I promise you, I’m in the studio, and I thought I had the last big project done. I spent the weekend plugging in the last of the electrical outlets in the room, and it was a monster project. One part took me most of yesterday. I had high hopes that by the end of the weekend, I would finally be able to cross this item off my “to do” list, only to then discover that something had gone wrong and now required troubleshooting. Let me explain.
I started by wiring the outlets behind the cabinets in the corner of the desk in my studio. These outlets are all on one circle, and that circle begins with the outlet on the wall to the left of the cabinets, then wraps around the outlets behind the cabinets. The first outlet in this circuit is located behind the cabinets behind these two middle drawers in the left section.
If you take those drawers out, there is a panel that can be lifted up for easy access to this port. This is where the candlesticks are connected. (I still need to get cover plates for all of these outlets.)
Nothing about this was easy – working at odd angles, working with 12 gauge wire, trying to fit things where they needed to go, and working around the supports that these cabinets were attached to. But I figured things out. In the lower cabinet section, I ended up cutting the back panel off completely from the top because my printer was an inch too deep to fit on the shelf with the back panel. *Sigh* But that’s okay. No one will see it regularly except me.
If you bend over and look, the view will be particularly messy. I might at least end up painting everything white. Or you may not worry about it. I need to put cover plates over the outlets, but other than that, who really cares what they look like? I’m the only one who will see this, and at least the printer is sitting on the shelf now.
So I plugged all of these outlets (five in total) into the cabinets, and then plugged in my sconces to make sure they worked. They did! For the first time since I finished these cabinets, the sconces actually worked.
Obviously I don’t want to take out the drawer and plug in the sconces every time I want them, so I plugged them into a remote control outlet (this is the one I got – affiliate link) that is controlled by this cute little remote. I researched and read a lot of reviews on different ones to make sure I was getting one that would work through walls (or in this case, through a closet).
The remote comes with a mounting bar, so I mounted the remote here. It’s like there’s a light switch there.
I felt so accomplished after finishing it, I was ready to tackle the other section. I knew this section was going to be more challenging, and I had put this off for an embarrassingly long time. This circuit starts with the outlet at the bottom of the framed landscape plan, then goes to the left, feeding two other indoor outlets on that wall (including the one directly behind the TV)…
It then wraps and feeds the entire front wall, including outlets and pendant lights.
This circuit was never fully wired (which meant I never had pendant lights or working outlets on the front wall) because this circuit also included two outlets on the outside of the side wall of the studio. This seemed very overwhelming to me.
I tried to do these ports once, and was unable to do so at the time. So I gave up, and never tried again. But this time I was determined. I had to start cutting down the ugly trash tree that has been growing for a week in this area just so I can get back there to work. I should have gotten the picture before I cut it out. It was at least as high as the ceiling in the breakfast room. It took a while, but I finished most of it, at least enough so I could get back to that side wall of the studio.
Then I installed the ports. This was a difficult and frustrating project. In order to connect these outlets, I had to cut out the concrete siding, the OSB underneath, and the original hardwood siding that was underneath that. I used my Dremel Multi-Max to get through all those layers, but it had a hard time getting the job done. But I finally cut the holes and connected the outlets with wires.
For the first time ever, I now have functional lights and outlets on the front wall of the studio. (I forgot to put a bulb in the center wall sconce, but it’s on the same circuit, and on the same switch as the pendants.)
All of which was a huge victory except that last evening I went to press the button on the little remote to turn on the sconces behind my desk, and nothing happened. No lights were turned on. I took out the drawers, disconnected the sconces from the remote receiver, plugged them directly into the outlet, and nothing happened.
I went to the breaker box to see if the breaker had tripped for some reason. no. The crusher was fine. I plugged a tool into the first outlet on that circuit (the one on the wall next to my desk), and it worked fine. So after all that, just after I thought I had finally finished all the wiring in the entire room, the outlets behind my desk weren’t working for some reason.
I am very disappointed. I can’t even imagine what went wrong. The only thing I can think of is that the first outlet behind the desk area is faulty. I hope and pray that this is all it is, that I can replace it with a new one and everything will work properly. Because if this is not the problem, I have no idea how to troubleshoot this issue. I will have to call a professional to fix it for me. For now, I’ve turned that circuit off completely. This seems like the safest thing to do until I (or someone else) can figure out what’s going on.
So I haven’t been able to tick this huge looming project off my list yet. That was very frustrating. But I’ll keep pushing, and it will get done. As for the rest of the room, I still have a couple of doors to paint, and then a lot of cleaning to do. If I can catch this electrical issue sooner rather than later, I can easily finish this room in the next couple of days.
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I repurpose and decorate a 1948 fixer upper that my husband Matt and I purchased in 2013. Matt has MS and is unable to do physical labor, so I do most of the work Working at home by myself. You can learn more about me here.
