Home Impovements: Lighting 3

That Fuzz has been a busy fella these days doing his part to make this Trailer in the Woods into our new home. His Sweetie has been busy too.
It may have been noticed, in some older pix of the kitchen, these wires hanging out of the ceiling. Originally there was a hideous wooden box up there containing a equally hideous florescent light fixture.
The Fuzz removed this, although not without incident (it dropped on his poor bald spot) but it had not yet been replaced. Now it was time to tackle this job.
His Sweetie wanted to replace it with one of these Track Lighting Fixtures, similar to what she had seen in the Local Daughter's kitchen. It seemed like a good idea to The Fuzz, although it did take a while to pick one out at the Home Improvement Store.
Now that it had finally been purchased, it was time for the installation. Since that hideous old light had been attached to the rafters, there was no electrical-box-thing there to mount this Elegant New Light to. The Fuzz got one from that handy Home Improvement Store and went to work.
First, he had to enlarge the hole in the ceiling to fit this new box. (Those interested, can follow the procedure with these included pix.) This was accomplished with that always handy, little Dremel Tool, that he has used for similar jobs in the past.
Once that was accomplished, he attached this Elegant New Fixture to said box. Here's a look at it. But now he had to locate and attach the remaining supports as well. This was a little tricky since everything would have to line up just right.
First, he lightly traced the outline of these supports onto the ceiling and determined the direction the mounting bracket would have to be turned. Then, he took a deep breath and began to drill.
Next, since there was nothing there but sheetrock, he inserted a couple of those little screw things and hoped for the best.
If everything lined up, he could attach the light to these, and perhaps it would stay up there.
Next he screwed those little brackets to the ceiling and tried the fit. To his amazement, it fit. This process was repeated on the other side with equal success and he secured the whole Assembly up there where it belonged.
All that remained was to install the actual light "bulbs".
The Fuzz has learned through painful experience that it is bad luck to actually touch these little lights with one's fingers. He found that the manufactures (Chinese of course) had thoughtfully provided one of these small, suction-cup-things, just for this purpose.

And now, with everything hooked up it was time to turn on the juice for a test run.Pretty nice.
And here's a Night Shot.

There's still lots more to do, but things are coming along. We have actually been staying there quite a bit. We hope to have the internet up before too long, and then maybe y'all will hear a bit more from The Fuzz.

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Busy Busy

Being busy these days,
Will try to get back soon.

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Acorns

We've been staying out at the trailer a lot lately. There's no internet (or computer for that matter) so The Fuzz is finding it hard to post consistently. Of course, there are always those feet! And now the Young Daughter claims she needs the mac for school work!
So here's a quick pix of this year's crop of acorns.We are making progress out there, in fact staying quite busy. The Fuzz has been able to hit a lick now and again in spite of his back problems. We are also happy to report that he is doing much better, and even expects to return to work in the morning. He hopes to get some pix up of all the latest improvements sometime soon.

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Stormy Skies

Storm clouds moving in.

We saw this the other day driving out into the country.

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Home Improvements: Lighting 2

After switching out that bathroom light, and a cup of coffee, The Fuzz moved on to his next project. While visiting that Local Daughter we were impressed by the way they had installed a Dimmer Switch on their new kitchen light. We had noticed that ours seemed just a little too bright for that Evening Kick-back Time. So while at the Home Improvement Store, The Fuzz picked up one of these little jobs. It even has a choice of knobs to match one's decor!

He also picked up that orange-looking thing.

If you are familiar with these sort of things, you may notice that this, existing, switch is not mounted in a wall box, but clamps to the wallboard. In fact this seems to be the method used throughout the trailer's electrical system. I suppose this all fine and well, but, It does not seem that the local Home Improvement Store carries this sort of thing. But, they do have these orange-looking-things that also clamp to the wallboard and provide a place to mount normal electrical things.
As one might expect, that orange-looking-thing was just a little larger than the hole for the old switch. So one again, The Fuzz broke out his very useful Dremel Tool, this time with a cool bit especially for cutting holes in wallboard.
After enlarging the hole, he connected up the wires and screwed the Fancy New Dimmer Switch in there.
All that was left was to install the faceplate and knob.
And here, you can see the finished project. I realize that you can't see how well it worked, but take my word for it, it works fine. So now in the evening we can dim the lights and relax with an occasional glass of wine.
We have been staying out there some. There is no internet or any of that stuff, so if The Fuzz doesn't post for a few days, he might still be living, just not in cyberspace.

