Not your Grandmother's electric

While this week was huge at the house, to the untrained eye, nothing much has changed. However, from a contractor standpoint, the brunt of the work is complete. The HVAC (Heating/Air Conditioning), Plumbing & Electric have all been properly placed, run, secured, inspected, etc and the walls are nearing the point of being ready to close up for good. We didn't run into too many issues with any of the subs. We had to rework that bit of plumbing to accommodate the 4" wall shimmy between the kitchen/mudroom and we had a bit of an issue fitting in one of the 3" can lights we had planned for the kitchen due to some new duct work being in the way. But with a little creativity and collaboration, we were able to accommodate everything that we hoped for.

On our last remodeling project, we walked through the house with the electrician and literally made decisions as we went. This time, we had a proper electric plan for the electrician to follow to a T. Here's what that looks like:


Putting this plan together will really make sure things all make sense when the project is complete. There's nothing worse than realizing you needed an outlet for a TV in a particular spot or a switch for a particular area where you forgot one.

Being that Jeff and I fell a bit short on our electrical planning on our last project meant we had plenty of ideas where we could improve on this house. Allow me to share my favorite part about this new house so you can steal it for your own remodel project.


What you are seeing here is a shot of an outlet that will be installed in the front exterior overhang. Why you ask? FOR CHRISTMAS LIGHTS! I love hanging garland at Christmas time, but there's nothing worse than a blaze orange extension cord hanging from your perfectly lit display. So the lights can be plugged into the overhang - and we can turn them on from a hidden little switch in the front hall closet.

Brilliant! Is it sad that I'm counting down the days to Christmas decorating time? Don't answer that.

By the way, YES, the front entry overhang was framed. She's in the early stages, but she's on her way to fabulousity! Here's a wide angle of the house as it stands today:


Another creative idea we (I mean our fantastic architect Susan) had is this little nook that will be built out with cabinetry as a small charging/mail station in our mudroom.

So a special outlet was placed here to accommodate our cell phone charger, camera charger, etc. We put it on the side of the future cabinet as seen here because the back of the station will have a small pin-up board for messages, etc.


The electrical plan also called for 2 pendant lights over the kitchen bar (right under the new archway that will separate the kitchen from the family room). I went back and forth on these countless times and ultimately decided to go with 3" can lights instead of pendants (See? At the very top of the pic?)

You KNOW I love light fixtures, but this new arch will be so beautiful, not to mention the view out through the french doors and into the painted cabinetry in the kitchen. I felt like the pendants would really take away from everything that is so simple and charming about the house. So I decided to go with the smallest can lights available to keep them almost invisible.

A highlight of this week was a fantastic meal shared with two of our dearest friends - who also happen to be Rosemary's Godparents and one of Jeff's prized co-workers. Thanks for a fabulous night out Tim and Rachel!