Electrical Outlet, Cattle Panel, and Potatoes

J has been busy with his brother Jacob in the backyard.

Jacob wants to build his own house so he wanted to try installing an electrical outlet. When we had the grill built, it was going to be $125 extra for an exterior outlet so we didn't do it. There is an interior box since J wanted a refrigerator, but if you want to plug anything additional into it you have to remove either the grill or the fridge to get to it.

So Jacob drilled through the cinder block and cement.

Ran the wire.

And connected it to the interior box.

Then he hooked up the outlet on the exterior.

He did a really good job. Everything works and nothing has burned down.

While he was doing that, J was busy planting potatoes.

Then we took the cattle panel and installed it on the wall.

Marcus The Truck is so awesome

J's original plan had been to use coaxial cable clips, which are plastic. I told him the Phoenix sun is really rough and that they would probably become pretty brittle. I suggested washers. Seems to be holding up pretty well. We'll see how much weight it can handle when he gets a vine growing up it.

Framed Mirror

I had a full-length mirror on my bedroom wall so I could check my outfit top to bottom. It was just a cheap, plastic-framed mirror.

I saw on Pinterest that you can take the plastic edging off and replace it with wood. And all the blogs made it look oh so easy.

Lies.

I cried during this project. Real tears.

But let me back up to the beginning. I took my mirror off the wall, took it outside, and started taking the edging off.

And broke the mirror.

On my way to taking the mirror outside I snapped a Before. The dogs went crazy barking at the strange mirror dogs.

This mirror has no After because it died.

The mirror broke so bad that I put it in the trash. I thought about getting a glass cutter and trying to salvage it but I would have had to cut it too short. I wanted a full-length mirror.

And this project was on hold for awhile.

Until I bought a $6 mirror at Lowe's. I looked for one without a plastic edge, but since those have a nice beveled edge, it was $25. I figured I'd be really careful and save money, so I went with the cheaper option.

It freaking broke again. I was being so, so careful. Apparently there was room for improvement.

If anyone wants to try this and learn from my mistakes: Do NOT bend the plastic pieces back, that's how the mirror breaks. You need to make sure it is cut away with a box cutter. And the glue is thicker in the corners, which is why those are harder and the area that breaks.

The good news is I went to Home Depot and bought a $3 glass cutter (the one at Lowe's is $5 and had poor reviews online). This was another pain point and I don't have any photos because there was screaming (although no crying just yet). I cleaned the glass just like it said to do online, and put down my straight edge and cut.

And my straight edge slid and my cut was crooked.

J helped me out and we got a straight cut.

And again, the project sat. Weeks passed. It needed to think about what it had done. 

When I had recovered enough emotionally, I brought out the wood from the garage that had been sitting there patiently for two months.

I cut the two shortest top and bottom pieces and prepared to router out an edge for the mirror to sit in.

I put another piece of wood the same width next to the piece I was going to router so that my straight edge had something to sit on and be stable. 

I measured to determine how far away my straight edge needed to be from my routered edge.

I should have clamped it, but I just held it down with my hand. A few times I pushed too hard on the edge with my router and it shifted and cut too deep, but I just adjusted and concentrated on pushing forward instead of to the side.

I think we've already established that I am not a professional.

After the picture frame disaster, I didn't even try mitered edges.

I made marks on my wood so I didn't route all the way down, just where the mirror would sit.

And promptly forgot all about it and routed the entire edge of the first piece of wood.

But I did better on my second, you can see the routed edge stops.

Then I realized my top and bottom pieces were too long, because the routed edges pushed the wood closer. Um, hello, should have thought of that.

Not a profesional.

Also not a big deal, I was able to shave those pieces down.

I was so excited. This project which had caused me such angst was so close to being done! I just needed to make the pocket holes!

And this is where I cried. I didn't realize it, but the bit they give you for the Kreg Jig is super long. I just used a regular small bit. Well the head of the drill gets in the way and causes the screw to tilt at an angle. The screw popped out on the other side and cracked my wood.

This is where I cried. I had spent a very freaking long time measuring, cutting, and routing this wood and now it was cracked. J comforted me. Then helped me fix it. We glued and clamped the wood. Got the proper Kreg Jig bit, and did it correctly.

The wood on the right was where it cracked. The wood on the left had its own problems. Not a professional.

Stupid traitorous pocket holes

I did a couple dry fits and had to route out just a wee bit more to make sure the mirror fit snugly. I carried the mirror so, so carefully every time I moved it. I would have been livid if I dropped it and it shattered. But it survived. 

