I’m just going to start calling the new project house in Pikesville “Pikesville”.  It makes for shorter post headings.
 
Last time we checked in over at Pikesville, I was just showing off some early demo pictures.  After doing nothing for just short of a month, we’ve had a busy couple of weeks over there.  I’ve been working longer days at the office so that I can get an extra day off each week and spend it trying to accomplish things there.  My big focus this week was roughing in the electrical for the kitchen and the utility room; the two rooms I gutted earlier. 

Before we get into the tangled web of wire, I'll jump in with a disclaimer/warning.  I’m not a licensed electrician.  I spent a number of years of my time in the Navy doing a lot of very dangerous electrical work on large scale systems, and received training and certification to do those things.  So, while I’m not fully up to speed on all the in’s and out’s of the residential electric code, I do keep abreast of it as much as I can.   And I will have a licensed electrician take a look at my work before I put up the sheetrock.

One of the first things I did was go around and mark the points where power came into the kitchen from the panel.  To do this, I used a no contact voltage tester, like this one.

These things are pretty great.  I had to buy a new one, though, because my last one started turning off sporadically, and through a series of unfortunate coincidences, I ended up with a blown breaker and a nervous twitch.  Use rubber-handled tools.
Now that I knew where power came into the kitchen, I used a marker and some tape and labeled the hot end of the cable with the circuit number that it corresponded to.  During this process, I went to use the bathroom and found that it was without power.  This wasn't too surprising, considering the age of the house.  I decided to pull the kitchen and utility room out of the existing circuits in the house.  To do that, I  needed to add some junction boxes on either end of the kitchen and run some new wire through the kitchen ceiling from box to box.  Here’s the one I put in on the far end.

When I ripped down the old sheetrock on this wall, I found that the contractor who had renovated the bathroom 5yrs ago had buried a box.  See that black metal strap crossing over a patch in the wall?  That’s where it was.  This is a big no-no.  Don’t bury boxes.  I decided to put the new junction box where I did so that I could remove that buried box at the same time.  So this new box contains the power feed for the bathroom, which used to power half the outlets in the kitchen AND the bathroom. 

Here’s the junction box on the entrance half of the kitchen.

Kind of a crappy picture.  It was a crappy job, too.  The box was already in place, so I had to keep using it.  This picture was taken from the kitchen looking up into the rafters.  In order to work on this box, I had to crawl along the eves of the house, accessed from upstairs.  It was cramped and uncomfortable.  If you’ve ever done something like this, the first question you are probably asking is “how many times did you have to get out and back in?”  Well, I forgot a tool I needed twice, and I dropped a tool once.  I also wanted to be really sure I had the right hot wire to feed the bathroom with, so I got out and triple-checked that.  So 4 times crawling in and out.  [sigh]. 

Now that I had isolated the kitchen from the rest of the house’s power, I pulled out all the old outlets and wire runs.  It’s a nice moment when you look into the room and have a clean slate to start on.  But slates aren't meant to stay clean, so I went around and put in the new boxes for the receptacles and switches that will be going in.  This takes a lot of foresight.  You need boxes at certain heights for certain things (like a microwave/range hood, oven, etc), so you have to know where your cabinets and appliances are going to be.  This is one of those times where I stand there staring at things for a long time, thinking and rethinking to make sure I get all the details right.  I’m sure I’ll forget something, but at least it won’t be a serious thing. 

Once all the boxes were in, I ran the cable to each box and switch.  Nothing is hot at this point; I’m just setting up the cable runs.  This requires a paddle bit and a strong drill to put holes through the studs.  Next up is the can lights.  I used the same cans I used when I did my own kitchen lights almost two years ago(!!) with my dad. 

That’s me 30lbs heavier and with (sadly) noticeably darker hair.  Come on, now.  I’m too young to be saying that. 

Quick aside: if you ever EVER gut a room, take pictures of the walls!  There will come a day when you need to know where a wire comes from/goes to, and you will be thankful you have those pictures.

