Master Bedroom Rewire

This started as a video blog of my rewiring of our master bedroom. When I began editing the video, though, I realized, quickly, that I was boring as hell on camera. The subject matter didn't exactly lend anything to a memorable cinematic experience either. So instead, I cataloged the project with captioned screen captures of the video. By the way, I'm not an electrician and this is not a DIY  blog. If you get inspired to do a project like this, I suggest you do plenty of research first. And have the phone number of an electrician on speed dial.
 

 



When my wife went to Providence with the boys right after Christmas, I had a block of time on my hands I hadn't had since I lived by myself in Nashville. With the closest Civil War battlefield more than 300 miles away, I was left with only one thing to do. Rewire our master bedroom suite.

 

The problem with our master bedroom was that the switch to turn on that ceiling fan light was behind these French doors. 

 

 

 

I had added this lit switch to make it easier to find the switch in the dark. While it did make it  easier to find, it was still awkward to go around the door to access it. There had to be a better way.



 

There was and that was to be able to turn this light on from out in the hallway.

 

 

And if I had the hood up, I wanted to add control of the ceiling fan light from out here in our bathroom vanity area. I also wanted to maintain control of the ceiling fan light from the switch behind the doors.

 

To control a light from two locations requires three way switches. Since I wanted to control the ceiling fan light from three locations, I needed to install two three way switches and a four way switch. I've never wired a four way before. To do this required a bit of research.

 

There are several different ways to wire three and four way switches dependent on where the power supply is in the "flow" of the circuit. What made this project tricky, was that the original power supply for the ceiling fan was in the box that housed the existing switch for the light (behind the French doors). Since the power supply and the "hot leg" for the light can't be on the same three way switch, I tapped  power for the light from the bathroom vanity area. Luckily, the bathroom area was on the same circuit as the light. The hot leg for the fan would remain in the original box behind the doors. Fan power and control would remain in the original location.  

 

This entire project was made easier thanks to attic access to our bedroom walls and ceiling. Up here, after digging through a Great Lake of dust covered insulation, I found the three wire that goes from the wall behind the door to the ceiling fan. Next, I drilled three, 3/4 inch holes in the top plates of our bedroom walls so I could drop in new three wire. One line went behind the French doors and bathroom area for the three way switches, two lines went down in the wall in the hallway for the four way switch.

 

 

When I finally got to actual wiring, a well labeled circuit breaker box was a God send. We've been in this house 3 1/2 years and I've got every circuit in the house documented on the breaker door.
 

 

Some electricians have the patience and ability to pull cable through existing boxes. Not me. I pull out existing boxes if I'm adding wire. While it's an arduous, time consuming process, it's the efficient way I know to get new wire into existing boxes. 

 

I dismantled, labeled and made note everything that was in the existing boxes. I used different colored electrical tape to tell me what's what and then I made note of it. Red duct tape differentiates hot legs from the light and fan wires (all are black).  

 

 

Once everything is labeled, I slowly worked on removing the original electrical boxes. Biggest challenge was not doing too much damage to the walls.   

 

Out in the hallway, I also had to expand the existing hole so it could handle a new two gang (for two switches) box. Removing this box was much easier than the box behind the French doors because I made the hole significantly wider.

 

The first of two three wires for the four way is through. Onto the bathroom vanity area.  

The bathroom was last but not least. This is where I tapped the power for the light.

This was the least difficult box to work on because most of the heavy work had already been done. I had added a three way switch a couple of years ago so we could turn the vanity lights on out here by our closets. After I expanded this hole to be able to fit the three gang box, I dropped the three wire in and got ready to test everything for the first time. I triple checked my schematic and double checked all of my connections.

I turned the breakers back on and...

 

Money. Rinse and repeat two more times. Reassemble. Miller time.