“I Like Projects”

When we bought our house I had more than one person tell me with a dreary voice that home ownership was a lot of work, to which I would reply something along the lines of “I like projects”. This is true, but more correctly I like working on home improvement projects that I come up with and plan in advance, as apposed to those which are thrust upon me: leaking roof, leaking toilet, leaking sink, ect… In fact I would even go as far as to say that I hate anything that leaks. Anyways, with all the time I have spent away from home this summer I was looking forward to a long holiday weekend at home. A chance to work a few projects I have had on the back burner. Of course the weekend actually started with one of those “thrust upon me” jobs fixing the brakes on the car, but that’s another story altogether.
We have done a lot to improve our house since buying it less than a year and half ago. For me the most fun has been converting the garage from a dark “not much more than an enclosed carport” into a nice workshop from which to base my projects out of. When we moved in the garage literally had one outlet and one light. Since then with the help of Molly, my Dad, and a few friends, I have wired, insulated, installed a window, sheet rocked, painted and basically done everything to make a living space a living space. I even brought in plumbing and added a utility sink. Cabinets and a counter top which are still under construction are the final touch. This weekend’s project in the shop was installing a lumber rack/storage space above the garage door. This allowed me to finally get extra lumber off the floor and organize my limited space a little better.

Garage with new lumber rack and also this weekend new shelf for parking my bike above Molly's bike

Old wiring of  two switches using one 3 strand wire

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Once that was done I was ready to move inside to the next project. At Molly’s request the bathroom needed more light. The obvious solution was to change the bath fan out for a combination fan and light. Sounds simple enough, right? Not really. This job involved crawling around in the attic, cutting sheet rock, duct work, and quite a bit of wiring. Working on the garage last year I learned a lot about wiring, but new wiring is always much easier that working with old wiring. I had to find a way to add an additional switch for the light without making a mess of the walls and without disturbing the existing wiring. I new I had it made once I was able to pull a new wire through the wall from the switch up into the attic and using the old wiring and then pull the old wiring back into place using the new wire, successfully emplace a new wire that could be used for the new switch and light. Until that point I really didn’t know if this whole project was going to pan out or not. Actually, I really didn’t know it if was going to pan out until I turning the electricity back on and almost to my disbelief everything worked just the way I had planed. And I guess that’s part of what motivates me, every good project is chance to learn something, a chance to challenge yourself and hopefully in the end create a better living space. So bring it on … “I LIKE Projects”

The Attic.  My second least favorite place after the crawlspace.

Success!  Three switches where there use to be just two.

The final project.  Got to love that wide angle lens.  Out bathroom looks huge!