Then it was ready for stain. I stained a couple sample pieces of wood and J and I decided on Dark Walnut.

I flipped it over and was just going to stain the routered edge, since I had read that the mirror will reflect the glued edge. But I ended up just staining the whole thing.

Then it was time to glue the mirror and I grabbed my e6000 glue. The top was screwed on but it was broken and missing the most important piece! I am not a superstitious person and really wasn't worried when I broke that mirror, but maybe there is something to this.

Or not, because I put a toothpick in there and was able to use the glue. Except my hand cramped and I squished the bottle in half, which caused it to rip and get glue all over my hand. But I still glued my mirror so whatever. 

While I was waiting for it to dry, I was wondering if the glue would be enough.

 I went to Lowes and asked if they had anything like the holders on a picture frame. He gave me this:

The plastic pieces were actually pretty thick so I didn't love it. I ended up getting mending braces:

And when I got home, the glue did such a good job that I didn't even use them. But the good news is that I've been meaning to shore up J's dirt sifter and they will work just fine for that, so I'll keep them.

Don't judge my bedroom; we have family living with us temporarily so all my junk is stored in the corner.

I am pretty happy with the After. It was just way too much work. Maybe after a few days the pain will have faded and I can just enjoy it.

Megan's Blanket

For Christmas, since I have eight siblings, we are in charge of one sibling that alternates every year. This year I had Megan. She wanted a crocheted blanket. I started in early November, but a large afghan is no easy task and it was definitely late.

First it took me three hours to find a pattern and the correct starting chain for an appropriately sized blanket. This means I had to crochet a few rows, measure it, rip it out, and start over. It's my least favorite part of any project. Once I had that done, then I had to figure out how much yarn of each color I needed. I had to go back to buy more yarn twice. It ended up being 20 skeins of yarn.

I also timed myself crocheting a row, then did a little math to figure out how many rows I would be crocheting, and then figured out how much time it was going to take me to do the blanket.

48 hours.

Two whole days.

I definitely set expectations with my sister that her Christmas present was going to be late.

But it's done, and I mailed it off.

I tried to take a photo on the couch but it's too big. So I asked J to model for me. And then the dogs wanted in on the action.

I think it turned out pretty well. But I don't think I'll ever be making another afghan in my life.

I waited until my sister got it and asked for a photo. Here is the beauty with her blanket:

Backyard Updates

We made some changes to the backyard before Thanksgiving since we hosted this year. I am a bit behind with the sharing.

Since we don't have a back porch cover, we had to get creative with the lights (blog found here). J has been wanting to add pots forever, and when we went to the nursery we found pots we really liked, so he finally got his wish.

The other thing we did was my biggest wish - a fire pit. I've been collecting tree stumps for stools and I love it.

J also moved one of his garden boxes. That is his wicking garden bed that he decided he wants on the other side of the sheds. (Prior blog on wicking garden bed here). He made a few changes but it's still a wicking garden bed. Hopefully this is the box's last resting place.

New Roof Pending Solar

The regulations for APS, which is one of the electrical stations in Arizona, are changing in summer of 2017 so that solar won't be worth it. So J really pushed for solar. I was a little reluctant. Our roof would need to be replaced, but it still had five years of life left. But I wasn't going to put on solar, then take it off to replace the roof and have it re-installed; it wouldn't be cost effective. So I was hoping to save up for five years and pay cash for the roof and solar. But with the changes, it wouldn't be worth it, so we were on a time crunch.

So we got our stinking roof replaced.

The before:

The company had about eight guys on the roof. They showed up around 7:00 and were done at 1:00. I was impressed, I thought it would take a few days.

The after:

We chose an energy efficient white tile. And they installed flashing, which hadn't been there before (even though it should have). Apparently it's important for gutters, which J really wants so he can capture rainwater for his garden.

I wanted to wait until February to replace the roof, when I get a bonus at work and the money J saves for taxes (since he's self employed) frees up (he always saves more than he has to pay, so it's like he gets a bonus too). But he was worried about the deadline. So we applied for a home equity line of credit.

It was actually pretty easy. We've owned our house since 2009 and it's appreciated a ridiculous amount. It makes me think there's another housing bubble; hopefully just a small one. But the rate we received was really good and we should be able to pay off the entire amount for the roof plus a chunk of the solar, so it's not too bad. I was just really excited about being so close to finally paying off J's student loans. I don't like debt. Even when it's "good" debt.

We signed the contract for the solar. The lady said the installation will be about March because they're so busy. I hope it saves me a ton of money. The ROI will be a few years, so I hope it's worth it in the long run. I told J he's never getting me out of this house now.