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Author Message
25 new of 191 responses total.
keesan
response 157 of 191: Mark Unseen   Feb 17 23:11 UTC 2013

The hydronic heater wants 90C wire.  Lowes has no idea what that might be and
Stadium Hardware closed at 5 but an online forum explained that wire made
since about 1984 is all 90 C and older wire 60 C.  The fan-forced heater calls
for 60 C or 'standard' wire and we will call the company to find out if it
can be used as a junction box (run wire to it, then from it to another
heater).  Monday.  It attaches to a stud on the right side and you knock out
a knockout on the left side for the wires, but we plan to use it sideways (the
website says that is fine - up, down, sideways) to blow towards bathtub
instead of toilet so we are putting in a horizontal 2x4 to attach to and
'left' will be down.  From there we could run another wire to the right and
up to the other heater upstairs if allowed.  The instructions also say to have
an electrician put the heater in - that is us.  (We are it?).  

First the wire to the light switch gets moved so it attaches to the bottom
of another horizontal 2x4, leaving the area above it accessible as shelving
from the toilet side (12" deep).  THe area below the switch will be a rollout
basket (12" wide 30" deep) for dirty laundry, with a towel bar on the front.
I can't imagine having some electrician come design it this way.  We had the
good sense toleave 2' extra wire for the light switch and not attach the
switch to the wire yet.  

The bottom of the heater is optimally 18-24" off the floor, it is 10" wide
(high in our case) and the light switch bottom at 42".  The north side of the
shelving/heating/light switch area will contain 2 or more ventilation ducts.
With careful planning nothing will get in the way of anything else but most
of this has to be done before the rest of it.  
keesan
response 158 of 191: Mark Unseen   Feb 17 23:45 UTC 2013

We found a way to run wire to the heater in the furthest upstairs room without
going through a beam or the middle of shelving area, using one or more of the
holes for the downstairs bathroom heater, adding three 2x4s horizontally, a
slightly lowered ceiling, and other things I don't quite follow such as a
diagonal hole just missing the floor and going into bottom plate and then the
wall, wiring two heaters into a junction box in crawlspace where they can be
separated later if we want more than 200W in the smaller room, by adding a
second junction box going to a separate circuit.  Using 90 C wire.  The area
under the 2x4s will be accessed with deep drawers and that above it with
shallow shelves reached by sitting or standing on the toilet.  The wire for
the bathroom light switch will attach under the 2x4.
keesan
response 159 of 191: Mark Unseen   Feb 18 17:21 UTC 2013

Can'tput the heater in sideways, or within 4.5" of a wall (or the door in it)
so it has to be facing the space above the toilet, which is a bit harder to
wire, and the wire has to come in from the top left even though we are
bringing it up from the floor so we may put in an extra stud (short) to nail
to.  I can't imagine an electrician producing a good result here that also
lets the space be used for storage.
Roger has been using large green wire nuts to connect the ground wires, which
crowds the boxes, so I approved purchase of a spiffy but expensive special
tool to apply (cheap) copper crimps instead.  It comes with a wire cutter too.
He is off doing a few minor repairs for a neighbor while I warm my hands under
an antique 300W tabletop electric heater that makes the 43F more tolerable
when we are eating lunch or on the computer.  I also have but don't use an
under-table electric foot warmer (boot warmer?).  100W?  

