Its getting there... I almost have a place to sleep.

     The last few days have been hard. Katie and I are desperately trying to juggle the things we are experiencing with work for money and work at the condo. I can say that we are both doing an amazing job. Katie is being so supportive for her family, me and doing a great job at work. I have spent my hours trying to work and get things done at the condo while trying to see and be supportive with Katie. A lot has been done these past few days and I'll just go into some of them. First off, I was able to barrow a power sander from Mr. Barbie (a friend of the families) and got a ton of work done on the soon to be completed desk.

    As soon as I'm done sanding this monster I'll be able to stain it an ebony color and try and get some friends to help me get it up the stairs into my office. We'll see how that goes. Thank goodness for Mr. Barbie, he's the go to tool man. No matter what tool I need, I'm pretty confident that he has it, and will let me barrow it. I've gotta make sure not to break any of his stuff and not to upset him. I also recently finished the baseboards and outlets in the master suite. That means I'm one step closer to cleaning the carpets, buying furniture and getting to have a place to sleep at the condo. Here are some before and after shots from the same angle.

    After all the painting got finished and I cleaned up the tarps and tape, I went back and replaced all the outlets and switches and added a coaxial cover and covered up the old phone jack (we don't need one, its okay) It wasn't difficult, I was sure to shut off the power first though. 

     Everything is progressing pretty quickly. Here are some pictures of the patio set my neighbors gave us, and THE WHITE CHAIR IN ITS PLACE!

     PS... Our new friend for this week is Winston!

     Today was productive, I worked on the desk a bit more, Ryan came over and helped me reconfigure the ridiculous settings Time Warner put on the network. We now are able to hook up to XboX, and we have a guest network. We set up Apple TV with my Netflix and have my iphone acting as a remote. I was really happy Ryan helped me out with that stuff. I came back to the condo around 10pm and tarped off the closet in the master bedroom and began priming the walls. Katie and I both want nice closets and I've gotta prime those bad boys so we can paint it and get our clothes moved in. Good night... It's now only 1:40am... and I have work tomorrow. 

NASTY... NASTY!

     I only had a little while to do work at the condo today. I went and worked on the desk for a bit. I finally gave in and called a friend to borrow a belt sander. While the multi-tool has been great for all the molding and weird corners, all the flat sections are taking a long time. Then I spent the next hour and a half cleaning the filter out of the koi pond. It was the grossest thing I've ever done. The water was smelly, had the weirdest bugs in it and was full of the thickest darkest mud I've ever had to wade through. But I feel great the the pond is clean and running great again. It was a short day, but I go something done. Tomorrow is a day full of work, but sadly, not at the condo. Oh well...

Goals for the week:
1. finish painting bedroom base boards
2. finish painting bedroom closet
3. Buy Bedroom furniture
4. Set up bedroom furniture
5. Set up bedroom TV
6. Possibly set up the hallway for painting
7. Research Granite Counter Tiles

We'll see... But I wouldn't hold my breath.

Been a hard few days...

     I know its been a while since the last post. We haven't gotten too much done at the house in the past few days. Katie's grandfather, who has been battling lung cancer for the past 15 months, passed away this last Thursday. Needless to say he was a driving force in the family and attention was focused on the more important things.

     That being said, there were somethings that we did get done at the condo. The first of which was we got our welcome mat as a housewarming gift from Katie's grandmother and grandfather. Eleanor wanted us to have a house warming present. It was something that was special to Katie and I and we will treasure it for as long as it lasts.
     Other things happened as well... we got our white leather chair for next to the fireplace from Overstock. We love that place... you can't beat $2 shipping on stuff like furniture. I also got our internet, phone and cable set up, which is HUGE... It really makes the place feel like a home now that we have a place to sit and we can actually kill time just watching TV or going online. I bought our phones and installed them one day (not really a feat, but now we can get calls on the house phone). We didn't know whether to get house phones or not, but we decided that since I would like a fax machine in the office and we need a number to hook up to the automatic entry gate system, and since it was included in the bundle that we would get one. I also found my desk on craigslist. It was $20 and Timmy's friend Dean helped me get it to the condo with his truck... I'm trying to use different friends for each truck trip so I don't piss any one friend off. The desk is HUGE, I've started sanding it down... so I can stain it black and hopefully move it up into the office. (standby for before and after shots of this one) Its gonna be a difficult task. 

     Up to this point I can say that I've learned a lot. I've learned that I have great ideas that are only exponentially improved with Katie's thoughts. I've learned that I'm a control freak and that I have to be okay trusting other, and not actually being able to just finish everything in a weekend. I've learned that there are important things in life that can derail a plan, but where we end up may be a place far more beautiful that ever expected. I've learned that I love my family, and can't imagine living without my fiance. I've learned that I need to patient with others and more sympathetic to what others may be going through in their own way. Finally, in this project in particular, I've learned that its not what you do to a home that makes it a home, its the love, time, laughter and sorrow that you fill it with that makes it a place you can hopefully call home. 

