Once I got it off the wall I found that there is indeed an old power line, live no less, which is at the top of the fireplace.

I'll be using a shallow electrical box to enclose it and will frame a power outlet into the new mantel. Nice to find it, makes my life easier since I don't have to run power to the location.

Since it was so cold today I decided to hold off on working on the dog door and opted to finish the fireplace breakdown.

Just about all the foam is broken loose and off the fireplace. I'd still had alot of work to do on the top however.

All done besides cleaning up. I'm going to pull off the 2x4 framing attached to the wall and adjust it, making it stronger so that it holds the new mantel better.

My wife says that she likes the red tile now. I'm not 100% sold on it but I'm willing to give it a try. After all, since I'm putting the new mantel up I'll know how to easily remove it in case of changes.

Now.. All I've got to do is finish that dog door and pick up some wood stock so that I can get to work on this. Oh wait, I've still got to clean up the workshop and get that freezer out of the way before I can do anything..

Hmmmm.. So much to do.

See the Fireplace Gallery if you want more pictures.

Ha! I breaka your legs!

Now, this is a nice shot of what's under it. In fact, it was a nice enough shot that I wanted to bust more apart, which I did slightly later.

Best part is the pile of foam that we ended up with while busting off the sheeting around the forms which butt up against the wall.

And, to end, a nice shot of the sheeting gone from one side.

There's still tons of work to do on removing the foam. My goal for tomorrow is to get the dog door in and finished off. If I have time after that I'll be putting more work into the fireplace to strip it down.

Once it's stripped down I'll tape up some cardboard to block holes and start making measurements on the new mantel which I'll be building out of MDF and stock molding since it will be painted.

Found Here

Den

• Fix Ceiling
  Hole, bad patching, leak damage
• Insulate Floor
  Redo the poor insulation job at the crawl space with solid foam insulation, making sure to seal any air leaks. 
• Check Wall Insulation
  Against the workshop, ensure that the wall has proper insulation and if not, redo and seal. 
• Repair Drywall
  Sections of drywall around windows need repaired and smoothed due to poor installation. 
• Build Corner TV Cabinet
  A built in floor to ceiling TV cabinet needs to be built to better make use of the space. 
• Reframe French Doors
  Something is off with the frame around the door. I need to remove it to check insulation and rebuild as needed. 
• Replace Trim and Baseboard Molding.
  All of the trim around the windows needs replaced. It doesn't match the house and it was done very, very poor.
• Replace Door
  The door needs to be replaced. It's not installed well and it's damaged. 
• Tile at Door
  The particle board needs to be taken out and backer laid down to install 12" slate tile in a section near the entrance. 
• Replace Carpeting
  It's just bad. Very, very bad. 

Dining Room

• Baseboards
  All the baseboards need sanded down and painted, replacing 1/4 round as needed. 
• Wall Touchups
  In some places the walls still need some slight touchups which can be done with spackle. 
• Crown Smoothing
  The plaster crown molding in areas have some cracks, these need Ved out and smoothed over to prep for painting. 

Inner Foyer

• Insulation
  I need to check the insulation in this section, both the walls and if I can get to it, the crawl space as it's awful cold in that area. 
• Tile Floor
  The tile on the floor needs cracked up. Since it's held in place with thinset on top of concrete I need to work carefully. I'll no doubt end up gluing down a layer of 1/4" plywood, or backerboard, regardless. 
• Replace Trim and Baseboard Molding.
  It doesn't match the rest of the house at all. 
• Settling Cracks
  In the areas where the house has settled there are slight cracks along the wall to ceiling junction. These need cleaned up, filled and fixed. 
• Threshold to Puppy Room
  The current threshold seems to have some ply against it. Need to check that, fix it and make it look better. 

