So the electrical is plodding along. I haven’t had any time this week to work on it in the evenings, and it’s taking way too long. There’s only one or two more new wires to place and two or three boxes to wire up (big ones). My latest dilemma is the under cabinet lighting. I’ve gotta make a decision on what type of lighting to use, so I can figure out where my wire drops will be. Though it’s not set in stone, I’m thinking I want to go with xenon lights. Found some low voltage strip lights that look like just the thing I want to use. They come in either 3″ or 4″ spacing between lights, and the bulbs can be either 5 or 10 watts. The setup runs on a 12 volt supply, and the light strips can be daisy chained -which is great because it limits the number of wire drops I need to run. Now my only problem now is where to put the transformer. The one I’ll probably use is big enough to power all the lights in the kitchen. Unfortunately it’s about the size of a brick, and I’m not quite sure where to mount the bugger. My first choice would be the attic, since I’m already in there anyways, but it’s been suggested that the crawlspace would be better, because apparently these transformers give off quite a bit of heat. However I don’t know if I’m even allowed to mount this thing in a “not very accessible” place. A lot of websites suggest mounting it in the lower cabinets (under the sink), which I don’t really want to do unless I have to. However I’ve seen other sites claiming that mounting it in a cabinet is a fire hazard -go figure.
So I’m hoping to get the electrical basics finished this weekend, but we all know that it’s not likely at the rate things have been moving along -I’ll keep you posted.
Spent a couple hours on Sunday undoing some of my wiring. Just replaced a couple three-wires with two two wires (that GFI thing). The extra wires are gonna require an extra trip to the snug recesses of the attic, and I’m gonna have to replace a single-gang box or two with two-gang boxes to accommodate the extra wires. Probably put in three hours or so of work. Only stopped because I had some other stuff to take care of. Really wanted to put in more time, but got dragged away. However I might have lucked out. I felt fine Sunday night, but was suffering the next morning, and Tuesday was even worse.
I’m a little frustrated…
I’m gonna try to spend a little time on this thing whenever a chance comes up, and hopefully I build up a little tolerance to manual labor -we’ll see.
The neck brace came off almost two weeks ago now, and I think I’m ready to get going again on this whole kitchen thing. I spent maybe fifteen minutes in the kitchen the other evening trying to get the big 50 amp outlet for the range wired up (apparently no small task). Well the position was a little awkward, and that big ol’ wire doesn’t bend very easily, and the next morning my neck and shoulders let me know that I need to take it easy at first. So I apologize ahead of time for the next couple of very “not very exciting” posts.
The lessons I posted last time about the GFI circuits? Well after writing that little list, I realized that I ran a couple three-wires in the kitchen for GFI circuits that’ll need to be re-run. Not too much work, and I should be thankful for something to work on that doesn’t require squatting or crawling around in the attic, but it’s just something that I thought was done and over. Lesson learned.
I hope to have something to talk about come next week, but don’t hold your breath. I know it’s almost not possible, but things are gonna be moving even slower than usual over the next several weeks. At least until I recover enough to put in a good days work.
So I go see the doc this week on Thursday. Hopefully he gives me the OK to take the neck-brace off. I’m still hurting a little, but it’s nothing compared to how it was a week or two ago. I’m just hoping things keep getting better. I did a little wiring this week. Just stuff that I could reach without going into the attic. Not much, but I did as much as I could before the shoulders started to hurt a little too much. I’m gonna go on a different tack this week since I don’t have much to write about. Here are a few lessons learned that I thought I’d pass on…
Wiring Tip #1...
So first off. There are two things in this picture that I’d like to point out. First, when supplying power to exterior outlets and lights (lights with exterior switches). You need to have them on a GFI circuit. Don’t try to save money/space with a three-wire instead of using two two-wires. GFI circuits need a dedicated common (white) going back through the circuit (which you don’t have in a three wire). Also, when installing an exterior box make sure you have enough clearance to put a cover on it. And if you really want to put an outlet in a box like this -make sure you actually leave room for the outlet!
Wiring Tip #2
Pray that the inspector is understanding about existing wiring and doesn’t require staples at all the boxes, when the previous electrician cut off the wires a little short.
