New York Renovator

When I gutted the living room in 2007, I bit the financial bullet and networked the room for Ethernet wiring. Except for drilling a small hole through a 12-inch support beam and 4-inch thick studs, the experience was pretty enjoyable. What I essentially did was create one Ethernet port for each wall in the living room. I ran Cat5 Ethernet wiring inside the wall studs and created a “port” or “Ethernet station” on each wall. One of the walls I made into the “master station.” This area would hold the master computer, the router, and the face plate that would hold all the Ethernet port cables. I scratched a rough diagram showing one of the ports and the master area. It’s pretty rough, but it gives you an idea of how simple it is to network a room.

As you can see from the diagram, I basically created “extension cords” of Ethernet wiring within the walls. Previously, the other computers in the room were connected by wires that I had to string on the floor, across doorways and through the living room. It was terribly messy, and dangerous.

This is the face plate after I had wired the Ethernet. The top two ports are telephone (RJ11) jacks. The others are Ethernet (RJ45) jacks. I left one blank because I didn’t need it filled at the time.

Ah, but now I have cable Internet, with coaxial wiring. I had fun yesterday, and learned how to wire a coaxial cable jack to my master face plate.

You’ll notice that the other two ports have Ethernet cables. These cables go to the router and to the switch, which is a device that acts like an extension cord for the router. Most routers have only 4 ports in the back, but I need many more connections. The switch is a big box that can hold more connections. The one I have holds 16 more Ethernet connections!

Eventually, I want to make the entire house wired. Currently, the computers in the upstairs rooms use wireless. While wireless is pretty handy, I don’t like using it for main computers. It takes up a lot of bandwidth when everyone is on together. Wireless is also a PAIN to configure and if there’s interference from airplanes, CB radios, microwaves, whatever, it can be frustrating when downloading stuff. Wireless is also less secure than wired connections.

The hardest part about home networking, in my opinion, is getting the wiring through the walls. Even when we gutted the walls, it was still hard to drill holes through such big, old lumber. Wiring the upstairs is easier because you can string the wires up into the attic and simply drop them down into the wall cavities without drilling horizontally through studs. When we renovate the upstairs, I will be adding a few Ethernet ports to each of the bedrooms.

We’ve had our home network system for a few years now, and I’ve never regretted it. The only thing I regret is not adding more ports!

I’ve been in the slow process of creating an entire Ethernet Internet network control panel (I’m still wiring the cables while we have the walls open right now). But after seeing some technology called “powerline switches,” I wonder if I should even bother with the Cat5/Cat6 wiring. This stuff just TOTALLY blows my mind!!

Basically, a powerline switch allows you to extend your Internet connection using your home’s electrical system. I had heard of this technology last year, and I figured it would be a while before it was really stable enough for me to consider. But there’s been a lot of progress in a year’s time. A tech dude from Netgear went to the Buy.com headquarters and made a very informative video about the Netgear XAV2001 Powerline Switch. This looks so amazing!!

OK, OK, I know some of you are totally uninterested in technology– but before your eyes glaze over, I want you to remember back when there was dialup and you had to learn about that, and then there was cable and DSL, and you had to learn about that…. so let me give a few gory details about this gadget. This just may be how we connect the Internet in the days to come.

• There are two powerline switches per box. One plugs into an electrical outlet and connects to your router. The outher powerline switch plugs into your electrical outlet somewhere else in the home (like the upstairs game room). The switch has a small port for an Ethernet cable. You connect your computer (or HDTV or Playstation or Xbox or Wii or print server or storage server!) into the powerline switch using the Ethernet cable. Voila, instant Internet.
• The powerline switch is geared to lessen the load on wireless. If you have a lot of people on wireless connection at once, you know how slow things get. The powerline uses the internal electrical system of your home to connect to the Internet router. The powerline switch is also terrific for providing Internet access to rooms that have spotty wireless coverage (or no coverage).
• Buy.com has the best price (of course!). I have seen this Netgear powerline switch for $100 or more everywhere else. Buy.com has a sale for $70 and free shipping.
• Netgear’s switch has a security feature– press a button on both switches, and it instantly encrypts all data streaming through the network.
• Data are fast– rates up to 85 Mbps, which is faster than 802.11g wireless.
• The powerline 4-port switch will connect up to 4 devices at a time.
• The switch works on standard 240volt electrical service. No special electrical receptacles required.

