Cable Woes

We had been using direct cable coax connections to our TVs, not bothering to set up the boxes. This worked fine until one of our TVs lost said connector on the back. We decided that getting the boxes installed was a good idea.

It turns out the boxes we had were bad. We got new ones. Cara tried getting them all installed, but they did not fix 100% of the problem either, so today the cable guys are here fixing the connection to the house.

It turns out the contractor hired by the cable company to do the original hook up should have done a better job. We've run into incompetence of all sorts in the service industry of late.

Visitors

Cara, Jennifer (with Lola on shoulder) and Ngaire prepare dinner, and Dad and Margo enjoy a respite.

Three Nights Before Christmas

To show the progress, and the fact that we now have furniture, a tree - stuff like that.






The huge floor grate (which should be to the right of Cara as the video begins) is out drying. Jennifer painted it.



The ending is a nod to Bob Klie :-)



This is an exploded view of a slush machine:

Watching the Walls Go Up

The last two large sheets go in. Here is the wall between the dining room and the downstairs bathroom. Why did we insulate? Sound proofing. Cara helps Mom with the first piece.
Jennifer secures the last piece for that wall. These were the 18th and 19th sheets from the shipment of 20 that we got two weeks ago today.
Cody and Justin ride the train home.

More On Paint

Lola surveys Jennifer's paint work. Jennifer got to the ceiling a few nights ago. Having bright, white walls makes a shocking difference when the Sun comes blaring in. I love it already.

It's just primer, but after two coats it is starting to look good.

Reinforcing a Wall And Rewiring

The wall behind the downstairs bathroom was in sad shape. There was greater than a 2' gap between some studs. I made sure that for the entire wall there was a stud no more than 16" on center from the last.

Here is the troubled area (shown in a previous post). Note that to the right, the wall ends without studs in place to accomodate hanging drywall. I get to that later.



I removed all the electrical, removed all the superfluous wood. I can't tell what any of it was there for, and it was all held in place with nasty home-made angle brackets. I reused the brackets.
The light is back in and rewired. This shot is more of the corner where I had to place two 2x4's so I have something to nail the drywall to. The previous plaster wall on the right went past the wall on the left (common in older houses).
Did you make it this far? Do you find this fascinating? Or do you think I have no sex life? Do you wonder what makes me want do drink heavy cream and eat cookie dough? DO YOU?

Before And After

Pictures of the progress in closing up the area where the bathrom mirror was, and where the new wiring has to go. I had to rip open the wall and the ceiling for the electrician.

You can see we used it as a shelf for awhile.

Clean up the existing sheet rock.

Replace insulation.

New sheet rock. Whoopie.

And now closing up the ceiling above: