Weeks 6 & 7: Electrical and plumbing upgrades

I feel like the last two weeks have just flown by! Over the last few weeks we have been working on a few electrical and plumbing upgrades. The last time I posted I mentioned that things were a bit on hold while we were waiting for the electrician. He was finally able to come and checked a few major things off our list.

Replace the  electrical panel

The electrician we hired spent a day replacing the entire electrical panel. If you remember, the house had a fuse box that was located on the outside of the house. Not the greatest location for that. We wanted to upgrade the electrical panel and move it inside. It took Ryan about a day to replace the electrical panel and put a new one in the back bedroom.

Upgrade lights and switches

Tony and Ryan spent another two days replacing the wires and adding the ground, replacing switches, outlets, light fixtures, and adding new circuits for the extra appliances.  In the living room we added four potlights. There were no ceiling lights at all in the living room and the two bedrooms, so this is a huge improvement. The house feels so much brighter now.

We also replaced the old ceiling lights with some LED ceiling lights. In the bedrooms we’re going to add ceiling fans. There is no air conditioning in this house, so I think fans will be nice for whoever rents this home. The lights we chose are nothing special at all. They were some of the cheapest lights that still looked half decent. But they work, and it’s a lot better than what was there.

Kitchen progress

We made a fair bit of progress in this kitchen over the last two weeks. Once Tony and Ryan were done with the electrical, we insulated the back wall, added the vapor barrier, and then nailed studs to the wall. We decided to build out the wall a few inches so we can run the plumbing within a false wall.

NEXT WEEK

Next week Tony will finish the plumbing, and then do the drywall repair. We also have to do some self-leveling concrete in the hallway. Once Tony is done with those things, I can get back to painting and installing the flooring.

And I’m just going to go ahead and modify our reno timeline. There’s no way this house is going to be finished in 9 weeks. That was pretty optimistic.

RENO TIMELINE

• Week 1 – Demolition
• Week 2 – Laundry room plumbing
• Week 3 – Wall removal
• Week 4 – Prep for painting
• Week 5 – More demo and some flooring
• Weeks 6 & 7 Electrical and plumbing upgrades
• Week 8 – Drywall
• Week 9 – Paint and flooring
• Week 10 – Trim and exterior
• Week 11 – Kitchen and bathroom