So I’ve been slacking on updating the blog for a while. At first it was because I didn’t have much to write about. Mother’s day, birthdays, etc. They all limited my kitchen time to a couple hours a week -but headway was being made. But now there’s another wrench in the mix. I took a bit of a header playing roller hockey last week, and ended up in the hospital. Long story short, I ended up going head-first into the boards and was basically paralyzed from the neck down for a couple minutes. An MRI and a CT scan later, the doctors say I have a contusion on my spinal cord around my second and third vertebrae. Though I don’t know exactly what my long term prognosis is at the moment (I’m supposed to see the neurologist this week) I do know that I’ll be in a neck restraint for a couple weeks. That coupled with the shooting pains in my shoulders has really put a damper on the whole kitchen project. I’m really bummed about the whole thing, but I’ve actually seen some improvement in my situation over the last two days. I went from popping vicadin like candy and laying flat on my back for 10 hours a day to almost being able to walk around like a normal human again. I’m not able to do much manual labor yet, but that’ll come.
Spent a couple hours on Saturday busting stucco again. Since I’d heard that 9″ flashing is now required for windows, I needed a little to chip a little more room for my window. Dad came over to help get it in place. Looks pretty good! Though I have to say it makes the opening a lot smaller than it was. Still, it’s nice to have it finally in place.
I finally got around to putting that window in...
Now Sunday was pretty much entirely spent in the attic. The outside temperature stayed around 70 all day -pretty nice. However in the attic, I’m guessing it was around 90. That coupled with all the contorting I was doing to get into those tight spots, pretty much made me sweat so much that I was soaked whenever I came down. Loads of fun! However I did manage to get all the wire ran and staples in, in all the awkward spots out near the eves. Thank goodness that’s pretty much out of the way!
Here's a picture of the back of the service panel. All the circuits needed for the kitchen are in place, plus a few extras...
Now I started to sort out the wiring that was already in place in the attic prior to starting this project. It looks like the kitchen had some electrical work done pretty early on, and possibly by an electrician. He did things the easy way. Ran wires from whatever was nearest and didn’t know what a wire staple was. No problems there. However the second round of wiring was not done by a pro. Splices in the middle of wires with black tape around them, and get this -the splices were soldered! OK still no problem, easy to fix, just a real pain in the butt. However this guy went one step further. He split the 220V circuit to the dryer and that is now partially powering stuff in the kitchen, and appears to operate most stuff in the garage. Now, even that might be OK if he kept stuff neat and tidy, but not a chance. He’s tied lots of commons together from different breakers and has got three or four types of wire running every direction. I’d go into more detail, but there’s too much to go over. Here’s a picture of part of the attic that I’m currently sorting out (and this is after I cleaned it up). This is only the first part of the wiring. There’s a double deep electrical box out in the garage stuffed with wires that attaches to this mess -that’s next.
So I didn’t get a lot of time to spend working on the kitchen this weekend. Between the family walking in the March for Babies, and our friends Lianne and Andy coming over, time spent doing the remaining electrical was at a premium. Not that I really minded any of this at all, because I was going to have to venture into the dreaded attic.
I cut all the holes for the recessed lights. Since the ceiling joists are on two foot centers, none of the cans had to be moved more than an inch or two from where I wanted to put em. However, to meet the sixteen inch nailing schedule for the sheetrock on the ceiling, the builders put 1×4 nailers under the joists -to nail the sheetrock to. It’s not too bad, but it’s making it a little tougher to get those cans in place.
One of those pesky 1x4 nailers I was talking about...
Now I did get a couple cans in place. That hole left in the ceiling where the exhaust fan used to be, made it pretty easy to get in and out of attic. All was going smoothly until I got the the point where I couldn’t ignore the existing wiring anymore. I don’t have any pics of the stuff up there (couldn’t bring myself to go back up there today with the camera), but here’s something to give you an idea of what I’m dealing with…
It's hard to see, but any guesses what that bump in the sheetrock is? It's an electrical box that's been mudded over!
Noticed the temperature will be lower this week. Hoping to get some time to work before it goes back up, because it’s a little hot up in the attic. The good thing is that I’ve already moved all the insulation & ducting out of the way. Just gotta throw a couple more boards up there to lay on while I’m monkeying around with the wiring. Those ceiling joists are far enough apart to make it kinda painful to use em to support yourself up there.
After the kid’s swimming lessons on Saturday (in which Maria and I have to get in the water) we loaded everyone into the car and headed up to Sacramento for my brother in law’s birthday. As it is with every trip to Sacramento to see Rudy & Sharon, I feel like it’s great fun for everyone who visits, but more work for poor Sharon and Rudy. As usual the food was great and we all really enjoyed seeing them, but it was a bit of a haul to get up there and back in one day. The other good thing about this outing is that we got to visit my buddy Phil before heading home. Now we love seeing Phil, Jean and the family, and we try to get together with them whenever we can (which has not been very often unfortunately), but Phil has something that no one else does -a drum sander! Fifteen minutes at the drum sander and a bottle of nice beer later -the drawer fronts are done. There is now nothing stopping me from spraying the cabinets (just gotta get the laquer). It went from a complete loss of a work day to a very productive one. Thanks Phil!