In other news, The Fuzz's back is doing a little bit better, but it appears that he will still be out of work for a few more days.

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Home Improvements: Lighting 1

This is the new light to be installed in Young Daughter's bathroom out at the trailer.

Here at the left is a look at the old, defective light. This one has exhibited a tendency to flicker and go out. The Fuzz found that it would work, if someone would climb up there and wiggle it periodically. It was realized that this was not an ideal situation. So, once again, it was time for a trip to the Home Improvement Store.

The Fuzz has learned the hard way that to avoid "painful electric shock" it is prudent to first flip the appropriate circuit breaker. He did this while the defective light was lit so he could be sure to get the correct one.
Having taken care of this important detail, he proceeded to attempt the removal of the defective unit. This was accomplished with some difficulty as it was attached to the flimsy ceiling with a number of layers of paint. He accomplished this with aid of a putty knife, leaving most of the ceiling intact.
There was a slight problem holding this fine new light up there whilst making all these connections, but here we see how That Resourceful Fuzz solved this problem too, by the use of a common clothespin. With all the connections in order, it was time to finish up by adjusting the length of the cord and attaching all to the box in the ceiling. Below, is a look at this finished Home Improvement.

The Fuzz realizes that publishing this post at this time of day (12:04) may be a bit confusing, but this is not one of those trick posts. He really is here now in "real time" as they say. There seems to be a bit of a problem with his back (again) so we regret to report that he is not on the job today. We hope that this situation will improve soon.

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Another Exciting, Mystery Pix Revealed!

The Fuzz says his hat is off to shnooks who against all odds has uncovered the mystery behind our Latest Mystery Pix. And folks it was a mystery. The fuzz was accused of making this one too hard by rotating it all those 90 degrees to the left. He was beginning to suffer pangs of guilt and stuff like that. He was even considering revealing some of these tactics to make things "fair".
But shnooks has revived our faith in the deductive abilities of our readers.

Great Job!

1st Night Cont.

In order to spend the night, it was of course, necessary to have a place to sleep.

We wanted something better than that nasty old floor. So The Fuzz had been working on something more to our taste. It will be admitted that The Fuzz and His Sweetie, might not be considered typical, in that their regular bed is a futon on the floor in the loft. This is actually quite comfy when one is used to it. But we wanted to be able to utilize the space below better, and felt it would be best to get up above all the anticipated foot traffic. So, no longer having a loft, The Fuzz went to work on this "bed" which is really just a raised platform for said futon. There will be room for some of those plastic bin-things below, and as an added bonus, the platform itself contains several storage compartments. The pix to the right shows the work in progress.Here's a look at how things were for our 1st night.

The mattress here is not the futon, but a temporary substitute consisting of a couple smaller foam pads placed side by side. So they do hang over the edges a bit. One must be careful when getting out, not to flip off onto the floor. The Fuzz's Sweetie plans on installing some sort of skirting to conceal the storage bins and keep the dust out.
But we did sleep well. It is kinda exciting to see all this finally beginning to come together.

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Another Exciting, New, Mystery Pix!

We just couldn't resist.

So, here it is.
Good luck!

First Night

Since we finally got our approval from the county, we were getting ready to move in.
The Fuzz took some vacation time from work for some preparations. We are not exactly moving in, but will be spending many nights there. One of the first things on the agenda was to get rid of some of the construction debris. Here's a trailer load ready to go.
In celebration of our First Night our there in the Woods, The Fuzz and His Sweetie put up the Party Lights. There's still a lot to do, but as you can see, we are making progress here.
Of course, there is no Internet out there yet, so if these posts get a bit erratic, it's just one of those complications of modern life. But we will keep you posted with all the latest news.

