Two Thirds New

Travis and my main task of the weekend was to rewire the living room and dining room of the house. We have been "meaning" to finish this rewire for almost two years now. We were forced into replacing our breaker box the month we moved in when the main breaker split in half all on it's own. Soon after, we rewired the back half of the house and added smoke detectors (which made my dad feel much more comfortable).

Rewiring a house is a tedious process that is better accomplished with two electricians. Since Travis and I want to do this at the cheapest level possible, that means we are down to one electrician and one electrician's wife. Namely, me.

I have to say that this portion of the house came about with much less stress than when we finished the first half a couple years ago. I think I have a slightly better understanding of how the electrical works, making the instruction lesson less stressful for Travis. Plus, he may have a little more patience with me since I'm six months pregnant. A huge improvement this time over last is the addition of gutters to our house. It rained non-stop from Friday to Sunday and Travis says the under side of our house is just dry dirt! Last time he was under there it was a muddy lake. =(

At any rate, we made it through the weekend without killing each other. If anything, I think I was able to lift the spirits with my lunacy. Have you ever heard that the definition of insanity is when someone repeats the same thing over and over again expecting different results? Travis and I were very much doing that at one point when Travis was trying to push wire down from the attic, while I stood in the living room waiting for it to show up at the switch. It was obviously hitting a board, so he sent me out to the work van to get some fishing wire to push up towards the attic. We were hoping that would be easier. I think we spent a full minute both hitting either side of that board in the wall before I started laughing hysterically. Travis was all pissed off laying in the middle of insulation in our attic and I couldn't help it. At least it lightened the mood!

We started the rewire Saturday afternoon when Travis got out of work early. We didn't want to get too involved that day, so Travis just pulled out all the old boxes and cut the holes for the recessed can lights. Callaway was a trooper and helped us out a bunch.

He brought us wire when we needed it...

And electrical tape...

The whole time I was walking around from plug to plug to switch, waiting to receive the wire, Callaway was by my side. I think he was a little freaked out about all the sounds come from the attic and under the house. After squatting by one plug, I decided my legs wouldn't be able to hold out all day long. I pulled that gigantic birthing ball around with me the whole time so I wouldn't have to get up off the floor by myself. Still, by the end of the day, my lower back and legs were tired and achy. I think that might be the most use my birthing ball has gotten yet!

So, the finished product... We have two new outlets in the living room - meaning it will be easier to vacuum or charge a random cell phone. We have two new 4-inch wall wash can lights with directional spot lights to high light our art in the dining room. And we have four new 6-inch can lights in the living room. All but the fan light in the living room are now on a dimmer and I swear you can turn every light off from each of the three switch boxes. There are three-way and four-way switches galore! We went from having four switches in those two rooms (one of which didn't do anything) to TEN switches! LOL! It's going to take some getting used to.

Dining room lighting

Living room lighting

We plan to wait a couple weekends (since next weekend is Blair's first birthday party!) to do the next section of the house. It should take us two more weekends to finish. Then MAYBE Travis will close off one of the doors in our office and build a closet to make it into a bedroom. It would be nice to finish all this before the baby comes. Let the countdown begin!