So I wonder, am I wasting my time and money, wiring all this Ethernet cabling?! Technology sometimes develops too quickly. I haven’t even gotten the NEW stuff in yet, and already there’s something newer. Whew, it just blows my mind.

It actually wasn’t so horrible this time. Some folks must be praying for me!

The weather was nice– a bit cool, breezy, and overcast– perfect weather for a latte at the cafe… or a pedicure… or detoxufree 72…. orrrr….. WORKING IN THE MOLDY, DUSTY, DARK ATTIC. This is what greets me when I pop my head into the small 3-foot wide attic hatch:

It is for this reason that I will NEVER NEVER NEVER use blown-in insulation. This house is SOOOOO dusty. Who is the knucklehead who came up with the idea of filling a home’s cavities with DUST for insulation?! Egads.

That is the original knob and tube wiring resting in peace there. The wiring must have been installed sometime in the 1920s or 1930s… and the insulation (I assume) went in sometime in the 1970s or 1990s. It is against codes to insulate around the old knob and tube wiring. There is the danger of wires overheating, and thus a fire hazard. Plus, the old wires are not grounded at all. I am glad to be rid of them.

You can see the handiwork of an 1855 attic, eh? I took lots of photos, because if I ever get curious about what the attic looks like, and I get it in my stupid head to go up and see, all I have to do is look at these photos to remind myself.

Today, I ran some wiring for my son’s bedroom ceiling light, the hallway ceiling light (unfortunately, I won’t be able to wire a light until next year when we gut the upstairs. But I thought I’d throw in some wiring while I’m up here), and the feed line coming from the service panel, two floors down. A junction box handily holds all the wires for me.

I was exhausted after the job. Tomorrow, I wire the light and the two outlets for my son’s room, and feed it to a junction box in the basement, which will be connected to the service panel. Then, this room will finally have electricity for the first time in three years. AND he’ll have a ceiling light that WORKS, something he has never had since we moved here.

The attic work is not yet finished, though. Besides the hallway light situation reserved for next year, The Hubs has to go up here this week– we need to electrify the bathroom ventilation fan again (I couldn’t get to it when I was up there). It hasn’t worked for three years, and mold grows on the bathroom walls because of the intense moisture. I haven’t broken the news to him, yet…

Oh my word. After a frenetic flurry of posts for the past few weeks, I see that I haven’t said a peep here in a WEEK! I am still here! I have been busy, as usual. But I did get a break for half a day. It was definitely too short.

When I last left off, we had an inspector here, from the local codes department. He told us a few things:

We could leave the plumbing in place, if we wanted to. It was old, but the drains were “grandfathered in” and the copper pipes looked OK. Still, we decided to re-do the water supply, with PEX. The copper is very old, especially in the upstairs bathroom above the kitchen. And I’m uncomfortable leaving the old pipes in after we install the new kitchen below it. Plus, the washer, kitchen, and dishwasher all need brand-new lines. So we’re redoing it all, using a PEX manifold system in the basement.

The inspector said that the rough framing all looked good, except for one thing: with our new partition walls, we created a “chase” which is a fire hazard. A chase is basically a tunnel through which air drafts (and fires) run up through the walls between the studs and into the joists, unimpeded. Balloon framing itself is such a hazard because of the chases– the studs are straight up from foundation sill plate to the attic rafters. Fire stops are required. The inspector said that sheetrock would be fine. So that’s what we did.

I have to make an appointment with the electrical inspector. Of course, we have to wire all the electric in first, haha. It’s time-consuming.

Half the time is spent figuring out how to get the wires where we need to place them. Wow, it’s tougher than you think. We have all sorts of impediments– 8-inch beams, brick nogging, 10-inch sill plate… whew. The other half of the job is spent drilling holes and running wire. It’s very easy to box things in and strip the wires/connect them.

We also have to build out various walls. To build them out is to add an additional layer of wood in the existing studs. This gives you more room for the narrow electrical boxes, and for the addition of insulation. It does add to the expense. My ceilings are over 9 feet high, so I have to buy the 10-foot studs and waste 1 foot of them. :S

And we’re still doing dishes by hand, in the old sink.

