If you have decided to take matters in your own hands and deal by yourself with the electrical jobs that need to be done in your house, then you pay attention to two things: the necessary expertise and the neatness of your working techniques.
You don't want cables hanging lifeless all over the place or large holes plaguing your walls.
You have to perform the job so that the result is a beautiful exercise of symmetry.
Nowadays, a licensed electrician is trained to observe the principles of neatness and accuracy when performing his duty.
Thus, the wires connected to the service panel are fixed at neat angles without any excess length.
If the wires are running along some exposed basement floor joists, then they have to be taut, stapled and fasten securely because the staples can damage the outer sheath of nonmetallic cable.
Another aspect that is related to neatness when performing electrical jobs resides in cutting the cables inside receptacle and switch boxes in a clean way so that you can fold them in and out of the way at the back of the boxes.
As a novice in this domain, you have to start with the small and simple chores.
An example of such easy task is to replace a receptacle or a switch.
Another ones include: * running a dedicated circuit for your office computer; * adding extra lights to your garage; * adding lights to your backyard; * installing a bathroom fan.
These are examples of jobs just perfect for you to practice your skills on and enhance your performance as a "home electrician" without creating too much disruption to the overall image of your house.
In the United States of America, fulfilling such tasks requires a permit.
Once you get it, you can schedule an inspection.
Then you calculate the electric load, run a wire from the power source to a fixture, install the fixture, and then connect the power source, the wire and the fixture.
Upon finishing this work, you can say that a small part of a bigger project of re-wiring your entire home is done.