The thrill of Home Improvement.

In 2011 I have 31 published posts (does not include things that I deleted before starting over fresh) and in 2012 I have 338 published blog posts.  Obviously a pattern has emerged and in 2013 I'll have over 3300 published posts.
In order to accomplish this I'll have to be the anti-Rob.
In fact I should end this here and continue with my next thought on a new post just for the sake of trying to accomplish it.

However, that's boring.

Being the 1st day of the year I figure'd that I should hop on the scale and see where I'm starting at and that was 248.8.
I'm quite happy with this because that means I lost over 50 pounds in 2012 and it's also nice because for the past two weeks I have maintained my weight under 250.  I know I have a long way to go to reach my next goal of getting down to 220 and it's going to actually take work on my part but it's going to be a fun ride if I can pull it off before the year is over.

2012 ended with some punishment at work, though the punishment doesn't officially start until 2013 of course.  In the two departments that I run I have a total of 5 employees currently (one is on a leave until March/April).  I have 3 in Electrical but one of those guys is going to Flooring within the next week or so.  In Plumbing I have 2 and one of those is going to Appliances.
This leaves me with 3 employees for 2 departments.
Inventory starts on the 22nd of January and I am on it of course.  One of my Electrical and one of my Plumbing guys is also on it.  This leaves nobody in Plumbing and only a part-time employee in Electrical for an entire week.  Quite an interesting dilemma considering it appears to take multiple weeks to actually get a replacement to fill the lost shoes.
However, this is the retail life.  There are always struggles.  You make the best of them and get through until things get easy.

I've nearly got my spreadsheet flushed out and I've plugged in most of my normal recurring expenses.  I am a creature of habit and routine and I know that once I get into the routine of saving my receipts and entering the info on the spreadsheet that I'll never be able to quit.

One of the last weeks of the year I installed a new dishwasher in the house.
The reason I bring this up is because I'm not the home improvement do it yourself type of guy.
However, this is something that I really want to try to change.  I'd like to be able to do a lot of the small simple things myself instead of paying someone else to do it, this would save a lot of money.
So, I got my new dishwasher and decided I was going to try to do it myself.

Overall it was fairly simple, though it took me longer because I am a novice.  The hardest part was actually getting the lines from the dishwasher cabinet to the sink cabinet.  The reason this was so difficult is because the two cabinets are interconnected on an angle which has at least a 6 inch dead space between then, and on top of that the sink cabinet sits about 2-3 inches higher than the dishwasher cabinet.  Good thing I had a spare wire coat-hanger to get me through my troubles.

After I had everything hooked up and in place it was a matter of running a test cycle and this is where problem number two occurred.
Upon reaching the draining portion of the cycle I found myself presented with a nice flood coming out of my Air Gap.
The line running from the Air Gap to my Disposer was completely clogged (not to mention the Air Gap was in horrible shape as well).  So, another run to the store for some replacement parts and after connecting them everything now works great.

From here it only gets harder.  I've got a lot of painting to do, I've also got a Patio Door to order and put in (though I am getting help with this) and I've got 5 ceiling fans to hang and I really hate hanging ceiling fans.

If my house is still standing at the end of the year it might be a miracle.