you don't want to know WHY they would be there!

[CTyankee]

11. No. I let experts do that. I was working full time as was hubby...

[hlthe2b]

12. I know....

It is truly a wonder any of those buildings survived and didn't burn down.

[BBG]

8. I thought it was what you use pennies on

Pop a penny in the socket, voila, no more blown fuses. Maybe a house fire or two but think of all the money saved on fuses.

[packman]

16. Damn, I was about to post that "penny in the socket"

I remember those old-fashioned, screw in fuses with the clear glass on the top so you could see if the fuse was blown. Gotta keep in mind that most houses in those olden days were wired for , probably, 100 or less amps.

[LiberalArkie]

15. Usually means 2 wire outlets, no ground. Probably knob and spool wiring.

[Kali]

6. was the wiring insulated with paper?

this house still has a run of it. disconnected now, but still working a decade ago.

[Hotler]

7. A fuse is your safety valve for the electrical circuit.

youtube is your friend.

[bullimiami]

13. What did being jewish. Reformed, Orthodox or otherwise have to do with knowing about fuseboxes?

I grew up what you would call Conservative.
Im old enough to have had fuseboxes.

Anyway, good investment in upgrading to breakers.
Fuses can be a real pita.

Not saying its a good idea but back in the day if you knew you didnt have a short but also didnt have a fuse handy you could bypass the fuse with tinfoil (or pennies as the previous poster hinted at). Of course if you actually had a short it was a recipe for disaster.

[CTyankee]

22. It doesn't. The reference to the Orthodox Jews was the fact that they desired a house near enough

to shul that they could walk. Our street is on the way to the shull and on Friday evenings and on Saturday mornings you can see and greet your neighbors as they pass the house on their way to worship. To me, this is important and tho I am not Jewish I feel a sense of empathy with them.

[bullimiami]

24. lived in a similar neighborhood. the payos on the boys always brings a smile.

we had maybe 5 actual shuls and a number of makeshift shuls close by.

[Arkansas Granny]

14. That sounds like an old Green Acres episode.

The first house my ex and I bought had only one electrical circuit. I actually had to do this until we had new circuits run.

[malthaussen]

17. Changing fuses used to be one way men justified their existence.

With these new-fangled circuit breakers, another stronghold of masculinity has fallen to the feminists.

-- Mal

[gibraltar72]

18. That's the thing you put a penny behind

so it doesn't leave you unable to plug in two things at once.

[MyOwnPeace]

19. TWO things????????