tg.madness+

well happy belated turkey day to you all, i hope everyone gave thanks for the invention of stretchy pants, haha, i know i did!

well when last i left you, we had just had some pretty fantastic news, my truck was broke again! awesome! [anyone sense the sarcasm dripping off that?] anyhow... tuesday and wednesday were normal days, nothing to report really, we didnt do anything special, normal week stuff. all i can really say is that we came to the solid conclusion that we did not want to put anymore money into the stupid piece of sssssuh... truck and we were definitely going to find something else. we spent a little time here and there looking at trucks on craigslist, autotrader, carmax, and other various websites to see if we found anything in our price range [not to mention deciding for sure what our price range was] that matched what we wanted. 

tg.thursday[11.27.08]

well turkey day had finally arrived, gobble-gobble! we spent the morning looking up trucks online determined that we were going to try and buy one thursday if possible [which it totally wasnt, nothing is open on tg] or friday if possible... if neither of those worked out... well this weekend we had to get it done, there were no options there. we'd called wednesday night to extend the car rental through friday and we really didnt want to keep renting it after that. 

so around 11am wed exhausted ourselves looking at trucks and making phone calls to no avail. it just wasnt going to happen. oh-well, theres lots to do on thanksgiving, haha! so while i had been making phone calls, karen had been researching all the recipes that she was intending to use to cook the thanksgiving feast extraordinaire and which items we needed to get from the store. 

so around 11:30 we went to the grocery store - except not just any grocery store, we went to the brand new kroger in kenwood. and wow... this thing was nice. there was literally a wall of cheese wheels that i know my father-in-law would have loved to have seen. [if we'd had the camera thered be pictures, i assure you.] well, we spent the next hour and a half and waaaay too much money at kroger getting all the little goodies that were going to be prepared for me when we got home. [i was so excited! and so was karen!] the last little stop on the way home was at walmart where i got to spend a little birthday money on two dvd's - hancock and iron man [thanks mom & dad!] so now i was totally set for the afternoon, haha. 

so we went home from there and both got started on our tasks for the next 4+ hours. karen got busy in the kitchen, and i got busy staying out of her hair, lol! i had a blast watching hancock and iron man and karen was really having fun, totally in her element baking and cooking in the kitchen. occasionally she'd bring me a little snack or a fresh beer [i really do have the best wife ever!] while i sat lazily on the couch entranced in my movies. 

well what ended up being closer to 5 hours later, karen finished dinner [i have no idea how she had the energy!] and we were ready to go. this was our first thanksgiving alone together and the first one karen had ever made and it was really spectacular. she went all out, even making a nice little menu and printing out for me with all the items of the nights dinner. there was turkey and stuffing [obviously], some redskin+garlic mashed potatoes, gravy, two kinds of cranberry sauce [one was her mom, anne's, recipe for what she called a cranberry relish], honey-butter rolls, my grandmother's recipe for sweet potato streusel, two pumpkin pies from scratch [we decided to make one to give to our new neighbors that have been so sweet to us!], mulled wine [which id never had before and i have no idea really how to explain it, sorry], and last but not least - a from scratch cherry cheese cake that was omg delicious! [sorry mom and grandma, but karen's cheesecake has got to be the best ive ever had!! and sorry to jello too, you cant compete, youre way out of your league here...] so without further adieu, here are a few shots of our thanksgiving feast extraordinaire! [click to open the full-size, mouth-watering image]

by the time we finished eating we were totally stuffed [after only one serving each!] and spent the next hour and ahalf together cuddled up on the couch watched the remainder [id started it when karen needed more time on dinner] of superman returns - kevin spacey is awesome as lex luther, i dont care what anyone says. after that it was time for bed, there was still a lot of weekend left ahead of us. 

black.friday[11.28.08]

well friday morning we woke up a little late, but we really cant be blamed for that, its all the turkey's fault. but immediately got started on the truck hunt. this proved to be quite a long day, but for the sake of brevity i'll only touch on the highlights. [youre welcome josh...]

first we looked up all the trucks we knew we wanted to see and mapped them all out on google and printed everything out. second we went to the bank to see about getting an auto-loan. we decided what our budget was and were going to stick to it, and we had the funds available in our savings account. but because of all the house repairs we're currently involved in as well the combination of the truck and the house repairs is going to completely wipe us out of our savings, so we thought putting half down and paying the rest off in a small auto-loan would be the best way to go. well the bank went fine, they took all our information, it was painless enough, but the manager couldnt tell us immediately if we were going to be approved, it had to process through the central headquarters [or whatever evil empire lingo the banks use these days] and she's call us as soon as she heard from them. 

