It’s been a slow 2 days around here this vacation. Wednesday started out strong with some electrical work, we finished the outlet circuit in the livingroom. I then planned out the lighting circuit for the front hall which is pretty complicated because it goes up the stairs with a 4 way switch.
Ryan’s cold was hitting him hard so we took the rest of Wednesday to watch movies and relax. Today we finished up some shopping for Groudas Family Christmas this weekend. Then Ryan made his router table while I baked some cookies for the neighbors that plowed our driveway while we were back home for Christmas.
Router table, just needs its wheels
Tomorrow we will work on the electric some more and I’ll get the house cleaned up a bit. Saturday is our extended family christmas and then we have Sunday and Monday free to work on the house and relax before it’s back to work!
My tiny bit of sewing for Christmas this year included an ornament for Aunt Mo and finishing up a small ornament that I stitched a few years ago for myself. (Just had to had to add the cording to that one).
Ornament for Aunt MoA little dragon for me
Also in stitching news, Tuesday I went down to Hoops and Needles with my friends for their after xmas sale! I picked up a few patterns 🙂
We had a wonderful Christmas with family but got home late on Monday due to the snow storm. Tuesday I went shopping while Ryan worked, then Wednesday Ryan woke up with a cold, I have been fighting one as well but it hit Ryan harder. Hopefully the rest of our vacation is a bit better.
Some of my favorite pictures from Christmas Eve with family. Before we did presents, Ryan was holding Finley and she wasn’t quite sure what was going on 🙂
Ryan and FinleyRyan, Emily and Finley
After these pictures we proceeded to open gifts and then have a wonderful dinner.
Ryan and I celebrated Christmas Thursday night, just the two of us. He got his planer (Makita) as he wanted, along with a game and a movie and I got new pots and pans and a carport! I also got some other smaller gifts – but pictures speak louder than words :
My Christmas Gifts!
The pots and pans are Cuisinart Multiclad Pro series which I already broke in by using to make dinner tonight.
Ryan's planer
I can’t wait to put up the carport that arrives next week! And I know Ryan is excited about using his planer.
My brother-in-law has started his own plumbing business and we’re just now getting his website up and running. I’m still awaiting more feedback from him and some more information to add to his site but the more I link to his site the easier it will be for the google bots to find it 🙂 JRD Plumbing LLC
The website is pretty sparse at the moment, i really only whipped it up Sunday evening but it’s a start!
I can’t believe it’s only Saturday night, we’ve had such a great weekend already. Of course having a cold isn’t great but it’s mostly an annoyance at this point, making me sniffly and tired.
Ryan’s parents came out to visit Friday night we had dinner, watched movies, baked some cookies and relaxed this morning. After they left Ryan and I ordered our front hallway lights (chandelier and sconces) online.
I was pretty worn out after that so we took a nap while watching It’s a Wonderful Life, getting into the Christmas spirit! The nap was great, I woke up so refreshed, not cured of my cold but definitely a bit better. I helped Ryan build his work table for building cabinets, he’s also planning on building a router table but we started with the work table.
Ryan's table on wheels!
His table is a great size for a kitchen island too, so I persuaded him to roll it into the kitchen to help me bake cookies! In a few hours I had the annual neighbors’ cookie plates all wrapped up and ready to hand out tomorrow:
Christmas cookies 2010
This year I went with gingersnaps, sugar cookies and inside out chocolate chip (white chocolate chips in a chocolate cookie).
So a little more baking in the evenings this week (still got to make greek cookies to bring home) and a few presents to wrap that arrived today and I’m ready to go.
Tomorrow if I’m feeling up to it I’ll work on the electrical a bit. I’m hoping the sconce lights don’t take long to arrive because I need to figure out what kind of box will work with those before wiring them.
And I’m off to relax for the rest of the evening (which means take NyQuil and go to sleep) 🙂
Still standing - even with all the decorations on it.
We both got home a little late from work today but I managed to get the tree decorated while Ryan worked in the livingroom with me. The only thing I’m missing this year is my Christmas village I usually put out on my sofa table, unfortunately my sofa table is packed up in the “diningroom/closet” since half my house is demolished and I have no place to really put it. I may pull out the table and put it in the demolished livingroom and set up the village, I’d love to have it in front of the windows all lit up since the tree isn’t out there to be admired.
Off to bed I think, I slept late this morning, I think I need to get on an earlier schedule!
