Wall Mounted Televisions

Some of the most often asked questions that I receive from this blog are  "How do you have your televisions mounted on the wall without cords?  Where is your cable box?” 

These are very good questions.  I now finally know the answers after bugging Nate approximately 20 times on how “we” did this.  (If you’ve been reading long enough you’ve probably realized “we” equals “Nate” a lot more than it actually equals “we.”)

First up, the easy question.  “Where do you keep your cable box?”  I’m all over this!!  We only have one.  It’s in the living room on a shelf…

Nate installed a tube that runs from behind the television to the side of the fireplace.  This tube guides the cable wire which allows us to use the cable box in the living room.  It’s not a perfect solution but the boxes blend okay.  (We need to get off our lazy hineys and organize those cords!)

“How did you mount your television without the wires showing?” 

We had this little advantage called building our own house.  When building, we tried to think of every place possible that we would like to hang a television.  In these areas, we installed an electrical box and cable outlet…

“How do I do this in my house if I didn’t build it?”

Our answer to that is….call your electrician!!  We did a lot of the electrical work in our house but we are offering zero advice on electrical issues on the blog.  You will need an electrical outlet installed in the wall where you would like your television hung.

They also make a cover for cords.  This cover will “hide” the cords from your floor electrical outlet to the television.  You could paint it to blend into the wall.  Not a perfect solution but much better than a bunch of exposed cords. 

There you have it.  Our television “secret”.  Any further questions.  What are your favorite television shows? 

The funny thing about this post is that I am typing this while watching Big Brother on antenna.  (I will need to publish it at my in-laws later.) A storm hit our area on Tuesday and stuck our cable box which equals no cable television and no internet (gasp!! The horror!)  Just an FYI, if you have Mediacom and you want your cable service fixed sooner than your phone quoted date of 3 weeks (yes, they told me on the phone (twice) that the soonest they could send out a technician was 3 weeks!! No blogging or Pinterest for 3 weeks.  Seriously?)  So I tweeted a nasty message on the Twitter (I call it “THE Twitter”), received a response back in about 3 minutes, and magically they will have a technician out this afternoon.  I am now a fan of the Twitter.  And I won’t write a super nasty post on the evils of Mediacom…unless it isn’t fixed later…

Fire Pit How-To-ish

Last week you caught a glimpse of Nate’s parents’ fire pit…which made us realize we haven’t introduced our fire pit on the ol’ blog.  We only use it two or three times a year. Mainly because Nate’s parents live a block away and we use theirs more often.  And I don’t like bugs or smoke or more than one s’more.  Nate, however, could win a s’more eating contest…

How do you make your very own fire pit? 

Step 1:  Start with an ugly area like this and choose your retaining blocks of choice.  (We choose King’s Material Keystone Country Manner retaining wall system in granite.)

Step 2: Level the ground where you want to start your fire pit/retaining wall combo.

Step 3: Put down dry bagged concrete or sand to make the ground stable. (We used bag concrete because sand doesn’t work well in Iowa due to our weather extremes.)

Step 4: Start at one end. Lay a retaining block on top of the dry concrete/sand.  Level it out.  Continue across until you finish the first row.

Step 5: Start row 2.  We had three different brick sizes. We picked a brick that was different from the first row (straight line vs. angled) and (short brick vs. long brick) to start the row.  Choosing a different brick helped to make sure the seams didn’t match because this would make the wall less sturdy.  We glued each layer of blocks onto the other with landscape block adhesive to create a more solid base….so it could hold our bums…after a s’more eating contest.

Step 6: Continue this technique until you reach your desired height.

Step 7: Top with landscape block cap.  (We used landscape block adhesive on this step also.)

Step 8: Enjoy your fire pit. Cook up some s’mores!  And smell like smoke.  And get eaten by bugs.  I’m such a girl.

Nate tells me that building a fire pit isn’t hard. Just time consuming and labor intensive. 

Do you enjoy fire pits?  Have you attempted to build one?  Are you a s’mores fan?

Worst Grown-up Chore

I often forget that I’m an adult.  Seriously.  I am going on 30, a healthcare professional, and a homeowner…but I just don’t feel like a grown-up.  So naturally, I don’t think that grown-up chores apply to me. 

It has taken me about 10 years to realize that if I leave a dirty pan in the sink to soak, it will not magically wash itself.  That “magic” was my mother.  And I don’t live with her anymore.

I am also learning the hard way that windows do not magically wash themselves.  The windows in our house were installed 3 years ago.  I have washed approximately four of them in that time period.

I started the daunting task of cleaning them this past week-end.  I really wish I would have known how awful washing windows is when we designed this house…because there are a lot of stinking windows….

I finished the first floor this week-end.  I will take on the other two floors in the upcoming weeks.  Ugg…maybe I’ll get some arm muscles out the deal? Dream big.

We did try out a fun new product (that we purchased ourselves..just mentioning because we liked it!)…Windex Outdoor Window Cleaner.  We were impressed how this cleaner worked on the outside of the picture windows.  All you have to do is spray the window with a garden hose and then scrub the window with the cleaner….

The extendable handle was super helpful!  New toys always make icky chores slightly more fun.

What’s your least favorite grown-up chore?  Any secret window washing tips?