On the 1st DIY of Christmas I did for my true love to see, a chiming clock next to our Christmas tree.

Over the last year or so our task list has grown exponentially. We've taken on new project after new project without properly finishing and marking old projects off of our list. That list is getting so big that it feels like Santa's got nothing on us. I know this is a tired old trend for us: too many projects, too little follow through, takes a million years to get things done, blah blah blah. (Where are the storm windows, Alex? Yeah, I know, I'm working on it!) So this Christmas I've decided to do something about our lengthy list...other than stare at it. 

Our blog post last week about fixing the grandfather clock was just the first of many little DIY tasks around the house that have been begging to be checked off of the list. More importantly, it was one of those nagging tasks that has been bugging Wendy (and me as well) and really starts to get us down when we think about how long it sat undone.

So, in honor of it being Christmas, and my never ending quest to give my spouse thoughtful holiday gifts that brighten her day and bring a smile to her face (seriously, it's a general life goal of mine), I've decided to launch a lofty endeavor to accomplish 12 legitimate DIY tasks this holiday season.

Now I have no idea if I can actually accomplish 12 full tasks, but I will give it my best shot and update you as we go.

So without further ado...

On the 2nd DIY of Christmas I did for my true love to see, a fresh coat of paint on our no longer oozing chimney. 

Yes, that's right! Our second fireplace flu in the dining room is currently in use as the vent for our basement furnace. Last year I cleared a blockage in the furnace vent but that ended up causing a lot of condensation to roll back down the chimney that resulted in some unsightly grossness visible to the dining room.

Over the summer we had the a chimney specialist out and he relined our chimney to get rid of the condensation issue.

Now that the issue is corrected and the water is no longer coming in through the old clay tiles we can finally take care of the unsightly buildup.

It was a relatively quick fix. I knocked the scale off with some water and steel wool.

It wasn't looking awesome, but it was still looking much better.

Then painted the whole thing with some plan old flat black paint and a sponge brush.

It was one of those small things that was just waiting for a free hour to take care of it.

Eventually we'll replace our furnace with a direct vent option and that will allow us to open this chimney to be a fireplace once again. But until that day, this flat black painted tile looks so much better than the gross oozing that had accumulated.

Now sing it with me!

On the 2nd DIY of Christmas I did for my true love to see, a fresh coat of paint on our no longer oozing chimney... 

...And a chiming clock next to our Christmas tree.

Stay tuned for more updates this week!