A little bit of everything this week...

Ive done just about a little bit of everything you can think of to help move forward. STILL A LOT TO DO!!! When you think your close, youre not! It is what it is and I just have to keep positive and keep pressing on as I have been. Its taking a lot of patience...something people think Im good at, but not really when it comes to my stuff. Well...I have no choice.

Its been a few days since I put anything up and likely because Ive been busy, sleepy or lazy. Heres a quick run down of whats gone down the last few days - by myself and contractors.

- Started pulling New Network and Coax cable for the house. Though wireless is nice, its always nice to have hardwired connections when it comes to streaming stuff right....

- Selected and purchased Network Panel (this thing will be an in-wall unit that houses ALL Multimedia stuff in the house - Cable TV, Internet Gateway, Network Storage, Telephony, etc...all in one spot.

- Replaced and installed new Furnace (this revealed more work needed once the old stuff was removed...of course). New Thermostat installed - YES! 

- New Vents in the Kitchen and Dining Room have been run, but its ugly at the moment because what they are hiding under (cabinets) are not installed yet. Its hard running new vents in an old house. Clearly didnt have a lot of options, but we made it work. Some vents were relocated to help with efficiency and and/or because an area didnt have a vent (i.e. Kitchen). 

- Gas line finalized - though pipes were replaced, we were waiting for an earthquake valve to allow immediate automatic shut off in the event of an Earth Shake.

- Critter proofing ANY possible access points - I mean ALL!!!!! Dont want unwanted visitors - after all, its an old house and Im making sure that this doesnt happen EVER! 

- More electrical, should be done with main areas by end of next week. 

With that said, here are some pictures that will sort of recap some of the work. Clearly pictures are unfinished work and were snapped during work being done, but Ill snap some soon of finished items as they complete. 

CAT6 Cables - pulling new lines in the walls for the garage and throughout the house. You will not have a hard time finding connectivity here! 

Some of the lines dropping into the backside of where they will go into the Network Enclosure. Its being done much like a business - but BETTER...when Im done.

New Phone line feed from the box outside. Using CAT6 for this too and it will go directly to the Network Panel. Im making it too easy for installers when they turn on my services here. No need to test and guess, Ill have done that for them and all they need to do is call the Central Office (CO) to turn the line on.

This is the Cable line from the street - normal access is outside of a house, but I have moved it into the garage to make it easy for Comcast or whoever to do their install. This line will feed directly to my Network Panel.

Was messing around with centering the TV mount. This room is getting a new closet, so I taped it to spec to get an idea of how to center the recessed electrical and cables for the TV. Needs to be perfect. Blue tape is clearly where the new closet for this room will be - framing will be done soon.

OLD Furnace - REMOVED and GONE FOREVER. That thing was OLD SCHOOL - and loud.

While the walls are open, Ive been looking for any possible entry points animals might attempt to go in. Found this opening in the bathroom and customized some aluminum sheets to seal the opening. Though this area will be behind drywall, Im sealing any points of entry. If you removed this plate, you would see the floor leading to the yard - NOT GOOD. 

More critter proofing. Since we have moved some plumbing, it exposed some 2-3 inch holes in the wood studs.  Anything I find similar to this (even behind what will be sealed walls, I am still blocking it off. When I say mean NO ENTRY, I mean it! 

Suspended brackets for the new furnace. We are relocating from its original location in the basement to the crawl space under the house. No need for anyone to see it - plus, I freed up some room in the basement. Thats partially part of my man cave.

My new Nest Thermostat - bottom was the old location - wall patching needed obviously.

Thermostat during testing - this thing turns Red for Heating, Blue for Cooling, and the screen only turns on when you walk by it. Other than that, it blacks out the screen. The silver around the edges is how you adjust temperature - its like a dial. Same engineers that developed the Apple iPod, so it shares some of that. Thermostat is also accessible via Internet, so I can adjust the temp of my house from my iPhone, iPad or online at any time (when I have Internet at the house). It knows the climate in the ZIP code and also learns as you start adjusting temps everyday. The auto learn can be disabled, but thought it was cool. I think this is one Thermostat that I will actually know how to program - all others are a pain in the @ss..... 

