My friend Bob and I start roughing in the wiring
September 12, 1996
We started the rough-in wiring in the great room. In the photo above we are running wiring to the sconce lights on either side of the fireplace. I had a professional electrician install the service panel but Margaret and I intend to do the rest of the wiring ourselves. After seeing Margaret install an ceiling box our electrician told her that his company was always looking to hire women electricians. As I started wiring I realized that all my heavy duty appliance were on the opposite end of the house from the service panel. It just didn't make sense to run heavy wiring accross the house so I called back my electrician to have him help me install a 100amp sub-panel at the other end of the house. We used used 2 gauge 100amp romex wire to connect the two service panels and let me tell you that was a thick wire!
Wiring can be a lot of fun as long as you have a good electrical plan and some good balance :). I had a friend of mine draw up wiring schematics for me so I had a good plan laid out before installing a single wire. One of the most helpful things I found with was to do pretend walkthroughs of the house when it was framed. Then paint scenarios for yourself for example its late at night and you come home with a loda of groceries through the garage door, or the kids wake up and go to the bathroom, or your going to bed and the hall lights are still on. Do all your switches and light locations work with these scenarios? Its also helpfull to go out in the evenings and hang a bare bulb from a wire at various locations to simulate ceiling lights and chandeliers.
I strongly recommend you get a couple of 500 watt halogen work lights. These will be indespensible for late night work and can double as living lights if you move into an incompleted home.
