We’re coming up on the 3-year house anniversary. And it’s been 3 years of drying my hair in the hallway. Because the bathroom outlets don’t work.
They managed to pass inspection just fine - but somewhere between the inspection and my first attempt at drying my hair, they stopped working. Granted, I blow dry my hair about once every 2 months, so who knows how long it was after we moved in that I discovered it. Who knows what may have happened. Malicious sellers? Careless cable or direct tv installers? Or maybe my 1875-watt monster of a hair dry made the wires asplode.
So as part of the bathroom remodel, we negotiated in that they would fix the outlet and put in a GFI. Because it had no such protections.
The electrician is here now, and informed me that the … wire? … is only for 15 amps, not 20 amps as is standard these days for bathrooms.
He has discovered that our GFI is in the basement utility room. When it is not tripped, the utility room, porch outlet, and two bathrooms work. The backyard outlet (never even knew we had one …) and the upstairs bathrooms never work ….
The electrician is going to steal power from the upstairs hall, feed it to the guest bath, and use that to power the master bath. (With GFI protections, of course.) He can’t upgrade the wire without tearing up all the walls through the entire house, so I’ll be stuck with a wimpy 15 amps. That probably won’t power my one-true-love of a hair dryer. But - at least the husband will be able to shave in the bathroom …