New Furnace during the install - this thing is ultra efficient and super quiet. Its basically hanging from our floor joists and is actually very solid. No need to work on this thing for a long time. Everything is automatic - no pilot burner...so it doesnt go out.

Gas has been connected and all new lines are in place. The red box is the Earthquake Valve required on all new remodels and new homes. That device cuts all gas to the home when there is an earthquake by itself. The main gas thing was fine, so we didnt need to replace it. I think Ill spray it grey to make it look newer at least.

Quick Status for this week...

Nothing major to update midweek, however we are making progress on other lighting that is needed elsewhere throughout the house (Exterior Lights, Interior Lights, etc). Quite a few decisions have been made and many more to come in just this week alone. Its starting to get challenging, but I guess thats always fun to me (or stressful).

Ive been struggling with a stupid headache the last couple days...not sure what it is or if its just me creating it by thinking I have one. Its slightly uncomfortable though...anyhow...

Some items that have happened and are happening this week:

- Met with custom window builder to quote replacing our two front windows. We did not originally want to get them replaced, but we decided to get pricing since we have been told it would be quite expensive, however we dont know what "quite expensive" actually means. So..waiting for that quote to arrive - Im guessing it will be, but if it comes in less than expected, then heck...we'll order them.

- Finalized my Multimedia plates for each room - thats progress. Let me tell you...its hard to decide what will be obsolete in the coming years, but I made the decision to go with strictly HDMI in the bedrooms and went with the whole shabang for the Living Room - even with obsolete connector types. I know Ill never use it, but WHAT IF a day comes where you need it. Might as well be prepared.

- Lighting I ordered a few days ago started to arrive. Electricians will get them wired up in the coming week.

- Started to play with lighting location in the living room - we are keeping some character of the house, so sconces will remain, but we will relocate them and will replace the lights themselves. I started to measure out where we should have them and just send measurements and estimates of placement to the wife to decide.

- Multimedia stuff started to roll in. In particular my recessed wall outlet things. This is useful in starting to plan out placement of these boxes. Not that it matters because its behind the TV on the wall...but still need to measure out cables lengths etc. I started to cut the walls open in the living room to see how difficult it would be to fish wires through. Not bad...but definitely not super easy - labor intensive still.

- New doorbell placement/location decisions need to be made. In our last place, I bought a wireless doorbell - HATED IT. It sounded like a muffled generic ring tone you downloaded from webstie for free. This time we are going hardwired and with a normal door bell sound - not digital or anything like that...just a plain old "Ding-Dong". The house had one at some point, but when I did the demolition, I ripped it out and tore the wires up...they looked fried anyways.

- Sub Panel is HOT. Electricians...as useful as they are wired up a plug in the garage for me to start using. Definitely helps...we were running all lights and tools off of one outlet using the old wiring. Apparently something I didn't bother checking...we were loading the old wiring a bit too much and the power line was heating up. I guess thats why we needed to replace the old knob and tube stuff. Honestly, I was running a radio, lights, work lights, mini heater for my dogs and extension cords all from an outlet that was pigtailed off of a lightbulb. Not a great idea, but I never gave it much though. Thank goodness I didnt burn the house down.

- A decision has been made on the garage door! We compromised...what an accomplishment. That is being ordered tomorrow and hopefully it comes out as nice as I think it will. New door, new motor, belt driven for silence and insulated garage door for keeping the man cave warm...Im looking forward to it.

Anyhow, here are some pics and captions - good night.

All Bedrooms Plate configuration - Top plate goes behind TV, Bottom plate will be in the baseboard below.

This is for the Living room - Pics and Cable box are part of my physical layout. I do much more to illustrate it for myself.

Marked New Electrical Outlets in baseboard with painters tape and started to measure new sconce locations.

Started to take wall out to plan out Multimedia plate installation - doing this myself.