These can lights are crazy-easy to install and hook up.  They have nice and easy push-in connectors in them, and they come with nails and adjustable rails to fit nice and snug between the ceiling joists.  Once they were in, I was pretty much done with the basic rough-in.  The outlets above the countertop are all 20-amp, per code.  The microwave/range hood has it’s own 20-amp feed, and the lights, dishwasher, and garbage disposal have a 15-amp feed.  I ran these to the breaker panel and tried to put in my new breakers, but they didn’t fit.  

My thumb is covering most of it, but there is a notch in this breaker.  Old Cutler-Hammer panels have this dumb rejection bar to prevent you from using breakers that don’t have this notch.  They don’t make breakers like this anymore, though.  [sigh]. Cutler-Hammer recommends removing the rejection bar, which is held in with one-way screws and requires taking out the main breaker to get to.  I haven’t done that, yet.  In the mean time, I’ve..ahem.. borrowed some non-essential circuits (no more outside lighting or upstairs outlets) in order to get my lights working.

Hooray!  I love this part.  New lights are so crisp and change the whole feel of a project when it’s been so dark and depressing for so long.  It’s the first new thing.  In that picture, you can see some of the other new stuff.. the two white(14/2) leads under the window are the dishwasher and disposal.. the white line going into the box to the right of the window is for the switch for the disposal.  That circle thing is an old vent!  It will be coming out soon.

Now that I had most of the rough-in done for the kitchen, it was on to the utility room.

There’s going to be base cabinets and counter top along this back wall of the utility room, so I’ve got some countertop-depth outlets in for that.  The lighting in here is also can lights, but the ceiling isn’t deep enough for normal cans.  Instead I got these new LED lights.

These things are pretty sweet.  They can be used for retrofitting; they’ll fit right inside an existing can light.  You can also put them in a standard J-box (a round 4” ceiling box), either new-work or old-work.  I put 4 new-work boxes in the ceiling and put one of these lights on each one.  Super bright and crisp!



What a mess!  That new framing, there, is because we are vaulting the ceiling.  The utility room was an addition, so you can see the old roof right there.  Neat, huh.

That’s it for now.  This week I’m meeting with the electrician to review my work, and also to get him to help me remove the restriction bar in this box (link is where I learned about what to do) so that I can add the new circuits I need.

So.. anything I might be missing?  Any electrical stories of your own?  Let me know below!  I’ve got a new comment system and I’m anxious to see how it goes over.

PS.. If you’re waiting for the reveal of the flooring project, I’m still working on that.  I’ve been trying to get some particular pictures to show my mistakes, but it’s always dark when I try to get them.  Stupid short days of winter!

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A while ago, I was at our old house preparing it for some new renters.  I had the large house fan on, and it started clicking.  Obnoxiously.  I knew the soon-to-be tenants would probably say something about it, so I needed to fix it; might as well do it right away.  So I climbed up and precariously perched myself on the banister and started taking it all apart.

 

 

Here I’ve got the blades off.  They come off very easily.. just a couple of rubber-lined large-headed screws per blade. 

 

 

 

With the blades removed, I took off the face plate and then the glass cover.  Still no sign of anything broken.  At this point I’m starting to scratch my head a bit.

 

 

So I took every last part of this thing apart.  And guess what I found.

 

 

Stinkbug.  A stupid faced stupid Stink Bug.  Ugh.  These things get everywhere!!  Apparently it had died, got all hard and dried-up, and stuck it’s dead-self in just the right spot to go click-click-click-click as the fan spun.  Awesome.

 

I don’t know how they’re getting in, either, man.  I feel your pain.  We need a support group.

 

After that ridiculous unplanned and unwanted project, I needed this.

 

 

I’ve been on this quest since our trip to Ireland in May to find a place that can serve and correctly pour the perfect pint of Guinness.  So far.. meh.  I’ll keep you posted.

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I don’t really like to curse.  I can usually avoid it.  Today was not one of those days.  I hate hate hate replacing old 3-way switches.  It took me 2 hours to figure out how to do it right.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m no dummy, but the fact that the “hot” wire can also be the wire that signals the other switch is still very confusing to me.  I reread what I just wrote and it still doesn’t make sense.  The blue diagram actually helped me figure it out, and after 37 trips up and down the steps to go flip the breaker, I finally got it installed.  Two hours later.  [sigh].