We need to decide on the surface of the wall next to the heater, and if tile,
measure the tiles we will use in order to install it 1/2 or 5/8" out from the
surface.  Perhaps with longer screws we could stretch this to 3/4".  Wallboard
with mortar 1/2", tile 1/4" or possibly more.  The gang boxes are adjustable
after you put them in, but then if you use that kind you need to notch out
the surface that goes against them to accomodate the screws or at least get
pan head screws.  
keesan
response 160 of 191: Mark Unseen   Feb 18 21:37 UTC 2013

We spent an hour counting up how many wires go into which junction boxes
under the stairs, and how many cubic inches are required.  Upstairs lighting
24 cu inches (4x4x1.5" box), upstairs lighting and smoke alarms 30 cu in (the
latter because they use 14-3 cable with more wires in it).  Relay needs a 3.5"
deep box, transformer a shallower box because it sits on top of it, and the
24-hour timer can probably go in a single-gang box not a 4x4.  Roger drew out
the wiring diagram showing two minute timers in series (or parallel?).  The
relay gets power from the lighting circuit.  When it is switched on (both the
24-hour timer and one of the minute timers has to be on - i. e., it is
off-peak and you turned on the timer for 10 min to take a shower), the relay
magnetically pulls shut both legs of the water heater circuit (30 A) and you
get hot water.  The wiring details are not drawn yet, just the outline.

We wired all three light switches and decided we need to add a couple of
boards to support one piece of wallboard before we add a 2x4 horizontally to
support the wire coming up from the crawlspace to the top left of the heater,
which will go in last so we can get at the inside of that ventilation shaft
to put in ductwork.  Or at least I can get into that spot.

Roger just managed to drill through several thicknesses of bottom plate to
the crawlspace and now needs to drill the top plate for the upstairs heater
and we will run two wires down there to a junction box and then another to
near the time of day meter.

Our tiles are 1/4", the board is .4", and if we keep the mortar to 1/10" we
have a 3/4" wall but it is probably 1/8".  Spread it to 1/4" with a rake and
then smoosh it flat.  You can use longer screws to gain a bit of depth.

Our relay is double pole double throw for 240 volts (two legs are switched).
I need to go move a lot of things out of the way.
keesan
response 161 of 191: Mark Unseen   Feb 18 21:55 UTC 2013

Had to move a phone, a light, a clock and a radio out of the way and then a
board that used to be a temporary wall in order to drill down from up.  The
2' long drill made it down and is now going to drill up to make the hole
neater.   Then we may put back the board that was a wall, and the phone....
I need to take all the radios away - does anyone else still listen to
over-the-air radio?  
keesan
response 162 of 191: Mark Unseen   Feb 18 22:28 UTC 2013

I turned off the dehumidifier yesterday because it reached 60% humidity and
the fan runs continuously even when the compressor is off.  The temperature
has fallen a few degrees and I thought it was due to dehumidifier being off,
but it was because the upstairs space heater (on low) was unplugged when we
moved the outlet and never plugged back in.  So the 400W of fluorescent light
have kept the house at 43 degrees (up to 47 with us working in it and warm
outside).  
        About to run three 12-2 NM-B wires - two between future locations of
two space heaters and a junction box, one from there to the second electric
panel.  
keesan
response 163 of 191: Mark Unseen   Feb 19 01:54 UTC 2013

Tonight we are discussing with our architect friend
(1) how to tape between the vapor barrier in the window jambs and the cement
board wall, to which the casings will attach.  Our friend came up with a $500
solution involving two kinds of special tape and some special paint.  I
suggested two widths of Tyvek tape.
(2) ventilation, manifolds, slope, noise reduction, balancing, filters....
She showed photos of the first Michigan Passive House, with round and square
vents (you can use either one for in and out, on walls or ceiling).  It is
3000 sq ft including heated basement, plus an apartment with outside stairway
on top of a large garage.  The opposite of what we are building and no need
to plan how to use every bit of space, also they are in the middle of nowhere
and not trying to keep out the noise of power mowers, garbage trucks, or
helicopters.  The garage looks bigger than my house.
keesan
response 164 of 191: Mark Unseen   Feb 19 13:53 UTC 2013

I was told to schedule some inspection in the very near future in order to
extend my permits.  Since it will be a couple more weeks for electrical I
offered to have the porch and walls inspected and was told to do that as a
'partial final'.  Since I have only the electrical and building permits, this
implies that if I am making progress I can get the building permit extended,
which is helpful for my mental health.   I am supposed to schedule an
inspection for this week but I am also supposed to do a lot of legal stuff
before Friday - so who needs to sleep or eat? (Or grex).  I have three more
hours before we get back to wiring to make photocopies.  
keesan
response 165 of 191: Mark Unseen   Feb 20 00:05 UTC 2013

Today we planned out how to put upstairs and downstairs bath on one circuit,
and upstairs laundry area in one 'bedroom' and the laundry outlet in the
downstairs bathroom on another circuit and ran wires from breaker box upstairs
to them through the kitchen wall anda new hole in the porch floor.  We are
putting in junction boxes upstairs for now instead of outlets.  Next we need
to run from there to the downstairs bathroom.  And wire from downstairs
refrigerator outlet to upstairs freezer outlet, and downstairs junction box
for upstairs lighting to an upstairs light switch, and run wire from the
24-hour timer (not yet there) to one minute timer in downstairs bath then from
there to upstairs minute timer.  It adds up to 7 wires in one hole so we need
a second hole.  Most people do not run wire from cellar to upstairs to get
it to downstairs but we had to avoid a plumbing wall and some ventilation
shafts.  We actually put in three wires, which is 1 per 2 hours, not bad.
And two new holes, and four boxes that will be changed later.  

We need to run
wire tomorrow between refrigerator outlets, and between bath and laundry
outlets (from down to up or vice versa depending on your viewpoint) then
figure out the junction boxes.  The downstairs bath light is going on the
upstairs lighting circuit so it can share a double box with the upstairs
minute timer, and the upstairs stair light can therefore stay on the
downstairs light circuit (max 9 switches).  

To reach the bathroom and laundry outlets downstairs from upstairs we are 
coming down in one conduit (for two wires) behind the window casing and then 
into two boxes in series. 

keesan
response 166 of 191: Mark Unseen   Feb 20 13:39 UTC 2013

Tyvek tape seems to stick fine to mortar but Christina still thinks we should
use the much more expensive stuff she researched.  She and Jim can figure it
out - I am too busy photocopying legal stuff and helping with wiring.  I
calculated about $200 worth of the expensive tape, vs a few rolls of Tyvek
tape from the hardware store.  First she wanted us to put on about $100 worth
of special cement primer under the tape over the mortar.  We should maybe tape
before the walls are inspected.
keesan
response 167 of 191: Mark Unseen   Feb 20 18:46 UTC 2013

New problems.  We started with a pile of rather old (but unused) wire, and
it turns out some of it has undersized grounds, which are no longer code. 
Luckily we caught this quickly and replaced the 14-2 but I just noticed the
10-2 is the same (it is also black instead ofwhite, and NM not NM-B.  The NM-B
is 90C and the NM probably 60C.  Roger says the small ground would be
irrelevant since the metal water heater is also grounded to the copper pipe,
but code is code.

Turns out we probably need to replace the smaller outlet and switch boxes to
some with more cubic inches and TS will help with the calculations.
A 2x4 handybox is 13 or 14.5 cu in (probably depends on the 1.5 or 1.75 depth)
and an outlet with two cables both 10-2 counts as 4 (black and white) + 1
(ground) + 2 (outlet itself) = 7 x 2.25 (factor for No. 12 wires - NO. 10 is
2.0) = about 16.  In the wall boxes also have a cable clamp for another point,
or 18 cu in, but they are available in 3" depths, I think.  The surface
outlets that daisy chain to another outlet (2 cables) may all need 4x4x1.5
("four square") handiboxes.  Or box extensions but I don't want a 3" deep
outlet box on the surface.
keesan
response 168 of 191: Mark Unseen   Feb 22 23:26 UTC 2013

Today Roger showed up only 1.5 hours after he said he would and the three of
us spent an hour figuring out how to wire two junction boxes for lighting,
one for smoke alarms, a relay, a 24V transformer (unrelated), a 24-hour timer,
two windup minute timers, a toggle switch, a lot of lights, a water heater...
so as to have the water heater on from 7 pm to 11 am during heating season,
and only when switched on with the minute timers otherwise, with power to the
relay and timers from the upstairs lighting circuit so that you can put the
upstairs bath light switch and one time in the same square box, and the toggle
switch and downstairs timer in another square box, with the relay under the
stairs and the 24-hour switch next to the toggle switch, the smoke alarm
junction box fed power from the downstairs lighting circuit, no more than 9
lights per lighting circuit, and no more than 6 cables per junction box.
I already calculated sizes for the junction boxes (4x4x2 or was it 2.5).
This puts the relay near the water heater and the two timers near each other.
The toggle switch will be brown and clearly labelled Summer and Winter or OFF
and Automatic.  Then as we were leaving to work Roger got a phone call from
someone who said he had promised to work for her today and he was going to
come back later this afternoon but it is 6 pm so I am going to try for 12
hours sleep.  My average for the past 14 months has been 4-6.

I took a sick day yesterday but spent half of it photocopying and printing
and then as a special treat we went to the art museum for 30 minutes after
dropping off the photocopies, fixed a friend's laptop (the DC jack was plugged
instead of soldered in and the plug was loose), and then diagnosed a
neighbor's desktop (three bad caps, power supply and motherboard).

I look forward to a normal life again some day.  
tonster
response 169 of 191: Mark Unseen   Feb 23 07:37 UTC 2013

I hate to think of what the people are going to have to deal with when
Sindi is gone and they have to figure out why in the hell their water
heater doesn't work most of the time.
keesan
response 170 of 191: Mark Unseen   Feb 23 10:17 UTC 2013

Everything will be clearly labelled.  Without the 24-hour timer, future owners
would be paying three times as much for hot water during non-heating season.
Future owners can leave it on every day in the summer if they like a hot
bathroom, but not have it heating in the middle of the day, by default, or
switch it off then and only turn on when needed.  

Roger apparently forgot to let me know he was not coming.  Saturdays he likes
to get a late start and work until 10 pm.  I woke before 5 am as usual from
the stress.  This will end some day.
keesan
response 171 of 191: Mark Unseen   Feb 24 01:14 UTC 2013

We called Roger, who showed up around 4.  Someone who asked him to do a minor
repair also wanted him to replace a sink and a counter top (with one that
looks nicer).  He was supposed to postpone this sort of thing until June.
We have been working since 4:30.  Calculating required box sizes, looked up
ratings of metal boxes, could not figure out how to attach the gang boxes to
studs, Jim says they attach to drywall and to use the blue plastic ones that
nail on instead.

Pulled three wires from down to up for refrigerator and upstairs lights.

Spent the rest of the time rearranging junction boxes on paper and in real
life for upstairs and downstairs lights, smoke alarms, finding some place to
put them where all the wires would reach.  We will have to redo two of the
lighting wires that are too short for where we need to move the junction boxes
so we can cover the wall under the stairs with plywood but leave the boxes
accessible.  Or redo the longer wire from junction box to panel.  We have
assembled all the different sizes of clamps and will do the actual work
tomorrow bright and early (2 pm instead of 4:30) until we finish, with a bit
of daylight to help since this lighting circuit (which also powers smoke
alarms and water heater relay) is turned off while we work on it.

Time to go make supper, eat, and go to bed so I can get up and generate more
pages of printed paper before building again.

Opera does not work to schedule inspections (or to view permit information).
Nor would IE 9, so they suggest Firefox or Chrome.
keesan
response 172 of 191: Mark Unseen   Feb 24 03:45 UTC 2013

I just scheduled an online inspection using Firefox.  You have to accept
cookies to even view permit information, which makes no sense to me.
This is a 'partial final'.  Another option was 'drywall-screws'.  I hope they
are not expecting to see the screws in the cement board because we mortared
over all of them, as required by code for fire-stopping reasons (keeps the
metal from melting as quickly).  I read that inspectors sometimes check that
you put in enough screws - in one house the ceiling fell down and killed
someone because of not enough screws.  We overdid the screws, of course.

They will also inspect the porches.  You need railings to 36" (with only
narrow gaps between rails, I think it was 6" or maybe 4" but we put siding
over them instead) where the floor is a certain distance above the ground (24"
I think).  We also added screening (used) to block the snow and rain.  Once
the house has a CO, I can remove all the screening, rails, and siding, and
enclose the porches properly with glass for solar gain.  In the meantime they
are useful only for storing lumber.
keesan
response 173 of 191: Mark Unseen   Feb 24 23:06 UTC 2013

Today after Roger's monthly Friends' Center potluck (we help, he is in charge
of potlucks) we finally got up the board for the three junction boxes, in fact
we put up four boards because two were too narrow to staple and Roger put up
three before figuring out that the boxes could go lower and we would not need
to replace any wires, so we had to add the fourth on the bottom to staple
wires to.  We were able to use existing holes and run the final 14-2 to the
electric panel.  

We switched the wires for two circuits (what was downstairs
lighting power is now upstairs because it would not reach the downstairs box).
We are feeding the downstairs lights from the smoke alarm box instead of vice
versa.  We even managed to reuse a box with a few knockouts knocked out by
careful planning.  

I had written in china marker on each wire things like
'Smoke cellar' and 'Lights up West' and 'lights down bath' so we then labelled
all the upstairs circuit stuff with red tape (there will be a 24-hour timer
added soon) and the downstairs stuff with green tape, and sorted things out
between the junction boxes (pulling a few wires back out of holes and pushing
a few other through holes because the boxes were moved from right to middle
of the area) and put in the clamps but still need to make all the connections
(after the 24-hour timer wire goes in - first we need to choose where to put
the timer, which should be near the relay, which goes near the water heater
but they can't be blocked by it, or be over the tub).

We need to hook up the new downstairs power (replacing what is now upstairs
power) to the electric panel and move over the little pin that makes A (former
downstairs lights) and B (lights in unheated areas) go on and off together to
B and C (new downstairs, and A will be upstairs).  Hoping TS will help with
this and make straight runs instead of wiggles.

We also prettied up the porch for inspection, swept, moved the refrigerator 
away from the junction boxes and water heater so we could work there.

keesan
response 174 of 191: Mark Unseen   Feb 24 23:17 UTC 2013

Roger finally got the table saw working (from various parts - Jim had
collected 4 motors, various bases, etc.) and it needs adjusting.  One of the
four motors was a mouse house and the wires got nibbled - saws should not be
stored in open sheds.  The mounting plate has a large door hinge in it, and
some large bolts.  The base is smaller than the saw but they will be bolted
together.  This will let Roger make jamb extensions and it might work better
than his chop saw, which was adjusted to 90 degrees and was cutting at a
larger angle. I noticed that a 13.5 inch board was 1/4" short along one side
and when I measured the angles were off.  Adjusting the chop saw one degree
fixed the problem.  Never assume things work.
   We should probably start hooking up the wires in the junction boxes
since we will need tomorrow (daylight) for the electric panels if TS
does not have time to help with them.  The porch light circuit is off because
the other light circuits are off and it is hooked to what was the downstairs
circuit and will be the upstairs circuit (for lights) and we don't have the
new downstairs circuit even wired to the panel.  We can plug in a light on
the porch, I suppose.
   I would like to go home and cook supper before 9 pm but we can't always
have what we want.  
        It is a balmy 48 F inside today because it is over freezing out.
Feels much warmer than a normal house does at 55 because the walls are about
room temperature.
keesan
response 175 of 191: Mark Unseen   Feb 25 13:46 UTC 2013