More Electrical Cables, my recessed lights for the garage and basement....

This is the garage door we are ordering. No circle things on the top or straps. We are just getting the same door, similar handle and no other hardware. This is pretty much the door we are ordering though - same shade and everything.

If youre curious - this really how I plan it. Too lazy to draw it in a program, so I just hand drew my ideas. Its legit and it helps me decide what needs to be purchased and where things belong. Im very visual, so this is a must when I do stuff.

Bored on a Monday

I got bored today and decided to draft my multimedia area in the man cave and started the rough on it. Due to my complicated setup, I had to actually draw it out by hand to ensure I was capturing EVERYTHING I wanted - Cables, Speaker Locations, Wall Plates, TVplacements (x2), etc.

I headed to Home Depot with my final draft and went to town! Good thing is most of it was cheap and no labor costs other than myself, so why not? Ive decided to use some of my barely used Boston Acoustic Home Theatre speakers in the garage. I know they wont get use in our main area due to its bulkiness, so why not put it to use and add some sound to the garage. Well...since it is my man cave and wanted it perfect, I decided to start wiring it (with the help of my cousin Irizzle).

Here are some photos of what I was doing and some of the things it will use when we do the finish work. A lot cant happen until the new dry wall is up, so were doing the rough.

First - Mounted the Speaker Drop Boxes (some in the rear too for surround sound. Looking in the garage from the outside, this is the back left corner (the Multimedia Area) that will consist of the Stereo Amp, (2) TV's, PS3, XBox and whatever I want to add later.

Ran the Speakers Wires and stapled. Gotta keep it clean!

Speaker Wires bundled up until the Wall Plate arrives.

Speaker Wires will terminate into this - 5.1 System (overkill for the garage, but it works for me)

Im debating this custom plate I made, but I think this will be more for the Living Room where all these are important. Just to give you an idea of what kind of Multimedia Im doing...this stuff is serious. 

Sample of how I ran cables from one end of the room to the other - Stapled and with proper staples - plastic ends to ensure no shorts or damage to the cable. This is low level electricity, so really didnt need to worry, but it sure beats dangling cables (though you wont see this when the insulation and dry wall is up (this is the ceiling joist).  

Labeled Boxes - I have a ton of Blue Electric Boxes in the garage - yes a lot are for true electrical outlets, but I made sure I labeled the work I do to ensure they do not over over over kill the outlets. I just need one here, the rest will be similar to the plates above for connectivity.

Thats all I got for tonight - tired and work in a few hours. I wouldnt be able to sleep ok if I didnt post this up...soooo...here it is and good night. 

...off to sleep to think/dream of my 10 million other projects I want to do. To me, as long as Im doing some of the work, its ok. No need to pay and its a bit rewarding. It will look much better when everything is done, but you need to try and imagine it for now with bare walls :)

Saturday Solo Mission @ the house

Ahhhhhhh.....FINALLY! I ordered ALL the lights for the major construction areas. No, not every light in the house, but the ones that will be new additions or areas that are affected by the new construction.

Let me tell you...this was much harder than I thought it would be. I figured lights...ok...choose some and buy the right housing and plop them in. Nope. Apparently my "designer"(you know very well and my creative half) had opinions on how they needed to look of course. We had to compromise in the main areas to meet her likings and luckily my man cave decisions were based on my own likings.

In short, we are still getting some nice energy efficient LED lighting in the Kitchen (accent lighting only), the Bathroom (over the shower only) and the Hallway (new additions). They were specifically chosen because of their size and the amount of light they would put out. Looks was a big thing, so it wasnt as easy as just choosing a brand and getting it. The lights in these areas are very specific to their locations and with good reason. When they arrive, you will see them...basically super small recessed lights that are LED. A very Non-Standard size and not typically what you would see in most homes.

