Home improvement time

We moved into our current home in Crown Hill just over a year ago. While we got lucky and found a house that was more or less ready to move in - unlike our previous abode - there were still plenty of projects that needed to be done.

First up was building wall to wall bookcases in the

downstairs living room. When we bought the

house there was a very strange built-in unit that only covered half the wall. It was constructed from fairly flimsy 1/2" and 1/4" plywood and none of the

shelves were adjustable. It was an eyesore and not very functional. I tore it out and replaced it with a bookcase spanning the entire wall and featuring adjustable shelves each capable of holding a heavy set of books without sagging. Of course we still have way more books than shelf space!

Next up was the TV. We had the set sitting on a

stand in a corner to the right of the fireplace. This

wasn't an ideal setting and also placed all the A/V equipment within easy reach of Lily. The to the right of the fireplace is the back of a closet in the garage behind the living room. I decied to open up a hole in the wall and transfer the weight load using jack studs, cripples, and a header. Into the opening I inserted a box made of MDF and featuring a removable back panel to allow easy access to the wires/cables from the closet in the garage. The TV was mounted above the fireplace and below the TV is a mantel shelf made using a hollow frame construction. The cables from the TV are routed through the mantel shelf and then go through a hole in the wall (hidden by the shelf) and then through a small hole in the back of the AV box. The end result is an AV set-up with plenty of room for new devices (hopefully a X-Box 360!) and not a single wire to be seen.

Finally, now that Spring is finally here we've decided to start doing some yard work. The big problem in our yard is weeds. The house next to us is a rental and the tenants and landowner have zero interest in any form of yard upkeep. This means all the weeds in their yard (and the yard is pretty much nothing but weeds!) blow seeds into our yard. To combat this I'm in the process of completely gutting each flower bed and laying down thick landscape fabric topped with fresh wood chips. It's a tedious proces to say the least. In back we decied to thin the vegetation and also moved the hydranga out of the corner where it was crowding out the beautiful Japanese mapleleaf. In front we recycled some empty pots and started a container garden.