"Ray" the electrician relocated the oddly placed electrical outlet in the dining area to a more normal height and completely disabled the also-oddly placed outlet above the fireplace. Also, he installed the television cable line in a proper outlet in the wall (as opposed to a hole in the floor as the cable guy had done initially) and grounded the outlet next to the television.

Best yet, Ray connected the automatic sprinkler valves to a timer in the laundry room. Now we don't have to go outside and tramp through the wet grass to turn off the sprinklers every time we use them.

As for me, I got to try my hand at patching large holes in the wall. Did a pretty good job, if I might say so.

Note: The trick to applying the wall patch compound in a way that doesn't blob up is to make it very, very thin and build up coats gradually.