For the mancave, I stuck with an almost normal style recessed lighting. Yes, they are a standard size, but they are still bit fancy (not nearly as nice as whats going upstairs). Basically they are a traditional recessed lighting that are LED, but you dont physically see a light bulb. It kind of just looks like a glass plate and a circle slightly recessed in the ceiling. Great thing about all the LED lights we bought....they are supposed to dim really well - we'll see. This seems to be the challenge with low end LED lighting...no one has quite perfected it yet, though there are many out there to choose from. We chose one that was recommended by my brother inlaw...naturally, I have to trust what he says.

Another thing that made this slighty difficult is that it was new jargon to me. I thought these LED lights are like regular bulbs...screw it in...apparently the bulb socket is known as an Edison Socket. Bet you didnt know that?!?!? Well...as we move to new times, there is a new standard that will be more and more available and seen in the future and that is GU24 Bulbs/Sockets. Basically there are different socket types...GU24 seems to be catching on and is actually recognized as a standard for California when you want to be compliant with Title 24. What is that you ask?...Im still a bit unclear, but its some Energy Efficiency Standards CCR mumbo jumbo. Here, read about it - TITLE 24 CALIFORNIA .

Anyhow, we are moving in that direction and almost all our lights will follow. Yes, all the lights we got (to-date) will be GU24 and/or some other compliant standard that will follow Title 24 rules. We might not be fully like that because some of our fixtures, but where we can, we will and thats that.

Here are some better pics from yesterday (clearer at least).

This mini section behind the tub will be a cabinet for towels, etc.

Better pic of bathroom framing.

So todays work was simple...it was a bit of cleanup and helping out my electricians because Im picky with electrical and my mancave, so I wanted to prep some stuff in there for them...to save time and to know I placed everything where I "think" I want it for outlets.

The house had some old insulation under the house - naturally to keep it warm above. Well, it was a fail in all aspects. Some of the insulation was hanging down, so it wasnt stapled or suspended properly. Second, they had faced it the wrong way. Third, it was only partially done - like whoever had a room in the far right corner did it only for that section. Geez...cheap or lazy...who knows. It looked so bad I wanted it out - at the same time, it was a section of the crawl space I have never ventured to and know there were a TON of spider webs I wanted to clear out over there. MY BIGGEST FEAR!!!

Well...I manned up and did it. I must say it looks waaay cleaner that it ever used to and the webs have been cleared away. Oh, I also sprayed a berrier for spiders so they do not venture there anymore. Lets see if it helps any in down the road (did some research and found some anti-spider and other critter stuff to use as a deterrent). 

Anyhow, since I have a garbage trailer outside, I figured this would be a good day to get this loaded up and thrown away. I went to work and did the electrical stuff after. 

Last row in the back is how it looked. See its not seated properly...

CLEANER...and definitely no more spider webs. Yeah, Im sure a few - but before all this...it looked like spider city. The pier to the left needs to be replace ASAP - Ill get that done shortly.

Once all the work is complete in the crawl space area, we will move forward with an insulation method of some sort. For now, too much going on down here and its probably not a good idea until all the wires and pipes are 100% complete. 

While down there, I know its not good to have wood laying around your soil around your house as it can be food for termites. I decided to rake whatever wood or organics I saw down there and threw it away. Surprisingly there was a lot of wood that had been left here for years...felt good just cleaning it out a bit. Dont expect me to level and flatten to make the dirt look pretty....we actually have a project to handle that in the future. It will make this area more pleasant to look at should someone open the door on accident to the crawl space.

My Favorite - Fiberglass insulation. Mask, Long Sleeves, Goggles, Gloves = YES

So the blue boxes are some of the electrical outlets I want placed. I have a CAD drawing of my garage and have planned it out already. Should have plenty of outlets with out the need for 10 million extension cords, power strips and such. This will be a clean setup one day (maybe not soon), but one day. Clearly while the dry wall is out, this was the time to think out electrical. Rather than risking wrong placement or not enough, I decided to place it and have it ready for the electricians to wire up. When the upstairs walls are sealed up, the garage will get done in the same time frame.

