Electrical Walk-through

The contractor called this morning to ask if we could meet the electrician for a walk-through.

The electrician had read my plan and had it all marked out. He had emailed me back after all. I found it in the Spam folder.

Lighting and Electrical Choices >
My notes to the electrician >

The electrician had temporarily put up boxes and marked where everything was to go.

This really did help to visualize what we would be getting.

The island was drawn in on the floor to make it easy to see where the pendants will go.

We walked through every room. The outlets were nailed to the wall. The electrician marked on the wall any changes with a red marker.

You can see that the floor is FINALLY drying up.

They had a list of what is required tacked to the wall.

Code does not allow us to do exactly what we want. But the electrician was very easy to work with. He told me what I couldn’t do, but offered compromises.

Code calls for a switched light in every room and in the hallway. Even though it is an open floor plan, I have to have either a light in the ceiling or a switched outlet in the living room. The lights over the bar, recessed lights in the kitchen and chandelier in the dining area don’t count. I have to have a switched light at the door to the living room that is for the living room. Everyone tried to talk me into a ceiling fan with a light, but I am so tired of cleaning ceiling fans we never even turn on. I made it an outlet that I would never use.

I can’t take the lights out of my office and the hallway. But I can make them recessed lights and move them to a location that is more practical.

I can have the breaker box in the laundry room instead of our closet. That makes me happy. And we added and moved the other outlets that I care about.

I found out that the outlets shown on the plans have not basis in reality. Code calls for an outlet within six feet of a door, then every twelve feet after that. I can move the outlet that was going to end up behind the china cabinet, but I have to add an outlet if I want one that is not going to be behind the book shelves.

Cliff talked to the electrician about the other cable he wants to run in the house. We did not realize that some of that is included.

We will put the router and all that stuff in the top of the foyer closet. Cliff added an outlet there.

Because he thought he was running the cable, Cliff hadn’t really planned out where everything goes yet. He will come up with a plan and get back to the electrician with it.

I tried to talk the electrician into buying the lights we are replacing, but he was not at all interested. Want to buy some brushed nickel finished lighting?

By the time we got back with Cliff’s list, they were already running the power.

Their truck has everything they need in it.

Next: Finishing the Rough Electrical >