I spent the last month wiring lights and pulling cable for outlets. The first project was to put the can lights in place. I wired them together on a 15 amp circuit using 14/2 WG cable. That circuit also has lights for over the bar and will have lights for the hall (likely the last bit of wiring I will do). We have surrounded the rec room with outlets on two 20 amp circuits (12/2 WG). There is also a specific circuit for the future plasma screen TV (15 amp 14/2 WG ) over the fireplace, and two additional 20 amp circuits for the wall common between the rec room and the laundry room. (Your usual narrator has quite a thing for large fish tanks, and I am just planning ahead for a project set for my future.).
We added a two outlet 20 amp (12/2 WG) circuit to the kitchen to provide power to a counter without outlets. The fish tape was an essential item for this work. The insulation we had put into the walls two years ago kept falling out of the hole I had to make in the wall for the switches. Once I had the cable in place, I stuffed as much of the insulation back into the wall as I could and after sweeping up what we could, our new central vacuum took care of the rest. I had to run some plastic conduit for these lights and was very happy when they worked.
I also added two electrical outlets that can be switched on and off by a switch in the front of the house. (Again planning ahead for a future front lighting project your usual narrator is planning.)
I added lights on the walls over the stairs to the basement. It is nice to be able to see the stairs. While I was working on the stairs lights, a bright blue spark illuminated my project. I thought I had wired the 3-way switches incorrectly, but later determined either the cable was faulty or the insulation on one of the live wires was stripped accidentally. The 3-way switches would not work correctly, even though I had set them up correctly. (Hours of looking at the circuit to make sure.) I finally saw that the spark had burned through the cable entirely. I replaced the cable and everything works fine now. (No sparks either.) There was quite a bit of electrical work to get the old circuits divided up so nothing was being overloaded. (I moved the downstairs bathroom to its own circuit, the washer to its own circuit, workroom lights to its own circuit.)
With the new lights for the rec room hooked up, I could remove the basement lights from the upstairs bedroom and hooked the laundry lights to a switch. (Up to now, the light bulb in the laundry light had to be screwed in tight to turn on and screwed loose to turn it off. I thought I would fix it more quickly — 2 years to get this one done.) I also hooked up a florescent light for the utility room.
With the electrical nearly finished, and completely finished in the rec room, I could begin to insulate. This happened as quickly as I had hoped. (The electrical was much slower and more expensive than planned. I just didn’t realize the price of copper was so high.) Quickly the rec room was insulated. With that completed I needed to buy some more lumber for the outside half walls for the laundry room and work room.
Saturday, January 27, 2007, began early, I bought the lumber I needed (9-8′ 2/4s & 3-10′ 2/4s and 3-8′ 2/2s) I was able to fit them into the Saab and only have the 10 footers hang out the back. My first task was framing the laundry room. Once that was done, I had to put in the last of the 20 amp circuits I spoke of above for the fish tank. This, of course, took longer than I expected it to. After that, the insulation went in very quickly. I was able to quickly frame the outside wall for the work room, and because it did not have any electrical work to do, I was able to quickly anchor it and insulate it after dinner.
We seem to have a lot more insulation than needed to finish the remaining outside walls of the house; I am considering insulating the laundry room ceiling and interior walls, all the way around for sound, as well as the rec room ceiling. (I have to be careful to keep the can lights well away from the insulation.)
Below is my task list and plan:
-
- Frame soffits.
- Install can lights in hall and install 3-way switches.
- Install upstairs bathroom circuit.
- Insulate ceiling in laundry and rec room.
- Final framing. Doorways & vent for utility room.
- Drywall the rec room, laundry and workroom.
- Tear out bedroom walls.
- Bedroom outlets and lights.
- Insulate bedrooms.
- Drywall bedrooms.
This entry was posted on Sunday, January 28th, 2007 at 8:17pm
and is filed under projects.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
