And then there was telephone access...

The original line went to a jack just below this wall box... three other jacks had been added, one on a separate line. Two were at opposite ends of the living room, the third in the left bedroom, which had been used as an office. Once we were settled, we called PacBell for DSL ... they actually had to install a new service box outside, and then did the DSL a couple of days later. In the meantime, we had replaced the original wires with a Cat5 source, and removed the wires in the (guest) bedroom. We got this device, a basic telephone interface, and are set for up to 9 extensions on each incoming line! Plus it has a coax/video splitter as well.

The new paint was a definite improvement just in terms of making the living room look brighter. But it was still rather dark -- enough that you needed to turn on a lamp to read at any hour of the day.

We also spent some time on the outside plumbing, replacing the antequated front sprinklers with something that could be put on a timer, and installing sprinklers in the backyard.