Large Bathroom

• INSULATION
  The crawl space insulation needs redone. The walls need checked and redone. The ceiling needs checked and redone. 
• Air Barrier
  Since I can feel strong drafts any time the heater is on in that area, I'd say there's some bad air leaks. I'll be patching those and sealing the whole room up.
• New Flooring
  The current floor, which thankfully is NOT glued down needs to be removed and replaced. 
• Replace Trim and Baseboard Molding.
  It doesn't match the rest of the house at all. 
• Shower 
  It leaks. The current mortar shower pan needs cracked out, and every shower wall needs destroyed and replaced with backerboard, water barriers and etc. Alot of work. 
• Vanity
  Repair and replace doors / drawer fronts. 
• Countertop
  Remove and replace, moving single sink to the center area. 
• Closet
  Reframe to give a slightly shallower, but much wider closet. 
• Vent Fan
  Finish replacing it, redoing the drywall around the current (large) hole. 
• Shower Lights
  Replace with updated lights rated for wet area use. If possible, with a vent fan, else remove feature. 

Puppy Room

• Replace Trim and Baseboard Molding.
  It doesn't match the rest of the house at all. 
• Strip Floor
  The floor needs stripped to remove any finish, dirt or residue. Tiles will need glued back down in places, then the floor needs sealed and waxed. 
• Replace Lights
  Something else needs done with the lights in that room. 
• Redo Both Closets
  Change the closets around as needed to make them more efficient. 

Half Bath

• Strip Flooring
  The pink tile floor must die. It will be stripped, sheeted with 1/4" ply and redone. 
• Strip Wall Tile
  Pink wall tile needs stripped, with bead board wainscoting planned in it's place. 
• Remove Vanity
  The vanity and sink need removed, placing a desk in it's place with a nice sink mounted within.
• Remove Wall Mirror
  Wall mirror will be removed in favor of a hanging mirror. 
• Redo Closet
  Change the closet around as needed to make it more efficient. 
• Replace Toilet
  Old, pink toilet needs replaced.
• Replace Light
  Current light is sad, remove and replace with something better.

Family Room

• Destroy Fireplace Mantel
  The current mantel is ugly as heck and needs replaced with something more proper for the house. 
• Repair Ceiling
  There is some veining in the ceiling near the fireplace caused by moisture. This will need sanded or chipped, filled and painted.
• Repair Walls and Crown
  Same as above, the walls have some issues above the fireplace and the plaster crown is cracked in some placed and needs repaired.
• Redo Ceiling Vents
  The vents in the floor upstairs, which are in the family room ceiling, need redone to make them look better.

I could have gone with a smaller door, but as the Bassets get older I wanted to make sure that they could still easily get through the door without having to strain themselves, duck their head or twist in any way.

The first thing I noticed once I stripped the paneling off that section of the wall was that under it was 3/4" thick tung and groove board. As such the next step was to tack the pattern against the wall and get it placed where I wanted it, then drawing an outline around it with a marker.

Once this was done I set my circular saw to cut 3/4" deep and proceeded to cut the section out and pull off the T&G board.

I'd already seen that I was going to have to deal with a 2x4 stud that came down from under the window. As such I cut a notch in the T&G high enough so I could cut it 1.5" higher than the opening so that I could frame it back in.

You can see in the picture above where the notch is and where the 2x4 was.

After the 2x4 stud was removed, new sections of 2x4 were cut and screwed into place to support the cut 2x4 and act as a frame around the dog door. I'd have preferred to use nails to do this, but the tight space meant that I could only use screws. Now, if the T&G wasn't there, that'd be another story.

This next shot shows the flap lifted up and the 2x4 framing inside the tunnel area.

I'm sure you can see that there is about a 1" gap on the top of the door. Well, I decided to drop the door another inch for the dogs. Since Basset Hounds are so short, I wanted to ensure it was easy for them to get through. This section will be scabbed with a 2x4 which will be ripped down to the proper width.

Once I punch through the other side and install the self adhesive weather stripping around the opening the inside tunnel will be finished off with 1/4 plywood and painted to ensure a smooth transition between the doors. But more on that later.

