A New Challenge for a New Year!

Today I received the first question for the "Blog Off" series that I was asked to participate in. This is sponsored by e-local, and as soon as the answers are compiled I will post a link here, as well as on our website. A series of relevant questions will be posed to the panel of selected "experts" and each will post a response to open up debate. It should be fun, and I'm looking forward to it. The first question was related to planning for a bathroom renovation, and what should be the most important consideration, artistic vision, or the location of the plumbing and electrical components of the project.

As I mentioned in my last post, my parents are here visiting with us until January 19th. My Dad is 84, and my Mom is 82, and are both in good health. They used to come down here to Arizona and stay in their R.V. for some of the winter months in the past, but the challenges of driving a big rig this far became an issue, so they stopped doing that a few years back. Now that we have a place down here they can come stay with us to help escape at least some of the long winter back home in Alberta Canada. The timing has been good as the last several days back home have seen temperatures in the -20's and -30's. and lots of new snow and blowing snow. It is supposed to warm up to seasonal temperatures by the time they return later this week.

We have been spending time visiting, playing cards, watching movies, and had a great game of golf here yesterday. Here's a video of my Mom shooting some hoops in the pool, something that is in stark contrast to what she would be doing back in the frozen north.



I had a question regarding the installation of a motion sensing switch in a room with a 3-way switch network in place now. The person wanted to know if this is possible, and the answer is yes! With the wiring in place now to enable a 3-way switch network, the installation of the motion sensing switch is possible at either switch location (pick the one with the best 'view' of the room), and the proper splices will need to be made at both switch locations to make this new arrangement work. The switch that gets abandoned will have to be covered with a blank cover plate after the splices are made. I would have to know the details of the existing wiring to be able to advise on the correct splices to make.

The tip of the week involves the maintaining your existing tool collection so you don't have to replace them for years to come. Clean and dry your tools after each use, and lubricate when necessary. I could learn from my own advice here as you will see when I take you on a video tour of my own personal tool bag, coming soon.

Take care, and work safe!