The Wiring Is Done

Since July, we've been wiring the house. Now after 6 months its done!

Rob actually began work on planning the wiring back in June. We had Jim Ashjian from Jim Ashjian Lighting come out and walk through the house with us. He helped us decide on what type of lights to wire for and where to place them. He also helped us work out where ceiling fans will go. As we went through the house he drew out diagrams for what to do in each room. His expertise helped us figure out how we could use can lights for the kitchen instead of pendants that would cut the view and be more expensive. He also told us we could get small enough ceiling fans for the master bath and for my closet vanity area. In the photo, Rob is going over Jim's drawings and the lighting plans.

About mid July we made the first trip to Home Depot to buy electrical boxes and wire. Rob started putting in the boxes and got a couple weeks of help with the wiring from two guys who work for our builder's electrical contractor. But there are a lot of light fixture and boxes in the house. The photo at left show's Rob installing one of the can lights for the kitchen. To do this he had to purchase a 17 foot ladder so he could reach the ceiling to nail in and wire the light cans.

Rob worked for several months, weekends and vacation days to get all the electrical wiring, boxes, fixtures and panels installed. We've got far more switches and outlets than most houses. And we've been able to insure the placement and functionality that meets our needs. for sure everything has been thought out. I'm sure that when we live in the house there will be some things we discover would be better done a different way, but we've done all we could to plan this as thoroughly as possible.

Near the end of November Rob had just about finished the electrical, which passed inspection,and then started on the low voltage wiring.This was for the home automation system, which includes audio, video, computer network and alarm. The lengthy time for electrical was costing us in monthly interest charges and delays to construction so in mid-December he took a leave of absence and worked for 5 weeks to get the low-voltage in. With the help of friends Steve and Clark, his sister and her husband Dave and me, we got thousands of feet of wires pulled. In the photo at right, Kathy and Dave pull speaker wire in one of the bedrooms (aka Rob's office).

All of the low-voltage wires terminate in a control center under the stairway. As you can see in the photo at left there was a mass of wires and they nearly ran amock! This past week Rob finished up organizing the wires in the command center box under the stairs. Just as the sheet rockers were about to cover up the wall and his wires!