Small Home Renovation Project: Family Room Spot Light (continued)
Last week, I started to install a family room spot light that will be used to illuminate our new family portrait. Today I finished the job.

First I had to move our master bed away from our way about 6 feet and roll back the carpet (and carpet pad) to expose the second floor sub-floor. Moving our bed is no small task. There must be about 12 supports underneath the king mattress, not including the 4 corner posts. Fortunately, Kristy is pretty tough and was able to help.

After I had the sub-floor exposed, I set to the task of opening up a small hole over the top of the portrait wall. After taking my measurements and confirming them about six times (because I am borderline obsessive compulsive I guess), I made the cut... see below:

Unfortunately, I discovered that a heating run to the register in our master bedroom ran over the exact spot where I needed to drill a hole! There is always something to add a little challenge to home projects it seems... and this was it! After more careful measurements, I selected a site for my hole down through the ceiling of the first floor and (hopefully?) into the void space in the wall where I would need to drop my 14/2 cable. I got the drill out and made the hole... perfectly placed... w00t! With the hole in place, I pulled up some wire from the single gang hole that I made last week.

Next I made the 5" circular hole in the ceiling where I wanted the light placed. Now I needed to get the 14/2 wire from the hole cut out in the sub-floor across two floor joists to the circular hole. After some tricky cable work and with the help of Kristy, we were able to thread the wire through to the circular hole in the ceiling. You can see the finished cable run in the picture below (I took this picture, and the one above, for the benefit of my brother-in-law Scott, whose saw I borrowed... thanks Scott!).

Once I made the final electrical connections (the easy part), we had a working dimmable spot light to illuminate our new portrait. Here I am (below) posing in front of my work:

Job well done!

(Update Sat Apr 14 23:51:15 PDT 2007 // fixed thumbnail height)

Small Home Renovation Project: Family Room Spot Light
We are expecting the full-size version of our recent family portrait soon. In preparation, I have been instructed to place a spot light in the family room ceiling to illuminate the wall in the family room where the portrait will be placed.

My plan is to replace the 2-gang switch at the bottom of the stairs with a 3-gang box. The third gang will be one of two 3-way switches that control the new light. The second 3-way switch will be located immediately next to the portrait. Both 3-way switches will be dimmers (I bought the dimmers today... $60... sheesh!).

Today I pulled out the old 2-gang switch at the bottom of the stairs and made the whole bigger to accommodate a 3-gang box. Down in the crawler, I very carefully measured where I needed to drill up through the floor into the voice space where the wire needed to be threaded (*cough* Bryan *cough*). I made the hole and ran some 14/3 wire down to the crawler. I wired the 3-way dimmer switch, replaced the wiring in the other two existing switches, and reinstalled the face plate.

Over at the portait wall, I cut out a single-gang hole for the second 3-way dimmer switch. Back down in the crawler, I threaded the wire through some joist knockouts over to the position where I would need to make my second hole. Again, very carefully ((*cough* Bryan *cough*), I measured where I needed to drill up through the floor to get into the correct void space behind the hole I had just cut. I threaded the wire up to the hole and cut it to length.

Next week: Moving the master bed, removing the carpet and pad, and exposing the main floor ceiling from the second floor to make the final wire run to the light fixture.

(Update Tue Mar 27 11:31:57 PDT 2007 // added link)

Small Home Renovation Project: Hot Water Dispenser
I bought a new hot water dispenser last month. I chose the Insinkerator Series HC1100 and purchased it from BuyPlumbing for a good price (the customer service at BuyPlumbing is exceptional). It was a pretty simple install. Just had to remove the old cold water dispenser and then hook the feed into the new system (which includes a filter, the tank, and the dispenser). It looks and works great! The instant hot water is so convenient.

Here is a picture taken after the final install: