I have a single line telephone in my home right now, and I have been using it for my business. I am getting a second telephone line for business only. Will I need the Natural Handyman to rewire my house? And do I have to buy a special two-line telephone and answering machine ?

Most homes are wired for two lines, so there may not be any need for inside wiring modifications. Murphy's Law says that the previous owner or owners may have probably disabled the wiring for the second line, and used it for hanging chickens. But you can't tell until you actually hook up your phone. Since one-line phones only connect to LINE 1, you have two ways to connect to LINE 2 in your office:

1. Reverse the wires in the outlet itself. Simply unscrew the cover on the outlet, and switch the red wire with the yellow wire and the green wire with the black wire. This will fool the stupid phone into thinking it is connecting to LINE 1 when it really is connecting to LINE 2.
2. You can purchase an adapter at Radio Shack, a home store, or electrical supply house, that you can plug into the wall jack in your office. This adapter splits the single modular outlet into three outlets: LINE 1, LINE 2, and LINE 1 / LINE 2. You can plug your office phone into LINE 2 Then, buy a second phone to plug into LINE 1 after you wish you had bought that two line phone. Or just have a garage sale, sell both phones and get a two-line phone like you should have in the first place!

If you do either of these things and LINE 2 is still not working, and you are absolutely sure the telephone guy has activated the line, then you are going to have to troubleshoot the line. The place to go is My phones are not working. I called the telephone company, and they said the problem is inside my house. How can I find out what the problem is?

Happy hunting!!

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