But not for long! TWO MORE MONTHS til I have a dishwasher!!! I haven’t operated a dishwasher in 28 YEARS, people!! It will be glorious.

By the way, my daughter doe snot wear glasses– those are fake. She was acting a “nerd.” LOL. Anything to make the dish-washing fun, I guess. Because right now, it’s NOT.

We also have ELECTRICITY in the upstairs bathroom!!! Woooooohooo! The first time in 3 years! We have a working light with a SWITCH! We have a GFCI outlet! And we have a newly installed medicine cabinet. I tell ya, modern living is RICH people, RICH.

This week on the schedule:

Wire the son’s bedroom upstairs*
Wire the bathroom ventilation fan/light fixture*
Install electrical boxes for kitchen, to prepare for the wires coming in
Prepare washing machine for plumbing area
Insulate above small area above dining room that leads into the garage
Install wiring for exterior light and switch
Install dryer vent hole through the wall
Install stove range hood vent hole through the wall
Buy more supplies
Do the plumbing (The Hubs is handling most of this)

* I have to go into The Attic to do this. Cry with me, my friends. It is a HORROR up there!

More to come!

I worked on a small project Friday. Well, it was a BIG project– lots of sawing, drilling holes, running up and down stairs and ladders… all for three outlets in the upstairs bedroom. :-p But it’ll be worth it. I’m finally getting electricity in this house! Hopefully by autumn, the entire house will be completely wired.

So here’s a small pictorial story of how it goes.

First, I have to meticulously run the wiring, from the basement through the first floor and up to the second floor. Because the second floor walls are closed (and have the lathe and plaster), I have to measure the first floor studs to locate every wall cavity, then measure the upstairs wall to match the cavity exactly. I then drill holes and run the cable. Lots of work for every measly outlet.

I break through the plaster. Dirty and messy. Some holes are larger than others, because I may find some extra wood in the way, or I need to enlarge the hole for whatever reason. Today, my holes were pretty small. Yay!

Saw through the lathe. Install the new work box, and run the first cable through. Lots of running up and down stairs and up and down the ladder to perfectly situate the cable, staple it to the wood, and run another cable in.

My work place. I take my yellow caddy with me wherever I go.

I strip the wires and make little loops on the ends. This is the end of the line of outlets for this circuit, so I only have one cable to work on here.

Here’s a middle-of-the-run outlet section; notice it has a lot more wiring (one for the feed, one for the outlet here, one leading to the next outlet in the circuit). I attach pigtail wires that attach to other wires in the box, to continue the circuit along a run of outlets. As a general rule, I always wrap the ends with electrical tape, to prevent arcing. I don’t expect arcing, but it’s just another little thing to do for safety’s sake.

I attach the pigtail wires to the cable wires in the work box using some fancy new devices, called “push-in connectors.” I like them because I don’t have to mess around with twisting three groups of three wires each and then capping each group with a huge wire nut (I find it hard to twist the wires neatly, and I find it very hard to cram all the wire nuts in the box). These pigtail connectors are really handy.

Finally, I ram all the wires in the box. My least favorite chore of the job. I have small, sensitive fingers, and find it difficult and painful to push the wires in. It’s a tough job for me.

Forgive me, I didn’t snap an end photo of the outlet in the box! Maybe next time.

It’s hard to believe that I haven’t worked on this house (in a major way) for three years! I wish I hadn’t waited so long to pick it back up again; I’ve forgotten a lot of what I knew about electrical wiring.

So I’m repeating this year what I did for that summer of ’07: pouring through various wiring books, learning about codes and how to wire the house. I managed to wire about half the house in 2007; we’ve been without electricity for the other half all this time. Ever since I opened the walls and saw the horrible mess of 1930-era knobs and tubes, I’ve been too afraid to turn the electric back on, not until I can replace the entire system. So my home is still a mish-mash of new, old, and intermediate wiring, not to mention a LOT of extension cords everywhere. :-p

Anyway, I went to the library and checked out half their stacks, lol.

