Basement Boogie: Code Words

The eagle flies at midnight. The code is broken. We're a smidge fired up. We are about to become electricians. (Borrowed photo)

There is one area of basementry in which I have next to no involvement. That area is electrical work. It's tiny and tedious and with the way I follow step-by-step instructions, likely fatal. But, Hubs is as happy as a pig in mud to be mapping wires and making all the electrical magic happen.

What electrical magic, you ask?

We needed to map our existing wiring and figure out how to bump each outlet and switch out two inches to accommodate for the thicker insulation we'll have down there soon. One of the first steps in this was mapping the wires, which we took care of before the holidays. With that all figured out, Hubs had to go to the permit guys and figure out exactly what we'd need to do to be up to The Code.

The Des Moines City permits gave me fits during the deck-building, but it's a whole new ballgame with the electrical - this code makes sense! And, just like with the deck permit guys, the electrical permit guys are incredibly nice and helpful.

Turns out, the bump-outs should be pretty easy. Just a little demo-ing of this and some re-hooking up of that (like I said, little to no involvement, people) and we'll be set. Plus, the actual permits were cheaper than we expected! Hooray cheap!

This weekend will likely be vapor-barrier-and-buy-a-truck-load-of-studs-(teehee!)-and-insulation-weekend, which if you are not aware, is highly exciting. Don't worry, you won't miss a thing. I'll be sure to fully-document us saran-wrapping our basement (that's basically what a vapor barrier does) and driving semis.