First Electrical Box I ever hammered to a stud!!! Memories! LOL

That concludes my work for this weekend. I will be back tomorrow, but its mainly to clean a bit. Clean only to get dirty...but still, I need to know I left it clean. OCD.

If I decide to do anything interesting, I will document it and if I find anything NEW, maybe that will get posted to. Till the next week...

Some Updates

Its been some long days for me and havent had much time to snap photos in the day, so here are some updates with horrible night shots as most of my pics are.

A couple of things moving along still:

- Bathroom is taking shape
- More plumbing (Water and Gas)
- Electrical continues to move forward slowly

Looks like we are shooting to get rough inspections done so we can close up the walls. We're not sure if this is possible until our Windows are installed. IF thats the case, we will be set back a few weeks because everything will come to a halt until the new windows arrive and are installed. That will suck if thats the case because we will not be making any forward progress (maybe with my networking stuff, but not towards making the home more complete.

We'll see how it goes.

As far as other things coming along, the MultiMedia part of the project starts this week and we have our furnace replacement and new ducting scheduled to be installed at the end of the month. Lighting has been ordered and the cans for those will begin to get installed as soon as they arrive.

Shower Valves and such installed. No special rainfall type shower head, though we could have....not really a fan of those things, but they look cool. So for the most part, a standard setup with nice hardware when we are done. I requested for a shower head on a hook so it can be held. We do have a normal one too. Im excited for this room when its done!

Bath Tub location has been framed - nice!

All piping is done for the Water Heater - On Demand - Gas and Water lines are done and ready for Pressure Testing I think.

I believe this is temporary and will be used for pressure testing all the new pipes. Have to make sure we have no leaks!

Ill be at the pad this weekend cleaning up some stuff. Contractors tend to clean after themselves, but Im pretty darn picky. When I walk in I want it CLEAN - even under construction.

Small Update and Designing my own Man Cave/Basement Area

Not much update for today other than I had a long day at work and didnt get to the house until pretty late tonight. Did a quick walk through and noticed some Copper Pipes run throughout the crawl space of the house and the a new Water Heater was installed and the older one was removed from the basement.

We went on to mount the water heater outside because it made the most sense and was cost effective. Though its not as clean as Id like it to be, its on the side of the house where no one will probably ever walk by and is close to the gas line which is a requirement and/or is just better as far as placement.

I had originally wanted it inside the crawl space, but that was just me talking as if I knew what was best...ha. Anyhow, the water heater is mounted - we were going to flush mount it to the exterior, but that was a fail too due to space requirements. It was possible, but it would have cost much more to get framing done. No thanks...not a big deal.

New Water Heater - Mounted Outside

Model #

Old Water heater was mounted on this corner before

So I got a little bored and started to layout the "Man Cave" tonight. Its was a bit time consuming and difficult as I am not a home designer and I decided to use designer software. Well...its not as easy as designing say, a network for a business or creating flow charts, this was more challenging and the more I learned, the more I kept changing things. This was a bit difficult because I also had no instructions for the software I used. Determined to get something on paper (for my own use and for the electricians), I decided to press forward and force myself to learn it today through trial and error.

So I got most of what I wanted done, just a basic layout of what I think I want to end up with. Clearly the choices of colors and cabinet styles were limited (of I just didnt know how to change that), but I think I captured the overall feel of what I want it to look like.

In the middle of creating the garage, I decided to challenge myself even more and draft a layout for the basement and what it will look like sometime down the road when we get to it. Since that project is VERY involved, we are waiting a few years (my guess) before we are able to make it what we want it. For now, it will look pretty close to what I had put on the CAD software. A few details missing, but when all the stuff is out of there and its nice and clean, it should be fairly close to how it looks in these pictures I have. I was too lazy to save pics to the computer, so I decided to just snap some photos of the computer screen with my phone and post it that way.

