Kim and William's web home!

Acutally lots! The hall bathroom is done! Still have the master to do and its gonna be much more work. Planning to take another week off from work soon just to work on that project!

 

All the light controllers are done!  Just need to order 1 more part the DCMP3 to run the "shows" and that will happen ummm Saturday LOR SALE Time!!

 

A few weeks ago we were able to take a vacation. We had stuff planned, then that fell thru due to work, then work cleared up again so we did something else. ( could no longer get flights for original plans).  SOOOO  we took off to Florida and went to Kennedy space center! I messed up and planned it 1 day short of seeing the shuttle lift off! We also went to Disneyworld. We will not go back again. Nothing bad except too expensive for an adult. Not enough good thrill rides.. At $60 a park, yep too expensive per good rides. Now the hotel we stayed at in Melborne was the BOMB! Great veiw, and there was a squall  that went thru Sat evening that cooled it off so nice we slept with the patio doors open! We went shell hunting and found this litte crab runnig around, looking at us like we were crazy!

 

 

 

here we go with a news update.   . Have to paint the bathroom this weekend , so the last controller is on the back burner. I finally took a few shots of the Bethlehem star,  so you can see how it is made..   I also made an updated "rendition" of the  proposed lighting! Keep in mind this may still change, but very little between now and well showtime.... thats all for now...

 

 

Controller UPDATE!  4 out of 5 are now built and tested.  Funny how much easier they are getting, and the wriring in them are looking better each time...

 

I took some time the past 2 nights to finish one another project, the wires in my PC.  They finally got the UV braid treatment! Got tired if seeing kims Dell Dimension 2400 I modded looking better than mine.. She says hers looks better but I have more open space.. I broke down and modded her Dell since it ran HOT! all the time. Typical Dell. But now it runs much cooler. I need to fix the UV tube in hers seems like it has sliped down a bit..I also need to coat it witha  better decal material like I used on her outside case.

 

 

You decide..  I will take better pictures one day  with a Digital SLR.  That way you can see the outsides too. Hers is on the left and mine is on the right...

 

 

The second LOR controller kit is finished, tested and all working..

 

 

 

When I started this lighting craziness,  Kim asked me for a Bethleham star  for the Peak of the roof. Of course I said OK.  Little did she know what I had in mind..  Once I browsed  a few websites and found the shape she liked. I finally got around this weekend  of actually building it. I made one back in January, and had lights on it, but really was not happy with the way it looked when lit. Doing the Bells gave me a totally different vision! I used the old one as a pattern, and made 4 rows of 1/4 rod stock. Now I had places for all 4 colors, that I could male look as close to the same as possible..  I was  hoping to double the lights on it, but they would not fit properly. BUMMER!  So here is the final results!! The first photo is all 4 colors on. the next 4 are the individual colors. Let me knwo what you think!!!

 

and now there are 2!!  Looks like I will need a few more specific LED lights to pull off what I am planning ( YES I have made a few more changes, very minor but will make a BIG impact)...  I will have a few left over from my "after christmas shopping experience."  Will wait and see when I put everything out!

 

Yep another nice day In AZ.  A tad warm but overall it is the weather I Like. The past 2 weeks or so have been YARDWOrk. Who invented Crabgrass?? That sucker needs to come pull each blob up by hand.. Ok I feel better now.. My wife has been putting crabgrass stuff out on the yard and it seems to be working.. Next fall/early spring I will use a preemergence herbacide...It wont happen again!

 

I was able to get the first bell done with lights.. Came out pretty good... I will do the second one this week. I deemd this weekend " MY STUFF" weekend, so I took on running the big cord thru the patio into the attic. I ordered a extention to the big cord I had , so now I have enough to run from the back by the Main Panel to the front of the house.  I was going to put the "spider box" in the attic, but this will be MUCH better.. I found some RV power cable panels  from the same person on ebay that i got the extention from. So I nabbed 2 along with the Cable....

 

I also included a pic of my "elves"!  left is my "single" stepdaughter Jill, and my wife Kim on the right. 

 

More to come as I build... Still have another arch, another bell, and 4 controllers to build. 

 

My wife and I have been doing many things lately since the weather has been so nice. Trying to get them all done so I can get back to christmas decorations.

 

  A few weeks ago we had a yard sale. I will NEVER EVER do that again! Last weekend  I reworked  a few sprinkler heads and repaired the clothes line. The clothes line should last a very long time now! I used wire cabling, and turn buckles.  The clothes line back at the house I grew up in was done like this, and it was still there when my dads house was sold a few years back.  

