OMG... I know its been a long time, and so much has happened. Let me fill you in.

     Ok, so the last I updated I was working on the kitchen. That was an amazing experience. I'll share more about that in a bit. Since the last post, I went on my bachelor party kayaking trip in the San Juan Islands, I graduated with my MS in Applied Behavior Analysis, Katie and I got married, we went on our honeymoon to Italy, a trip to Solvang with the fan, a trip to Vegas with the fam, a trip to Tahoe with the friends and a trip to Vegas again for another wedding. We haven't done much, but a ton all at the same time. This blog is lacking and while there are so many details that I should be filling you guys in on, the truth is, that I don't really have the time and it would take a post so long that none of you would want to actually read it. I have to get back to roots of this project, which was based on Katies grandfathers advice about keeping a record about all the awesome things that we did to our first home, because we will always look back and think about it. This will be a short post, when put in perspective to all the crazy stuff that I have actually done to the house... but I'll do my best.
     The kitchen went great, I did the floor, the backsplash, the hardware, and redid all the outlets, just like I've been trying to do for the rest of the house. The only thing I had someone else do was the granite, and I hired them because its a job that I could really mess up and I don't have the experience, tools, expertise or time to complete. We used Sun Tile on Arrow... The owners are amazing, they are so sweet and nice and gave us an amazing deal, and, truth be told, the encouragement to do the rest of the tile job myself. Katie and I are totally going to use them again when we get the materials for the bathrooms and whatever. I will say though that they sent some guy who loved to smoke in my garage and took way too long to get his job done. I complained to the owners and they gave me some money off, apologized and did what they could to make it right. AGAIN, I LOVE SUN TILE. So, I found out that the neighbors are incredibly nice, and didn't call the police when I was cutting tile in my garage at 4am. I also found out how to install a new garage door opener when the granite guys broke ours. Thanks to some friends who know a ton about DIY, and some cold beer, I actually got a quieter, more powerful and smoother garage door opener. The kitchen was done, the wedding was a couple weeks away and I moved from starting new projects to cleaning up for my future wife. I cleaned out the garage for her car, cleaned the bathrooms for her and got myself ready to end the late nights of tile saws and thin set. I will say though, that for a person doing tile for the first time, I was pretty impressed with myself and found that the internet is an incredible tool when trying to learn how to do anything. At one moment, I finished sealing the granite and the tile and stood back and thought, "I created this, I've never done it before, I've never practiced, but somehow, I've created this." It is a truly awesome feeling.

     Just recently, we got back for a longer extended period of time from our summer travels. We had been home for a few days at a time, but not really long enough to want to get started on stuff. We began a few days ago with us finally buying a BBQ grill. We wanted something small that would fit on the side yard next to all the jasmine we planted and ended up getting an awesome little thing thats stainless steel from Sams Club. Also, we decided to go through our wedding gifts. WHICH WAS AWESOME! We spent three days and countless trips to the dumpster getting rid of boxes and packing paper. We lined the cabinets in the kitchen and bought these slide outs for the cabinets to make sure all our stuff was accessible. The gift cards to Bed Bath and Beyond made it all possible. Then the gift cards from Target made our little string of lights along the back patio possible. It made things nice and we feel, for the most part, organized. The only big project left is the office, where we did finally give up on the desk refurb and bought a nice corner unit desk set up from IKEA. I used to think all the stuff there was useless crap, but I have been persuaded otherwise. I love our desk and we can't wait to get into the office and paint and set it all up. At the moment, its just boxes, papers, and the computer. We have a plan, but following through on a room that not many people see when they come over is hard. Really, we could take another 2 years and not many people would know, as long as I didn't keep blogging about it. But whatever.
     The last couple things I will bore the audience with is the technology I've incorporated in the house and the tale of the final dangerous paint job that we took care of yesterday. As far as technology goes, its no secret that I'm a geek. I love learning about it, using it and unnecessarily incorporating into my life.

Fun Fact: The last Valentines Day Katie and I shared not married, she got me an Apple TV. Of course I 
                was gonna marry that girl when thats the gift I get on Valentines.