Again, colors and cabinetry is not exact, but the layout is basically identical and measurements are accurate. I will be using these to basically plot out where I want cables, lighting and where I will have furniture when I complete the space. It will serve as a good starting point and Im sure it will change as I move forward, but its better to draw something up so I can play with it. Now that I have the software, its much easier to visualize as I can essentially drag and drop things and place it in the room so I see how it looks. The good thing about this software is it allows me to walk through the layout as if I were standing in it.

Heres what I got so far and hopefully the real thing looks close to the pictures if not better when all is said and done!

View of the RIGHT side of the garage

View of the BACK WALL/LEFT CORNER of the garage - that door goes to the crawl space (not outside as it is pictured). The left side doorway is to the basement.

Shot of the ceiling - Started Placing the recessed lighting to get a feel for it. Decided on 6 in the garage (though for is shown due to view limitations)

View if the BASEMENT from the garage entrance. Yes, thats the Mens Bathroom (HA HA HA - It will probably hold true)

View of the BASEMENT from the other side (corner by the stairs is my Network Box - a gotta have). 

Pretty simple drawings...but to get it accurate and to learn the software honestly took me 4 hrs or so. I will be adding more and making changes as I learn it. Overall Id say 95% accurate as far as the layout. If we can make it look remotely this close in the interim for the basement, that would be amazing. Not likely...but it will definitely be empty unlike it is today.

Noodling on stuff...

So as the electrical continues, my wife has a pretty clear sense in direction as far as what light fixtures to use. Im all about the energy efficiency and making the home green...and some of her tastes dont follow that (not all, but some)....as far as lighting goes.

We finally compromised on some lights (well, ONLY for the recessed lights) and we are ready to move forward with the purchase of those items. Even though I said a few recessed lights, the total count is still up to about 18 - a lot in the garage and basement though. The wife isnt a fan of recessed lights, but I think we did the best we could as far as keeping it clean and still pretty standard.

Choices will be 4" LED Recessed lights using 2400k bulbs. This ensures we keep the nice warm light - not the fluorescent white light. These will be mostly in the hallway and a few in the kitchen (though the majority of the kitchen lighting is fancy. We'll save that for later when they get mounted. Fancy as in...not typically what you find in kitchens (since most pretty much do recessed lights). For us, we only have it in two places - over the sink and over the peninsula/bar area.

Im not sure if I mentioned this before, but we are also getting up to speed with electrical outlets - scattered throughout the house in places that make sense will be outlets with USB ports. This is just for convenience for us and guest in case you want to plug in your phone. No need for bringing your bulky charger - just bring the cable and plug right in.

Here are some pics of the simple more standard lights we are getting and some other things. The cans for the lights look like they are pretty good (you wont see them when the drywall is up), but Im showing it as I learned something when we went through our energy audit (the "before" audit). We will do an "after audit" and then PG&E will credit us up to $4500.00 for becoming more energy efficient. Since we are doing EVERYTHING energy efficient (the larger items and some smaller ones), our audit person informed us we would maximize the credit pretty easily. Looking forward to it.

The reason I pointed the cans is because they are sealed. In an energy audit, they actually look for any and every possible location for air leakage. Basically things need to be pretty air tight if you want to be SUPER efficient. This way, either heat stays in or you stay cool when you need to be cool. No air movement if ALL areas are sealed fairly well. Naturally there is always going to be some natural leakage - no one can be that air tight in their house, however doing things the proper way help. Proper cans for the recessed lighting is one. Since it is fully enclosed, you are no longer fully exposed to ceiling air (the gap between ceiling and roof). We will be insulated after all is said and done, but the light housings/bases will also be pretty leak proof. Comparing what I show here and some older stuff - there are holes and such that allow air to travel down or up through from the bulb housing area causing either cold air to enter or hot air to escape...neither of what you want - makes your furnace work harder or AC work harder (but we wont have AC - no need in this climate).

Anyhow, no work on the house today...just plotting stuff and finalizing 10 million things.