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Now There's a Plan!

This just in....

"Russian soccer fans have been told to drink whiskey on their trip to Wales for next month's World Cup qualifier to ward off the H1N1 swine flu virus, the head of the country's supporter association (VOB) said Monday."

The Fuzz says this sounds a lot better than getting a shot...

"That should cure all symptoms of the disease."

Hey, if it's good enough for the Ruskies, it's good enough for me. Maybe we don't really need this Health Reform after all.

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Here come the Feet

At The River

We did make it to the river.

The Fuzz's Sweetie fixed some potato salad and other stuff, then we made up some sandwiches and headed over there for a swim and picnic supper.
The river is pretty high for this time of year, and it felt good.
About the time we were finishing up supper, we could hear a storm moving in, so we moved on out.

Oh, and The Fuzz says there's something afoot around here, so watch out for more midnight madness in the future.

The Story Behind the Mystery Pix

Here it is in a less mysterious form, our latest Mystery Pix. Although, it doesn't seem to have been too big a mystery. That Lazy Iguana got it right off. But we did say it was simpler, right?
The Fuzz was really impressed with how well this kit was thought out. Like I said, the only thing he had to supply was a screwdriver. This set came in 3 separate boxes, each with a full compliment of screws and stuff. So now The Fuzz has 3 of these cool little allen-wrench-crank things. Of course I don't know what he'll do with them. Since he already has some real allen wrenches, he'll probably add them to the pile of Extra-stuff-that-never-gets-used. Every body needs one of those.
He went out and put on a 2nd coat of varnish after work, so maybe soon, we'll be using this great stuff. But tomorrow, we head to the river, God willing.

Let's Try It Again

Since we didn't have much luck on the last Mystery Pix, we thought we'd try a simpler one.

Good luck.

Exotic Furniture

Now that the county is out of our hair (Yes we passed!) it's time to make things livable. We've had this box sitting out there for a while, waiting for the right moment. Since that moment had finally come, The Fuzz opened it, here's some of what was inside. Next all these pieces had to be properly assembled into they're proper form.
In times passed, we had purchased a similar unit from Wally World on line. When The Fuzz went to pick it up at the local Wally Mega World, he realized it was a piece of crap. But since they had also damaged it in shipment (although they tried to keep this a secret) he was able in good conscience to refuse it. After standing in several lines to ascertain that his funds had been returned, he went back on line and found this little item all the way from Brazil. It looked better and was less expensive. (We won't say it was "cheaper" because Wally's was definitely a piece of cheap crap.) But we had never actually opened the boxes till now. I am pleased to report that it was pretty nice, made out of real wood and all. But it still needed to be assembled. The Fuzz was quite happy to find that everything necessary was already in the boxes, even the glue. All he needed to supply was a screwdriver. The instructions were completely pictorial, which was good since The Fuzz does not read Portuguese.

Here's a look.

Nice ain't it. The table isn't in this pix, but you can get the idea.

It still needs some finishing. The Fuzz's Sweetie helped put the 1st coat of varnish on it today.

And also, The Fuzz wanted me to mention a Brand New Easier Mystery Pix coming at Midnight! So get ready.

Mystery Pix Reveled

OK
Here it is, the un-mystified Mystery Pix.

We had some good guesses.
It did kinda look like a "dashboard".
And, I suppose not many would be familiar enough with the infamous "One-Armed-Bandits" to recognise one under those confusing circumstances.
Maybe it was unfair, but The Fuzz wants to commend all who made the attempt.

Mystery Pix to be Reveled

Well, although we've had some pretty good guesses, no one seems to have gotten this latest Mystery Pix.
The Fuzz says this has gone on long enough.
So, tonight, at midnight, the mystery will be reveled.
So if you want the satisfaction of beating this deadline, this is your last chance.
See you then.