So I’ve been plugging away. Nothing to show that would impress anyone, just going around and finishing up stuff here and there. Wire staples, grounding a metal box or two, yanking the kitchen window and re-installing it (well that last thing wasn’t “that” little). Yeah, they don’t make windows like they used to. Back in the old days you just slipped a couple shims around the window and you were good to go. Well this window was actually sagging between my shims. I took a look at the manufacturers installation guide and low and behold! This window requires you to shim the sill! Probably you all knew this, but I had no idea. Actually I think it actually is a pretty good idea, and the installation was actually easier than it was the first time. I learn something new every day!
I spent the evening tonight tidying up the kitchen area. Moving tools out. Using the shop vac, that kinda stuff. I’m starting to think that maybe I’ll call for an inspection this week. I haven’t got the lath done on the outside yet, but what the heck! It’ll still be for framing, plumbing, rough electrical, gas, and mechanical -not a bad checklist to throw at inspector Craig. I’m not thinking he’ll pass all my stuff -just on the principle of it. He’s gonna have to nail me for something, but I’m hoping that it’ll be something trivial and that I can get moving on the next phases and have something to show you guys in the coming weeks.
This is what you get when you do your own hood vent duct work! I only had to go 36" and endedup with 5 sections!
Installed! Notice the extra strapping. I'm hoping that it will hold the roof on the house in the event of a hurricane!
Everything is run. Gotta wire it all up when it passes inspection...
Now here’s the problem…
Nine lights! Why is it so dark in here?
So we have nine four inch fluorescent cans in the kitchen… And amazingly there’s not enough light in there! How can anyone make a light where nine of them in an 11′ by 11′ kitchen can’t even light it to the point where someone could “let it pass”? It’s just plain dark in there. We’ve decided to start replacing them with 6″ cans. We’ll do the row down the center of the kitchen first (3 of them). If it doesn’t look too funky, and there’s enough light, we’ll be good to go. If it looks strange or there isn’t enough light, then… Well we’ll just cross that bridge when we get there!
I’ve started the mechanical too. I’ll get a picture of the hood vent pipes once they’re secured in place. Hopefully that will get wrapped up this coming weekend. That, along with replacing the lights, should keep me busy enough this weekend. I’ve been having some problems with my neck, and the doc says I need to take it easy, and see if things get better. I’m pretty motivated to listen to her advice, because if things don’t get better, it sounds like she’ll want to fuse two of my vertebrae together. So I’ll be taking it easy over the next weeks (as if it wasn’t moving along slow enough already).
So after three plus months -I’m done with the electrical. Now that’s over two months longer than I expected, but I was laid up for almost a month and a half, and cleaning up the previous owner’s “creative” wiring took way longer than I had ever expected, but unless the inspector finds something -It’s done. The kitchen now has about five times as many electrical boxes as it did before all this. The patio outlets & lights have all been re-run & properly grounded, and the garage wiring has been “fixed” for the most part -I’ve reclaimed the 220v circuit that the previous owner had used to power outlets & lights throughout the garage. Everything outside the kitchen is buttoned up and ready to go. All the stuff in the kitchen is wired-up and ready for inspection. I’m not sure if the nine 4″ cans are putting out enough light at the moment. I may end up adding some “supplemental” lighting later, but not right now.
Unfortunately just because I’m done with the electrical, doesn’t mean I’m done in the attic. I still have to replace some 1×4’s that were used as sheetrock nailers. Not looking forward to it, but ya gotta do what you gotta do. Will also be venturing under the house to re-do some of the gas line, but that shouldn’t take too long. I hope that’s the case, because where I’ll be working -there isn’t much space. Also will get on the mechanical. Unless I’m missing something, that should be cake -once I figure out what I need to do. How hard can running some 6″ sheetmetal vent pipes be?
So I spent the weekend in the attic. It was a realllly long weekend! However I did get all the wires run. Everything is in place and stapled down. Doesn’t sound like a lot, but when you’re laying on pieces of wood to keep you from falling through the ceiling for hours on end drilling holes, hammering staples, and crawling from place to place with about a foot of headroom to work with… It’s a lot.
Anyways, today I finished up the two main switch boxes for the kitchen. One three gang (cans, pendant light over the sink, and the under cabinet lights), and one two gang (second switches for the cans and the pendant). I went out back and wired the lighting circuit into the service panel and got ready to throw the breaker. Sweat trickled down my face as my finger pushed on the switch. Click went the breaker, signaling it had completed the circuit and electrified the miles of wiring I had installed. I waited a second or two. It didn’t trip! First test passed! However looking in the window I could see the kitchen lights weren’t on… Hmmm. I had a 50/50 chance they were just off, but I was a little nervous. I walked around into the kitchen and threw one of the switches without hesitating. The lights came on! Not too shabby for an amateur! A couple tests later and I’m satisfied the three way switches for that bank of lights are good to go!
LIGHT!
So I’m not done in the attic, though I’ll probably avoid it this weekend because I’m thinking the temps will be in the 90’s in the coming days. It’ll be a blast furnace up there. I’ll try to keep myself busy down in the kitchen and crawlspace over the next couple days -shouldn’t be too hard.
This is a big milestone for me. The whole neck thing set me back so far, I couldn’t even imaging getting to this point a couple weeks ago. One small step mankind, a giant leap for me!
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.