so we got on our way to the first location, map in hand, we hit the road. haha, well not 15 minutes later my trusty navigator informs me that she thought we'd missed one of our turns and it turned out she was right... so where it should have taken us 20 minutes to get to the first stop, lol, it took about an hour after we detoured way out of the way on what ended up being a two lane highway with road construction for a large chunk of the trip, lol! oh-well, theres no one else id rather be lost with, heh. 

so we got to the first place on our list and man, this truck was a beauty [well, at first anyway]. it was a blue 2003 dodge ram 1500 crew cab & short bed and boy it was pretty. it had 70k miles on it and it was the one i liked the most on the list. however... the tiny little lot it was on was closed... so we called the numbers and got one of the owners but he was out of town and was going to call his partner and call us back. well... half an hour late we still hadnt had a call so we gave up and moved on to the next one on the list. on the way we decided to stop at a dealership that was across the high-way and see if they had anything in our price-range, because after all, they were right there. 

well they had 2 trucks and i didnt like either of them for various reasons, so we said thanks but no thanks and got back on our way. no sooner had we gotten on the on-ramp than the phone was buzzing and it was the bank. however, it was not a great call. wed been denied the loan because neither of us had a job as long as they liked to be considered steady. [2 years! are you kidding me?!] great, oh-well, we'll figure it out as we go... so i hung up and by the time we were getting off the highway to go up the road a little for the next truck my phone was buzzing again - it was the other owner from the first lot telling me he'd be at the lot in about 20 minutes. haha, alright, well i told him we'd moved on, but we'd keep him in mind. so we go to the second lot and after a few turn arounds to actually find the place we check out the truck - a white[gag!] 2004 dodge dakota with extended cab. the guy was really nice, offered us financing with only 5% interest [awesome!] and let us take it for a test drive. so while we were out i looked at karen and told her i really didnt like this truck even though it was nice, how did she feel? well she agreed. we both felt it was too small, especially compared to the "hearty and robust" as karen put it, dodge ram we'd just looked at. so we went back, thanked the guy and decided we'd head back to the first lot and take that ram for a spin. 

well, we got there and the guy handed over the keys, so we popped it open and got on our way. however, we soon started falling out of love with this truck. after seeing the dakota which was in great shape, we noticed the ram's tired were pretty much bald - ugh, not good. secondly, it didnt have automatic doors and windows which my 95 freakin truck had, and was going to be a but of an inconvenience. we also noticed other little qwerks with it like the interior, some scratches on the exterior, the lack of a tow-package[which we've used more than a few times recently on my 95 and has come in really handy] and a few other things... well crap, now what? there were two other places on my list but they were in opposite directions from where we now were. one was in indiana and about an hour and a half away, the other was in kentucky and an hour away. well believe it or not after all this driving around and only having looked at 2 trucks seriously, it was already passed 3 in the afternoon... 

so i decided to call the place in kentucky and find out what they had available while karen talked to the guy at this lot a little longer. i found out that the kentucky place was an actual dealership and they ended up having 3 other trucks that were in our price range besides the one we knew was there. not to mention the one we knew about had some of the things this blue one was lacking according to the guy on the phone. so we said our goodbyes, got on the road, and headed to kentucky. well, about an hour and 15 minutes later [we had to stop for gas] we arrived at the dealership and found the guy from the phone he took us out to the truck and we carefully inspected it from the outside having already done this twice. well this thing was immaculate, if youd told me it was brand new, id have believed you. he handed us the keys and we took it for a test drive, and now i was determined to really test it. so i gave the breaks, engine, and other features a thorough test and we were very satisfied with the way it ran. 

when we got back to the dealership we were sold. we looked at the other options on his lot that were in our price range just to make sure, but we were definitely sold on this truck. so a few hours later after all the paperwork, we'd gotten he process started for financing, but the banks were all closed for the night. we ended up writing a check for the full amount up front pending the results of financing on saturday morning, and at a little after 6pm i drove off the lot in our new truck with karen right behind me in the rental car. at this point we were headed straight back to columbus to return the rental [3 hours away] and then back home again [another 2 hours]. we finally got home at about 1am and we were both completely exhausted and just collapsed into bed for the night. i think i still had some of my clothes on, lol!

so at the end of the day [yeah i guess i went into a few of the finer points, sorry josh, deal with it] we had a new truck!! so here are the details. its a 2004 dodge ram 1500. bright red [shiny as can be!], crew cab, long bed. it has 80k miles on it, tires with over 60% tread, a tow-package [and it even includes a towing drive setting for hauling stuff, sweet!] it runs like a dream and everything on it works like new! so we now have a new[to us] "shiny, and hearty, AND robust!" truck! [which we have aptly named sahara because of - look at it for a while and youll figure it out...]

