The dangers of home improvement

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February 27, 2020

Day 17

Today the electrician fell through the ceiling. I was sitting in my dining room, trying to write despite the noise of two electricians and two HVAC guys doing their things (our heating ducts need to be rerouted for the new placement of cabinetry). The master electrician, a lovely man by the name of James, had been going up and down our stairs to the attic, connecting wiring to re-wire the fan and future ceiling light fixtures. I heard a really loud thud, then the sound of debris hitting the kitchen floor. Then silence. I jumped up and saw a sight that would have been comical, had it not meant certain injury for the poor man; two legs were dangling down, covered with a layer of white insulation material. The three remaining workmen looked up, unsure how to react. Then the coughing started. James had gotten the wind knocked out of him for sure. I raced upstairs with his apprentice. By that time he had pulled himself back up out of the hole. He was holding his side, which he had used to block himself from falling completely through the floor joists. He was coughing and sputtering, having inadvertently inhaled and possibly swallowed some of the insulation material. I offered him a glass of water. He shook his head and finally choked out that he needed to be taken to the ER, since he was quite sure he’d broken a rib. His apprentice—who is also his son—loaded him into the truck. One of the HVAC guys assured me he’d be OK. “He’s a former Marine. He was in Desert Storm. He’s a tough guy.”

Yeah, well, tough guys still can get hurt, and a broken rib still hurts like the devil, I’ve heard. Ouch. 

I’m sure that it was not only his ribcage that was bruised, but also his pride. After they checked him out at the hospital, he was indeed sent home with a broken rib. He’ll be out of commission for a while. Fortunately, his son came the next day to finish up phase one of the wiring.

Now I’m nervous, seeing people crawling into our crawl space, and climbing onto ladders. One of the guys got a terrible shock on the first day demo from a wire that was hot and wasn’t supposed to be. Kitchen remodeling work, it seems, is not for the faint of heart. 

 

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