26 Nov The Black Hole Corner
I’ve got this dark corner with absolutely no light at the end of a hallway. I’ve always had an old chest there and some picture frames, but on rainy days or at night time it becomes invisible. There is NO ELECTRICAL OUTLET IN SIGHT! Don’t you hate that? I know electricity is not something one should screw around with unless you really know what you are doing. So last time we had a workman over I asked him what he thought…
Well it was BAD. To put an outlet on this wall, we’d have to rip out dry wall out, put in a box, drop wires, etc. I listened politely realizing halfway through there was no way I could justify all this $$ just because I wanted a ‘cute lamp’ in the corner. So I sulked.
And then plotted…
There was an outlet just next door inside the ‘laundry room’ (ok, maybe ROOM is the wrong word, it’s a closet ~condo living!) Why couldn’t that help my situation somehow? At first I thought of just bringing an extension cord around the washer/dryer to the other wall. But there is a door involved that needs to close and cords. BLECH. CORDS.
I began to get hooked on the idea of simply cutting a hole in the wall to bring it through. Apparently someone can’t let things drop. 🙂 I kept thinking, how hard it is to cut through drywall? And there must be some cap or cover you could use to cover the hole, right? This is the part of the story you won’t believe….while searching the aisle at Home Depot for a part this an electrician overhears me talking to the Home Depot guy, says he knows exactly what I am trying to do, and to use THIS…a Furniture Hole Cover, for $3.96. The DIY gods had shined down on me. I bought two and an extension cord and headed home. For under $20 thank you.
I knocked around to make sure I wouldn’t hit a 2×4, and tried to go far back enough that the dresser would hide the hole. I couldn’t go too far back because on the opposite side I could only push the washer/dryer over so far to squeeze next to them. Then I started with the drill – just some nice holes to get us started!
The electrician had warned me not to make the circle too big because you want to wedge the furniture cover in there…so I used a variety of tools to expand the hole. Was really WINGING it here. I traced the circle with a pencil and would just shave a bit and check the sizing, and so on. Turned out the box cutter worked really great here.
I knew the next part would be tricky – the SECOND sheet of dry wall. I bounced back and forth between the washer/dryer side and going through the first hole to get through the second wall. Even a flashlight became necessary. Am not going to lie, I started thinking it wasn’t THAT important to make the perfect hole on the other side and use the cover, because who would see it. But the perfection monster took over and I forged ahead. Making that second hole because of the angle was definitely annoying. Not crying/giving up annoying, just ugh-my-back-hurts-I-need-a-break annoying.
Finally it was time to for the furniture covers on both sides…worked perfectly with some elbow grease and a hammer. Then I just fished the extension cord through both holes!
Maybe because it all came together so fast, or because there were no hiccups, but I must admit that when I was done I was flipping out a bit like – OMG it worked??!!! I popped on the final cover that keeps the cord in place and was done.
The Black Hole Corner is ready to be LIT!
SHUT. UP. Stayed tune for next post… 🙂
