Dead switches

If there’s one thing people say when they see our house, it’s “Wow, this place has a lot of switches!

I’m kidding– people don’t really say that. But I’ve said it many times. After moving in and noticing the great proliferation of switches, I finally had to put labels on them because there are many sets of three, four, or even (in one instance) ten switches in a row. I couldn’t remember what turned on what. I spent the better part of an afternoon going around slapping switches and figuring out what to put on the labels.

The kicker? Some of the switches literally do nothing. Flip them on and off, slide the dimmer, whatever… nothing happens. And yes, I’ve checked plugs on the wall in case some of them are controlled by switches. At one point Thom and I pulled off a switch plate on a particularly mystifying one, to find that it wasn’t actually connected to wires! Umm, what?

Anyway, after things like that, I felt like a few of the non-functional switches deserved clever labels. Here are a couple:

We don’t have a drawbridge (yet) but if we ever install one, the wiring and switch are in place.

I bring this up because today on the internet I saw a photo that proved I’m not alone.

Thank you, internet stranger! I’m not the only person who has to label my switches, and also not the only one who moved into a house with switches that simply don’t do anything.