The plan is to put up lighted crown molding to add dimension and indirect lighting to the room and to remodel the ample closet space into a bureau cum mini-closet cum desk area. By putting in a full sized futon, I can use the room as a sitting room/spare bedroom, and without the clutter, it'll seem quite spacious.

To accomplish my goal, the project required some rewiring of the room, so I found three books that seemed to have the information I needed: Wiring 1-2-3 by the people at Home Depot, The Complete Guide to Home Wiring by the Black and Decker people, and Wiring a House by Rex Cauldwell. Each is an excellent book with much to offer, but I definitely found that each had a slant that made it specialized in some way.

Of the three books, only the Cauldwell book was written in a person-to-person format. The author is a third generation electrician with years of experience, and as he says quite charmingly, "I have written this book from lifelong experience and knowledge--some of which has been passed down through each generation. However, there is no one within my family to pass the gauntlet to--no fourth generation to pick up the trade. Therefore, by reading this book you will become heir to my knowledge and experience. You, in effect, will become the fourth generation (p. 1)." His style is very much master of the craft to learning apprentice, explaining all facets of his field from how electricity is produced, how it is measured, what types of wires carry it to and into your home, and what tools one needs to do electrical work. He not only provides the information, he tells the reader the "whys" of what is, which I find helpful because it permits one to problem solve and trouble shoot more effectively. Particularly useful are those things that he tells the reader to avoid and what can happen when they aren't! The drawings are very helpful, particularly as they are clearer than photographs can be. Sometimes less is more in this regard. The schematic of the main floor of a house (pp. 22-23) which detailed how wiring is arranged for each room was quite helpful for my project, since it described what I should (and did) find in the walls when locating my power source and routing new wiring. I also found that the information on materials to select was helpful. I was able to go to the store and pick out just what I needed without any trouble at all.

While the Cauldwell book is a good one to read from cover to cover because of it's clear and thorough discussion of electronical wiring and its many helpful hints (which I did), it really did not help with my specific plans. It does cover some types of project, but I found that The Black and Decker book was more useful for my specific wiring goals. It's definitely a "how to do it" book with information on trouble shooting current wiring for potential problems (pp. 122-143), on code requirements (pp. 145-146), on how to calculate electrical loads and when to upgrade. It also includes simple repairs for the home owner, everything from checking which fuse controls which part of the house, to replacing plugs and repairing fluorescent lights. It also provides some advanced projects, like rewiring a kitchen or installing outdoor wiring. Of particular interest to my husband, the computer guru in our household, was the information on the home network wiring systems.

For my own project, I found the circuit maps for 26 common wiring layouts of greatest help. With the aid of this feature and the Cauldwell book, I was able to draw on paper the likely arrangement of the present wiring in my spare bedroom, and plan in the pathway to and from the projected new outlets. The diagrams on pages 155-167 also gave me a clearer idea of which wires connected to which specific sites on the receptacles, and what the pathway of the current would be. I was thrilled when I turned on the wall switch in the room, and the lighted crown molding actually came on, first try!

Wiring 1-2-3 is another group-effort type book like the Black and Decker. It'd made a splendid gift for the new home owner or prospective buyer. It provides the most extensive information on inspecting the home for electrical problems and providing measures for repairing them. The table of contents highlights almost every conceivable project, and each project has a list of materials, a skill scale that projects the level of difficulty to expect, and the amount of time that would be required by the experienced, the handy and the novice. It also makes some suggestions regarding the selection of a professional electrician for difficult projects, and does not urge the novice to go beyond their comfort level.

Although I didn't use the Home Depot book for actual planning and wiring, I found it was especially helpful with the messy stuff, things like drilling holes through the attic to route wires, the nitty-gritty of fishing for wires, and repairing the damage to walls where holes had to be made to route wires. In general these books are useful all round books.

I'd give all three books a 5, each for its own area of usefulness. If you're a person who likes to have a multi-perspective approach to your projects, then I'd recommend all three. Certainly the Home Depot book would be a very nice house warming gift.