The best books have lots of diagrams and have information on codes in basic, simple lists. I don’t need loads of information on work wear clothing, work uniforms, all the meticulous tools and etc.

I have also got the floor plans made out.

I have yet to map out the electrical schematics, and the plumbing schematic. I dread the plumber’s bills. The entire plumbing system must be replaced… it will cost a pretty penny. I am apprehensive about the condition of the pipes, especially that nasty black cast iron sewage pipe in the basement. It’s turning orange, which means it’s rusting. I do NOT want to be around when that thing breaks apart, uh uh. Talk about toxic waste! Burn the work clothing and take a chlorine bath after that, tell you what! I have a sensitive nose, so I don’t do plumbing, lol.

Anyway, I’d better get cracking on this stuff. I figure I’ll start demolition after I plant the vegetable garden, sometime in late April/early May. I am itching to start pulling down plaster, but I have to box and pack away ALL my stuff including my books and computers, cover my heater vents, move the animals to the upstairs, hang plastic in doorways…. there’s a lot to do.

I can’t wait til it’s all over.

In my recent post about my new textbook, Lin from Duck and Wheel with String asked a question in her usual elegant and poised manner:

Head gonna ’splode. Are you seriously gonna do that yourself??? Wow.

Hee hee!

I thought I’d post my response here (rather then have it buried in the comments), because I realized that a few of you “newer” readers did not go through the excruciatingly crazy time when we gutted our living room, in the summer of 2007. It was SUPPOSED to be a simple tear-down-the-walls-and-slap-news-ones-up-again job.. but my house is 150+ years old. I guess that kind of project never happens with old homes.

When I opened up the walls, I found a few surprises. One, noggin– noggin is brick, installed in the studs. We’ve no idea why the original builder did that; it was rare even back then. We suppose it was to help keep the house cool. And it does… both summer AND winter. :S

I also found mouse-chewed wires, and quite a few bare wires. And a disastrous mess of mangled wires. Oh Lord, it was a disaster. Long ago, the previous owners ripped off the flooring to the second floor, installed wiring, and put the floors back on– basically encapsulating the wiring. And this is what it looked like, 70 years later when I opened it up.

You can read more about the craziness if you click the links. I had no intentions of doing the wiring myself, but I couldn’t find an electrician who would do one room– well, I did finally get one quote, but he wanted $1500 for it. I decided to study at night and do it myself.

Electrician Shock
Why My Electricity Won’t Work
Things Looking Brighter
The worst part was going into The Attic [insert creepy organ music]
It was a very frustrating job at times.
I also installed Cat5 ethernet wiring for the living room.

ALL MY WORK PASSED Codes Inspection! I was so happy.

Besides the living room, I installed wiring in my daughters’ bedroom above, light switches for two bedrooms upstairs, and separate outlets for the washing machine and sump pump. However, half the house still has no electricity. After seeing the condition of the living room wiring, I was too terrified to turn the rest of the old wiring back on. I disconnected everything I could. It’s been almost three years, and I’m hoping praying I can get electricity into the kitchen, dining room, stairwell, and upper bedrooms very soon. This year, we’re tackling the kitchen. The dining room and bedrooms will have to wait, unless a miracle happens.

This is our living room. ALL MODERN wiring!!!

You can read more about the House History and Our History here and all about Our Story of renovations up to now. After the massive 2007 renovation, which was the largest project we’ve ever accomplished yet here, I got a job blogging, and life just got hectic. I haven’t done anything else besides garden work around here. I’m praying the kitchen will be accomplished this year because it’s almost unlivable now. Please keep us in your prayers! I’m a little older now (40s) and rather out of shape because of my desk jobs for the past three years. I’m a little apprehensive about the physical labor involved. But God willing, it can be done. Thanks for reading.

Here it is, came in the mail today:

It’s not a thoroughly extensive book for wiring, but it addresses the basics. Plus, there is some very good information on wiring ethernet and other digital stuff throughout the home. I am definitely going to wire for ethernet throughout the house. Eventually, I’ll set up a small control panel in a special cabinet in the kitchen. It will look like a typical matching cabinet, but it will actually be a small service panel, disguised. I like to make the kitchen the “central” place. I’ve traditionally kept all medicines, natural acne treatment etc, and small household tools in the room. I just prefer it.

