Hi all, I have two switches in my upstairs bathroom that I need to re-wire.
This message is going to be a long one, so if you don't want to read any further, feel free to delete at this point. The reason it's going to be a long one is because I need to describe the layout of my bathroom that I may get some advice on how to tackle this. First my house and bathroom description. As some of you may or may not remember, I have a back split home, meaning that the front of my house looks like any other bungalow, and the second/back part of my house looks like a two level home with no basement, save for a crawl space underneath that portion of the house. The bathroom, and indeed both my bathrooms, are located on the back split portion of the house, right over each other. As you walk up the stairs to the uppermost level, at the very top of the stairs, you make a 180 degree turn to the right, and you are staring right at the doorway to the bathroom. As you walk in the door way, you can only move straight ahead and to the left of the door, as the right most wall extends to the doorway. As you've no doubt deduced, behind that wall is the stairway leading downstairs. Straight ahead of the doorway, is the linen closet to the right up against the right wall, and to the left of that, the bathtub/shower combination, with a standard 5 foot tub. That particular wall is the front wall of the back split part of the house. If you continue turning your head to the left of the tub, is the toilet, which sits up against the outer wall of the house, with a window right over the toilet. Now we have come to the wall that houses the actual problem, that being the wall with the sink and counter top. As you walk in the door, one would make a 90 degree turn to the left, take a step or two straight ahead, then make another 90 degree turn to the left to face the sink/counter/vanity, which all sits recessed against that inside wall and behind the doorway. I should note here that the door opens to the stairway wall, not to the sink wall which I have to work on. If I can take you back to the doorway? If you are standing directly in front of the doorway facing the way out, directly to the right of the doorway is the light switch, which sits on a portion of wall equal to six inches, and which comes to an outside corner. If you continue to feel with your hand around the outside corner, level with the light switch, the wall recesses in for about two and a half to three feet to the inner wall of the bathroom. About nine to twelve inches from that outside corner is another light switch for the fan and an electrical outlet for plugging in shavers or electric toothbrushes and the like. I should also note that on either side of the counter, sitting at about five and a half feet up on the inside wall and outside walls are two light sconces which are the only lights to the bathroom. So now the problem... My problem is that switch/outlet combination. that switch is for the bathroom fan, and both are on the same electrical power as the light switch, which means that neither the fan nor the electrical outlet will work unless the light switch is turned to the on position. I want to give this fan switch and electrical outlet it's own independent power so that I don't have to have the light switch turned on all night so I can recharge my toothbrush. First question is the obvious one, is there a way to do this without opening up the wall between the switches, or around the switches? If so, how would I re-wire the switches? Another question I have is if you think the fan and electrical outlet are wired directly to the light switch, or wired to the sconces? I'm hoping the former, as I would think that re-wiring the switch would be easier than re-wiring the sconces. Anyway, that's my problem. If anyone has a solution to this, it would be much appreciated, and extra points go to the person who can tell me how to do this without opening up the wall. Smile. Victor Gouveia [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
