The Daily Biff - Small Home Renovation Project: Family Room Spot Light

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Sat, 17 Mar 2007

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)

:: Posted by rus on Sat, 17 Mar 2007 10:54 pm
:: Filed under /projects/around_the_house

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