[re]Wiring My House
If there was still any question in anyone's mind of Craig's status as a geek then this page should dispel any doubt.  I decided to run a network cable through my attic from my home office to the other side of the house and, like all such endeavors, it became a massive wiring project.  Dad was out to visit so I solicited his assistance and we spent a few days climbing in the attics and cutting holes in walls.

If you are easily bored by exhaustive details concerning geeky or home improvement jobs then I would not recommend this page to you whatsoever.

Still there? Good, let's start with a sneak preview of the end of the project: here is the wiring cabinet that we installed behind the door of the laundry room and one of the jacks.

Once completed, the cabinet's door neatly hides all of the confusion.

I spent a LOT of time climbing up and down from the 2 attics...

Here is one of the two wall outlets in my office. Whenever possible we combined the outlet with an existing phone or cable outlet.

Ok, now back to the beginning! To start, we cut a great big hole in my laundry room door. Naturally at this point there is no turning back!

Next, we put together some of the basics of the wiring box which we purchased at home depot for about $50.

My house essentially has three attics. This is the garage attic above the wiring cabinet. Most of the jacks we ran were in the attic above the main house. There is also a no-man's-land attic between these two.

The front half of the garage attic.

In order to place an outlet in the wiring cabinet we spliced into the junction box above the garage door opener. This occurred only after we tried fruitlessly to patch into many other outlets that were closer to the cabinet.

Here is the hole I drilled for the wires that run from the cabinet to the rest of the house.

Next, we ran a PVC pipe from the garage attic, through no-man's-land, and into the upper attic so we could more easily push wires through.

Here is the portal through which I passed continuously...

Dad wires in the electrical outlet.

Now on to the upper attic. It is as big as my house and, unlike the garage, there is plenty of headroom.

The pipe conveniently came out above my office, the destination for the first set of wires. In all, there are 5 terminated data lines into the office and therefore no need for a hub.

Another portal through which I passed continuously.

One of the easiest jacks to run, this hole led down to the built in desk in my office.

Peeking into no-man's-land...

This odd antechamber sits above the shoe rack in my bedroom closet and provides access (via a trap door made of insulation) to the upper attic. It is an odd series of contortions that allows one to gain entry into this room!

Dang! This large hole provided me a clear view of a horizontal stud that blocked our path to the floor of my bedroom. We eventually would abandon this jack altogether. Alas, a project for another day...

Here was the most physically demanding chore of the project. This is the northwest corner of my house where I wanted to run a jack. It is an outside wall with insulation and horizontal studs. I had to first lay on my stomach on this makeshift shelf then drill a hole on an angle above the wall.  After the hole was drilled I had to cut into the drywall above my cabinets to drill another hole in a horizontal stud. Next, we cut the phone line below and used it to draw a string up to the horizontal stud. Lastly we used the string to draw the two wires back down. After completion I had to patch the hole in the drywall.

Got to seal all those holes I drilled when I am done! Here is a can of spay foam and some patched holes.

The cabinet draws closer to completion.

Fruits of labor: the combined phone/data jack in the far wall.

I added a jack in the Den to the wall plates I installed during a previous wiring project - my home theater.

Finally, with custom one foot drop cables completed, the cabinet is nearly finished.

And it wouldn't be a professional job without a nifty-looking wiring diagram for the cabinet door! Here is a small version of that diagram.

Now I am off to patch all those holes we made...