Routovation?

As Alex Trabek says, "Soory."
It's been few days since I've posted. But we have been working.
Just taking it a little bit slower lately because we're getting tired.

A couple of weeks ago I asked about re-routing some items in the kitchen.
Some of you may not know that my dad is a general contractor and he knows about this stuff.
He didn't respond on the blog, but by email instead. It references TO Re-ROUTE OR NOT TO Re-ROUTE

Here was his response:
Houston, there shouldn't be any problem with drilling through the 2x4's to re-rout the electrical line. Make sure you use proper wire nuts where you splice the wire. I would even use electrical tape over the wire nut to insure the connection is tight. You need to vent over the kitchen range, but you can use a vent that has a filter and doesn't vent to the outside. We did this in both our Pagosa and Mexico homes. We used a microwave above the range with a vent that had a filter, but didn't vent to the outside.

I hope he is ok with me using his knowledge here. I wouldn't want to expose his rebellious internet communications to the likes of Cheney and Rumsfeld. I digress...

We did as he instructed. But I changed a couple of things. Rather than routing the electrical line down through the ceiling of the window, we routed it above. That way we aren't limited on the lighting we choose to use for that area. Here, I am drilling through the 2X4's to re-route the electrical line.
I didn't use nuts, only tape right now, but the circuit is off!
I have a really crazy story about electricity later....(scary)


Here you see that I've made it to the area I want to mount it with. Check out that Rock Wool. I hate Rock Wool.

Nonetheless, I didn't have to drill the second 2X4. I was able to run it underneath. One of very few times when God made it easy for me. Had I gone through the top of the sill as I had originally imagined, it would have been very difficult. Too much distance and at Sal's suggestion, we decided against doing it that way.






Here is the end result and I think it will give a great lighting opportunity for this kitchen. Notice the new dry-wall!
Doing my best.


On to the next portion of removal: The ventilation.

I had to go up into the attic. This time I took a mask with me.
Working with Rock Wool, you'd better have a mask. There is more dust in the air than you care to imagine.


Here it is before the soffits were removed. It's a nasty sonuvagun. Luckily, in the attic, only duct tape and gravity were holding the duct tight. When removed, it was simple to release and I pulled it up and laid into the attic floor(and yes, I left it there. But I left it there in very straight lines as to make it look like I knew what I was doing when I have to remove it from the attic 15 years down the road...moving on).



Here is the soffit area with ventilation removed.
I think it looks pretty good. Comment if you want,
on the quality, but I think we are working with
rocket scientists now.




At the same time, We bought a wallpaper steamer.
I know.... Her we go again with another friggin tool.
It costs $50, but it does the job well. I had a theory that
I could just dump a bunch of hot water on the wall and
wait, but it would have taken days to get this stuff off.
Days I tell You!
With this tool it will only, by our estimation, take 4 hours.
The laborious technique (rip it off) would have taken a
long frickin' time.
I would have had to repair everything it ripped off.
This renovation is in living color, and "Homey don't play dat".
Gotta have the right tools to do the job...