May Day is Lei Day

Mason likes peas but does not like carrots.

A week before our little open house, I convinced Wendy to let me change the horrible wood-finished 5 globe bath bar vanity lights in our bathrooms.  I figured it would be a one day job; remove the old lights, paint the bare spots, install the new ones.  We went to Home Depot and picked out a pair of vanity lights we both liked.  (Actually, the ones Wendy really wanted I had to veto.  Although they looked great, they used weird sized halogen bulbs that didn't come in an energy efficient version.)

We got home and I immediately removed the bath bar lights.

Great.  Of course nothing in this house goes as planned.  Since the bath bar does not mount to a box but to the wall, the builders decided to just forgo installing a box.  They ran the cables down the WRONG side of the stud, poked it through the drywall, then notched out the drywall to make a channel to run the cable to the right location.  That staple you see in the picture?  It totally missed the stud and was holding on to nothing.  It fell out as soon as I moved the cable.  The other, adjacent bathroom was exactly the same situation.

Here's what I had to do to:
1.  Cut out an 8X20 inch horizontal section of drywall in both bathrooms.
2.  Drill a 3/4 inch hold through the middle of the stud.
3.  Run both bathrooms' cables through the hole to get it on the correct side of the stud.
4.  Install electrical boxes in both bathrooms.
5.  Cut green board patches to the right side.
6.  Have Wendy help me mark the outlines of the boxes on the green board.
7.  Cut out holes for the boxes.
8.  Screwed the patches to the studs.
9.  Taped with fiberglass tape.
10.  Two coats of 90 minute joint compound.
11.  Light sanding.
12.  Sprayed on texture.
13.  Primed then painted.
14.  Installed new fixtures.

This was done during the week between 4 and 6 PM daily.

Finished all the work by Saturday the 19th.  The open house was the 20th.  About 12 people showed up.  We had way too much food, which was unfortunate for us, but good for my students because they got lots of goodies.

Speaking of students, one student gave me a yarn lei.  I remembered that I did not get the directions for Wendy's mom, so I asked the girl to teach me.  Here's a video how-to.  It was done on our field trip, so it's noisy and there's lots of wind, but I think you can make out the directions.



Speaking of videos, here's Mason!


Carrots suck!


We don't let Mason drink sugary drinks.  We give him aspartame instead.



Mason kept taking the camera.


Mason learning to use a cellphone.


Mason feeds himself... sort of.