New Home Wiring for the Intermediate DIY Electrician   June 18, 2002
Douglas B Kubel (Chapel Hill, NC United States)
25 out of 26 found this review helpful

Rex Cauldwell's book is an excellent text for those with basic electrical knowledge who are looking for guidance on safely performing common wiring tasks in new construction. The text is concise, practical, well-organized, and well-targeted for its audience. The photographs and illustrations are plentiful, clear, and well-coordinated with the text. His explanation of code requirements and recommendations on best practices are valuable, but should be checked against local codes.

This book is not intended for, nor does it serve, people who have absolutely no experience with electricity, nor does it address the many issues associated with updating old wiring or remodeling. For those projects, I'd recommend David Shapiro's book, Your Old Wiring.


Wiring A House by Rex Caldwell   January 16, 2000
17 out of 17 found this review helpful

This book is user friendly and offers insight to persons with little experience and those who are near masters of the electrical trade. It is recommended to people dealing with housing rehabiltation, and is cited as a reference by the State of Ohio, Dept. of Development in the Standards for Residential Rehabilitation. Chapter that explains GFCI's is best yet. Also the information on testers available and recommended is rarely covered in electric books. I recently lent my copy to a vocational school instructor because it has code information, installation demonstrations, and best of all, the mistakes made. Worth every penny,and handy for beginners too.


Very complete, excellent illustration and easy to use.   October 18, 1999
16 out of 16 found this review helpful

I read this book from cover to cover then I used it as a guide to completely wire a new 5 room house. I had a master eletrician inspect my work and he found everything was according to code. I have recommended this book to other people and will continue to do so.


I wired my house with this book   May 23, 2006
Brett Conley (Smithfield, UT USA)
15 out of 15 found this review helpful

When we decided to build a new house, we were looking for any way we could to save money. I'd wired some fans, garage door openers, some outside outlets, and stuff like that, but I'd never done anything like wiring my own house. But my overconfidence in myself got the better of me and I volunteered to my builder that I wanted to do the electrical work myself. The electrical bid was for $9300, and the builder thought we could do it ourselves for around $3000. I wanted to add in central vac and some structured wiring, so we decided to make the bid $5500.

Then I had a few months to study this book, and yes, this book is the only one I studied. I read it just about every day, going to the home improvement stores to look at the stuff I was reading about and tried to get a feel for how things worked and were put together.

When it came time to wire, I was excited. I dug right in, started on the service entrance, continued on with installing boxes and then pulling wire. Rex says if you know what you're doing, you can pull a whole house yourself in about a week. I obviously didn't know what I was doing, and I finished in about a month. That was one week of time off my regular job working about 10 hours a day on the house, and 3 weeks of working a couple hours a night on odds and ends finishing it up.

So that was the first thing I was disappointed with--his time estimate was far from how it turned out for me. The second thing I was disappointed with was that it didn't say anywhere in the book anything about where I could or couldn't put the meter. I guess the problem is that the national code doesn't specify anything about it, but it is specified by my local electrical company. So about 3 weeks after I had installed it, I had to move it.

The only other things I got wrong from reading his book were how much wire to get and where to put staples. He says for a 2,000 square foot house, you'll need 10 rolls of 12-2, 2 rolls of 14-2, and 2 rolls of 14-3. My house is 2,200 square feet and I needed 15 rolls 12-2, 5 rolls of 14-2, and 3 rolls of 14-3. But maybe I got a little fancier than the standard.

And then with the staples, I'm pretty sure I read that he said to staple wire within 8-12 inches of where it enters the box. But my inspector said it has to be less than 8 inches. So that's the one thing I failed inspection on. THAT'S IT! Can you believe it? My first attempt at completely wiring a house, and I got it almost all right!

I'm in between rough-in and finish right now, while I wait for the sheetrockers and painters and all those other guys. But the hard part is over. This book is definitely a keeper!

Oh, and if you're curious, I came in quite a bit over budget at about $7,700, but that's WITH tools, central vac, a very cool structured wiring system (telephone, cable, intercom, and network), some low-voltage lighting for some decorative architectural stuff our builder threw in, and even some in-ceiling speakers for one of my rooms.