a while ago my dad visited our house to lead the way in a home improvement project. we wanted to replace the cabinet in our main level bathroom. the short, wide, rust-speckled cabinet housed the bathroom’s only electrical outlet and two fluorescent bulbs, one of which was not working (bad ballast). we found a tall, narrow, tri-fold mirror cabinet at home despot. we also purchased a brushed-nickel light fixture with three bell-shaped lights to mount above the mirror. first, we used a multimeter to test outlet voltage and figure out circuit destinations. the old lady who previously labeled the circuits wasn't keen on universal detail, for example, labels read something like “outlet by the blue chair” or “vacuum outlet.” next, we formulated our plan. most of the wiring in our house has no ground wire and we wanted the bathroom wiring to be grounded. we planned to replace the old bathroom wiring and switch it over onto another circuit. we found one circuit that ran from our circuit breaker up to an electrical outlet on the east end upstairs; that one outlet was the only thing on the circuit. after consulting with area expert eric klinker, we decided to buy 3/8 inch flexible EMT (electrical metallic tubing) with 12 gauge black, white, and green wires prepackaged within. we bought extra ground wire to fish from the circuit breaker through a conduit to the junction box of interest in the basement. from the site of this junction box we ran flexible EMT up to the crawl space in the attic. since we were replacing the wiring, this was accomplished by taping one end of the new wire to the end of the old wire and then pulling the wire up. we also ran two sets of wire (for light switch and electrical outlet) up from the bathroom light switch to the attic and one from the bathroom light to the attic. so, now we had a lot of loose ends everywhere. we made pigtails, used wire nuts, and successfully completed the circuit. we used a rotozip to cut out a bigger hole in the wall to accommodate the height of the new cabinet. we smoothed the sides using a rasp. then we filled in the excess width with 2x4 pieces. we leveled the bottom, using lath as shims under an oak board we found in the attic. we put up a little drywall to tidy up the hole in the wall. then we placed the cabinet in the hole and anchored it with some wood screws and molly bolts. the finishing touches involved applying a few tiles and caulking around the cabinet. voila. thanks dad.