 

So here’s some shots of the installed outlets, switches, and covers.

 

 

 

You might notice the messed up paint under the one switch.  This, people, is why you never:

1. Put wallpaper over a switch
2. Paint over the wallpaper

 

I have my previous owners to thank for that one.  Oh well, more painting to do.

 

Now that I’ve wrapped up these loose ends, it’s on to new projects!  Stay tuned.

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We’ve had our eye out for some nice pendant lights for the kitchen island for almost a year, now.  The thrifty dutch blood won't allow me to spend big money on something that is such a simple thing.  Light fixtures are not complicated!

We’ve seen some that we’ve liked in stores, but not exactly what we were looking for.  I found some online that I liked, but they were hundreds of dollars.  To help achieve the rustic themed kitchen we are going for, we want lanterns. 

I found this one online here and really liked it, but the cost barrier rises up and slaps me in the face.  So, I decided to make some.

I was at Lowes a few days ago, and saw these on sale for about 15 bucks.

  


Perfect?  No.  But they’ll do.    I disassembled one to see what I had to work with, here.



That metal rectangle is the back plate; the remaining 3 sides are glass.  The arms on the lantern come off, also.  This looked like it could work.  First, I needed to rewire the socket so the wires came out the top of the lantern instead of the side. 

  

Looking inside the socket, there are 2 screws holding on the metal flange on the back.  I removed them, took off the flange, passed the wires through the 1/8th inch threaded thing that I don’t know the name of but there’s a picture of it below, and reassembled.





I then reassembled the light, leaving out the metal back-panel.  Here’s how it looked at that point. 



I then realized that the provided wiring wasn’t going to work, because my wiring was going to be visible and wrapped around a chain, so I took it back apart and rewired it with some lamp cord, which is readily available at any home improvement store.  I also drilled a hole through the loop top piece with my hammer drill.  Here’s how it looked after the rewire and putting the loop piece back on.



Be sure to keep track of which side of the lamp cord is hot.  I did this by trimming the hot side so that when I went to wire it into the ceiling, hot would be a little shorter.
Next up was the ceiling plate.  I was able to use the wall-mounting portion of the light itself that I removed earlier.  This part is pretty self-explanatory, but here’s a couple pictures.

 

After that, I wrapped the cord through a length of black chain and proudly showed my work to the wife.  She didn’t like the chain.  So, back to the store I went and wandered around aimlessly looking for inspiration for about an hour before settling on something.  I bought a couple 3ft sections of 1/4in copper tubing, like what would be used for small plumbing jobs.  I also bought some compression fittings that would allow me to go from the copper to the 1/8in threaded nipple doo-dad pictured earlier.  The 1/4in copper needs a 3/8in compression fitting.  I bought four 3/8in by 1/4in ones; one for each end of each tube.  I also bought two 1/4in by 1/8in bushings that are needed to allow the socket inside the lamp to thread into the copper.
Since everything is hollow, I can now pass the lamp cord right through the middle of them.  Here’s how attempt number 1 looked.



Getting closer.  When I made the second one, I was able to reduce the visibility of some of the brass by hiding it inside the fixture.  I went back and did the same to the first one. Here’s how the both of them look right now.



Pay no attention to the still-unfinished range hood back there.

I ended up buying another set of the lights because I wanted some spare parts and I needed some of the glass inserts to fill in the 4th side of these ones (remember that they were actually wall-mounted lights to start, so only 3 sides had glass).  Even after buying a second set of lights, the whole project still came in under 50 bucks.  Not too shabby for some decent-looking pendant lights.

So if you've got the parts, everything is disassembled, and you've rewired your socket, here's the assembly steps:

1. Widen the holes in the top of the lantern and the wall (now ceiling) plate to accept a 3/8in nipple.
2. Thread the bushing into the compression fitting, then put the threaded part of the fitting through the lantern top.  Insert the copper into the compression fitting, and thread onto what should be sticking out the top of the lantern.  Make this as tight as possible.  A vice helps out here.
3. Do the same thing to the mounting side, now, but minus the bushing (it's not needed here).
4. You should now have your pendant sans light socket.  Feed the wire into the opening in the bushing in the inside of the lantern until it pops out of the ceiling plate.  Pull the rest through, and then thread the socket into the bushing.
5. Reassemble the rest of the lantern, insert glass, etc, and you're good to go.