so again, without further adieu, here are the pics! [again, click for the full-size, mouth-watering image, heh]

some of you may notice the mirror on the drivers side is missing. the deal with that is that it was cracked and they were in the process of ordering a new one when we bought the truck, so when it comes in theyre going to replace it for us. other than that, the only little downfalls with sahara are that she doesnt have power doors and windows and she needs a bed liner. but thats okay! id like to put in a security system anyway, and i think you can get power windows and locks as an option with those now-a-days, and we can get a spray in liner pretty cheap too! no worries!

well, thats all for now! check back soon for our saturday and sunday adventures!

gobble-gobble!

wow.what.a.week[+end]

so i realize its been a little while since i updated. i do apologize to all those loyal readers. its been a heck of a busy week and weekend [if the title of this blog didnt already clue you in to that.]

so we last left off the weekend before this most recent one [11.16ish]

well for the sake of brevity, we'll try to make this a pretty quick summarizing recap. [for those of you that really love the long-winded details, im sorry, theres just so much i could say this time around, i honestly will never have the time.]

monday [11.17.08]

first thing in morning the newest roofer guy calls me and tells me hes at the house and has decided to start today instead of wednesday. wow-o! alrighty, get to it! so we discuss a few variables and hes off to do his thing. the plumbers are there too, and not long after i talk to them as well. they should be 3/4 of the way done today and then it should only take another day after that and we could move in if we wanted. sweet. so monday comes and goes, work as usual, and we head to the house after work to check on the progress and do some more painting. also, the roofer was going to meet us to get a down payment [half] to cover materials and to do a little walk through and see the inside of the hosue to satisfy his curiosity.

so after work we went home, had a quick dinner and then went over to the house and not long after the roofer showed up. about an hour later wed given him the full tour, discussed all the work we were planning to do, and given him a check and were ready to start painting. the first coat of the wall paint and the second ceiling coat were dry, the plaster was still drying in the stairs, haha, and the walls desperately needed a second coat. so we got down to the business of painting and before long we had a second coat of paint on the walls and were much happier with the way it was looking with the wet coat. it had gone on much thicker, although it was obvious it was still going to need at least one, if not more than one, coat before it was done. ugh. so we left fairly soon after that and went home and to bed. 

tuesday[11.18.08]

tuesday was a little less exciting. the roofer was at it again and called me to find out our thoughts on shingles so karen and i spent the rest of the day discussing shingle colors and made a decision and were ready to talk to him about it again whenever he called us. when we talked to him at the end of the day, it turned out that once he started tearing out all the gutters he discovered that the rafters for 3/4 of the house behind them were all in really bad shape, were rotten out and were going to need to be repaired and so he got started doing that [and he said he wasnt going to charge us for it! is this guy this best roofer ever or what??] not to mention they were already tearing out trim, fascia board, and crown that was rotted out and he was getting materials to fix those as well. 

talked to the plumbers as well and it turned out they were going to be almost finished but not quite just a couple of hours on wednesday and theyd be done. but theyd hooked most everything up and had even put on the new faucet in kitchen for us [and it looked great!]. also, the faucet in the 3rd story bathroom he was able to repair and didnt need to use the new one we bought, so we could save that for a later day. 

wednesday[11.19.08]

well we went the whole day without hearing anything from the roofer... odd... the day itself was nothing special, just another work day [work was starting to wear on me, i was really needing a break from it for a while... good news coming up there] after work we went to the house to check things out and couldnt see any difference in the roof stuff, so i assumed theyd had bad weather, hit a snag with materials, or something else had come up. the pump-jacks were still there as well as a ladder and some other tools, so they obviously werent abandoning us. theres a good chance they had done something, it just wasnt anything we could see in the dark [nothing obvious]. 

we also talked to the plumber and he was finished! woohoo! we checked out the plumbing and it looked great! he even put in new copper waterlines and wasnt going to charge me extra for that. not to mention all the new cpvc, new water heater, new gas lines to the water heater [the old ones didnt meat code] and all the fixtures hooked up and working [even fixed the leak in the washing machine line!]. and all of it for the exact cost we'd agreed upon in the beginning, even though hed run into a few snags! awesome! 

