Wiring Finished

Well I finished the wiring last night. It wasn't too bad, I picked up a circuit tester to help. It was funny, the only obvious broken wire wasn't the live circuit, it was to the new stuff. But I fixed it, and all the plugs and the new overhead light with the switch are all hooked up and working, and nothing blew up or caught fire, and no one was electrocuted. Diane should finish the painting today (mainly some touch up, the conduit above the door, and the narrow section between the door and the closet that she missed. Then clean up the mess and have Jon move the furniture back in tomorrow. There are a lot more options for it now as well, since there is now power on three walls (I could have actually run a plug down under the light switch, but it wouldn't have been used for anything other than the vacuum mainly. I figure going from 5 plugs (in the space that normally holds 2) to 10 on three walls, plus the overhead light, is good enough. The paint looks really good as well - Diane does a good job with that. She is also working with Goof-off to remove a lot of the old paint from the wood. While the wood is not in good shape at all, I hate to paint it. Even distressed wood has a nice warm feel with the grain etc.

I figure tonight I'll put the towel rings up in our bathroom, and remount a toilet paper holder in the boys bathroom. I don't know if I'll get the access panel for the tub done. (When we had the plumber in to fix the tub / shower, he had to cut a new access panel - so the section of drywall there is in two pieces. I have all the extra from the kitchen now however, so I'll cut one piece to fit in there, then add some trim around it (like it had before), though I need to measure how much I'll need for this. Jon wanted to paint the bathroom as well, which isn't a bad idea, but I don't know if that will get done (and we don't have the paint for it, though it would only take a gallon). I really wish we could replace the tub, but he is supposed to be scrubbing it this week before Mom and Dad get here - it is pretty nasty. But inserts are just too expensive.

Jon is a little upset that we waited to do his room until he was gone. Yet another mistake I can chalk up, along with all the others. One of my characteristics is that I am pretty much able to make do - I live with a lot of stuff that I shouldn't have to. That is just the way I am. Which means that I don't always get off my fat lazy butt to fix things that need it. Even the things that don't cost much, like putting towel rings up in our bathroom, or re-installing the toilet paper holder in the bathroom. Yes, we should have done his room four years ago. But then he is like me, and made do.

Why did we do it now - well we had to empty the room to allow them to patch the ceiling, and it had to be painted after patching - and one thing led to another. Plus for once we had the money - total cost on his room is approaching $800 for the celing repair (which was half of it), plus the conduit (needing 9 5' pieces at $7 each) plus all the corners and accessories for it, and the paint etc. It did run a bit more than I expected, and we normally wouldn't have done it right before Christmas (presents? what presents? What is this shopping you speak of? Why, I have 6 more days!), but the last of my bonus, and the closing Diane just had covered it.

So the next eventual one is to repaint Erik's room, which was actually in the best shape when we bought the house, as it was the previous master bedroom. Then there are all the things we would like to do with the upstairs (like put in more closets, and make the one dormer window a reading nook with pillows. And we would love to put in a gas fireplace in the hearth - it is so weird having the tile and the shelf for a mantle, but having the fireplace sealed up. And we so need a half bath on the main level - but that will be real costly. Oh, and a new, real deck as well. Unfortunately a lot of this stuff I just can't do myself (like adding a room (for the half bath), putting in a gas fireplace (without blowing up the entire house that is). And anymore I don't even know if there will be any bonuses. And no more stock either. So the real estate market will have to really pick up so Diane can pay for these fixes.