Electric Finish
You would think that installing receptacles in a bedroom is a small task that one might knock out in an hour or less. It's just a matter of stripping wires and screwing them onto terminals right?
The task is not difficult in terms of skill but it has a high nuisance factor. First of all there are the 12 guage wires. If working with this stuff is not something you do everyday, your fingers get mighty tired bending solid copper this way and that to get it lined up, attached, and then stuffed back into the box. Our master bedroom needed 9 receptacles to meet the code; by the third one I was already feeling it.
Then there's the task of getting the receptacle screwed into the box. Again, no big deal except that the wires are acting like springs trying to push the receptacle out while you try to keep the driver blade from slipping off and drawing blood from your finger that's trying to guide the screw into hole that's hiding in a blind spot.
Oh, and then, because you decided that veneer plaster would be more appealing than plain old sheetrock, you now have to chip away at the excess plaster to make room for receptacle. Oops! Chipped away too much! The faceplate's not going to hide that. Damn!
Am I complaining? Actually, installing the receptacles was pretty satisfying. A task with a clear beginning and end, and a nice pay off: power when you need it and where you need it.
And while I had the electrical toolkit out, I figured I should install the ceiling fan and finish wiring the three-way switches that control the lights and the fan.
My plan was to have two separate three-way switches control the fan and fan's light individually. I had it all worked out some time ago, and the wires were all in place. All I needed to do was to hook up the fan and the switches.
Well, when I consulted the instructions for wiring the fan, it looked as if I didn't have enough wires going to the ceiling box. Mild panic set in as I followed my instincts of second-guessing my prior work. "Oh no! Am I going to have to fish another cable through the wall?" "How could I have screwed that up!?"
The answer was, I didn't screw it up. The wiring diagram for the fan was based on the "optional wiring kit." My original plan was sound. After confirming my existing wiring layout, I hooked up all the switches and the fan and was in business.
Installing the A/C powered smoke detectors was held up briefly, however, by the annoying lack of mounting screws. You would think that for $50 the manufacturer could include a couple of #8 screws for attaching the mounting bracket to the electrical box. I was able to install one and run it on battery power in the interim.
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