We actually started (and have 98% completed) a fairly major home improvement project this weekend: creating a central “wiring closet”, rerunning the satellite connections to the rooms, taking the time to add a network and phone connection. (photos)
With the help of my awesome friend Andy (who’s awesome as hell to work with, and has about every tool knwon to man), other than working in a 110′F attic, and drilling through a power cable (cutting power to 50% of the house), it wasn’t too bad of a job.
The biggest challenge was putting the wires in the first floor computer room. All of the other rooms had existing wires we could use to pull the new wires down, but this was a completely new run. We had to string the wires to the back of the attic (which sucked because the slanted ceiling is very low back there, so we had to work on our belly .. in insulation), drill a hole, feed the wires down the side of the house (next to the concrete firewall) until they hit the second floor, remove drywall from Sean’s room, drill a hole down into the first floor (this is where we cut that power wire), and then feed the wires down to the first floor.
Between the wire and wall jacks, this project cost around $300 and took 13.5 hours (9am-10:30pm) to finish. Sounds crazy, but professionals charge $50 (plus $10/foot) PER WIRE to do this work. We used 20 wires, and about 800 feet total. If you do the math, we saved THOUSANDS, and I do believe I sweated off a few pounds. 