Gives a dogs eye view of the world outside their pen! How fun is that? ;)

Going from this;

To this;

has been a fulfilling, if not trying process and once we finish on the final touchups and painting I'm sure it will look great. But I am my worst critique.

If you'd like to see more pictures, be sure to stop by the gallery.

There's still a pile of work to do, but we'd like to invite you to tour our yard.

First thing that stands out are all the nut trees on the property. We've got Pecans, Black Walnuts, Hazelnuts, Chinese Chestnuts and most likely more hidden somewhere.

Pecan Tree

Chinese Chestnuts

Hazelnut Bushes

Then there's the multitude of fruit trees and bushes on the property. Lets see if I can name them all.. We've got Figs, Paw Paws, Grapes, Persimmons, Blackberries and no doubt a few others that are slipping my mind.

Paw Paw Tree

Fig Tree

Grape Vines

It's been alot of fun and a surprise at every turn as we realize just what we have. Though, in terms of work that needs done as we realize what we have the work load keeps getting larger but I guess that's to be expected.

There has been a long list of things that need done due to neglect or blatant ignorance, plus all the things that need to be done just because we want to do them.

One such thing has been the water feature by the side (main) entrance. We installed two 35 gallon preformed ponds where a HUGE pile of ivy, roses and various bits of TRASH was laying. It's almost done and should look great once finished.

I'm going to remove the pea gravel and do mulch instead, just a FYI.

Then there have been the various flower beds that have gone in around the house such as by the front walkway, or the light pole by it, or the light post at the back yard which has one of those large metal vapor lights on it.

With all the hard work going into this place, it's really starting to look nice. Little by little it's more like "home" every day.

Well that's enough rambling for me. I hope you enjoyed the short tour of the yard and if you wish to see more or to view the full sized images, be sure to stop by the photo gallery.

It’s been a busy time with all the moving, handling details and etc. In fact it’s had me tied up for a while. We’re finally set however and have cleaned out the other house.

So now begins the ultimate weekend warrior quest. One in which will take us years to complete. But onward we trudge nonetheless.

One of the things we have been able to do in between moving was getting the lights up. We decided on an oiled bronze look of material and wanted to keep the lights fairly airy looking and not too bulky.

For the most part the lights were easy to put up with the exception of the kitchen. It was a chore if only because who ever put the old light up installed the electrical box… upside down..

I don’t know why they did this, but to fix it I had to bust it out, cracking chunks of plaster out from around it. It left a huge hole, which I filled with layers of fiberglass tape, and latex modified spackle. It took a bit to build up but it’s nice and smooth now.

I didn’t have to go through all that work though, since the light in the kitchen covers a huge area beyond the repair. But I don’t like to do things half way. The way I feel about it, it’s better to do it right the first time and not have to ever worry about it down the road.

Beyond the lights, I have been cleaning up the yard whenever possible, decimating the grown up weeds, trees and what ever else seems out of place or in the way.

Since it was part of the sales contract on the old home that we were to keep all our day lilies we need several places to put them on the new property. On the bright side, the property is so large we have plenty of room.. On the down side, we’ve got a lot of lilies.

This bed was done along the side of the walkway leading to the front door. Because it’s at the front of the house we wanted it to have a more formal feel, if even the lilies themselves are not a formal flower.

We also changed out the pole light at the front. It was a plain old aluminum pole with a busted up light at the top. I ended up cutting the pipe down to size and poring a 3” concrete base around it. Because the pipe is already buried in the ground I didn’t bother making the concrete base too large, nor did I worry about casting in anchor bolts. I just drilled it out and used 2 ½” anchors that expand in the drilled holes.

Now… To figure out where the heck to put the rest of these lilies… Hmmm..

Yup, it was great. So I went in search of a heli that was cheap on parts and, for that matter, cheap to buy. I came across three choices;

1.) The Blade CP (of which I'd have done the pro to start)
2.) The Night Ranger 3D
3.) The Honeybee CP2

With what I started on in mind I wanted to go a little more in depth and decided on going with a CP instead of a fixed pitch bird. Looking through all the above choices I finally ended on the Honeybee CP2.

