You know you are spending too much time at home when you find small projects interesting. Most mornings I get an email from Family Handyman magazine loaded with articles that have plenty of “I never would have thought of that” in them. One showed how to extend an electrical box outward. I didn’t know you could do that.

Why would you want to do this? A tiled kitchen or bathroom comes to mind. In my case, my workbench has a properly installed electrical outlet recessed 3/4″ behind pegboard. Not a big problem as I leave a multioutlet plugged in and forget about it.

I have lived with this for 30 years but didn’t know I could improve it. Try something different and improve my skill set a little.

So I put 3/4″ blocks behind the pegboard to create a firm foundation using a nail to control them so they wouldn’t fall down behind the pegboard before I could screw them in place.

The box extender (also called a goof box in the Black and Decker Wiring book) is nothing more than a backless plastic box that fits inside the original box and keeps the wires safe.

I could have cut a masonite border to make it look better but why not make it six outlets instead of two using an adapter sitting in a parts box for years. Radio Shack lives! Solid, safe, and more accessible while keeping my mind active.