I was bummed our tree could not be decorated (or brought inside even) while we wait for our new tree stand to arrive in the mail. Then I talked with someone at work who had made their own tree stand years ago and I got inspired. A quick trip to home depot for some supplies (I had to hit the grocery store anyhow) and I was in business. I got the stand put together just before Ryan got home and he helped me attempt to secure the tree.
Home made tree stand - will not leak!
The securing part took a little while however. I was not able to get a type of wire I was happy with so went with just string. String however stretches a bit. Our first attempt to tie the tree failed miserably (i tied it too low). Ryan did a much better job the second time and it even stayed up while I got some dinner made up.
Finally I decided I would feel better if we secured it with a few more ties – however my attempts made it lean more and more. At this point (Ryan watching me tie the tree as it leans over me), we changed tacts. Ryan went for screwing the tree to the paint can around the top. We didn’t get the tree totally straight (it leans back) but it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere either.
And it stands .. on its own!
If the tree is still standing when I get home from work tomorrow I’ll get it decorated. I was so bummed we wouldn’t have it done until next week, this has made my week now. The last of the christmas decorating should happen tomorrow and then it’s just cookie baking left to go!
in my car that is! I’ve gone through 2 winters with no heat in my Audi. On Saturday I went over to my uncle’s house and we changed out the thermostat and replaced the valve cover gasket (oil has been leaking into the first spark plug area.
My car now heats up to the half way mark (which it hasn’t done in 2 years – it was running cold) AND when I’m driving I have heat – real heat – blowing out! It doesn’t seem to stay hot when my car is idling but that’s fine with me. I will finally not freeze on my drive to work.
Sunday was mostly a day for Christmas preparation. Since Ryan had to work all weekend (he did not join me on Saturday), I spent the day Sunday doing all the Christmas shopping I don’t do online. Unfortunately part of that shopping (for a Christmas tree stand) was not very successful. Every place I went they were sold out. Finally at the second home depot they had some plastic ones, however we soon found out that these stands are very low quality. The screws are very hard to get in (one we couldn’t get in at all). Finally however we got the tree standing up and filled it with water. And then as soon as I moved the tree, all the water started pouring out the bottom! The stand is completely defective!
So the tree is out on the porch now so it doesn’t pour water all over the floor. I ordered a metal tree stand online (we have one but it’s too small for this tree). Hopefully the tree will survive for a few days outside until the new stand comes.
No house work this weekend but we are just about ready for Christmas now (just waiting for some gifts to arrive in the mail to be wrapped, everything else is wrapped). Our tree is not decorated (now we need to wait for the tree stand to arrive) but the house is as decorated as I could do with half of it demolished 🙂
Wreath I decorated.
And it’s back to work tomorrow, hopefully not a busy week as i’d like to have some evenings home for a change 🙂
Once I got the pulled pork in the oven to slow cook all day I decided to start by running the wire from the basement to the attic. This was not so easy as it involved taking up some floor boards and then drilling a hole in the attic (needed Ryan’s help). Finally we got the wire run, we still need to drill a hole to the basement but that’s the easy part!
Wire for the subpanel in the attic
They didn’t have copper wire in this gauge at home depot so we had to go with aluminum wire. It’s a 4 wire and we should be able to run 100amps up to the subpanel. We can’t hook this up as we don’t have the subpanel or the 100amp breakers for the basement but we just need it run so we can get insulation.
Next I started taking out the baseboards behind the radiator in the livingroom. Once done, Ryan drilled the holes and I ran the wires for the outlet back there.
The first 2 bendsThe outlet
It was no easy feat getting the wires around the corners in the cupola. But since we plan on removing the radiators at some point I really wanted an outlet back in the center. I screwed the wires to the outside paneling lightly so they stay in the center when we get insulation blown in this time. This was tricky though because I had to make sure the wires weren’t too close to the outside wall because we are nailing the paneling on next summer.
3 boston butts 🙂
And now that we can put the radiator back (we should only have to move it one more time now for insulation), I decided to quit for the day and start dinner. A quick check on the pulled pork shows them coming along nicely but not done in time to eat tonight (tomorrow for sure). 2 1/2 of these will be brought to work for pigging out on Tuesday.
After I get cleaned up maybe I’ll play a little more Diablo and relax!
Next weekend (the plan anyway)
fix the car?!
Put up a Christmas tree (got to get the house cleaned up this week then)
Get the lights wired in the livingroom (one switch will be on an outside wall)