SO MUCH DONE... But so far to go.

     Alright... So the last time I checked in we were at a different place than we are at today. So much has happened that I'm not even sure that I can accurately write about it all. But, in the spirit of doing my best to record the trials and successes of our first home, I'll do my best. 

     Friday... I have no idea what I did Friday... The most important thing happened Saturday when I began the day by having a friend, who also happens to have access to a truck with a lift gate, came over and did the first actual move out day. We loaded up Katie and my dinning room set, our infamous bar, some boxes of my stuff and the five boxes that comprised our Select Comfort bed. I have no idea how a California King mattress and box spring can possibly fit into 5 boxes that are relatively small, but whatever.Then I basically spent all day building furniture, getting things put away and cleaned up. Katie was at work all day so I spent the majority of the day building furniture to some nice music and relaxing while my fingers got shredded from threading bolt after bolt into each of the 8 dining room chairs. After a while, I finally finished putting together the dinning room table. I'm a pretty smart guy, so I built it upside down as to allow for all the work to be done without the help of anyone else. Too bad, once it was built, I had to flip it with the help of someone else. Thankfully, we live in a complex with a ton of other units and I just opened the garage, and asked the first neighbor I saw for help. I really nice guy named Damien who lives a few doors down, came in, helped me flip the table and then complimented the way our new home looked. 

    I took a break, and caught a movie with Rob for a bit, only to come back and try and get everything finished before Katie got back from work around 10. At 9pm almost everything was done, except that I would have to wait until tomorrow morning to get the couches from Katie's house, when my parents friends would come with their truck. I got a little impatient and decided that I needed to get the couches in so that I could have the downstairs area done. I called the only friend I have with a truck, who was a little busy until around 10pm. I told him it was no big deal, I would wait until tomorrow and everything would be fine. Then I got a rush and I drove to Katies, pulled everything out of the garage, brought the couch out and tried to fit the first piece into my Prius. NOPE! So I called my buddy back and asked if he could help whenever he was done. Thankfully, I have amazing friends, and he came over with his fiance' and we got the couches over to the condo. Now we finally had a place to sit, a dinning room table to eat at, and Katie even helped me put up the TV.  WOW! Its kinda starting to look like a house. 

     FUN FACT: always find a friend with a truck, and when you have one, treat them like gold. 

     Sunday was another day of getting things ready. Katie did an awesome job going to Home Goods and buying all those things that really make a space pop. She got a couple more pillows, candle sticks and and some other stuff that really adds a lot to the room. We just kept moving along and doing what we could. However, what we could, wasn't that much. With Katie's spring break coming to a close, issues with family members being sick and all the emotions and work that go into everything else, there wasn't much we got done on Sunday. 

     Today I woke up did some things and went to the condo. I set up the installation for our cable, internet and phone for tomorrow. I scheduled 3 different appointments and quotes for granite installation, I spent more time cleaning the pond, I threw out all the rest of the trash after I befriended the trash men, moved our new patio furniture out back, and went to Home Depot to get new more modern flat light switches and sockets. I had to learn all the different issues and types of switches. I think the guys a Home Depot hate me, I'm the kind of individual who doesn't know a lot about home improvement, but I'll ask questions for hours until I completely understand something. Anyways... I went back to the condo, shut off the power and began working on switches, until Katie and I had our second appointment with Rigoberto, the granite guy. He brought his samples and measured. We'll find out the price tomorrow. Anyways... thats about it... I know there was a ton more, but I can't recall it right now... Hopefully more pictures will follow since my camera battery died today. 

WE'VE COME A LONG WAY SO FAR, WITH EVEN MORE TO GO!

Tan Stripes... Zebra Stripes... MORE AND MORE STRIPES!

