Happy HOLLAdays

My Christmas cards may have been lost in the mail, but it didn't stop me from making the house festive this year, especially since last year we were right in the thick of moving and tiling at Christmastime. I dug up all the light strings I could find and bought several LED strings for the front yard and went to town making the house feel cheery. I may never want to take my living room lights down! They really make it feel cozy.

Our Christmas mantle. Eventually I'd like to knit up some nice stockings for us and the pup.

Presents!

I just love Christmas lights!

Our holiday welcome mat

This is an Italian stone pine tree we bought this year with hopes of re-potting it and using it every year for Christmas (with a cute dog standing next to it for size comparison)

This may not look Christmas-y, but Nick installed this nifty outlet beneath the flood lights out front so I could plug my Christmas lights into it! We only have a few trees wrapped this year, but I intend to add more lights each year and eventually have a ridiculously bright and awesome front yard.

Nick's mom gave me this lovely sconce for Christmas and I think it looks really festive. In spring I plan to replace the votive candles with tiny colorful succulents!

I hadn't made paper snowflakes in years and it was really fun to do again!

Google "auto-awesomed" this photo for me to make my Christmas lights on the tree outside sparkle!

A Tale of Two Microwaves

Once upon a time, we had a lovely microwave in the kitchen. We used it before we moved in to warm up cold pizza while we painted the walls and ripped up the floors. Then one day, the microwave broke. We called the manufacturer, who told us our warranty was good, so they sent out a technician to diagnose it. Sadly, the technician informed us our warranty was in fact not good, and we had to pay him $75 to tell us that he couldn't fix it without a lot more money. We took down the microwave to see if we could do anything to fix it and discovered that there was nothing we could do, so we plopped it in the garage, where it stayed for months and months. Finally, almost a year later, we bought a shiny new microwave! And we all lived happily ever after.

Nick installing the duct work

This is the microwave from our apartment that we've been using in the meantime. It's not ugly, but it takes up SO much counter space, which we really don't have that much of.

So much more space, and moving the knife block over to be with the other knives means the right side of the sink is completely clear!

Nick also installed this amazing outlet! It's amazing because the former owner had cut off the plug of the old microwave cord and connected it directly to the wires in the wall. I can't even imagine how it could possibly be easier to do that than to just install an outlet. The shortcuts these people took were unreal.

No gaping hole above the stove! So pretty! AND IT MATCHES.

Jungle House

We recently had to bring in all of the potted plants from outdoors when it dropped below freezing stayed there each night, and now our house is a jungle wonderland! I'm going to have a tough time giving them all back up to the porch when the warm weather comes back around, so I might just have to get a bunch more for in the house year-round to fill up the empty spaces.

Aside from the plants, there is another new addition to the master bedroom...

It's this little light switch in the corner. We have several flood lights on the back porch, but the one that is between the living room and our bedroom only had a switch in the living room, so if we forgot to switch it off before bed we would have to go all the way back through the house to turn it off. Not any more! Nick cut a hole in the wall and wired a switch up to control the same light using three-way light switches in both rooms.

Another recent electrical project was finally replacing the extension cord that has been draped across the ceiling to power the garage door opener since we first moved in. A few months back Nick replaced the old chain opener with a new WiFi-enabled belt opener (that we got on sale for under $200 including tax!), and now it's got a fancy new outlet in the ceiling to just plug into directly. This picture is from right after Nick installed it so the cord is still hanging down and it's not super pretty, but you get the idea. Hooray for safe electricity use!