Oh Dude I feel your pain... We have one them there PITA trees and this year I about lost my shit. After many hours of using The Magic Christmas tree gun
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We got 80% runnning and then the wife blazed it out with multi colors and the decorations. She is waaay over the top on decorating for Christmas. Takes up a good 40+ cubic feet of storage every year and she keeps adding.
But it definitely is nice to wake up in the morning and plug all the lights in and smile. The grandkids love it.
I'm gonna update the Tomco remodel thread with a video of the now 99% completed project...damn it was around this time last year that we were finally getting over the Covid...IT whooped my wife's ass,,,made me a bit tired and wimpy for a while.
So much minutia to finish up...
Last week and this week I wrapped up the Pex plumbing KILL ME ...PLEASE! actually just finished tonight...I'm whooped....all by myself....connected a 1"PVC line out to the street...Then under the frickin house for a few days torturing myself...tight down there ...several beams I had to crawl under where I had to let air out of my chest to squeeze through ...a little freaky.....Oh shit I'm stuck, I'm gonna die under here...SHIT!
Well then it was to the outside where I had to repurpose the old Tanked water heater cabinet. I used it to house the whole house water filter, The reverse osmosis, The recirculation pump..OY! run a power outlet tying in from the AC unit to power the Tankless and the recirc pump. Then I had to get tricky and set up a wireless switch so the wife can push the button in the kitchen ...wait a few minutes and have hot water on demand...no 6 gallons down the drain.....There are smart switches but then you have to use your phone, or google or alexa to turn the recirc pump off or on and then off again,,,screw that.. Push the button the pump runs for a few minutes and the shuts off...no brains no headaches...but it took a lot of brains and headaches to finagle this McGyver voodoo magic switch out.
I seriously thought I'd bang all of this plumbing and electrical out in about 5 days...10 days later, at least 50 trips to home depot , 5 hours of googling and internet researching..I'm one tattered and torn 69 year old man...but I made it to the finish line......YEE HAW!
Hell yeah, get 'er done.
Last Christmas we were still at the beach. It was the second year for the pre-lit tree. Wouldn't you know it on Christmas eve some of the lights near the bottom of the tree went out. I'm cookin' big food, little finger food, and we're having family over. The wife had the house decorated so nice, she says its okay about the tree lights, but I can tell it's bothering her. So out the door I go, on a mission. I go to Walmart, drugstores, this place that place, and could find not a single strand of white lights. One last place, wouldn't you know as it turns out closest to the house, Walgreens had 1 lone strand of lights. I score! Into the driveway, sling the front door open, the wife is standing right there. "Where'd you go?", and I pull the lights out from behind my back. There stands a happy, pretty lady, with a tear in her eye. All is well, and I'm back to cooking....w/ a little cup of eggnog spiked with a spirits.
Remodel? Sheesh. This old house, as I've mentioned I literally took down an old chimney brick by brick from roof to basement, took down a wall between 2 rooms...which weren't
exactly on the same plane. Roof repair, framing, drywall work, skimming out to give the illusion of being always one room, running some electrical and coax, priming, etc etc etc. Did I mention the chimney was actually in the corner of 4 rooms and thus involved all of them? We were scheduled with the AC guys the end of Oct-1st of Nov. Heat pump, duct work, and new elec service panel. They finally make a showing near the end of Nov. I don't want to get too far ahead of them because they are sure to fuck shit up, some of my hard work. So we still have the vast majority of our proper furniture in a storage unit. Living like damn gypsies down here in the country. After a few hiccups (I've said it before and I'll say it again, of all the trades HVAC guys tend to think their shit doesn't stink), they finally finish going into the second week of Dec. In their defense it was determined that the cable coming from the pole across the road to the one in the yard was too small and had to be upgraded...which involved the power company replacing not one but 2 poles and additional one on another property. They buried the formerly overhead cable coming to the house not with a ditch witch, but with a dagone backhoe, tearing up a shitload of side yard which I had to level out. Some additional patching, sanding, priming, painting ceilings..and the wife is strongly stressing we need our furniture!....as well as the tree and Christmas decoration boxes. I rent a truck, arrange move help, and just under the wire of vacate notice for the storage unit get out stuff out and down here and into the house. The main living area looks really nice(it's white with stained wood for now. Stained wood requires prepped w/ oil primer w/ open windows for fumes, so will have to wait until spring. Blueish grey walls). Today...today master bed gets the full treatment
before "California King" sized bed goes in there, it can't be scooted around once set in place. By the end of the weekend I'll have all bedrooms painted and put together. Out of town guests towards next weekend. I'm finally getting to a point where I can breath. I want to get back outside, even if it is freezing out there. I have fencing to build to enclose roughly 1 1/2 acres of yard close to the house. I don't know the wisdom of fencing in the winter, we'll see. A chicken coop build is on my list, come spring I'll be learning the ropes of having chickens....maybe even goats, but they would need a shelter build as well. Non vital re plumb, electrical I'm the future, adding outlets. What a transformation underway for this old house. I'm pleased.
What I'm not pleased about, I've played very little music in months. If I'm not going to do it I see no reason to keep all of these instruments and gear. My nephew is writing and recording some really, really good stuff. I mean really good, proud of him. He's setting the bar high. But I got it in me. At times when I stop to take a breath, open to it, I hear it. Both things I've had in there for ages and new things as well. I just need a little room, and time for things to flow unimpeded by putting out fires of things that gotta get down.
Anyway, congrats on nearing completion. Merry Christmas to you & yours, Tom.
