Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Thankful for a weekend out of our house....

So that list I wrote about the other day....somehow my husband read my mind. We made our weekly trip to Home Depot to get supplies to fix the hole in the wall around the light fixture that the contractor created (master bathroom) and also came home with some trim.

I should start off by saying none of the woodwork in our house is the same stain and some of it is laminate junk so I cant easily paint. This is a combination of bad contractors and past homeowners with no ultimate plan. Poor construction work does not make my husband happy as his job is to make sure contractors aren't cutting corners.

So at Home Depot I mentioned that I would like a fancier molding on the fireplace mantel which was a very obvious display of stupid ideas and bad craftsmanship. We bought some 4" trim and planned on adding it to enhance the mantel. This was until I pulled off the side trim and the front trim to sand.....there was NO caulking or insulation! Figures! So my husband and I proceeded to remove the entire mantel so we could spray insulation foam and caulk. In the middle of that genius me says can we lower it (we had about 6-7 inches) and make it so we can hang the TV up there? Maybe not my best idea. The rest of the day my husband devised a plan to run all the cords inside the mantel and some fancy outlets (like this photo, a coworker sent my husband) to make all the components work.

Our mantel is now smaller, because my vision didn't work with his building plan. The top is now removable and underneath is a tunnel for the cords. Right now he still has to cut an outlet into the top of the mantel, a hole into the garage, a hole back into the family room to wire everything. I might also mention he is not very fast at wiring as he can't see the colors of the wires. I think I may need to call my dad to come help. He said he would do all the drywall but I need to re-texture and paint. I know we wouldn't have been happy with a newer house (HOA's) but seeing the mess in my family room I wish we had a new house that was made for today's technology.

I do have to mention that spray texture in a can works AWESOME! We were hesitant to buy it due to cost and whether it would work. You cant even tell we patched the wall in the bathroom. I also have to say that now my husband and I have a plan with the family room, kitchen and dining room that fixes A LOT of the stupid mistakes made in this house. It feels good to be on the same page visually and mathematically. I tend to see how I want things to look not knowing how, and he sees how to get it that way built right. Sometimes it is a struggle figuring out how to get both. Winter is my time to get things fixed inside the house because it's too cold in the garage for him to work on his 4-wheeler. I think this wiring project just took over though, we are supposed to have New Years party......
I am REALLY thankful that we are headed to Kansas for Thanksgiving so I can get out of our mess from this project. I am also really glad I got such great useful birthday gifts because I think I know what I am getting for Christmas from my husband. Once I am done painting I will post some improved photos. :)

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