I am not a home wiring genius, but... HELP

Here is an outline of my intent.  I have a pair of lighting switches in one box on a wall of my kitchen.  One switch (right side) of the pair switches a ceiling light on and off.  The left side switch used to turn a porch light on/off when the wall was an out side wall.  The porch light was removed from the wall and the wires were taped up and shoved back in the wall from the outside.

I want to use the left, unused switch to turn on some interior decorative lighting higher up the same wall.  How hard can it be?  After all, there are wires for long gone porch lite still in the wall.  I take the trim plate off of the switch box and find this:

The right switch has a red wire going to one side of the switch from outside the box

The right switch has a black wire coming from it that is hooked to the left switch in a dubious manner  (left switch removed)

The black wire runs from the left switch to a wire nut, from there it leads out of the box.

There is a second black wire (fuzzy in foreground) that leads from the left switch and exits the box.

There are two white wires wire-nutted together in the back of the box.

I was expecting to disconnect the wires from the left switch and run run longer wires to the new endpoint in the wall.

This was interesting also:

What we have here is insulation removed from the center section of the black wire.  The bare part of the wire was then wrapped around the post of the left switch and then continued to a wire-nut and hooked to another black wire which runs out of the box.

After some searching I find that red and black wires are hot, white wires are neutral and green or bare is ground.

To try and summerize as I see it:

• One of the two white neutrals is for the removed porch light

• One of the two hot black wires is for the removed porch light

• and of course, one ground.

But there is a black/white pair exiting the box on the far left of the box and a black/white pair with a red exiting to the right of the other pair.  Ah HA.  The fuzzy hot/black wire in the foreground of the first picture and the neutral with it are the wires that used to go to the porch light.   Because the black/hot that turned the lamp on and off was hooked to the switch!

But I still need to do something with this:

Any suggestions?

The black wire should be the hot feed to the switch, the red wire the hot to the light you removed when the switch is on, and dead otherwise. 

Can you put a volt meter on them and see what's hot and what's not?

Typically, a red wire to a switch is part of a 3-way wiring configuration, but I can't really see enough of what you have to verify that.  

As far as the bare wire, either the insulation has failed or somebody stripped it off to tap into it (improperly). 

Few things in a house can be a frustrating and potentially dangerous as old, hacked up wiring... and it's usually a PITA to fix.  And now that you've seen it, you can't "unsee" it. 

Black wire with the wire nut on it is hot feed. It fed both switches.  The bare kink in the black wire (which you call dubious) was the hot feed to the left switch. 
 

The other black wire (which was tied to the left switch) and the red wire are the switch legs to the lights. 
 

The whites are tied together to feed neutral through the box. 

Put the kinked bare back on the left switch, and attach the switch leg for your new light to that switch.  The white for your new light will need to be tied to the white wire nut at the back of the box.

In reply to Ian F (Forum Supporter) :

The bare wire is not improper. It's a hot jumper leg feeding the two switches. 

I think what is throwing you off is the right hand switch. As Ian noted, the red wire would typically be the traveler for a 3-way switch to that ceiling light.  I think another switch was eliminated at some point, and the ceiling light was rewired to use its black leg to carry power to this switch (so the porch light would work). 
 

You are missing another black leg to the ceiling light for the ability to have a 2nd switch.  But that's ok. It's gone. 
 

Double check me with a tester, but I'm pretty sure you will find the bare kinked black wire is hot (to both switches), and neither the red wire nor the other black one are hot (because they are switch legs).

I'm a little concerned about this comment:

Noddaz said:

How hard can it be?  After all, there are wires for long gone porch lite still in the wall.

There is nothing wrong with using the old porch wiring.  What you can't do is make a connection to the old wiring not in a box.  If the old wiring is long enough to reach your new lighting location, no problem.  Use it.  But if its not, you will need to run a new wire all the way to this box.  Don't splice on to the old wire in the wall.

You probably know this, but I wanted to clarify.

I think this is your existing wiring diagram:

Blue= white. 
 

(Sorry about the black mistake at the ceiling light!) Lol!

Project done.    I had the power off at the breaker and tested it anyway.  No power, so I was good.  And done and works so all good now.

I wanted to pull out the wiring for the old porch lamp, but of course it is nailed/stapled to a 2x4 at least once.

So I capped the unused wiring off and left it in the box to be someone else's problem in the future.  

In reply to Noddaz :

Congrats. Glad to hear you didn't really need us! 

Was the kinked wire the hot one?

SV reX said:

I think this is your existing wiring diagram:

 

 

Blue= white. 
 

(Sorry about the black mistake at the ceiling light!) Lol!

Thank you!  That is quite the diagram!  It is an old house and the is two ceiling lamps in the kitchen.  One over the work area and then one over the table.  Both ceiling lights are worked by their own single switch.

However, there is a capped off electrical box on the ceiling, close to the lamp over the table.  I will probably never look to see what is going on there.

SV reX said:

In reply to Noddaz :

Congrats. Glad to hear you didn't really need us! 

Was the kinked wire the hot one?

I never tested it with the power on.  I used 2 short lengths of black wire (one from each switch) and connected to the black in the box.

Two things that would have made this easier.

14-2 wire instead of 12-2.  12-2 was hard to manipulate and was not needed for this job.  But it was what I had.

A fish tape.  I know I have one.  Somewhere.  And Ace wanted $40 for a new one.  So  I used a roll of 3/16 steel brake line that I had instead.  I hammered one end flat and folded it over like a little hook.  And into the wall it went.  It worked, but a fish-tape would have been better.