Long story short, this weekend I replaced three light fixtures in the house.

One of them, in the laundry room, had a pull chain, and I replaced it with track lighting and added a light switch at the bottom of the stairs.

To make the conversion, I gave my wife a shopping list of what I needed:

• 1-gang box
• Switch
• Faceplate for switch
• 25 feet of 14-2 electrical wire
• Bag of staples to tack the wire to the joists

I’m not entirely sure why she chose to go to Home Depot (it wouldn’t be my first choice), but she did; probably because it was on her way from somewhere to somewhere else.

Once there, she asked for help from someone working in the electrical department, and showed them the list I sent her by text.

She came home with all of it, except that the person at Home Depot sold her an outlet and a faceplate for an outlet instead of a switch.

At this point, readers should check the graphic attached to this blog post for the tell-tale differences between switches and outlets. It’s a subtle difference, but if you look closely you can see how they differ.

The point of my blog post is this: all of us are at the mercy of people who are supposed to know what they’re talking about.

Maybe it’s the car mechanic, maybe it’s the roofing contractor. None of us can be an expert at everything, and that’s why we need to rely on others when we need them.

For your clients who need AV and IT integration, they rely on you.

However, unlike a 79 cent switch or outlet from Home Depot, there are no small, simple mistakes in AV, there are only expensive mistakes and REALLY expensive mistakes.

So have a chuckle at this little story, but remember, Know Your Stuff.