Kitchen and Bath Remodel Trim Day in Vancouver, WA (Hazel Dell)

A full remodel trim day on a 1993 home in the Hazel Dell neighborhood of Vancouver, WA, handled for a general contractor partner. One visit, five punch-list items, two change orders. The sort of day that makes or breaks a remodel schedule.

The kitchen: island pendants and a missing outlet

Two amber glass pendants went up over a new quartz island. The rough-in was done on a previous visit, so the trim was just mounting, wiring, and testing. Fast work when the electrical box landed where the pendants were actually going to hang (it does not always). Pendants, chandeliers, and fixture swaps are the bread and butter of our lighting installation work.

The pantry outlet for the microwave was a later-discovered gap: the architect’s plan had the microwave in the pantry, but no outlet was roughed in there. The fix required fishing Romex from the crawlspace up into the pantry wall, drilling through the cabinet back, and landing a box on the back wall of the pantry interior. Slower than a typical new outlet install, but cleaner than running surface conduit across a finished wall.

A few small items cleaned up the rest of the kitchen:

• Sink-area switch was not turning the load off reliably; traced, replaced, and verified the circuit
• Undercabinet lighting to the right of the stove had a loose connection; diagnosed and re-seated
• Left the GC with notes about a possible air-switch alternative for the disposal if the existing switch wiring kept giving trouble

The baths: two vanity lights on change orders

The upstairs guest bathroom had been wired for a vanity light but the electrician before us had left just a bare wire sticking out of the wall (no junction box). That’s a fire hazard and a code violation, which is why the GC flagged it. We installed a proper old-work box, terminated the conductors properly, and mounted a 3-bulb crystal fixture on it.

A second bathroom also got a new vanity fixture installed as a change order the same visit: a modern 4-bulb black fixture with globe shades. No rough-in issues there, just fixture swap.

Why GCs call a single electrician for the whole remodel

A remodel trim day often has 5-10 small electrical items scattered across different rooms. A GC has three choices:

1. DIY the small stuff and call an electrician only for the bigger items. Misses code violations (the bare-wire vanity box here), creates permit risk.
2. Call whoever’s cheapest each time. Inconsistent quality, different crew learning the house every visit, harder to coordinate with other trades.
3. Build a relationship with one electrician. Same crew knows the house, the GC’s standards, the homeowner’s preferences; problems get caught once and stay fixed.

The third option is how we work. See our contractor and builder page for how Newman Electric structures ongoing work with GCs across Clark and Cowlitz counties. On a job like this we’ll usually do the scope visit, rough-in, inspection, and trim, and stay on-call for any punch-list items the homeowner finds after move-in.

Running a remodel and need an electrician who can handle a messy punch list in one efficient visit? Newman Electric handles full remodel electrician service, kitchen electrical, and bathroom electrical from rough-in through trim. Call 360-828-7143 or drop us a line for a free estimate.