     Ok... So I missed yesterdays post. We were actually pretty busy and I didn't get a chance to post all the things we did. The day started with a trip down to the Tile/Stone District of Orange County, better known as Anaheim's Ball Rd. The goal was to get some information on granite and find out about how much we will be paying for the stone to update our kitchen. After the drawings I posted from the last post, we had a pretty good estimate and felt pretty confident about our trip out. We got to one of the first places and met the nicest guy I think I've ever met in sales. His name was Mike and he spent around 45 minutes walking Katie and I around the showroom and teaching us about granite and the process and he informed us that he couldn't sell to us, because they were wholesalers and we needed a fabricator. But he continued to show us around and gave us a recommendation for the Glendora area and really was incredibly helpful. I told him how much he helped us and he responded with, "I have four kids, and I remember how lost my wife and I were when we were setting up our house, so when I see couples with the same look on their faces, I just want to help as much as I can." WOW! Didn't think that kind of thing existed anymore.
     We did all kinds of things in the afternoon, but we decided that painting another coat of red on the bedroom wall and adding more paint to the rest of the walls in the bedroom would take care of something. We worked until around 7pm when Katie and I decided that we should try to lay out the stripes on the wall. Now, while that sounds easy, the technical things involved in figuring out how to do stripes was very... involved. We measured, and measured again, and then took that number and divided it by several different numbers to get an even number of stripes. Then we actually went to set it up, the measurements were wrong and that's not even mentioning how difficult it is to get a straight line on an 8 foot ceiling. We ended up going with 13 inch stripes, with only 2 exceptions in the whole room. We did this by measuring from the top, the bottom and in the center. This way the tape could follow the lines. This idea was far better than the crappy lazer level I had with a bowing lazer line... That didn't work out so well. Anyways... after Applebees (cuz we do that every Thursday night with our friends) we went back to the condo, and tried to get our first couple lines done. SUCCESS! The next morning we got up early, went to the condo and tried to finish the stripes... The result...

     After about 2 hours of taping we took a break. Katie went to work and I went to lunch... I got back to the condo and began correcting wiring issues above the mantel... I think I've wired and rewired things about 12 times. Then I finished creating the tick marks that we used to guide the tape. Katie arrived shortly after and we finished taping and began to paint... We used the same color as before, but instead of a flat, we used a semi-gloss every other stripe. The result here...

     We left again to meet with Katies grandfather and the rest of the family, he's not doing too well and it was a day full of agony and pain for the poor guy. We sat with him, met with the family and ate together. Around 9:30pm we got back to the condo and now had a considerable amount of extra work to do, because a friend is helping us move all of our large furniture and is able to bring the truck tomorrow at 8am... This wouldn't be that bad, except it means now that we have to have the walls done, the floor clean and the tarps up to move all the furniture in. We immediately started pulling tape off the walls like it was Christmas morning. Tape was going everywhere and with every strand we finally got to see the the fruit of our creation.... A BIG TAPE BALL! and GORGEOUS WALLS!

     Finally... after the tarps were up, Katie engaged in a milestone of the house and performed her first wifely duties in the home... Thats right... She used the Swiffer... Now, she's not in pearls and she not in high heels, but a girl has to save something until after the wedding... Why buy the cow, if you can get the milk for free.

     We ended the night by setting up our huge Zebra rug and getting all set up for the furniture delivery tomorrow... I can't wait.

Special Three Day Post

     Ok... So I know I missed a few days. I'm sure the four of you who actually subscribe to the blog don't mind. But, 4/4/11 was Ryan's birthday... On top of driving to Disneyland in the morning, going to San Fernando Valley for work, we also went out to Huntington Beach for Sushi to celebrate Ryan's birthday. Thus, 4/4/11= nothing done at the condo.
     On Tuesday, I had to work at Baldwin Park. It was nice though to be done at 3 and Katie and I got to work on the master bedroom. Our goal was to get everything in the bedroom primed and prime we did. We finished priming the bedroom in around 2 hours and went to Home Depot to get the paint to finish painting the bedroom.
     Today, I got in the condo around 1:30pm and I started painting right away. I found out that I couldn't actually figure out how to use the edger, which IS embarrassing. So I gave up on that venture and started rolling before Katie got there. As soon as Katie got to the condo, she started using the edger. We got the all the tan on the walls and began to paint the red on the west wall. For whatever reason, the paint was weird. It didn't really cover the wall and really had an uneven color. I went downstairs and cleaned out all the nasty muck that was left in the koi pond, which makes things sounds a little nicer. We finished the quart we bought (since we thought a quart could cover, the one wall) and went back to Home Depot and bought another gallon of the red color.

     We finished putting the first coat of red on the walls and ended up heading out to meet my family for dinner. We went back to the condo to give moms friend, Mary Lynn, the grand tour. Katie and I then spent around 40 minutes measuring all the kitchen counters and bathroom vanities so we can have an accurate measure when we go to shop for granite tomorrow. I guess a couple of my old math teachers were right when they said I would actually use the math I was learning. It got a little out of hand.

     Today, I would love to introduce everyone to our first pet of the house. Its a bird that has been with the house since before I even bought it. However, it was recently decided that Juan Jose will be staying with us because he adds a certain something to the garage and we like how he greets us. 

     Long day planned for tomorrow... I'll keep you posted.

Nothing Went Right Today!

