While doing all the landscaping in my back yard, I figured now would be a good opportunity to fix the outside light. Ever since we moved to the house, it had been nonfunctional, so I wasn’t sure what or how bad the problem would be.

I opened up the junction box and found that in fact there was a loose connection. I hooked up the voltmeter and was able to cut power to the circuit. The existing light was a motion-detecting light, but since I intended to install a switch, I needed to replace the single gang box with a double.

After getting the supplies and my exterior switch and everything, I set about taking out the old junction box. I unscrewed the clamp on the conduit, carefully disconnected all the wires and pulled off the box. Unfortunately, while I had shut off one the circuit of interest, there were two separate circuits run to the box and one of them shorted out on the box. Previously it had just been capped, which is how I left it, but there had been a small amount of wire exposed under the cap. Smoke, sparks, and excitement, but no injuries.

With both breakers shut off, I could really set to work. Getting the wires in the new box and organized wasn’t much of a problem. There was another set of wires running to the box, which actually solved a long-time mystery. While digging up the yard, I found an extension cord buried unprotected, but I could never find where it was connected. Apparently it wasn’t, but it was running to this box.

I had a little trouble figuring out how to put on the switch with the waterproof cover. The instructions weren’t very clear to me, but eventually I got it figured out. By rights, this should have been a very quick project. But with the odd wiring, the confusion, and four trips to the hardware store, it took the better part of a day. Still, I have lights in my yard.