Some of our Electrical Outlets will be like this (the two slots on the sides are USB Ports)

This is the LED Lighting we are using for the recessed lights. They do not use a typical bulb socket and rather a GU24 Standard. Apparently its better for our inspection and some other mumbo jumbo for electrical - keep an eye out for this, Im told this will be more of the standard in the future due to certain characteristics that make it better than a traditional socket. One thing I do know is the ballast is integrated in the bulb. Most bulbs today arent and usually have a separate ballast in the housing. This is the NEW NEW!!!!

This is New Construction housing for our new bulbs. Pretty massive, but notice the enclosure. It is fully sealed and will prevent that air from leaking through or leaking out.

Thats it for today - Im actually going to create the CAD drawing for the garage and basement. My mother in-law (our designer) basically did all the areas she was working on. Instead of asking her to spend time on it, Im taking it into my own hands and will attempt to lay it out in some CAD software I just purchased for Home Design. Wish me luck.

Weekend Warriors...

Today we decided to finish off the rest of the garage work. When removing drywall, lathe and plaster or whatever is on the walls...you are always left with some boring work, but it needs to be done or you pay someone to do it. Its easy enough to take it on, but its also not the most exciting...removing nails.

Like all the other walls, RonDZ and I had to finish what we started and that we did. Unlike a lot of the other walls...this wall used real old school nails. Like, take a hammer and hammer it in. Most of the other walls we cleaned up were screw nails which were easily taken out with power tools...not the garage.

I dont know how many nails there were...but it was on the walls and ceiling. Boring but easy and the only thing to look forward to is the music and the next track that might come on when the iPhones are connected. If I were to put a number to the amount of nails just in the garage...maybe 500??? I dont know.

Its hard to tell, but those rusted things with residue of drywall are nails. We removed each and everyone in the garage.

This was just the beginning...decided to snap a photo before I forgot, but the garage was full of nails when we were done. Unfortunately, due to limited lighting, it was dark when we finished and the photo couldnt capture it without better lighting. It was crazy...

So other work that started today was the rough electrical. Basically bridging the Main Panel outside the house to a new Sub-Panel we are putting in the house. Since I am picky and always need room to expand, I requested a bit of overkill on the Sub-Panel (aka Sub). The sub I got ended up being pretty large for the size of house and probably a bit too much power than needed. In short, the main panel outside is 130 amp....we brought 100 amp in the house. Usually 50 amp will be enough for our size house on the sub and some other electrical can remain on the main...but I decided to use the main panel for a master on/off type area and move EVERYTHING (all breakers) inside. No need to go outside anymore in the event of a breaker going off. Makes it simple and more convenient - I guess its more like the modern houses now. Yay.

In order to achieve this, we needed a cable that was rated for the proper power we were supplying. My electrician called me the day before and asked if I wanted to spend the extra $ on the massive cable...and of course I said yes. So we ended up with a massive cable that needed to be routed from the main to the sub and since all the walls were out, it was done CLEAN.  The black cable in the pics below is the new cable feeding the sub-panel. It doesnt look big in the pictures...but that thing is heavy duty (4 gauge if I am correct with the electrical talk)...65ft of cable was something like $420.00 or so.

The cable in the center in the joist is the new cable feeding the Sub-Panel.

A better pic.

As we begin to wire more and more items, all the cables will be routed similar to this. In fact, that is new cable going to the kitchen. Still early...just a sample.

Here are new cables popping up in the Laundry Room where our new panel is located.

That massive cable that was in the pics above feeding this. Those 3 cables and a ground wire is what is contained in there. Oh...and the New Sub-Panel is bolted in and ready to rock! 

...this is just the beginning. This will eventually get pretty full and you will see all the circuit breakers in there when completed. Should be clean and labeled properly. This is exciting for us...cant wait. 

This is clearly the beginning and there is plenty more copper to spread throughout the house. Everything is moving forward as planned and each day that passes we get closer and closer to completion. Though we are still a ways out (as we wait for Windows and Cabinets that have been ordered)...this is the prep work thats needed in order to move forward with those other things (minus Windows - those can go in anytime they arrive).

More to come - updates will probably be pictures with captions only for the duration of this part of the work unless something interesting comes up.