Electrical work

One of the most time-consuming parts of this project has been the wiring, all of which I have done myself. For starters, let me say that in Massachusetts, where we live, homeowners are legally entitled to apply for a permit to do their own wiring (unlike plumbing, which homeowners are not allowed to do at all). As explained to me by the inspectors here in town, there is no guarantee that a homeowners work will pass inspection, so you could end up paying a lot to an electrician to fix your work. But as an unrepentant Do It Yourselfer, I had to give it a try.
What I found is that with some research and common sense, wiring is pretty straightforward. I found some good books (including the national electrical code ), did some research on the web, and took my time.
Doing the electrical work was not particularly dangerous because the wires were never hooked up to the service panel while I was working on them. It is only at the very end when you go near the electric panel.
But let me stop here and state the obvious: electrical work CAN be extremely dangerous! YOU CAN DIE!! If you do it badly or make a mistake you could burn your house down!!

So far, none of those things have happened to me. (So far!).

If you think you have the requisite common sense (or blind confidence in your own ability, or both), start by doing some research. I recommend going to your local home center store or book store and checking out the books available on wiring. Look through them all. Check the publication dates (seriously). Then buy at least two of them. I use a Black and Decker book plus a little green thing called Wiring Simplified. And I have a small pocket size copy of the National Electric Code. While the Black & Decker book was the 'friendliest' and easiest to digest, it also was slightly out of date (the code gets revised periodically), and had some things that were just plain wrong. So get a couple of books and READ THEM.

Be sure that you approach this job with a couple points in mind: first, this is your own house you are working on, and you should want the best quality job possible. If you are careful and take your time, most of the time you can do as good a job or better than a pro. That should be your goal.
Second, always keep in mind that you want to impress the inspector with the high quality of your work. The more you pay attention to details like drilling your holes straight and level, the greater his faith will be that you are doing a competent job.

Wiring the basement involved the following steps:
0) Taking responsibility for your own actions. I am not responsible for anything you do!! Proceed at your own risk!!
1) Plan the circuits and draw a circuit diagram. There parts of the N.E.C that apply here, as well as common sense (e.g. don't put all your outlets and your lights on the same circuit). Plan carefully. Be conservative. Before starting the basement project (or as the first step) we had the electric service upgraded from 100amp to 200 amps. In he process, the electrician I hired (I couldn't have done that) installed a much bigger electric panel with at least a dozen empty slots for new circuits. This meant that there was no reason to overload circuits. Instead, most of my new circuits are vastly underutilized. There is no harm in this, however. It costs you a few bucks for the extra circuit breakers, a few extra bucks for additional cable, and a little bit of time. But you are ensuring that you won't have problems with overloaded circuits in the future.
2) You may need to apply for your permit at this point so the inspector can check your plan. If she is willing to comment and give you feedback, all the better. The electrical inspector here was pretty adamant that he is NOT in the business of providing training and advice.
3) Install the boxes. Do a good job installing them at consistent heights. Don't make it look sloppy. Remember, you want to impress the inspector with the high quality of your work. I can't emphasize this enough. After the inspectors saw my work the first time, and saw that I was doing a good, neat, orderly, professional-grade job, subsequent inspections were very simple and fast.
4) Run the Cable. You need to drill holes in every stud the cable passes through. Drill then far enough back from the front of the stud or you will have to put steel plates over them to protect the wire. Drill the holes level and at consistent hight. This will not only make the job look much neater, but it will make pulling the cable much easier.
5) Make up the boxes, wire recessed lights, ceiling fans, etc (anything that will be inaccessible after the ceiling and walls are finished)
6) ROUGH INSPECTION
7) Install switches and outlets, make all connections in all boxes, and
8) Make connections at electric panel.

In subsequent posts I will describe each of these steps in more detail.