One of the items on my fall list is to complete wiring of the garage. This is the attached garage that I’m talking about which is basically where I hang out, keep my tools and do my thing, as opposed to the detached garage that Stevie does work in. When the house was built, they put one outlet in the entire space. I’m adding 6 outlets and I’m putting in a lot of additional lighting, because that’s the second thing I hate; how dark it is with the garage door closed, and very little lighting.
Anyway, for those ladies who are scared of wiring, I have this to say to you. A lot of things in life are a whole lot scarier. For example, it was a lot scarier having a baby, learning how to drive, building a home, or changing jobs. Wiring is a lot like beading. There’s a lot of wire twisting, making sure you use the right wires, and put the right wires in the right areas. If you take care, you can get the job done. The first thing you need is a little knowledge. I have a lot of great books on doing wiring, but my very favorite is the Sunset You Can Build Wiring. It comes equipped with step by step instructions, pictures and diagrams. Then you need the right tools, the right size wire, and extra supplies. I also like to take pictures before I make changes, so it will help me remember how things were hooked up just in case I have to back out of a change.

Today, I installed 2 outlets on one side of the garage. I had an outlet in the smallest bedroom that I used to start my middle receptacles, but because of where I was installing the 2 outlets, I needed to remove the bedroom outlet, pull the wire from the backside into the garage, run the wire to the first outlet, then run wire from that outlet back to the bedroom outlet, and then from that outlet I ran it to another outlet 4 feet over, and then ran the wire from there. For middle run receptacles I used pigatils and wire nuts.

The two receptacles in the garage were both installed as single location gfci’s, 4 feet above the floor. There is a picture of that diagram here. It took me about 4 hours. I had a lot of twisting of wires to do, and some work on my knees, but in the end, I was really satisfied with the result. I still need to cleanup. And I need to repair the sheetrock after inspection, but I’ll do that once I have all the outlets done. I’ll insist on having my wiring inspected because it’s the law and because I want that extra insurance that my work was OK.

Anyway, while I tested to make sure that the gfci’s were working properly and the electricity was flowing ok, I’m going to wait until Stevie gets home to verify that everything looks ok, before I turn back on the circuit on that panel permanently.