 This weekend I finished adding 49 clay paver squares to the side gate so it now covers the full opening of the gate. The grass never really grew good there anyways.  Today we finshed  the beds I created a few weeks ago my wife has been hinting for a few years now.  There are a few more projects to get done.  I still need to finish putting up gutters around the house. Also The 2 batherooms are getting redone.  The hall bathroom is just getting paint..  The master bath will get a bit work more than paint. Not much but a bit more TLC.  Thats all for now....

 

haha  BTW Ignore one of my Feb 24th photo album as it has some of the signature files I made in it...I animated me some to my likings.. Sorry cannot be like the others with the normal LOR signatures....so I made someI like... Will probabaly make some more sometime too.... since I found how easy they are to make and upload...

Ok this hobby is more expensive than GOLF! ha ha! But I am loving it! And I think I got almost everything i need now, except for a few odd and ends...I'll know when I mock it up later this year...

 

 

Saturaday I played Tag with everyone else that is as crazy as I am, and ordered the remaining 4 Controllers  since they were on a super secret sale!  So secret we crashed the Yahoo server LOR was using! I have also made a final decision to get the LOR DC-MP3......more to come on these as I build themm

 

I also got my Ramsey TM100 antenna in and built it rather easily.  I tested it out and makes a world of difference! I HIGHLY recommend this for anyone using a Ramsey TX..

 

 I also ordered some wireframe bells from Valerie at www.christmas-leds.com for the roof. I was going to frabricate these but at the price even with shipping I could not have built these and had them powder coated like these are! Once I get everything else made, I will wrap those with LEDs.. It is one of those last minute decisions since I had 2 extra channels that were getting lonely on controller 1. They will make a great contribution to "carol of the bells"! This is another one of those places that seems to bend over backwards for us Lighting fanatics! I emailed them as they only showed 1 in stock and I needed 2. When I got home I checked my email and Valerie had found a second one and updated the Cart to accept my order! Now that is service!!

 

 

Here's the Latest! The Ramsey is done and working well..  I ordered the TM-100 antenna for it to complete the package..

 

 

 

Today LOR had a super secret sale. I ordered the remaining 4 controllers that will finish the controllers.  I will order the DCMP3 in June. 

 

 

We are having a yard sale next wekeend so all my time will be devoveted to that next week. The it will be full ahead on my stuff again...

 

More to Come

I ordered the Ramsey FM25b, and will build it as soon as it shows up.  I am planning to get the TM-100 antenna for it also...  Been working on sequences.  Upgraded to LOR2 beta, and found it is much easier to use!  I have 2 sequences done  for 80 channels...I know I will still have to tweek, and may have to add a few more channels  to the spares I have  ( about 6).. I am also working on 3 more selections..  hoping to have about 6  of christmas music, and 5 non christmas selections... I love Bluemangroup and may do a few of those for the week after christamas, but then may blend them in hehhe  More to come!!

1st controller built and tested. Finishing up on the pigtails now! The controller worked first time! Now just to order 4 more and build them along with a Ramsey FM transmitter... Think I am going to order the Ramsey kit next so I can use it while sequnecing  with a fm radio headset. 

OK here is where I stand.  I have everything to get power for  the lighst. Just need to get it tapped into the main panel.. Looking at drawing around 50 amps. a big chunk is those big  " I scream christmas C-9 lights, 9 strings of them @ 1.5 amps a string! Also the blue icicles  draw a bunch too. BUt then the rest of the display will be mostly LED. I will be using everything we had in 20007  Plus adding more! I also have the first  arch done in green,  each will have 820 LED lights, I aso have Kim's  Bethleham star done, but I now see a better way to mount the light and plan on taking it back apart and redoing it, BETTER!  Also RThe brown truck gods should be delivering the first of 5 controllers tommorrow.  I will have to build the kit!  Can't wait!  I will also be ordering the Ramsey FM kit soon also  so I can play with it too...

 

HI to all!  This is where I will attempting to do something I have always wanted to do.  This past Christmas was the firt time in quite a while that I enjoyed putting up my outside lights! What was the difference?? Some small plastic clips I found at Ace Hardware! I had all my lights done in less than an hour with the help of my wife of course... Once we finsihed , and saw it was easy and I didn't get flustered, I turned to her and said.. hmmm "if only they were sequenced to Music".. That is when she said  if you can figure out how its done,  lets do it!.. So now we are on the new adventure of being "Griswalds"! This year we had maybe around 1000 lights. Next year will be close to 10000. I have already dropped bank on LED lights strings for next year....  I will photo journal as fabricate ietms cerain items or how I do things.  Hold on its going to be quite a ride!