The Continuing Saga of My Home Remodel

 Demo – As in Demolition

You never know what you’ll find inside walls or under wall paper until you open ‘er up and take a look.

Removing the paneling was straight forward and pretty easy. I saved the paneling for a friend who has plans to reuse it. I’m all about recycling/reusing.

The entry has a wall common with my main bath.

Inside the Wall

After removing the paneling I found some wiring that definitely didn’t meet the electrical code plus the fixture box was not mounted correctly. The lower box in the picture is not secured to the stud; its just stuck in the sheetrock opening. This was a prime opportunity to change how my bath fan and outlet were controlled. As pictured, the fan and outlet had power only if the bath light was turned on, which I thought was a stupid setup. The upper box was the light fixture box, the lower one housed the outlet and fan switch.

Stow Aways Who Never Escaped Their Confines

Mouse Trapped In The Wall

Something else I found were a couple of mice who somehow made their way into the wall but could not find their way home. I don’t know how long they were in there. No doubt they were in there a long time due to the appearance of the remains. In the 14 yrs I’ve lived here I’ve not smelled anything that would indicate a decomposing mouse. Kind of creepy isn’t it?

No Way Out For This Mouse

I examined the clearance between the water pipe you see coming up through the floor and the wood and there wasn’t more than 1/4″ there. I’ve heard that mice can squeeze through some pretty tight places but this really surprises me.

Upgrading to PEX

While I had the wall open I ran some new PEX water lines. PEX is the current standard piping for household water lines. My home has old copper pipes that are showing signs of getting too old and the beginnings of leaks. This step will save a lot of work later and having to open the wall again.

Adding a Ceiling Fan

Wiring For A New Fan

I decided to add a ceiling fan to the living room to help with evening out the temperatures in the living room.

This picture is not too clear. If you look close you can see an outlet below the square black hole on the wall. I pulled power for the fan from this outlet and installed a switch in a box I installed in the square black wall hole. I ran the wiring up through the top plate of the wall into the ceiling and then out to the middle of the room. From there you can see I removed a long slot of sheetrock in order to drill  holes through the ceiling beams (I don’t have an attic) over to where the new ceiling fan box is located.

By the way, if you decide to install a large heavy light fixture or ceiling fan make sure the ceiling box is rated for heavy loads or you’ll get a rude surprise later when the box breaks and everything comes falling down.

In the picture above you can also see where I did some test painting to make sure the paint I buy is the right color.

In the next article I’ll write a bit about sheetrocking. See you then.