ORC Week 3: Adding New Electrics
Sometimes Do It Yourself means making the call yourself to a professional
One of my favorite YouTuber Jeff from HomeRenovision DIY says that sometimes DIY means making the call yourself to a pro. In this case thats what I did this week to get a new ceiling fan (yes the beautiful one from my ORC Kickoff moodboard!) and four new recessed lights. It doesn’t mean you aren’t capable of a failure, but that you are being strategic with the jobs that you do tackle.
In this case I needed the job done right, I had multiple things that needed adding which could get complicated, and I knew that the Electrician would get it done way faster than I could. As a result I could focus on other tasks this week.
The most important thins: I don’t do attics.
Items to buy for your Electrician
1: Make sure you have all the lights and other fixtures you need. In my case that meant:
- Ceiling fan 52″ White, walnut
- Recessed lights White
- New Black light switch I choose stacked since space is limited
- Knowing location for installation / configuration
If you want standard lights, your electrician can provide white puck lights and standard white switches. You’d still have to provide the Fan.
The Prep I did before they came
I saved a little bit of money by removing the existing Fan. I also wanted to paint the ceiling before hand so having the fan gone helped.
After taking down the old fan and getting shocked twice (even with the Main power to the house off!!) I opened the box for this one and said nope! The Hunter Dempsey ceiling fan comes with a remote, receiver and a million wires and I decided it was best if an electrician figured it all out! They came on Tuesday to do all my electrical; it was a two person job and took most of the day! I watched as the put in new 4 wire line (black, white, red and ground) for this baby and linked it up to a new double switch.
Next came installing 4 recessed lights. I realize now it was overkill but I wanted to make sure every nook was illuminated as the only light was in the fan previously. I chose a color changing set which can do any color under the sun and wend with a black border to better blend in with my dark ceiling! The process to install these involved crawling into the attic, to wire all the lights together, drilling into the ceiling, and wiring it to the switch.
Overall it added a lot of light to this room. This week also gave me time to figure out what I need to do to remove the middle wall in the closet to open up the door frame. I polled my Instagram community and they came through! Hopefully next week, we’ll see some more demo work!
The Final Result
I love the ceiling color and I love this fan!
The install took about 4 hours by my electrician. I bought the lights, the fan and wall switch. He provided extra Rome wire, and went into the attic with his helper to wire the new lights, drill the holes for the lights to fit into and make sure everything worked.
Is this something why would try yourself?
ORC links for the previous and future posts!
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It’s electric!! Wiggly wiggly wiggly! I definitely feel you on knowing your limits, staying sade and sane!! I love that fan too!
Lol. Thank you!!! I can change an outlet but I’m not adding a whole new set of wires and linking them together!