     I got to the condo around 12 and used the Fish Tape to actually rewire the fireplace mount. Then I spent about 45 minutes trying to solve the mathematical equation that is centering the TV mount on the fireplace. I left that job alone and went upstairs to the bedroom to finish taping and tarping so we could prime and paint. I ran home and got a couple things and headed back to the condo in time to meet with Katie and get some more work done. In the left over light of the day, Katie managed to go over all the edges of downstairs again to make it look better. I have to admit, while it was something I wouldn't have done, it made things look better. While she worked on the that, I got up above the fireplace and drilled the holes for the mounting bracket. Lifted the TV and realized that the coaxial cable pushed the TV back out because the mount was too thin. Katie and I went to Wal-Mart to buy a new coaxial cable, an HDMI cord, a right angle attachment to allow the TV to sit flush and an extension cord. We got to Wal-Mart and they only had the coaxial cable and an HDMI cable for $38 bucks. I wasn't about to pay that, so we went to target and didn't catch any breaks there. I immediately got on my phone and bought everything on ebay for $12 total. Its late and I'm once again tired, but we have a week of progress ahead and I'm optimistic of how things are going to change in the next few days.
     Today I learned that I need to wire a TV first before I mount it up on the wall, I probably should have painted the mantel AFTER i mounted the TV and I need to listen to Katie a little more and not to sweat the small stuff.

FIREPLACE... DONE... well... almost

     I got up this morning and went to the Warrior Dash, while Katie went to the mall with her mom. We both took a much needed break from the all day condo work. Around 5pm I went to Wal-Mart for more blue tape and tarps, followed by a trip to Home Depot for "Fish Tape." Which apparently is a tool used to string wires through holes in wall or carpet.
    Finally, over to the condo, I put up the "Prius Ready" poster that I demanded from the Toyota dealership when I bought my Prius. I put the poster up in the garage and on my side of the garage at that. I'm really happy about it. Anyways... I started in on the master bedroom, taking down any switch plates, outlet covers, smoke detectors and so on. Then, because I actually do love taping, I taped off the master bedroom. It was quite a different experience taping on carpet as opposed to the nice easy wood or tile. This was followed by a dinner break to meet up with Katie and the rest of the family (Johnny included) for dinner and then back to the condo for a tour. We painted the rest of the fireplace mantel and the baseboards and my personal goal was to set up and mount the TV tonight. That was a no go. I was tired, and I thought that if I drilled into the wall, any dust that fell would fall right onto the fresh sticky paint. Maybe tomorrow.

What a day... What a day!!!

     Today was basically a full day's worth of work. It started when I got to the condo around 2pm and finally took down the framed horse picture that was hanging in the garage. That hideous painting has been bolted down to the wall of the condo's garage since I bought the place and God only knows why anyone would have a framed picture of a horse in mid gallop in a garage. I got in and finished taping, touched up the primer in a couple places that I missed. I cracked open the Toasted Wheat with the Flat Enamel finish and began painting the corners and around the ceiling. Katie showed up after work and we painted, and painted, and painted and painted, and took a break for dinner, and then... we painted.

     In the middle of the painting, Kristie and Marissa came over to visit. Another momentous moment occurred when Kristie went to her car, came back and became the first person to ring our doorbell. We ran out of paint and had to do a Home Depot run around 9pm.
Fun Fact: Home Depot is open until 10pm
     Around 10:20 we finished painting and cleaned up. Plenty of before and after pictures were taken. The plan for tomorrow is to prime the bedroom, paint the fireplace and MOUNT THE TV! After that the before and afters will be posted. It was a good day, we finished a lot, we worked well together, and the way the colors pop on the walls does more than look good, it makes the place truly ours.

POWERS ON! Oh wait, we have to work at night now?

     Another day, full of work and and craziness. Katie did a great job today getting to the condo while I was still at work and started priming. We have now successfully taped, spackled and covered everything that isn't going to be painted with a tarp. I showed up about 6pm and parked my car in the garage next to Katie's car for the first time. The power got turned on today and Katie and I worked together, priming the walls until 8:22 when we started cleaning and headed out to meet everyone at Applebee's. We had a great time and figured out all the math on how wide the stripes needed to be. We've decided on just subtle stripes of the same color in different finishes running vertically though the entire downstairs. We thought this would add a nice interesting touch that would only be noticeable in certain lights and in certain places. After Applebees, Ryan and I went over to the condo, and shot ideas back and forth on things to do. Ryan helped me FINALLY PROGRAM MY CARS BUTTON WITH THE GARAGE!!! I love having friends that are intelligent, and more mechanically inclined than I am. Thankfully, he did a great job keeping me company, until I finished the priming and cleaning. We called it a night at 2am and tomorrow, we can actually start to paint. Long day, and a late post, but I had a great day, and tomorrow, we will actually see a difference in the walls.
    Today I learned about the importance of friends. They make things easier, they help when times are hard, they offer a new perspective and frequently, you can count on them to brighten situations. I had a great day and the condo is coming along. But, I'm tired and I'm going to leave this post at that.