We wired up two of the three junction boxes and started putting on the
covers.  The boxes are right up against eacah other and the covers are
wider/higher than the boxes.  Roger put on the middle cover overlapping the
left one and the right one over the middle one and I am going to make him take
off two of the boxes and move them slightly apart so things fit right. 
Yesterday did not go well.  I was too tired to cook and then woke up at 3 am
too hungry to sleep.  Tonight I will try to cook for a few days. (If I don't,
Jim just eats ice cream).  Jim has been making me breakfast and packing
lunches for us both. Roger only eats meat and avoids carbs (except for donuts,
cookies, cake, and ice cream) and we cook vegetarian but since Jim has been
redistributing Friday leftovers from the Salvation Army food program, he
sometimess gets cooked meat which he saves for Roger (and mixes with lettuce
so he will at least get a few vitamins).  


I got back to sleep for two hours and woke up hungry and also coughing but
the show must go on.  Today we are supposed to start at 10 am and end by 6
pm so I can have supper and try to get some sleep before tomorrow's
inspection.  We need to decide where to put the water heater and expansion
tank and water filter and relay and timers so we can wire for them.
The relay box gets connected to the power for the water heater, then feeds
the water heater, and is wired to the 24-hour timer which is powered by the
upstairs light circuit and controlled by a toggle switch and two minute
timers (any of which can turn on the relay if the 24-hour timer is at 11 pm
to 7 am or 'on').  
keesan
response 176 of 191: Mark Unseen   Feb 25 17:38 UTC 2013

This morning we discussed where to put the water heater etc. and took
measurements (Jim will draw it up) and now Roger is moving the three junction
boxes so the covers do not hit each other.  Not an easy job.
keesan
response 177 of 191: Mark Unseen   Feb 25 20:34 UTC 2013

Junction boxes are done except for replacing the supply wire to one of the
lighting circuits, the first one we ran to the breaker box, accidentally using
12-2 instead of 14-2.  This is legal but inconsistent and confusing, also the
wire is a bit too short so the ground would not reach the top screw of the
added ground bar.

Our half a roll of 14-2 was a few feet too short (as we learned after pulling
it through) so we took it out and will buy a new roll.  

Pulled 12-2 through for the upstairs west thermostat (and figured out where
to drill through walls and floor to reach the heater) and now doing the same
on east side - managed to reuse holes.  Thermostat to heater (twice) will
require creative routing through the walls, ceiling and floor, new holes.
It is helpful to have daylight upstairs but Roger is using a trouble light
in the crawlspace to carry the wires through the crawlspace, staple them along
joists, and then run through cellar (under porch) to breaker box (on porch).
keesan
response 178 of 191: Mark Unseen   Feb 26 00:07 UTC 2013

Three more heating circuits wired (except for thermostats and heaters).
The next door neighbor stopped by and ended up helping adjust a saw base for
an hour.  After we did 2 hours planning and 6 wiring.  Typical day.

I have been sweeping up piles of saw dust all over the place - it looked like
a lot of ants got loose in a sandy field.  I never knew what a house looked
like inside the walls before building one.  
keesan
response 179 of 191: Mark Unseen   Feb 26 18:12 UTC 2013

The saw is no longer wobbling - one leg was adjusted longer than the others.
Still no inspector.  We removed the 12-2 that should be 14-2 from the panel
and are about to reuse the wire in several short runs between upstairs
outlets that go through the floor to go under doors, then in conduit behind
the door trim (rabbetted, which means a notch in the side, rather than dadoing
behind it).  We will leave the ends free to put into upstairs outlets another
year, but the wires have to go in this year so we can put up ceiling.
There is a problem pulling a wire through an angle with a board in the way
and the hole already has two wires in it and is tight we another hole may be
needed...  (ROger says it is going now, he scared the hole and it is letting
him go through).