    One of the coolest toys/gadgets we got was The Mint. Its an awesome Roomba like robot that goes around and swiffers the floor and then uses the swifter wet's to mop the floor. I had to have it and I love sending it around the house like my butler. I feel like the dad from Honey I Shrunk the Kids and his name is Woodhouse (any Archer fans will appreciate that one). Secondly, I fell in love with the Apple TV and the entire Apple home system. I am now running Apple TV, that talks to my Airport Extreme and connects my iMac upstairs in the office to the wall mounted LCD downstairs. I can look at all my pictures, listen to all my music and watch just about anything from Apple or Netflix on the TV. Its incredible! Finally, the latest tech gizmo that I'm using is the Schlage Link System. This system allows me to lock and unlock my doors via key, keypad or iPhone app. It also allows me to turn on and off lights, and control the thermostat all from my iPhone. Its incredible. I just installed the deadbolt tonight and hopefully, this means that with my car and the keypad on the Schlage, I will never have to touch my keys again. SO AWESOME! I don't know why that excites me so much... It just does.
     Ok, so to round this all up the story of the large wall was that we have a wall that is in the stairwell that basically is around 20ft up. Katie and I had this brilliant idea to paint it an accent color to draw the eye up the entire wall. Sounds great, the only problem was trying to paint it. I used my little giant ladder and my dad's little giant ladder and while katie held the bottom for me, with cell phone in hand to call the ambulance, I climbed up painted the wall. It was sketchy, I had paint in my hands and I wasn't afraid of falling as much as falling and spilling paint everywhere. But we did it, it looks amazing and I'm so happy with the outcome. Katie started decorating for fall and while the house isn't completely done, the majority of the things that individuals who come over would notice are done and the rest, we can point out at our discretion. I will continue to post and I have pictures, but for whatever reason the website isn't letting me upload them right now. Blame it on the heat. Thanks for reading.

KITCHENS ALMOST DONE!

     So the past few days I've been working on the kitchen. I bought a little table tile saw from Harbor Frieght that has been doing an awesome job. We started with the granite, then the sink, and the past few days I've been making sure to carefully install our tile backsplash. Yesterday, I also changed all the outlets and switches in the kitchen to match the rest of the house. The tile came out really good and tomorrow, I'll be grouting and getting all that done. I also installed some under the cabinet lighting as a surprise for Katie... I hooked them all up to a switch and they look really nice. For a while this afternoon, Dad came over and we took the old microwave down and finished the tile job. I even got a little shock from the outlet... it didn't hurt as bad as I thought it would, but it woke me up. This evening, Katie and I organized a bit of our things and I moved in more clothes, then I tore up all the floor tiles in the kitchen. With that step, we officially have changed everything in the kitchen but the cabinets and the oven. It was a good day. Pictures will follow soon.

Wow... Its been a looooonnnnnnnggggg Time

This getting a house ready thing is killing me. We are in full swing now, I picked up a huge new contract at work, I'm trying to prepare for my comp exam in the beginning of June, I'm trying to get this stuff done at the condo, and poor Katie is teaching full time, and up to her ears in all the aspects of planning a wedding that go into the last few weeks. We are only A FEW WEEKS out from the wedding now. I don't know where to begin.
     Wow!!! Okay, well I think in the last post I was talking about a desk that I found and began to work on, I spent a few more days finishing the desk sanding, I began to stain in when Katie brought up that I should measure the desk and see where we are going to put it in OUR office. (I only bring attention to that its our office because I frequently make the mistake of calling it my office and I want to make sure it's noticed). I took the measuring tape up the stairs and realized that while I did measure to make sure it would be able to get up the stairs and into the bedroom, I never measured to see where I would situate it. Sadly, after all the man hours, saw dust in my lungs and fun I've had messing around with it... ITS TOO BIG! So the desk is going up for sale on craigslist at some point and we will see if I get any takers. This project got benched.
     The next job I tackled was getting the back patio cleaned up and nice. There has been a tree thats been dead for years. Katie and I got an estimate from a company to take it out for $270.00. I have an issue spending that much money to destroy something and take it down, so my dad and I got a couple shovels, a pick axe and a saw and brought the damn thing down. It took a while because the chain saw that we had didn't work, so I had to use a combination of my hand saw, and the manual old school saw to break apart the big pieces. After a bit we took the main trunk down with a pick axe and called it a day. The next awesome part about this story, was that I live in a complex with only one trash dumpster that frequently gets full. Being that I didn't want to be the bad guy in the neighborhood and use up all the trash with the pieces of tree, I decided to have a bunch of friends over for a bonfire in the back patio. WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU LEMONS!  I got my fire pit, chairs, sodas, and smore stuff. It was an awesome little gathering at the condo, and was like Katie and I's first time entertaining. We burned the entire tree down, with the exception of the giant stump pieces. However, the next day when I got to the condo, the school next door was getting a tree taken out. I popped my head over the fence and asked the guys if they had a chipper, they were happy to help and the remaining pieces of the tree were chucked over the fence and hauled away... AMAZING!

  



 Katie and I then got a green thumb and decided to run chains up and down the fence posts and build a little planter of jasmine that will hopefully eventually vine up and cover the fence...

We graded the ground, got rid of rocks and planted low maintenance grass seed. The grass is just now starting to come up and the jasmine are doing well. I'm sad to report however, that we also decided to plant roses in the other planter and they are dead... I definitely took care of them, I watered everything everyday and the both the grass and jasmine made it so, I have no idea what happened to the roses.