It was actually an easy choice. I looked into 3 aspects;

1.) Initial price
2.) Cost of parts
3.) Can it take a beating

The parts cost on the CP2 are extremely low in my opinion. Only costing $4 or so per part, depending on what it is. Blades are even cheap on it. My choice was made.

Off I ran to find a source for the little heli. Ebay here I come! I finally decided on a seller based out of Canada who was dealing these little helis, as well as others. I picked it up for around $110 shipped.

Now, I'll admit, having something shipped from Canada to the US was an odd idea. I normally deal in the states only but I figured what the heck. His feedback was good.

WOW, was the shipping fast on it. I was surprised that it showed up a day earlier than Fedex had stated.

All excited I was, opening the box, tossing the LiPo on the charger and waiting a bit before bringing it into the large living room to test out.

Now, I've flown indoors before. I used to do it with my LMHs all the time. Well, the electric one. So I figured there would be no problems. Besides, a crash onto a smooth laminate floor would be better than hitting grass, I thought.

So, I centered the bird and got ready. spooled her up and, well, did something stupid.. I for what ever reason decided to give that little switch a flick. Yup, idle up she went and lifted up a little quicker than I'd have anticipated.

So, going back on my FP knowledge what did I do? You got it, I dumped the throttle down and figured I'd get a hard landing and break the gear.

Now, remember, during this time I've got the idle up on. So instead of it dropping and giving a bounce off the floor, it proceeded to slam into the floor then do the chicken dance all around the room.

In a panic I went over and grabbed the main blades, which stung, and proceeded to yank the battery plug causing the flailing machine to come to a stop.

I was shaken, not stirred by this event. I tilted my head and laughed thinking to myself, wow, how much have I busted up on this poor little thing.

Off I went to my desk, sitting down and going over it. The damage?

1 Set of blades, beat to HECK and back.. Wood everywhere.
1 of the landing gear CF rods
1 Rotor Head Set. The ball snapped off of one of the links on the head.
My pride

Now, that's NOT that much damage for what I did to it. Granted I was on a smooth floor when it happened though.

Cost of parts?

$9.94 minus the main blades. I had a spare set.

Not bad.. I ended up ordering $55 in parts however. Consider it a preemptive strike.

And what lesson did I learn from all this?

1.) What you learn on a FP heli does not always directly translate to a CP bird.
2.) Idle up must be respected.. I'll stay off it for a while till I get back into the swing of things.. and find myself outside.

1) There is now a weather indicator in the left menu. This displays weather for my home town, however can be set to anywhere (any zipcode)

2) I've added a feature that ties directly into my jukebox to display what songs I am listening to and what is in query. Mind you I'm not distributing nor streaming the MP3s that are playing, all of which are copied from CDs owned in the family.

3) I've gone and added a photo gallery so that I can quickly post pictures of projects I'm working on or the likes, without having to go through the task of doing a full writeup. This will make my life easier and will mean more updates on things I'm doing.

That's about it for now.. I've got some cleaning to do on the layout in some areas but that's about it. Well, unless I think of anything else cool to place on the site.

The first thing that I decided to do was rip out the chassis and start on the case. It gave me a chance to play with my new Dewalt RO sander, which I must say is GREAT and is the best thing to use on the case. I've stuck with using 120 grit sanding disks for the most part however because the case was painted (a few times?) there was alot of buildup on it that needed 80 grit disks.

So I've torn the case down and spent a couple of hours sanding. It's almost to the point to where I can work with it more and replace the broken veneer at the top. There's also some chipped out areas that will need patched and feathered.

There will be more to follow as I progress, but for right now I'll leave you with a picture of what it SHOULD look like and the location of the gallery for this project.

RCA 811K Project Photo Gallery