All in all, it's just some hole(s) in the wall

The ongoing saga of the sunroom renovation continues. My deadline is April 15, and who knows if I'll make it. Just a random deadline, just because. Has nothing to do with tax day, honest. I just needed a deadline to shoot for.

I'm relocating where 2 of the 4 original AC electrical outlets were. What this means is I need to get an idea of about where I wanna put them, and then cut some new rectangular holes for them in the panel.

I also need to get some idea of where the existing wiring runs inside the panel, since I'll need to fish some of it out to make new connections. There are two sets of wiring - one is for the heaters and one's for the outlets.

I took some measurements off the new baseboard heaters to get an idea of where they're going to wind up on the panels. I also wanted to mark some holes for where the wiring will come through the shelf panel and then go into the heaters. The heaters have a round knockout plug in the back to run the wiring through.

Made the first hole in the panel - a rough (yikes) rectangle (isn't that a trapezoid technically?) behind where one of the heaters will go. Had to figure out where the wiring was and what I'd be in for in trying to fish it out. You may be wondering why I can't just reach up from underneath the panel. There is a vertical piece at the bottom that prevents me from doing that. Hence the hole in the middle. You can see the two cables going through. Looks like I can 'guide' the wires where I'll need them. I hope.

Next we measure for the new outlet boxes. This one is going where one of the old ones was. I just used one of the new shallow recessed boxes and traced it. I drilled a hole in each corner and then used a jigsaw to cut the lines between the holes. The holes in the pictures are the old ones left from the old boxes.

The jigsaw is a vintage Black and Decker - back in the days when B&D built stuff in Towson, Maryland, the county seat of Baltimore County. East Joppa Road, to be precise. They don't make them like this any more. This one has an all-steel housing. Probably not as powerful as a new one, but a lot cooler looking. The jigsaw belonged to Ms. Yr Fthfl Blggr's dad. She says "he used it to build our finished basement." Feels good to use such a fine tool on our project.


Here's one of the holes after the cuts. Came out pretty well. The new boxes will just drop right in. Also, you can see the styrofoam behind the panel the PO put there. He had a thing for styrofoam...I suppose this was insulation of sorts. It sure made funny noises when the jigsaw blade hit it.