drywalls and bridges, and the mitchneyland electrical parade.

Here's another in the riveting Time-Life before/after carnage-in-the-wild series. On top we have el kitchen with all soffits torn down, and as you can see, much of the drywall ripped out. In case you're wondering why we ripped out so much: the lower areas were largely tortured after I tore out the ceramic tile backsplashes mentioned in other posts, and the upper parts, as you can see on the right side didn't exist because the soffits previously lived up there. It makes sense to have large pieces of drywall as opposed to a ton of little ones- less joints, and easier to attach, because there has to be adequate framing behind to screw it into (they aren't there yet in the pic on the left, but I added some extra 2x4's between the studs so we'd have places to screw in drywall). Fortunately, my good friend Myke was in town to help, as he has more drywall experience than I, and we were up 'til midnite cutting and installing Tuesday night. If you're ever done drywall, you know that it weighs a metric-ton, and moving it and holding it over your head gets real painful real quick. Yowch.

But that's only the beginning of the fun. Y'all are gonna LOVE this...

Electrical Calamity #1

It's not really visible in the pic, but one unexpected glitch was that the 120v power lines for the outlets ran down from the attic. These were very tightly routed through the previously-there soffits at angles, and tightly stapled in place. That meant that there was no way we'd be able to put drywall all the way up to the ceiling, because it would've run into the power wires, and of course, there wasn't enough slack to just shove them up in the ceiling. Clearly these wires were going to need to be extended. Now, with 120v, it's not like your stereo speakers- it isn't a super good idea to just cut 'em and twist in some new wire. If you want to even remotely comply with code (and reduce the chances of a mishap causing an in-wall electrical fire), you want to use a metal or plastic utility box screwed into the wall and do your wire cap splicin' exploits in there. Safety first, right?

So, off to Lowe's we trudged for the third time that day where I bought a bunch of boxes, wire nuts, slick new black outlets and Romex cable (as the B-52's say, Romex if you want to). Next day I yanked out the master fuses to shut off power to the entire house, because, as mentioned, safety first. Well, I made a small error here. Since we were going to be putting up drywall with strategically cut holes for the outlets, I didn't screw them into their respective boxes in the wall. I simply left the outlets sticking out of the wall, supported by their wires (which are very rigid). Then I turned the power back on. While attempting to plug my little outlet voltage checker into the outlet, I accidentally pushed the hot lead on the side of one of the outlets into the metal wall box (the one it should've been screwed into). Anyone out there in blog land know what happens when a hot 120v lead touches a ground? Ever seen one of those Fourth of July firework fountains? Something like that, but more electrical-ly. The side of the plug managed to arc weld itself to the the side of the box before it blew the breaker. To say this got our attention would be a tremendous understatement. Fortunately I was wearing big gloves when this occurred. To his credit, Myke was amazingly calm about this. I was a little freaked.

Electrical Calamity #2
Jumping ahead a couple of hours, we ready to hang another piece of drywall when I realized that I hadn't yet extended one of the wires to the right of the sink. Seeing as it was getting dark out, I wasn't keen to turn off all the power and severly compromise in-house visibility for either of us. This mess of outlets+switch was the same one providing the aforementioned fireworks, and since it had blown a breaker, I figured "hey, the breaker is already off, so no power here". I even checked the plugs with my little plug-in checker. No light. No power. Soooooo... the metal box had about four different power cables running into it (the junction boxes also provide power for adjacent outlets in other locations in the room). Confident the power was off (but still wearing big gloves) I began yanking this big cable through the box, which was difficult because of the other wires as well as the cruelly oblique angles it had been bent to. With the cable almost out of the box (and its two wires stripped and exposed...), I gave it a good heave ho, then BLAP BLAP BLAP... a spark shower even more impressive than the first followed by every room in the vicinity going black (it was totally dark out by now. Inside too.) Needless to say, this REALLY got our attention. And really scared the crap out of me. Again, fortunately, no personal harm. And again, Myke was surprisingly calm, and likely doubting my electrician skills*. Apparently, that breaker DIDN'T shut off everything in there. I went outside, pulled the master breaker, and by the light of Myke's flashlight, I finished extending the necessary wire. Of course it had popped more breakers (including one that killed about 70% off the lights in my house) and I was so freaked out and worried that I might've wired something screwy, I didn't even attempt to reset the breakers 'til the next day. For the record, everything was fine the next day, and no electrical explosions thus far.

Back to drywall world...
I also had to cut a bunch of notches in the framing at the tops for the wires to slot into. Ever hold a sawzall over your head for a while? That also hurts. Myke and I finished as much as we could Tuesday night, and I finished the rest today. We also had to replace a LOT of insulation, because the old stuff falls apart and leaves a lovely noxious dust in the air. Currently all the drywall is installed, but I haven't begun the process of applying tons of drywall compound ("mudding") and taping to smooth over joints, screw holes and remnants of prior electrical firestorms (just kidding). Next step after that is paint, and somewhere in there, the flooring guys shall arrive for polished concrete glory. Slowly, it's starting to actually improve.

*They who know me can confirm that I've successfully built a lot of electronic crap, know the difference between a volt and an amp, and that I'm generally pretty crafty with a soldering iron. But by my own admission, the vast majority of my electronic mucking about is with audio gear where the voltages are almost always completely harmless, i.e. you'd have to make a very concerted effort to hurt yourself. Domestic 120v mains power, on the other hand, can easily hurt you, and I won't hesitate to say that it scares me bit.