So I've been trying to trace why a kitchen outlet and outdoor outlet (in close proximity to each other) no longer work since my kitchen remodel last year. About 3 feet above the no-longer-working outlet is a new GFI that works fine. Suspicious, I pulled off the plate and unscrewed the GFI outlet and found a BUNCH of wires in there. Before investigating further, I shut power to the GFI at the breaker and ran my current tester over them to be sure they were cold. I think pulled out the outlet (which had 3 black/3 white pigtailed together and singles to the GFI. All well and good. Then I noticed that deep, deep in the back of the box was another set of leads (1 black/white/ground.) Low and behold, these were still hot. I suspect that when the kitchen was remodeled, the construction guys found these wires, didn't know what they powered, so capped them, stuck them in box and ran new romex for the GFI. And hoped that I didn't find out what didn't work anymore until they were gone. Honestly, I'm unsure what to do next. I'm hesitant to attach a hot lead to a GFI that already has it's own power and it's own breaker. Can I do that? Suggestions?

My wife and I recently bought a home in the Houston area and an inspector made us aware of a potential problem with the PVC pipe housing the electrical wires outside of the house running to the electric box. The PVC pipe has separated at one joint due to upheaval in the expansive clays in Houston. We were told that if the ground settled further pulling the PVC more it might damage the electric box. So we dug a hole to try to loosen the PVC from the ground to try and reconnect the PVC. Unfortunately we are unable to unearth the entire length of the pipe in the ground to loosen it sufficiently and are unable to reconnect the PVC pipes. Here are two pictures of the problem. [ATTACH]39459[/ATTACH][ATTACH]39460[/ATTACH] I am new to being a homeowner and do not know how to fix this potential problem or whether it even is a problem. Are the wires in these pipes typically tight to where settling 6 or so inches would result in pulling the them from the electrical box and causing damage? Any advice as to who to call (an electrician?) / whether to fix this problem would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.