Appreciation post: The day I found a forgotten wire bundle in a 1980s Chicago apartment

I was pulling a new run for a motion sensor and found a perfectly intact, labeled bundle of old alarm wires behind the baseboard. Saved me at least two hours of fishing! Anyone else ever get saved by the previous installer's good habits?

3 comments

3 Comments

sammartinez18h ago

Honestly, the best finds are the ones that save you from yourself. I once spent an hour trying to drill a new hole, only to find a perfectly good, abandoned cable run right next to it from my own job the year before. Forgot I even put it there. Those old labeled wires are a gift, but finding your own past work and realizing you're the good and bad previous installer is a special kind of humble pie.

quinncoleman17h ago

Nah, I feel like that's just making excuses for sloppy work. If you forget your own cable run, maybe you should take better notes.

the_sean17h ago

Forget your own work, wait for the next guy to find it and call you an idiot. That's the real cycle of life.