In which it isn't somehow funny any more

[desperance]

This room? Measures c 15ft x 15ft. It has one, count it, one electric socket in it. (It used to be the old folks' bedroom, and why would they, y'know, want to plug anything in? Ever? 'Spect they went to bed by candlelight...)

Never mind that I'm running a dozen different devices off that one socket, via a chaos of extension cables; that's not the subject at issue here. The point is, that socket is a neat six feet from the wall. My shelving units are a tidy three foot wide. If I am to get four units on that wall, one of the risers has to go exactly where that socket is. And of course it can't.

Technically, yes. Of course I know how to move an electrical socket. Hell, I could even fit a, you know, double socket. Coo.

Practically? I don't have the tools or the skills for the hardware bits, hacking holes in skirting-board and wall, even if I could relocate the confidence for the electrics bit (when I was a blithe teenager, I wired up a whole cottage with some salvaged cable and a handful of junction boxes, and ran it off the juice next door; but that was then and this is now, and I distrust myself).

*spits with frustrated fury*

It is a stupid place to have put a socket, if you were only going to have one. Fuck's sake, this wall is where they had the headboard of their bed. How can they not have noticed, when they had the electrics done? They'd have been scrabbling at arm's reach under the bed every time they wanted to plug the vacuum in...

*hates the old folk*

*goes to look at it again, just in case it's moved in the meantime*

Comments

[autopope.livejournal.com]

I had that problem in my living room -- two single sockets.

My pal nojay helped me out; turns out you can buy three and four way sockets that are designed to screw onto an old-fashioned single-outlet socket. You don't hack in the skirting board, you just remove the fascia of the old socket and screw the new extra-wide one onto it. Poke me via email and I'll try and get the details of where/what/how much they cost for you.

The alternative? A six-way mains extension bar with switches on each socket, permanently plugged into the socket behind the bookcase. Yup, done that, too (in my study).

[dedbutdrmng.livejournal.com]

When I moved into this house I found that the previous owners had been busy little wiring bees. Except at some point they'd run out of cable clips and had just decided to nail the cable straight onto the beams. Y'know, metal nails straight through the cable, like you do.

I got a six way extension form Netto for £9.99. It's designed for computers and stuff and has cut outs built in. It also has holes for screws so you can screw it onto wood. But no way in to get to them, which was a trifle annoying but nothing that a tube of No More Nails can't fix.