All Forum Posts by: Don Hines

You have come to the right place to learn. First of all you need to develope a strategy. Lots of people start by wholesaling. I jumped into rehabbing. What is your game plan?
Don

Well the fix was pretty simple. I am almost embarrased; but, I am glad I asked for help to be sure. It turns out that the hot neutral was a back feed and only had 60 volts. I am still not sure where the electrician found the problem. He simply wired everything to the "load" side of the GFCI. I knew that had to be the fix. But, I had everything on the line side. This is the only outlet in the bath, so there are no outlets futher down stream that requires GF protection. We both agreed that it was whacky that the junction served so many rooms.
Thanks for all of the help.
Inspection today. I didn't know the appraisal was yesterday. But, hopefully this deal will go smoothly from now on.
Don

You must be real proud of thos pants! I don't remember what I had on yesterday. :)
I will be there about 5:30 with the electrician today. 16 Lakeside in Western Hills. I will be glad to show you around.
Don

Gary, both you and Rusty are right. There is indeed 240 volts less than 18 inches from a bath vanity sink. And yes, the sheathing with the red, black, and white are probably to the hall way that is operated with two three way switches; one on each end. I have checked the hallway switches; a white wire feeds the two "common" terminals. This junction has all kinds of functions. I know the bath lights and fan, the hall light and one receptical, and a bedroom light and recepticals all join here, as well as all of this being tied together to function by a receptical.
I have an electrician scheduled to look at it this evening. I will let you know what we find.
Thanks so much
Don

Thanks for the quick reply Gary. I should have said there are two circuits entering the same junction box as the GFCI.
I have a total of four cables entering the box. One is pretty standard as it has a black (hot), ground and neutral. The second cable has it's black wire joined to a 3rd cable's red wire. I am assuming this one feeds the hall lights that has a switch at each end of it. A 4th cable has a black wire that is not hot, but, the neutral (white) wire is.
When I hook all of these up to the GFCI as they were on the old receptical, everything works fine. But, my tester shows "open neutral". I think it could be the hot Neutral wire messing me up. It gets real scarry considering the two hot wires in there are on sperate circuts and total 240 volts.
I was just wanting to figure out where all of these wires feed without hooking them up to an outlet. They are getting pretty short to be loosing any length by cutting or breaking. Is the "open neutral" a problem? If not, I am OK with it since everything works.
Thanks
Don

I am trying to up grade an outlet with a GFCI. In order to keep from getting an "open neutral" reading on my tester, It obvious I am going to reroute some of the wiring. Do real electricians use jumper wires to find out where wires go to and what they feed? I do have enough sense to turn the breakers off before I make that connection. I have two breakers feeding this junction to control a bath, a hall light, and one bedroom.
Don

Can't top any of that. I thought I was having it bad with agents being slow about doing their job.
I am on my third contract (4th offer) with my most recent rehab. I still don't know what all happened with the first one. All I know is the broker called me 2 weeks after we signed and told me the agent was "no longer in the business" and she was handeling the case. And, also that the buyer had lost her job and she would be sending me a termination of the contract for my records. I still haven't seen the termination of the contract. But, they are bugging me for the earnest deposite; a month after she told me verbally the deal was off.
I have been under a new contract for two weeks now; I thought. The title company told me they had all of the stuff to proceed as of yesterday.
Don

Rich
I am really impressed you have kept the weight off. I am currently working on shedding 60lbs myself.
Congrads!!!!
Don

[img]http://www.biggerpockets.com/galleries/show/15537[/img]
Trying this picture thang again....
One picture shows a border on a vanity made with mosaic. i also bordered the tub.

don

Sure this can be done in a variety of colors. I had a quote from a fellow to do mine. But, I found out the shower stall was in too bad of shape to "bandaid". I opted to replace it with a new fiberglass stall.
Hey Ed, I challanged you to a race!!. Too late. Mine is under contract this morning; again 3rd one.
Don