Morris the Cat

Yeah, I spent the last year doing a lot of that. We bought a house that's got a really elaborate 1970s NuTone system in it and I really like the aesthetic, so I went through and replaced the '70s guts with Google Home devices, so I've got a lot of practice running USB cabling through walls now. =P

Dang, good call. I'll get right on that. Yup, that's exactly how I did it. it was weird getting used to for a while, but now I really like all the extra visibility it provides. We've got a bunch of YI cameras for the house for security (and watching the local wildlife), I like their stuff. See, there's your problem. There's nothing in Boston except snow, traffic, and Patriots fans.

So yours DOESN'T have the stuffed bunny rabbit. Is what I'm taking away here... No, that looks great. I wish my OB were worth putting that kind of effort into but it's pushing a quarter-million miles and it's the workhorse of our two vehicles. Plus idiots in Honda Civics keep running into it... (THREE! THREE BLACK HONDA CIVICS!!)

What's the level of effort in putting a new front bumper on? Mine is a bit mangled right now and I've been thinking about replacing it, but I haven't been super concerned about cosmetic stuff while I've been handling more functional issues with the car.

My wife has been complaining about the brightness of the headlights for a while now, so I finally got off my butt and picked up a set of Hikari LEDs and a 3M restoration kit. A hundred bucks and maybe an hour's worth of work and the difference is ENORMOUS. At least two or three times as much light. Totally worth it. Although it was a few weeks ago, I also rigged up an aftermarket Dash Cam/Backup Cam and I'm very happy with that too. The whole thing fits over your existing rear view mirror and although you CAN rig it to only show the camera view when you have it in reverse, I actually mounted the rear camera at the top of the rear window and have it on full time. Because it has wide angle lens, it basically eliminates your blind spots entirely and makes it MUCH easier to judge lane changes and such in traffic.

I've got a 2005 Outback that we've owned for about eight years now. It had 80k on it when we bought it and it's pushing 200k now and while mechanically it's in great shape, it's recently developed a slightly annoying problem. Only on the driver's side, the vents either blow Very Hot or Very Cold air, with nothing in between. Passenger side works fine. I had it into the mechanic and they said that the mixing vents were working fine, that it seemed to be something electronic. Now, I've had that whole unit out once before when I modded it to add an aux jack so I'm not afraid of replacing the head unit myself. What I'm curious about is if I can replace the (seemingly) defective 2005 unit with one of the newer ones from a 2009 Outback that already has an Aux jack. I would THINK it would just plug right in. Any advice?