Country side painting
We need to get the last of the decorative items out of storage and decide what to do with them. I have always liked this serene painting that I bought at a second hand store in Indiana years ago. It has been in our houses since then and I wanted to keep it. The frame was a bit the worse for wear so I sanded it and polyurethaned it and looking much more spiffy I tried to hang it in the living room.
I have been using the ramjet and power nails to create hanging hooks on the brick and stucco walls. When I sent a nail into the stucco wall about where I wanted to hang the frame the nail went right through the stucco. That surprised me but I didn’t stop to think why that happened.
Instead I tried a metal butterfly bolt in the enlarged hole. It wasn’t seating well so I used a hammer to send it deeper into the hole and a huge spark rang out!
Unfortunately I had hit a power cable going to the outlet below. It seems that the chances of hitting a cable, the only one in the wall had not occurred to me. With the breaker off I took out the bolt and had to enlarge the hole to repair the wire. Luckily I only pierced one wire and didn’t short it.
So now the painting hides a huge hole in the stucco!
Hole in stucco wall
I should be able to repair it eventually with the acrylic stucco and caulk. But I also found out that a hammer easily breaks the stucco off the wall in case someday it needs to be removed.