![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.ourwanderyears.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Bathroom-Outlet-Project-016.jpg\" "\\"Bathroom")
<\/a>The Gaping Hole<\/p><\/div>\n
The intent of the large hole was to provide better access to the base of the sewer pipe and make it easier to thread the conduit to the basement.\u00a0 Alas, what the hole revealed was that my assumption that the sewer dropped straight to the basement was tragically flawed: the sewer line actually went horizontal at the base of the wall and ran nearly 5 feet under the adjacent linen closet before dropping down.\u00a0 A belated measurement of the position of the pipe in the sewer confirmed this sad fact.\u00a0 There would be no straight drop of the electrical lines, with or without the plastic conduit.\u00a0 I was going to have to contend with a zig-zag.<\/p>\n
My measurements strongly suggested that the sewer pipe dropped to the basement below the hallway wall.\u00a0 So with yet another deep breath, I cut a hole in this wall, which I had just recently finished painting.\u00a0 It turned out to be some of the remaining old horsehair plaster – very fragile and unhappy at being assaulted by my hammer.\u00a0 My small hole soon became a spider web of cracked and crumbling plaster.\u00a0 Worse, the hole revealed no sewer pipe.\u00a0 Two holes and still no way to thread the wires.<\/p>\n
As they say in poker, I was now “pot committed” – I had invested too much to quit.\u00a0 The next option was to rip up the floor in the linen closet.\u00a0 This was new hardwood, installed just two years ago.\u00a0 Ripping it out was every bit as painful to me as it was to the wood.\u00a0 When I cut through the subflooring, the sub subflooring and the sub sub sub flooring – the floor in this case was over 3 inches thick – I realized that the hole was on the wrong side of a joist.\u00a0 So I cut a second hole and finally was able to see where the sewer line dropped down.\u00a0 Unfortunately it was indeed under the wall and not directly accessible.\u00a0 I thought, though, that if I could run the conduit up the shaft, I could reach over and grab it.<\/p>\n
<\/a>The Holes in the Linen Closet Floor<\/p><\/div>\n
Down to the basement.\u00a0 Time to ram that blue conduit upward and pray like hell that I didn’t encounter any obstructions.\u00a0 It wasn’t easy and even when I felt that I had pushed up enough conduit to reach the second floor, I did not see it appear under the linen closet floor.\u00a0 I was feeling sick, thinking that I would have to declare failure, suffer Jett’s disappointment and spend the rest of the weekend repairing holes that would forever mock me.\u00a0 But then, when all seemed lost, I spotted a tiny patch of blue between the water lines.\u00a0 The conduit!\u00a0 It wasn’t in a position to grab and further pushing did not yield any additional progress.\u00a0 But could I grab the wires if I fed them through?<\/p>\n
Back down to the basement. Find a scrap piece of electrical wire that I could use as a fish line.\u00a0 Run it up the conduit.\u00a0 And pray.<\/p>\n
Back to the linen closet.\u00a0 Hallelujah, Lord!\u00a0 The wire was there and with only a few scrapes from the rough hole, was able to reach in and grab it!<\/p>\n
Back to the basement.\u00a0 Rip open the two coils of wire.\u00a0 Try connecting them to the fish line using loops and electrical tape.\u00a0 Realize that the resulting knot is too large for the conduit.\u00a0 Cut off the loops.\u00a0 Tape one line to the fish line and the other line to the first line.<\/p>\n
Back to the linen closet.\u00a0 Pull, pull, pull.\u00a0 Feeling every bit as proud as a fisherman hauling a prize marlin from the sea, I really put my back into it and was finally rewarded with the beautiful sight of electrical tape popping out of the conduit.\u00a0 But the moment of joy turned to a moment of dread as the tape snapped and I was left holding a fish line with no fish.\u00a0 But the two wires were too tightly packed into the conduit to fall back, so I was able to reach in, grab the lines and complete the routing of the lines under the linen closet to the gaping bathroom wall hole.<\/p>\n
The rest of the job was fairly straightforward.\u00a0 I looked at the hole in the hallway wall as an opportunity.\u00a0 Hell, we needed another outlet in the hall, too, so when I wired the bathroom outlet I ran a line back under the linen closet floor and threaded it through to the hallway hole. I am still patching the wall, but we now have a second functioning outlet in the hall.<\/p>\n
<\/a>The Hallway Outlet<\/p><\/div>\n
The wiring of the bathroom outlet was a real bitch (just ask Jett who witnessed my cursing).\u00a0 I needed every inch of that 50 feet of 12 gauge wire.\u00a0 If I had cut even two more inches off when I chopped those fish line loops I would have had to patch the line.\u00a0 But I didn’t and was able to complete the job with no further trauma.<\/p>\n
Let me tell you, I felt damn good when I turned those two breakers on for the first time and nothing exploded.\u00a0 In fact, it all worked flawlessly – the unswitched 20 amp GFI outlet, the switched outlet, the new outlet in the hallway, the new outlet in the bedroom and the rewired old bathroom outlet and light, now being fed off a new 15 amp line.\u00a0 Lovely.<\/p>\n
<\/a>The Bathroom Outlet<\/p><\/div>\n
It is now Monday afternoon and I am waiting for the second coat of joint compound to dry so that I can sand and paint the patches.\u00a0 The hardwood floor has been reinstalled in the linen closet (I had some remaining scraps that were sufficient).\u00a0 I am fairly confident that I will be able to complete my half-day job within the three days of the weekend.<\/p>\n
It is a different kind of Christmas joy, but joy nonetheless.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It was a simple request and not the first time Jett had made it.\u00a0 This time it came at the start of the 3-day Christmas weekend, just after I announced my intention of making major progress on the conversion of the office into the new master bedroom.\u00a0 I acknowledged the value of the extra outlet … Continue reading