I’m planning on buying some kind of spray product to smoke the glass with, as they don’t offer much spot-lighting as they are now.  I’ll post some shots after I do that.


So how about it?  Any opinions on how they turned out?

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Disclaimer: I did this project before I started this blog, so I don’t have any in-progress pictures.  Sorry!  To make it even worse, I had 3 hours of commuting today, so prepare for a humorless lecture on how to do something with no pictures provided.  And you’re still reading?

No, I’m not done ranting about this commute thing.  Why are there bus stops every 25 feet?  I’m barely exaggerating.  I was behind a bus that was picking up kids standing in their own driveways!  No wonder they’re all so fat.  Also, the left lane is the passing lane, people!  My wife told me once that she was never told that in Drivers Ed.  What?  Seriously, Maryland? 

Ok, ok, enough.

If you were to view my browser’s history, you’d learn pretty quickly that I
have a soft spot for tech.  Some of the sites I check daily include Lifehacker and Engadget.  I’ve been building computers since I was a kid; it’s always something I’ve enjoyed.  Ok, stop viewing my history.  Stalker.

With that in mind, I present a series of posts on our Entertainment Center.  It’s another in a long list of unfinished projects, but at least this one is really close.

Up first is the TV.


It’s a Sony Bravia 52” LCD.  The story of how I ended up getting this is long, involves a Mac Pro, and isn’t worth repeating in its entirety.  Suffice it to say that I’m quite pleased with it.  I got it on Amazon, and it included free shipping... the price was good. 

Other supplies needed here included:

• A 40ft HDMI cable.  Do NOT overspend on this thing, but if you are going for length, make sure you get one that meets the current standard; which I believe is 1.3C.
• A wall mount.  They also make ones that pull out and swivel, but for my purposes, stationary was just fine.
• A wall plate/outlet cover that has a cable pass through.  I got mine at Home Depot. 

If you don’t already have an outlet high on the wall behind where you will mount the TV, you’ll have to put one there.  This is actually a pretty easy job.  I had an outlet at ground level right below where the TV would be.  First, I put a hole in the wall at the correct height.  Then, I turned off the power to the outlet below where the TV would be and took it out.  I used a fish tape to run two new pieces of Romex from the hole in the wall down to the outlet box.  Make sure you get the right kind of electrical cable.  For a 15 amp circuit, get some 14-2, and for a 20 amp circuit, get 12-2.  While you can technically use 12-2 on a 15 amp circuit, you probably shouldn’t.

Why two cables?  Because you have to put the outlet in the daisy-chain that is the circuit, so you need one to bring power up to the outlet, and another to bring it back down to the box.  Once the cable was spliced into the circuit correctly, I went into the basement and bored a 1 inch hole through the base of the wall into the wall cavity I had just added an outlet into.  I was then able to run speaker wire and HDMI cable through the basement ceiling over the to the Media Closet, which I’ll cover in a later post.  If you will be leaving your Cable Box, etc, in the front of the room, you won’t need to worry about this step.

Time to mount the TV!  Using a stud sensor or the time-tested “knocking on the wall” technique, find the studs you will be mounting to and mark them.  Follow the directions from the wall mount to correctly install it, making sure it’s level.  If your instructions include words like “wall anchors”, ignore them.  You don’t want your nice new TV hanging by plastic anchors in drywall.  You need to hit studs.  Once my TV was mounted, I plugged it in and ran my long HDMI cable to the ground and hooked up a Cable Box.  This was temporary until I could get the Media Closet set up.. which you’ll read about in my next post! 

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These things are stupid expensive because they are sold in two parts.  I was quite annoyed.  I think Dad and I argued about where to place the lights for about 2 hours total.  He had some good insight about placing them where they are the most functional.  If you know my Dad, this is not surprising to you.  I wanted them in nice straight lines and symmetrically placed.  We ended up with a bit of both, I think.

That box there is for the future pendulum light above the island

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