one final word from the plumber though. we needed to fix our thermostat. the house needed to stay at the very least above 40degrees to keep the pipes from freezing, and he recommended we keep it above 50. he said when hed arrived that morning it was 40 in the house and that was not a good sign. now for those of you that remember, we had replaced the thermostat with a digital programmable one in the weeks before, but we had been having issues with the auto features working. basically it wasnt kicking on when it reached any set temperatures or kicking off when it reached any certain temperatures either. 

so wednesday night karen and i decided to tackle this little problem and get it fixed once and for all. we opened up the thermostat and checked everything, i went through all the directions and actually programmed every part of it [we'd just used the override settings originally] and we tested it. no change... hmmm.... so then we opened it up and i checked all the wires and we conferred with the manual...

originally, i was in the parlor hooking up lights when karen installed the thermostat. i never actually looked closely at the wires or anything, she was just reading the instructions and asking me questions. well in the picture it shows all the wires coming out of the wall all nicely labeled and theres all 5 of the necessary wires, etc. haha, our house isnt exactly that "optimum" wiring situation. there were two wires staring at karen neither were nicely labeled and she asks me okay it looks like i have a red wire and a brown wire here, what do i do? well i ask her what it said and she rambled off the letters on the sheet there were a w, r, r2, y, & g. i said that the red was most likely red, and the brown [based on my limited previous knowledge and not actually seeing the wires] was usually a ground, so that was probably her g. so thats how she hooked it up and it worked for the most part [other than the auto stuff] so we had no reason to think shed done it wrong. 

well when i opened it up, i looked at the wires again and was double checking everything to make sure they were getting good contact and stuff, and then it occurred to me... haha, this "brown" wire wasnt brown, lol! its obvious to me its a white wire, but karen had never seen wires before and just assumed that it was brown because it looked brown to her. hahaha, this is why i love this girl. she never even thought about it being old or a little dirty, it just didnt look white to her, haha. so anyway, i switch it to the w and we hook everything back up and there you go, now the auto is working, haha. we test it a few times and it works every time, so we set it and leave laughing at ourselves but happy we have the thermostat issue resolved!

thursday[11.20.08]

thursday we didnt do any house stuff. we left work and went home to have a quick bite before karen had to go to class for a presentation. so i spent the next few hours cleaning up the apartment a little and packing for the weekend and karen got home around 10:30 and did her packing. so my sister's wedding was this weekend and we were heading back to tx for the next 4 days to do wedding stuff and see the family and just take a break from everything in cincy for a while. our flight was leaving at 6am and the airport was a 2 hour drive away so we ended up having to get up and get ready at about 2:30 [after going to bed at just after midnight when it was all over with, haha!] anyway, not a fun way to start the weekend but we went to sleep ready to leave with little preparation required in the morning, and were definitely ready to have a little "vacation!"

well, thats the week recap. now for the weekend recap. and ill keep it even shorter. 

weekend [the.wedding.extravagganza!]

ill summerize it all to say this. kimberly's wedding was beautiful and it went off without a hitch [or actually with a big one considering the event, lol! but without any real problems]. we attended her bachelot/bachelorette party on friday and had a lot of visit time with my parents and a lot of fun. saturday we hung out with karens folks and did all the wedding rehearsal/dinner stuff again a lot of fun and some great food! [man i miss mexican food!] sunday was the actual wedding and it was great. we got to see all the family and spend a lot of time with them and catching up with people, not to mention a little good food, great cake, and a little dancing on the side. monday started off fairly relaxing as we got up, packed, said goodbye to her parents and spent some more time with mine. had a nap, watched a movie, just chilled in general before going to the airport and saying goodbye to my parents. and then all the fun really began. it was a jam-packed weekend, there wasnt as much vacationing as we were hoping, but it was really great to get to see everyone and feel all the love! we love all of you guys and miss you like crazy up here in cincy!

monday.night[yeah...life and all its fun has found us again.]

so we arrive back in cincy at about 8:30pm est, right on time. the flight was fine [minus a little more turbulance than karen cared for] and i read a new book [the visitation - frank e. peretti] pretty much the entire flight while karen worked on a presentation for school this week. we even got a nice little snack. and the flight back was waay more comfortable than the one to tx on this tiny little jet that held about 20 ppl.

anyway, we got to cincy, went and picked up our bags with no problem, actually remembered where we parked the truck pretty luckly and only got charged for 3 days of parking [dont ask me how] and were on our way home by 8:45! and this is where everything stopped going well...