Back to the book: diagrams like this as in the photo below are helpful, too. My next goal is to create a schematic. It is important to map out all the wiring and lighting fixtures, so that I can keep track of the circuits and make sure one circuit does not have too great a load.

So I’m preeeeeettty busy these days! More to come.

Now that the snow is just about gone, I feel invigorated enough to start some planning for the new kitchen, and do some supply comparison shopping. I had this amazingly bright idea when I visited my local Big Box Home Improvement Store— take a camera to snap photos of the products! And to think I used to write it all down on paper with a pencil! No one in the store seemed to mind one bit. Maybe everybody does it, now?? It is extremely helpful to snap photos of the stuff. I can look at the photos and compare with other products online or at other stores.

Sheetrock prices are still steady. I have to find out from what country this stuff originates– I won’t buy Chinese-made sheetrock because of all the health problems it’s caused. I wrote a post about that here, if you are interested: Chinese-Made Drywall Causing Headaches.

I have determined to get Traffic Master Allure flooring. I LOVE the stuff, LOVE it. I wrote more about it, here.

Of course, I have to plan all the electric, too. Wow, prices have really creeped up on this stuff. I will also *hope* to be getting some help installing the electric this time. I did the Living Room and girls’ bedroom all by myself, but the kitchen has special needs. I’d appreciate an expert or two for this. And just think– soon my entire house will FINALLY have electricity!! It’s almost too good to be true!

Yep, I’m installing Cat5 Internet wiring in EVERY ROOM. I dislike wireless. I’ll have to build a control panel somewhere, to accommodate for all the ports we’ll have.

So that’s the latest. I’m really, really getting excited about this. I’m working very hard while it’s still winter, to earn enough money to pay off my bills and save some for this project. I’ll probably have to get a bank loan to fund it all, though. :-p But Lord willing, everything will fit into place. I’ll be sure to have loads of posts with photos as we progress. I am n the process of making the electrical, plumbing, and furnace duct schematic. I figure I’ll start demolition sometime at the end of April or mid-May.

When I gutted and rewired my living room, I installed ethernet cabling (four jacks for the perimeter of the room). It was an added expense to an already very tight budget, but I bit the bullet and did it anyway. The work wasn’t difficult, but it required me to study up to make sure I was doing it correctly, and the parts and components are pricey (it cost me an additional $100 to rig up four jacks in one room).

And BOY am I ever glad I did! You see, I’ve been struggling with our wireless connection and security here are the homestead, and the constant hassles drive me NUTS. My kids have laptops upstairs, and of course there’s no ethernet cabling upstairs (heck, there’s hardly any electricity upstairs yet!). So we rely on wireless for their machines. Their laptops are old and new, with a mix of Windows XP, Vista, and Linux Xandros. I am the chief IT person for the family… and the CONSTANT hair-pulling problems with wireless have me screaming in frustration sometimes!

(If you need a well-written article on the properties and differences between ethernet and wireless, see this very good post here at BestBuy.com).

Of course, you don’t need to have ethernet cables inside the wall cavities to work. You can buy ethernet cables at any store, and plug them in to your router and string them across your room to the computers. But there are a few problems with that, obviously:

• You can only buy cables less than 100 feet long, or your connection quality diminishes.
• You have cables hanging all over the place.
• You can’t string the cables across windows and doorways.
• It all looks just darn ugly .

Well, I have decided that I am going to install ethernet cabling in EVERY room in this house, once we gut it. The problems with the wireless system is driving me crazy! Not to mention that having wireless can cause security problems within your network. EVERY network should be secure (see this post about securing your wireless network), but wireless security is an oxymoron. Hackers are figuring out how to get past the encryption codes to get onto your network, where they can make all sorts of trouble and even get you into trouble with the law. So, essentially, a completely wired system is best. And that’s what I’m doing when I can. Wired is better!

P.S. Remember, before you undertake any project with electricity, or go tearing out your home’s walls, check with a professional and be thoroughly read-up on the projects. Some older homes have toxins like asbestos, lead, etc– treatments for Mesothelioma are very unpleasant. Take extra precautions to know what you are doing, and to be safe in doing it!