Unknown Near-Death Experience

Or Why I'm buying a non-contact voltage tester

So the new house has a Mother In Law setup- basically a full apartment in the basement.  That means we have two hookups for electric dryers, and two washing machine hookups. I went to hook the dryer up downstairs and saw that it had an old 3-wire outlet.  Not a newer one like you can buy at any hardware store but an OLD one.  Upstairs was a more modern 3-wire outlet.  I'm not doing laundry in the kitchen so I figured I'd take the plug from upstairs and put it in the basement.  No big deal.
Turn off both breakers labeled "dryer."  Unscrew the face plate. Pull the outlet out of the wall.  Unscrew the wires in the receptacle. Take it to the basement, do the same.  Screw the wires into the newer receptacle.  Fix the outlet in place. Attach the face plate. Turn on the breaker for the downstairs dryer leaving the upstairs one switched off because there are exposed wires until I put a different plug in place. Plug in the dryer and...

I did all this and the dryer worked!  WOOO!

A few hours later, the water heater is only putting out warm water.  This is a 6 month old water heater so I'm a bit bewildered.  I Google up some ideas and settle on the symptoms pointing to a bad thermostat.  Home Depot has a repair kit that has two elements and both thermostats for my water heater for 32 bucks.  SWEET.  I buy that, kill the water heater breaker and put in the two new thermostats. Turn the breaker marked "Water Heater" on and wait half an hour.  Water is still cold.  Not just lukewarm but COLD.  wtf.

Commence spidey sense...

I go back to the breaker box and turn off both labeled Dryer and the one labeled Water Heater.  I turn on the water heater breaker and go back to the water heater.  No sound, no nothing.  The dryer won't turn on.  I turn that breaker back off and turn on the first one labeled dryer.  The dryer won't turn on but now there's a faint humming from the water heater if my ear is right against it.  I go back and turn it off.  I turn on the second dryer breaker and the dryer turns on.  I turn on both dryer ones and give it half an hour.  Hot water comes out.

Conclusions:
1- The breaker box is mis-labeled.
2- The water heater is on one labeled dryer.
3- The upstairs dryer outlet is on the one for the water heater.
Most exciting...
4- When I turned off both dryer breakers and went upstairs and pulled apart the 240-volt 30-amp outlet, I was futzing around with LIVE FREAKING WIRES.  WTF?!?!?!

Thankfully I'm a little paranoid and my gun training was in play.  Rule number 1 of firearm handling?  "Every gun is always loaded.  Treat it as such."  Every wire is always hot.  Treat it as such.  I did that and I'm quite glad.  Best case, I could have tripped the breaker and arc welded my screwdriver to the outlet.  Worst case, I could be dead and my house could have burned down before I made a payment on it.

So I'm getting one of these right friggin now.

Our next adventure revolves around a riding mower and my overwhelming hatred of mine.

Whatever can go wrong, will

No project can go as planned.  It just never happens.  So far, the new house has been one stumbling block after another.  It was a short sale that took forever to close. There were complications and inspections and blah blah blah... whatever.  Now we have the house and stuff is still hitting the fan. For instance, I needed to attach a 2x4 to my foundation wall.  I bought a masonry bit and some heavy duty Tapcon fasteners.  The wall ate two masonry bits completely and stripped two tapcon bolts.  It also snapped two of them off.  I don't get it.  I got the post attached and I got that portion of the fence in place but at a pretty significant cost. Then I went to build the next portion of the fence.  I got the runners and posts in place pretty easily.  Spun up the compressor to use my handy new nail gun (holy hell. I LOVE my nailgun.  21 degree round head framing nailer = joy in my heart.) and went to adjust the pressure.  The hose pressure dial said 100 PSI which is higher than I needed.  I went to adjust it down to about 80 and... the knob fell off in my hand... Yeah. SHIT. So now I need to repair or replace my compressor.

Good times, I suppose.

Goal is to have the fence dog-proof and have the important stuff (bed, fridge, Computers) moved within the next 48 hours...  GO!

What do you do when you bite off more than you can chew?

Well duh.  You learn to chew more.
My wife is fantastic.  She's a horticultural savant, a great cook, a wine lover, a talented artist and... a baby maker!  I'm a pretty good cook but she's got a monopoly on the rest of those talents at our house.  In the last twelve months, we've gotten married, gotten knocked up, and bought a house on a couple acres.  In that order and all on purpose!

Yep.  We bit off way more than we can chew so the idea with this blog is to document my adventures in DIY, Dadding, and a dozen other adventures.  2.5 acres with a goat barn, a few outbuildings in varied states of disrepair, 3 months to baby, a house built in the 60s sold to us halfway through a remodel, two cars around 15 years old, three cats, two big dogs, a wife who loves to cook and garden, and a me who loves to tinker, meddle and use power tools...  All of those add up to having LOTS to do.
To give you an idea...

Build a large dog-resistant garden (DONE!)
Build a new dog-resistant fence (In progress)
Remodel two kitchens
Build a bitchin Fan Cave/Entertainment room (GO HAWKS!)
Gut and rebuild a 50-year old garage
Add a proper shop behind the garage
Fix a riding mower (Done/Ongoing)
Renovate the master bedroom (create a closet space)
Renovate the master bath
Renovate the Fan Cave bathroom
Turn a spare room into a nursery
Childproof all the things
Turn one outbuilding into a greenhouse
Get power and water to the greenhouse
Build a rain catchment system
Learn to raise goats
Learn to bow hunt
Learn to dress a deer
Make sure my kids(s) can do most of this stuff
Do a transmission and engine rebuild on a Jeep XJ

And this is just what I can remember while sitting here at my desk. At work.  As an IT nerd.

Let's DO THIS!