The revenge of Dr. U

As the temperature outside begins to drop, so too the temperature inside our poorly insulated cottage. (Strangely, many of the interior walls are insulated; throwbacks to the days when they used to be exterior walls before one of many cottage additions occurred.)

We awoke one morning to find the living room/ kitchen was a chilly 13 degrees C. Part of the problem was that the baseboard heater in the living kitchen wasn't working.

If ever there was a morning for hot drinks and oatmeal, that was it.

The captain, an Electrical Engineer by training, decided to troubleshoot the problem. It's important to note here that although he is an electrical engineer, he's actually not well versed in home or appliance electrical wiring. That would require an Electrician. I think maybe Electrical Engineers are trained to think about electricity, but not actually do anything with it.

He knows enough not to do this, though.

It's the revenge of our arch-nemesis, the nefarious Dr. U! In the  doctor's defense, I should mention that this expert wiring job was actually wrapped in electrical tape, so while horrible it wasn't quite as dangerous as what you see here. Pretty close, though.

Here's how things looked when the captain first popped the thermostat from the wall.

And this is the captain testing the current at the baseboard itself.

We had it working for a short time, but then it quit on us again and we haven't had it working again since. That scares me a little.

What evil machinations has Dr. U been up to that we don't know about!?