Something happened to my last input, alot of the info disappeared. This is what it was supposed to say:
Don't you just hate that? I have a neighbor who is really good at drywall, and bought an old house, redid the drywall throughout the building without any wiring. Hopefully, he did not just cover the existing walls; if they are lathe and plaster, finding the spaces will be hard. And there might already be outlets and boxes that are covered. Very dangerous.
Did that "contractor" remember light switches?
Always check the local code. In the area I'm at 15 amp circuit breakers cannot be used and 14 gage wire is used only on lighting legs (from the switch to the fixture) of 200 watts or less. Also, if the clearance from the bottom of the joists in the basement to the basement floor is 4'6" or less, the wire has to run through holes in the joists. And I don't like drilling through joists in old buildings. Hopefully, you won't have such resprictions.
Both the kitchen counter outlets and bath outlets need GFCIs on their own 20 amp circuit. The GFCI in the kitchen can be upstream from the other outlets over the counter. You also need 2 small appliance circuits elsewhere in the kitchen, though they can be connected to other outlets in the house. I try to put the fridge outlet on the light circuit, so if the circuit does trip, you'll know it before the meat goes bad.
Finding the spaces between studs is fairly easy (unless, as I said, lathe and plaster is covered): a stud finder will make the job easy; otherwise, tapping on the wall will do - when the sound is hollow, you're between studs. If lathe and plaster is covered, neither stud finder nor tapping will work – exploratory holes will need to be made. Once a bay is found, measure the width with a tape measure through one side of the hole and then the other and you can determine the spacing of the bays so the next outlet will be easier. You will need to make holes, there's no way around it.
If the kitchen cabinets are against an outside wall, there might be some problems running wires. The trick on the kitchen is to run one over the counter, then the others are a little easier - just cut a space for your box over the counter then, working under the counter, punch a hole small enough to run a wire through to the box hole; basically, you'll be running wire under the counter.
If the walls are outside walls, you'll probably have to drill at an angle from below. On the other hand, under cabinets, you can just drill a hole through the floor of the cabinet and run wire directly down – behind the drawers of an all-drawer cabinet will hide the wire, be more difficult to drill because of the width (usually only 18").
Getting a flexible long 5/8" drill bit from a hardware store (around two feet long) will be necessary; if you're running two 12/2 gage wires, a ¾" drill bit will make the run easier, especially if it's through the 8" joists under the floor. If the box is low enough, you can run the bit from the box hole down to the floor plate and drill to the basement. If the box is too high, you'll need to make a hole in the wall low enough to run the drill to the basement. With the long bit, you can drill through the supporting beams in the basement. WARNING: Always check on what's on the other side of what you're drilling through – you don't want to hit another wire or any plumbing pipe, TRUST ME.
As far as the bathroom, you are probably on an inside wall and if you're lucky, have access to the opposite side of the wall to make holes for running wire to the basement. You just need to be sure it's in the same bay as the box is going to be.
This will take a while to do it, so start with the easiest ones first, so you get the hang of it. Having a helper for running wires and spotting holes on different sides of the wall and floor will speed things along.
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