Ok, so the hat doesn't fit that well, but I am able to get some stuff done. 

I used to have my cable modem right next to my TV.  My wireless router sat there as well as my VoIP box.  The amount of wires behind my TV was impressive.  Mix all of my entertainment system connections with all my network stuff and it was  just a big mess. 

Yesterday I finally got around to running a hard line between my basement and the first floor.  I then installed a shelf on my electrical board in the basement.  The board has my fuse box on it along with my phone patch panel and my cable. I moved my router, cable modem, and VoIP box down to the shelf.  So now, both my basement/office and my first floor have a hard wire connection to my router.  My laptops still connect wirelessly so I can use those throughout the house. 

The coolest thing I did was getting my VoIP box hooked up so all phone jacks are live. To do this I installed a new phone jack right next to the phone patch panel. This allowed me to plug my VoIP box in which then activates all of the normal phone jacks in the house.  If someone came over and didn't look, they would have no idea I don't have a normal phone line.

Tomorrow my big project is going to be getting my Linux box up and running as a VPN server.  I'm a little weak when it comes to Linux, but I have a friend who is very good with it.  He's going to help me out.  I'll try to blog about how to do it.