     With our back patio done and some serious progress underway we decided to go and get estimates for granite countertops. I wanted to keep the cabinets and redo the countertops so that we had a little larger bar and a bit more in the kitchen. This was the drawing estimates I had in an earlier post. After several estimates we finally gave up and I decided I would be doing granite countertops made of granite tile. I could do it myself and it shouldn't be as expensive. I went to Sun Tile in Glendora. After speaking with the owners there really wasn't any reason to do the tile, it may break, it costs a ton of money and they have prefab granite slabs that would work perfectly in the kitchen. I showed them my drawing and they gave us a really good price. (plus I think it helped I played the middle eastern card) Anyways... they said they could measure and start right away and if I could do the demolition myself, I would save a bunch more money. Katie and I picked our granite, decided that I would do the glass tile backsplash and we would get started right away. It all SOUNDED really nice.
     Demolition took place on mothers day. I thought I would have the weekend to work on it, but later remembered that the family goes to Vegas for mothers day. When I got back, we had our brunch and I immediately worked like crazy. I only made the mistake of not putting on my protective glasses once... when shards of ceramic tile come flying up it gets scary quick. Night began to fall and my dad came over to help... the demolition got done Sunday night at 8pm.

     I was able to contain the mess, so while we didn't have any countertops, it still felt like in the morning they would come in, lay the slabs down, put the sink in and leave. If only I knew... I should note that Mom and Katie went out that night and grabbed tap lights to put into all the deep reaches of the cabinets, because it was easy to put them in. Anyways... I got to the condo at 8:30am on the Monday they were to start. I was expecting them at 9am and at around 9:30am I called the owner of Sun Tile, their boss and asked where they were, he called them and called me back to tell me they were at Home Depot getting the new plywood and would be there in 10 minutes... I should have known how the day would go then. When they got to the condo they set up in the garage, told me it would get pretty dusty and started working on the granite. I had no idea they were going to turn my garage into a granite fabrication shop. They came into the kitchen, moved my appliances and immediately broke 4 beer steins that Katie and I kept in the freezer. At 5:30pm I asked them how long it would be before they finished, because Katie and I got her Dad Angels tickets for his birthday for a game that night. He said, at the latest they would be done by 6pm. Mind you, I thought this would be a 3 hour process. At 6:15 I took their tools out of my garage and told them they would have to finish the job another day. When I went to close the garage, there was SOOOO much "dust" on the garage door opener sensors that it kept trying to open and close and the sprocket that opened the door sheared off and my garage door opener was now broken. We went to the game, I had work the next day and on Wednesday, he was supposed to come and install the bar, the sink and put my appliances back. I had already cleaned up all the dust, cigarette butts and razor blades in my garage, so I wasn't too happy when they showed up and told me the granite they ordered was the wrong size and that they would just shorten the opening of the bar by adding a couple pieces of drywall. I told him to get out of my house and when he ordered the right size he could come back... Friday, he comes and finally puts the right piece in, tells me he can hook up the sink for an extra $170.00 because of course its not included. Not that I thought it would be, but he told me it would be when he took it out. I said I would do it myself and asked him to leave. Katie and I went down to Sun Tile and spoke with the owners, told them that we didn't like the crew. He gave us a bigger discount and told us that they would never be back in our house again... He's got other crews, thankfully.

     Thursday Dad and I went down to Jeromes in Corona to pick up Katie and my new bedroom furniture. We rented a Uhaul and went down to get it because they said it would cost $500 for delivery and set up, since we were "out of area." Dad and I had a nice drive, enjoyed our time and when we got back to the condo, I saved a $400. We went to Jeromes because it was a lot cheaper than anywhere else and we got a dresser, a tall chest, two nightstands and a California king bed for $1600 and it looks and feels great. I got back, put the furniture together, which wasn't difficult, just time consuming and Katie and I put together our new Sleep Number Bed. Its amazing that a California King bed can come in 3 average sized boxes... But it was an awesome adventure following all the directions, hooking up pumps to air mattresses, lining the bed with foam, zipping up the mattress and building a box spring out of what looks like fisher price plastic... BUT I LOVE IT!

     The following Saturday, a friend of my dads came over and showed my how to install a new garage door opener. While I was pissed I had to buy a new one, I can't complain because my dad said he would get it for me, and he got Katie and I an awesome unit that is ultra quite, fast and has all these awesome features.
In the meantime, I spent way too long hooking up our sink, faucet and garbage disposal, but I did get it done and there are no leaks... I was told anyone with average intelligence could do it, and so I guess I'm at least of average intelligence. I began the tile work a few days ago, ran out of tile and am picking up more from Sun Tile tomorrow... They really have been amazing and I can recommend them to anyone because the owners are great and always in the shop. I'll be posting pictures of the new kitchen soon.
     Katie and I bought a new convection microwave, we are getting a new fridge soon and the floors should be done this weekend. I should be living at the condo by Sunday... YAY!

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!