Of Electrical Panels….and a Trip to the Bronx….What Stinks?

For the Ring has awoken…..it has heard its Master’s call!

Yes, free folk of Middle earth it is time to wake up and smell the roses. For the roses are beautiful and need to be appreciated. Alas, I was very close to missing them until the Editor cracked me one and I awoke from my slumber.

You’re a bit lost aren’t you? Well let me just clue you in on what happened.  I received a phone call the other day about ticket availability to the Subway Series at Yankee stadium this weekend. (The series being the baseball games between the New York Yankees and the New York Mets) It was late and I wasn’t thinking. I admit to that. Okay, it was bordering on stupidity. It was a long day at work and I was beat and I was thinking we had to pick Georgia up at JFK at 7:30 coming home from England. I was offered 4 tickets to the Subway Series at Yankee Stadium in the Delta Sky suites. I declined the tickets. (Editor’s Note: Does anyone also get the feeling that he was thinking: I want to work at the Hobbit House this weekend… Yes. He was.)

Luckily I saw the shadow of the frying pan as it came flying over the kitchen island. I ducked and it crashed into the fridge. (The Editor has a pretty good arm and aim I might add.) So I woke up pretty quickly! (Sort of like the first line in this post.). Anyway, I was able to get the tickets and it worked out really well. It was a 4:05 start to the game and we were able to watch the game into the 8th inning before we had to go and pick up Georgia. I was also able to get the electrical panel up on the wall Saturday morning so that was a home run so to speak. Check out the seats we had.

The Editor and Terence at Yankee stadium.
The Editor and Terence at Yankee stadium.
View from the stands
View from the stands

There was a warning sign on the back of the seats in this area though. Check it out.

Warning
Warning

Two foul balls came our way. The Editor was cringing in fear. The woman behind us two rows back got hit in the head with one. She was okay though. We had a great time. The roses are great….and we do need to stop and smell them…and the Mets won which was even better. I’m always rooting for the underdog. (Editor’s Note: There was no frying pan thrown. Yes, it was a rather tense dinner the night he refused the tickets…but in the end it was all worth it. We had a really wonderful day!)

So what’s new at Hobbit Hollow?

Well, one of the things that we have to get done before we pour the slab is the odds and ends electrical. I wanted to secure the panel box in the correct location so when we pour everything gets locked into place. Next weekend you’ll see that we’re going to locate all the circuits for the house and bring them over to the panel box. This way the hardest part of the rough wiring will be done when we pour the slab. Another home run!

So I picked up a 200 amp service panel at Home Depot and brought it over to the house. I don’t do this kind of work too often so I took my time. I wanted to make sure everything was located properly.

It’s a pretty simple procedure. Locate where you want to put the panel, secure it to the wall, and get the conduit into the panel so you can run your main wires into it.

I secured a couple of 2x4s to the wall with expansion bolts. Expansion bolts you say? Yes, expansion bolts. Real quick on how they work. Drill a hole into the concrete at the proper diameter and hammer the bolt in as far as it can go. Once it’s in there and you put the nut on, the bolt starts to pull out of the hole. (Sort of.) As it’s pulling out this piece on the bottom of the bolt starts to expand (Hence the name) and locks it into the concrete. These bolts will never come out once you tighten them up. Actually the more you tighten on the bolt the more they expand, making it impossible for them to come out. Here’s a picture.

Expansion bolt
Expansion bolt

The bottom is wedged shaped if you look closely. The outer part slides onto that wedge as you crank on the nut.

Before you hit the bolt in put he washer and nut on just in case you damage the threads when you hit the bolt.
Before you hit the bolt in put he washer and nut on just in case you damage the threads when you hit the bolt.

The next thing I did was carefully knock out the opening for the 2 inch pvc pipe in the bottom of the panel. Be careful doing this. I messed this up once and it was really annoying.

Knock out the opening at the bottom for the PVC pipe.
Knock out the opening at the bottom for the PVC pipe.

After that I just cut the pvc to the right height and installed the box  on the wall with a couple of drywall screws.

Electrical panel installed.
Electrical panel installed.

Not too shabby.

That was a wrap for the day. It took me about 2 hours to install it. So I was done just in time to get ready for the game.

Oh yeah, like I said, we picked Georgia up at JFK around 7:30. That worked out really well, too. We arrived home a little after 9pm. But this was weird…all of a sudden I smell something in the house. Something that definitely wasn’t there before we left earlier in the day. Sometimes you smell something and you know what that something is but it really isn’t making sense why you are smelling that sort of something. I don’t know if that makes any sense?  I asked, “Georgia did you just take off your shoes?” Reply: “Yeah, why?” “Because if you don’t put something on your feet immediately I think I’m going to be sick that’s why!” This was one of those smells that wasn’t just in the air. It felt like it was on you as well. I’m not kidding. It was really bad. She started going on about how she had worn these socks for so many hours on the long flight and blah, blah….Yeah, right.

I’m just going to chalk that one up to the English Fish n chips she had across the pond. Its gotta be, right? Needless to say we aired the house out and Georgia washed her feet. She had a grand adventure and she had a tale or two to tell!

It was the Fish n Chips right?

We’re really going to try and wrap things up next weekend if possible.

See you next week!

Jim

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