Missives from the 6th Floor

Once the long cables I've ordered arrive I'll snake them around the room, and finish mounting the speakers. If it looks horrible, I may have to buy longer cables and hide them behind crown molding. I'm resisting snaking cables in the wall, mostly 'cause I'd have to put a power box smack in the middle of the wall, which isn't so nice if you don't have a TV hanging in front of it.

The lights I mentioned arrived late last week, so after Vince and Donna left on Sunday (after the first "snowstorm of '07") I went out in the rain and worked on electricity.

No, seriously.

It was fun.

And I haven't twitched all morning.

Actually, the lights on the house are on a switch, so they were pretty easy, once I figured out how to mount the bracket the new lights supplied on the existing boxes. (Hey dad - I finally used that vice you gave me years back. A really long screw + vice + hacksaw = really long "double-ended" screw.)

I got one of the post lights changed out as well, but the screws holding the lights onto the post are long since rusted, and I ran out of light after spending a bunch of time coaxing the first one off. (I know, I'll just turn on these lights so I can see...)

Last night Dawnise and I unpacked most of the framed art and assigned pieces to rooms, so I'll start hanging stuff tonight. In a couple rooms I'd like to install picture molding, but I'm not sure if I can find the stuff locally. Home Depot ('s web site) doesn't grok "picture molding" at all. Lowes (web site) does, but none of the local stores carry it (and for bonus points, their site won't tell me what stores do carry it, it makes me try each store in turn).

Dawnise has been making great headway against the boxes, and the pool table guy comes to setup the table this Thursday. Haven't figured out what we're going to do for lighting in that room yet, but I suspect it'll involve money, and a contractor.

So there's definitely a slim chance we'll be ready for the party in two weeks.