Sunday was spent drilling holes, pulling wire, and rigging up a few boxes. It all went pretty smoothly. Everything is a new circuit, so there’s not much messing around. Just pull the wire and go. Now, next comes the lights, and I know it’s a mess up in the attic. So much so that though I’m pulling a new circuit for the lights, I can’t just ignore the rats nest of wires up there. Hopefully the temperature drops 10 degrees or so in the next couple days, because I’ll be spending some time in the attic pretty soon.
Posting a couple pictures of the wiring. Quite a bit of stuff for a teeny tiny kitchen!
Got a couple hookups to do for all the new circuits...
Lots of wires in that wall -hope the inspector likes it!
So the inspector showed up Wednesday morning. Apparently I didn’t do anything right. The advice I’d been given down at the city was… totally and completely not what this guy wanted to see. He’s saying that the vent pipe has to come out of the wall, into the cabinets and then back into the wall, so I don’t have to drill any holes in the studs for the plumbing. I have never seen this done, but he wasn’t budging on it. I was crushed…
So that evening I start mulling this all over in my head. There’s got to be another way! I’m going to have to shorten up two of my cabinets, cut drawers down by about 1/3, and get new, shorter drawer slides -the list just goes on and on. This will set me back weeks! So I put together my argument and head down to the city offices the next morning to plead my case. I pull out my docs and start in on all the reasons he’s gotta help me out on this. The last thing I do is pull out a Simpson brochure with something called a “stud-shoe” in it. It’s made specifically for applications like this. He says something to the effect that -that would work…
I can see now that this is going to be a tough job. I have an inspector that says I have to re-frame everything, and run plumbing outside a wall and cut into my cabinets, when all I needed was a $12 part… Grrrrr… However it didn’t go all bad. He was threatening me with having to pull off all the stucco on that corner of the house and requiring me to put up shear-wall. And he mentioned that he would have never passed the electrical panel that we did about a year or so ago, but he was willing to let it go for now. He also got on my case about calling him to do an inspection for only two things. He wants me to have everything that can physically be done before I call him in again -and here I can’t even get framing and plumbing signed off! If I’d done the electrical & lathe before talking to him, I’d be tearing a lot more stuff apart than what I currently have to do. I can see I’m in deep crap with this.
So I wanted to put off this post until I had the new Framing & plumbing done, but I haven’t quite had the time to totally finish it all up, but I got a started on the electrical in the mean time. Things are coming along. Hope to have the new window installed before the end of the weekend, even though Saturday is blown since we’re heading up to my brother in law’s restaurant for his birthday. However it looks like Saturday won’t be a total loss on the project. We plan on visiting our good friends Phil & Jean -who happen to have a drum sander! I’m boxing up the drawer fronts and bringing them along for the ride!
Here's that boot that saved me much pain and suffering...
The start of the electrical work...
Fixing & re-doing some of the existing electrical is gonna take some time...
At least it's a little warmer this week. It makes doing the dishes in the evening a little more pleasant...
The framing is done. The plumbing is done… At least in my opinion they’re done. Now I have to call in the inspector and see if “he” thinks I’m done. Dunno if I mentioned it, but we ordered a Milgard slider from the local Home Depot. The window should be coming in early next week. Once the window is in, I’ll be hiring my first contractor. I’m not doing stucco. It’s too much of an art to match the existing, and I’m not qualified. I’m stepping aside for a professional. For me, the next big job is the electrical. My previous homeowner, while I’m sure he had the best intentions, made a mess of the electrical above the kitchen. Just doing the expected upgrades is gonna take a while, but fixing the mess in the attic may double the amount of time I’m going to need to get this part of the project done.
Maria pulled the trigger on the tile. We went with 8″ travertine. Nice stuff. It’s all nicely stacked in the backyard at the moment (weighed a ton). Got it for a little over $3/foot. Not too bad for natural stone. I’m guessing it’s gonna look great when we get it in. I’ll post a picture of it next time. Cutting this one short. I’ll write more next week (if I have anything to write about that is).
I’ve included some pics of my handi-work. Brazing copper pipes is so satisfying…
No leaks after my first try baby!
...And no leaks after the second time too (this time I did it right).
