We're masochists

Yes. No doubt about it. We apparently love giving ourselves more work than we need to.  Our new project? Updating the electrical.  Last winter, we realized that the electrical in our house is really really old.
We learned all the fine combinations of electrical appliances that, when run at the same time, would pop a circuit breaker. It was a daily adventure for us.  The rule of thumb basically came to "Don't run more than one thing at once."

Mary and I decided that we couldn't go another winter without updating the electrical in our old house.
So we got together with a friend and we are taking the plunge on Tuesday. We got the permit required, got the new circuit breaker box and breakers, and all the wire we could possible use.  I must say, we are both very excited to have updated electrical.

But that's not why we're masochists. We're masochists because yesterday we decided on a whim to rip out all the lathe and plaster on the walls in the back room where the breaker is. We really didn't need or want to  do it, but we figured this would be the baby's room when the time comes and we've been told babies don't like drafty rooms. ;)  Plus, doing it now has its benefits. Having the room torn down to the studs will make the electrical work much easier. We will now have complete unobstructed access to the old breaker, the new breaker, and several plugs in the bedroom and  kitchen, including to the stove and fridge.

So now that we're down a room, it's just like we are living in a two bedroom apartment again! Ugggh.
And now for some pictures....

This is just one of me being goofy. Demolition is my favorite part of home improvement. Especially when I'm tearing out old crappiness that has cause us much grief in the past.

I must say, tearing out lathe and plaster is quite therapeutic and fun. It really allows one to release all that stored up frustration and stress.

 Behold, the lovely circuit breaker that I'm pretty sure came from the 50's.  Side note, the wires in the top right of this picture are the old old nob and tube wiring from the 20's. It looks like when they took out the fuse box and put in the breaker, they didn't bother to remove the nob and tube wiring. (It's actually pretty hard to do, so I can't blame them).

We filled Mary's truck with all the debris. It's amazing how much lathe and plaster you can pull off of two walls. We also had a nice thin layer of dust all over the whole house as well.

That is all for now. We'll update everyone when we can again say that we live in a three bedroom apartment.

My wife is awesome

Just some random thoughts about Mary.
We've been doing a lot of work on our house trying to get it ready to sell. During this time, I've also been coming up to a big deadline at work. So I've been very strapped for time.

So during those days when I'm stuck at work, Mary has accepted the challenge and done a lot of non-girly things around the house. Like framing, putting up drywall, mudding, and even messing around with some electrical stuff.

She is an incredibly hard worker. She can rattle off a huge massive of list of things that she got done that day and I just feel so grateful, and a bit lazy.

At the same time, she's no tomboy. She loves loves loves shopping, the color pink, heart-shaped anything, animals, getting her hair done, and being romanced.

Sometimes it's hard to believe that these two pictures are the same girl. How lucky am I!

A busy summer...

So busy in fact, that I don't have time to blog. :)
That's my cheap cop-out for being lazy.

Actually, we really have been quite busy this summer. So far we have
 * torn out and remodeled our laundry room,
 * redid some walls in the basement bedroom,
 * hiked to Lower Calf Creek falls near Escalante,
 * went hiking in Natural Bridges National Monument in So. Utah with the fam,
 * went biking ^^ there as well (fun downhills, but the climbs *suuuuucked*)
 * looked at lots of boats for Mom and Dad,
 * test drove several boats with Mom and Dad, (one of which they purchased!!)
 * been out on the water several times since then,
 * taught Mary how to back a trailer in the Novell parking lot (she's actually better at it than me, I think),
 * perused KSL classifieds for a week to procure some wake boards,
 -  and finally -
 * went with the Fam to Yuba lake on our first family boating trip in over a decade.

I may or may not provide pictures. We'll see. I've probably fulfilled my blogging quota for a few months now. Stay tuned for our next post, "Rusty passes out after Thanksgiving turkey".

Christmas Shopping

I think this picture says it all, but just incase your wondering this is how I feel when I try to go anywhere during the Christmas season. Normally I enjoy shopping but the herd is just a bit to crowded for me around Christmas time.

Gingerbread Mansions

The Howell tradition of Gingerbread construction was alive and vibrant this year! for those that aren't aware Rusty's family has a tradition every year of making gingerbread houses from scratch. This year Mom and Dad Howell did all the hard labor and made the pieces, the rest of us joined them for the candy fest and decorating. We literally had over 20 different types of candy, it was heaven for a candy-o-holic. We all ate way to much sugar but had a blast doing it. We may not be artists but at the end of the night I was really proud of our creations.