How late do inspectors work?  It is already 15 min past lunch hour ;=)
keesan
response 180 of 191: Mark Unseen   Feb 27 00:37 UTC 2013

The inspector showed up and was wondering what he was supposed to inspect.
I was told to get a 'partial final' and he said that comes after rough
plumbing, wiring, and mechanical, and makes sure the holes in the walls for
those have not caused problems.  He explained where to put firestop, and
thought we ought to add more fasteners to hold the joists to the studs but
after he left Jim said we had already put twice as much as needed in the form
of ring-shank long stainless nails.  He admired our soundproof room and took
a photo, and was very friendly and helpful and said he would talk to the
building official and tell him we were making progress.  And it was okay to
put plastic over the inside of the porch screen door to keep the porch dryer
and wondered why we were required to finish the porches in December.

Then we planned out how to do the rest of the upstairs outlets and ran one
wire and it started sleeting and Roger left while the driving was still
possible and may take tomorrow off.  Jim and I need to decide just where some
outlets go so we know where ot make holes in the floor.

We put the end of a wire to a future smoke detector into a wiremold box, with
wire nut on each wire to make it all safe.  We removed the 12-2 that was there
instead of a 14-2 and discovered it got ripped in the process and could only
be reused in two shorter pieces.

We do not need the wallboard inspected unless it is a 'rated' wall in an
apartment building or commercial building but he kindly listened to us tell
of our experiences cutting the board.  He was properly impressed with the
stainless steel roof.  Nice guy.

I get tomorrow off to do other things that need to be done because it will
be too snowy for Roger to drive from Chelsea.  The other things are important
but won't be fun - more details in a few months.
keesan
response 181 of 191: Mark Unseen   Feb 27 04:21 UTC 2013

We fixed up the CAD drawings for heat and outlets - lots of changes.  The
'bedroom' upstairs (half of which is labelled laundry) now has two AFCI
circuits (shared with two other spaces), two laundry outlets next to the sink
that are GFCI (one will have a GFCI outlet) fed from the panel, which feed
the downstairs laundry circuit, and one refrigerator outlet (fed from the
downstairs refrigerator outlet - it would have been more direct to feed the
upstairs one first).  I hope this is code.  You need GFCI next to sinks.  We
could view that end of the room as a kitchen.  Refrigerators within 6' of
sinks are supposed to be plugged into GFCI outlets, which are not good for
refrigerators so they made an exception for refrigerators in kitchens.
It might be better to label that area as 'summer kitchen' instead.  A kitchen
needs GFCI outlets over counters but since it is not a kitchen at the moment
there are no counters, however there are GFCI outlets over where there might
be counters next to the sink.  If it is a bedroom we need AFCI outlets, which
I have at the other end of the room, to prevent fires in walls.  Since the
outlets in the kitchen/laundry area will be on the surface, they can't cause
fires in walls.  I might actually use that room as a kitchen, in which case
you need TWO kitchen circuits both GFCI, but one of them is a GFCI laundry
circuit.  It could be a kitchen while I finish off the downstairs, then a
laundry to replace the downstairs laundry.  If they object to the non-GFCI
outlet for the refrigerator (or freezer) I could move it to the other end of
the room.  Hopefully they will accept this odd arrangement.

Major plan change - we had moved the bathtub (in the plans) to where  the
downstairs bathroom freezer was supposed to go because the new code required
GFCI anywhere in a bathroom, and moved the freezer upstairs to the
bedroom/laundry/kitchen space.  It was originally going in the cellar but that
also needs GFCI outlet (below grade).  Just noticed from Roger's measurements
that the new bathtub spot is only 28" wide and bathtubs are 32".  We could
narrow the door from 32 to 30", or put the bathtub back where it used to be
and the water heater where the freezer was going to go.  Where the bathtub
used to go is under a sloping ceiling and a tall person won't be able to
shower very comfortably but they can shower standing over the floor drain
instead.  Or we could omit the bathtub and have a shower.  
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