Twas the Month Before Christmas

Twas the month before Christmas and all though the house,
Not a thing was in order exclaimed my lovely spouse.
The tools were strewn on the floor without a care,
And lumber and parts all over from here to there.

The walls were all the sanded leaving dust on the bed,
While paint stuck to our arms and sawdust in our head,
And mamma with her paint bush and and I with my hammer,
Had just settled in for a long work day lacking of glamor,

When out in the bathroom there rose such a clatter,
It sound like the nail gun had fallen off the ladder
Away to street I flew with my bucket of trash
While Melinda stood sanding the door molding and sash

I spoke not a word but went straight back to my work,
While she filled nail holes with putty in the old woodwork.
But each of was heard to exclaim with all of our might,
Why do we do this each year and get into this plight.

It seems like every year we make ourselves a promise that THIS YEAR we will not be working on the house after Thanksgiving so we can concentrate on getting ready for the Christmas Eve Party. Every year it seems that I break that promise and we have a torn up house from the remodeling and we both get stressed out to the max because we have so much to get done prior to the 24th.

This year was extremely difficult for the remodeling effort. We tore out the main bathroom in late January and a week latter we had freezing weather for 3 days which froze all the water lines because there was no way to drip the water in the old bathroom area.. I spent two days under the house in freezing weather to run some temporary water lines as I planned on removing all the old plumbing anyway.

Latter the gas lines needed to be replaced before I could continue plumbing the new bathrooms (we are making two out of one) This had to be done so I could run the new gas line up the wall where the old door way to the hall was located because we built a new set of stairs to what will be the second floor master suite later. So five Saturdays were spent under the house running all new gas pipe because the old one was installed in 1939 and we needed larger lines to accommodate a demand water heater and later a gas generator for the house.

Now it is June and the Texas drought and killer heat wave kicks in and even though I thought I would be able to work from the comfort of inside the house, I still needed to do the rough in plumbing. Of course we had to hire a plumber to *finish* my work because the city no longer allows homeowners to pull plumbing permits for gas lines. It took the plumber just 1/2 and $1,100 to do the easy part of the tie-ins. Well that took a budget hit of 2 bathtubs plus other parts needed to get the rough plumbing in. And as we are paying this as we go that delayed us two months to build funds up again. Thank you Dave Ramsey for getting us out of debt! We are aggressively paying down our mortgage with a target of being completely debt free by December 2013 so the budget for remodel is only $500 a month.

So now we are into September and we spend two glorious weeks in Idaho and Utah visiting my youngest and oldest sons and families. So nothing really gets done until late September, Then Stake Conference & General Conference weekends.

Now here is what happens each year. My favorite season of the year is Fall and I always get a burst of energy when the cool weather starts settling in. That is when I explode into full metal jacket renovation mode. Stand out of my way I am a Home Improvement maniac during the Fall. Typically this takes us though Thanksgiving week when I have to shut myself down to get the house in shape for the Party. This year I got a bout of sinus infection that stopped up my ears for over 5 weeks so I felt like crud. So once I was resurrected from the dregs of despair of ill health. I was ready to move forward. So I finally finished hanging the drywall where the old hall door was and under the stairs. Now Melinda kicks into full *mud dauber* mode to start slinging mud on the walls in preparation of painting the walls in the Dining Room because we need to move the Genealogy Tree bookcase on that wall to make room for the party.

So now here it is after Thanksgiving AGAIN and I have succeeded once again to have the house in an utter state of chaos and it looks like a war zone with all the sheet rock mud sanding all over the place. I always wind up putting Melinda in undue stress every year, but somehow we always seem to pull it off. One of these years, One of these years, she is going to send me to the Moon and I can visit Alice Kramden..

The Ole Geek takes the Bloggin Plunge

Well, I guess it is time for the Ole Geek to take the plunge into the world of blogging. My daughter has truly inspired me to take a stab at this. Hopefully this will last more than a passing fad.

This week was like one of those days when you really never get to repair the fence you set out to....

The Electrical Path of Least Resistance
I have been off all week and have not made much of any of the progress I had hoped for on the house remodel. My intent starting Saturday was to cut my losses for the year and at least try to get the electrical wiring done in the bathrooms I am remodeling. Well before I could get to wire the bathroom it required that I re-run some *temporary* electrical wires in the attic because I had to run new floor joists for the future Phase 3 expansion upstairs prior to being able to run the wires through the joists. I also need to split the circuits for the Living Room from the Front Bedroom because I want to added several *can* lights so the combined circuit would be undersized. BUT before I could re-run the circuits I needed to provide a new path though the new bathroom ceiling joist. BUT before I could do that I needed to build the last two steps that turn from the new stair landing over where the bathtub will be. Which also required me to relocate a junction box that was located where the floor for the new water heater would be located.... Long story short what I anticipated getting done on Saturday was not accomplished until late on Wednesday and still the new baths have not gotten wired because some of the boxes need to go on the center wall which can't happen until the new bathtubs are put in place so I can finish the middle wall studs...

Thanksgiving Break
Well Thanksgiving was a good day of rest and I slummed around the house on Friday because I was afraid if I started anything I would need to run to Home Depot and I was not about to subject myself to the chaos of Black Friday to get *parts*

So what did I need in the garage again?
So Today stared with the intent to put the finish on the spice shelf that Melinda asked me to build for her. Well where was that finishing oil that I needed. Oh it is in the little garage.. Where is the remote... Oh yes I found it.... It DOES NOT WORK!!!!... Light is not going on... Replace new battery still no worky worky..... Oh I remember I ran some cables to the little garage I bet I hooked up the garage door switch to a pair of those because I wanted to control it from the alarm system. I'll just look up the wiring diagrams that I made.... ..... ..... 1 hour later and looking the hundreds of potential files no luck on the wiring diagram... Well lets take the remote control apart... Well that is a pretty simple circuit board not much on it just one transistor and an integrated circuit. Press the push button.... again.....again.... again.. (what was the definition of insanity) again.. well that seems fruitless... Hum... I wonder if the switch could be bad.... find a wire jumper and bypass... Eureka... we have lift up.... Now what did I need in the garage again? Well this is a perfect opportunity to get the Alarm System to control the garage door.. Lets see .... there is the cable and I have a spare pair to the house... Bring out the old antique laptop because it is the only one with a RS232 port so I can program the Alarm System... 2 hours later and some fewer tresses of hair... I realize that the output from the Alarm System is not a dry set of contact but will only sink a max of 50 milliamps of current.... Over to trusty Radio Shack to find a relay.... Pull out the old soldering gun to hook up the terminals... Eureka!! we have lift up again the Alarm System is now controlling the garage door opener!!!
Now what was it again I was going into the little garage for... Oh yes finishing oil. But I have none there.. Off to Home Depot for finishing oil... Only got natural stain oil.. Well I finally got the Spice Shelf finished and lacquered. Only took all day..

Now that the day is shot what else can I do
I did manage to get some the wood and doors/frames moved from the front bedroom to the the bathrooms so they are out of the way for the Christmas Eve Party...

So there goes my week. I got about 2 days worth of work done in a week being off... Somehow this remodel will keep me busy into retirement...