Up and running!

Well, we finally can say we're done with the move into the home on the Trace!  We no longer have anything in boxes, we've hung the pictures and shelves and all that stuff.

The living room is a challenge.  It's such an odd shaped room and really, despite nice built-in shelves, noplace to comfortably put the TV.  We decided on the mantle.  Its a little high, and makes routing all the cables to the TV a challenge.  We had to put the surround sound speakers up there too.  It's hard to arrange the loveseats too.  We went back and put them against the walls, but now it seems to me like I am twisting my neck to watch TV.  I liked the flying V we had, but it took up way too much room and made the room feel tiny, which it kind of is.

It sure sucks coming from a house with about 50% more square feet!  Everything just feels smaller, except the 3-bay garage.  I was surprised how well it all fit in the garage.  Sure, the small bay is essentially full to the ceiling, and there is NO WAY there will ever be a car in any part of the garage, but it is still workable.  The cabinets in there saved us.  I found out I would spring for 18" wire shelving in the garage... 12" is too short to hold totes or large stuff in a garage.  I have a couple of 24" shelving units free standing, so that helped take care of most of the large outdoor gear.

The bedrooms are done.  I like the three zone A/C that actually works though!  We had to turn it on last night. 

We figured out the wired LAN in the house.  Wireless is nice and all, but the wired cables are so much faster and reliable.  We also had to switch the CATV system from the dish over to cable.  That took some experimenting, but I had a hunch and it turned out right.  I should go back and lable the inputs, but probably won't now that it is all working.  Everything else in the house is labled, I was kind of suprised the cables were not.

Finally finished the inspection too.  The house was essentially spotless, but the biggest issue we found was the gutter and soffet damage in the rear.  We told the prop management company about it, and I hope they fix that for the owner's sake.  It's open to birds and bugs now, plus the water is pouring off the roof onto the shed and porch.  There was one broken window latch that is a security problem too, that needs to be fixed.

I started in the back yard too.  I cleared a LOT of the weed-trees (I wish I knew what that junk is actually called).  I got about 75% cleared, and used the nice burn pit to get rid of a lot of the deadfall and new brush.  I have a big pile and need to get burning before the ban starts next month.  I also began to burn some of the old brush piles, but that's going to take some time since there is so much of it.  For some reason, I find the clearing work relaxing. 

Well, that's a lot!  I don't have pictures at the moment.  Cheers!