Hanging wall art and internet is confusing

We hung several more pictures last night. I just wish DH wouldn't get the itch to do this at 8pm, haha. By then I'm beat and just ready to veg out. Not make decorating decisions! One of the "pictures" we have is a rustic sign in the shape of the state, carved out of barn wood. It has the date we moved here, the longitude/latitude and a shell casing marking the town. (from Etsy). I gave it to DH our first Christmas here. I thought it should go either on the wall in his den, or on the wall above his den french doors. He wasn't liking the idea. He felt like the date was the date we moved into the first house. That "someone" (who cares?! LOL) would look at it and say "you haven't lived here (in this new house) that long". I just said ok, you don't have to use it anywhere. After we finished hanging up the others he said ok, I get it - the date represents when we started our new life here. Yep, that was the intent. So, he hung it where I wanted it, haha. Above his den doors.

I have this sort of big farmhouse clock, that I thought would look good above the tv, over the fireplace, but when DH held it up there, I realized it's too small. Looks out of proportion, so that's not going up there. Found a different place for it, though not easy, because we actually don't have a lot of wall space, with this open concept and so many windows. I also have several pictures, I've had/used for many years, that I just don't think go with this house and don't plan to use anymore.

I should get a break from hanging more pictures this evening. His new friend, that showed him how to fly fish a few weeks ago, is coming over again. The river is down and flowing much cleaner now. We are starting to see the fishermen out in boats along the river. His friend offered to come over for some more fishing lessons and he will bring his Traeger grill and some elk burgers. I'm going to supply buns, condiments and side dish (or two). I haven't made the cake yet, so I think I'll take a little break later this morning and get that in the oven, for dessert. I'll have to run into town during my lunch break and get buns and a few things.

We made it through our month on the cell phone bill without going over data. It was close. We only had .17GB left. We used it up the first week we were in the house and the internet from the shop wouldn't reach. Then once we had it in the house, it wouldn't reach back to the shop all the way, so DH was using it up while he was out in the shop. I even used my Verizon rewards to get 1GB of extra data to try to get us through. The wi-fi extender put out in the shop has fixed the issue, but it was close on going over our data limit and getting charged extra. Well, I thought the wi-fi extender fixed it. It's worked fine the 10 days we've had it, until yesterday, after our power went out for a few seconds. DH went out into the shop and realized he wasn't getting internet to his phone again. The extender device had all the right lights on that is looked like it was working and had connection. I ended up just unplugging it and resetting it, which worked. I figured it must have just needed a reset after the power outage. Then DH went out there this morning and had the same problem again. I unplugged it again and it started working. Frustrating. I don't know why it would work fine for 10 days and now is being temperamental.

I also emailed our electrician this morning. Maybe we misunderstood, but I don't think so. When they were here doing all the wiring they said they were doing it so that our den and office rooms could be hardwired to our router, rather than using wi-fi. That is my understanding as to why there is a Cat5e plug-in, above the telephone line plug-in, in both of those rooms. But, when the telephone guy came out to move our modem from the shop to the closet where the modem was supposed to go, he said there was no way to hard wire to those rooms, because there weren't any wires coming out of the wall to plug into the modem. The only wire was the main one, for the phone/internet service itself. So, I'm not sure what the point of the electricians putting in the Cat5e plug ins's in those rooms was? More than likely, it's just DH and I misunderstanding, but I specifically recall when they were explaining to me how it was going to work, that we'd be hardwired internet to our computers, because one of the electricians had come in the shop and we looked at the back of the modem, to make sure there were at least 2 places to plug in to hardwire (there are 4). Maybe it's wiring the phone company was supposed to end up installing when they came out, but they didn't act like it. They acted like it would have had to have been done by the electricians.

So, the electrician just emailed back. He said all the wiring was there, maybe the telephone company guy didn't see the wiring in the closet or know what to do with it? BUT, if we want them to come out out and get us set up that way, they can, for $300! I emailed back two pictures. One of the wiring they had left available for the phone company guy (just one wire, the main feed of telephone/internet that plugs into back of modem) and a picture where DH just removed the plate cover to see if there were maybe some additional wiring that that didn't get pulled through. There was not. I told him this is what we have as far as wiring. We were under the impression that we already paid to have this set up to be hardwired....so if it's going to be an additional $300, never mind! GEEZ!!!!!

The other part of our set up that doesn't make sense, is the phone had to be plugged into the outlet named "Cat5e", rather than the one with the phone symbol. The Cat5e plug-in is a bit bigger, but the phone cable will plug into either, (though Cat5e wire will only plug into the bigger one) but only works on the Cat5 one. If I was hard wired into my computer to the modem, I would think one wire (from computer) would have to plug into the larger Cat5e plug in and the telephone would have to plug into the other one, with the phone symbol. But, the phone won't work if it's plugged into the one with the phone symbol. Gosh, I hate not understanding all this.  And hey for $300 more bucks out of ya, we'll figure it out.

Then the electrician brought up an issue they are getting billed for by the fireplace company. I reminded him the fireplace stopped working. Then the electrician said they would come out and needed them to come out too, and if it turns out it was an electrical problem, that the fireplace company could bill them. The fireplace guys came out and took their stuff apart and couldn't find anything that would cause it. Then the electrician got here. Looked around, found a loose wire, farther downstream, fixed it, and we haven't had any fireplace problems since. Whether that wire is what caused the fireplace problem, no one seemed to know for sure.