we hadnt even gotten out of downtown columbus when i start hearing something funny on the right side of the car and after a few second pull over to check it out and see if we were dragging something or what. well after inspecting the truck, i dont see anything and we get in to see if it just works itself out [this damn truck is old and this crap happens way too often... see the trip to denver posts for more on this...] well instead it starts getting worse so i pull off the highway and we find a small empty street and i get out and have karen drive around in a little circle to see if i can see anything when its actually moving. well i dont see anything, but i can definitely hear something and i can start to make out a smell around the front right wheel. so i get back in and tell her we need to find a repair place or something, but theres no way im driving it for 2 hours like this. well, on the way to find a gas station or anything to pull over in i start losing break pressure and im pretty much on the floor board before it responds at all... not good. weve got to get this thing fixed asap or figure out another way home...

so we find a shell station open, i call my dad and talk to him about whats going wrong, then we talk the guy at the shell. he tells us theres nothing open but a walmart up the road a few miles, so we get back in and very slowly and carefully drive down this road for what seems like forever till we find this walmart. well the walmart doesnt even have an autocare center. great. so we decide at this point to call triple-a and see about getting it towed to a shop nearby or whatever we need to do...

well as with the last time talking to triple-a proved to be a task in its own but we actually managed to get somewhere with them after about 45 minutes of talking and holding ans what have you. so basically heres what happened - in a nutshell. triple-a sent a tow truck out to pick up the truck and take it back to cincinnati and to a shop that was one of their approved shops or whatever and they did it for free because we were just under [2 miles!] the 100 miles free towing. [whew!] while waiting for the tow truck we ordered a cab to pick us up and take us back to the airport to rent a car - because apparently the car rentals at the airports are the only ones open passed 6pm... well the freaking taxi showed up at 11:15, and the car rental placed closed at 11:30, so we had to race to get there in time and beg them to stay open and wait for us while we were en route. we got there at 11:34 and they had waited, and so by about midnight we finally had rented a car and were getting in. 

well... their airport is in a similar state of affairs as every other airport ive visited lately in that theres tons of road construction. so i dont like admitting this, but it was late, and i was tired and as we left with the rental car [which is a BRAND NEW dodge avenger by the way - very nice!] i somehow took an exit at a fork instead of the onramp to the highwayright before leaving the airport and for the next half hour to 45 minutes we were completely lost driving in a huge circle around the airport and neighboring suburbs before eventually going back through it and finally starting over where we'd originally begun. this time i took the onramp. gr.

so now 12:45am - weve FINALLY gotten on the road home from columbus, we're both completely exhausted and drifting off, and ended up having to pull over at a rest stop twice for a 20 minute nap and switch driving once between before we finally got home at about 3:30am.

tuesday[today, the present, now...]

this morning we both called in till after lunch and slept till around 8:30 - 9am. i got up and got in the shower and no sooner was i out that the phone was ringing. its the autoshop. the guy has my truck up on the rack and he tell me whats wrong with it. now im not car guy, not at all, but esentially these are the parts of what he said that i kind of understood. the right front wheel bearing siezed, causeing damage to the spindle, which in turn caused damage to the seal on the rotars and the ball joint. or something like that. he was going to need to replace the spindle, outer bearing, inner bearing, rotator seal, and both ball joints on the right side. after further inspection the ball joints on the left side were in pretty dire need of repair too and if i didnt replace them now, i would definitely need to soon. total = $1200.

for those of you that are up to date on the truck and all its issues, you can imagine my reaction here... so after i stopped screaming profanities in my mind and regained my sanity a little, i told the guy id call him back. karen and i then discussed our options, conferred with our respective sets of parents, and came to the conclusion that putting any more money into this truck is a complete waste of time and in my opinion, an act of insanity [repeating the same action and expecting a different result is the DEFINITION of insanity...]. so we're going to figure out how to get rid of this pile of junk [that for the record i have had a long love/hate affair with and will probably miss terribly at first... for a few minutes.] and get something else new to us. 

we called the guy and told him it was a no go and he thanked us and put it back in the parkinglot where he found it, meanwhile we called a number of salvage places and looked up the blue book value on the junk truk. so far... all the salvage places are offering about 250 bucks, and the bluebook on it was something like 527 dollars. great. it really is WORTHLESS. grr... so i dont know what to do now. we'll figure something out im sure, but right now im really hoping someone steals it and we can get more than 500 bucks out of the insurance claim. [its wrong of me i know, im probably going to hell, blah blah blah, what would you be thinking?! lol!]

on a lighter note, the security people installed the alarm system this morning and its up and running so i feel much better about that. the roof looked the same still when we were there and we hadnt heard anything from the roofer all weekend. however, about 45 minutes ago the roofer called me and said that theyve been ready to start removing the roof since last week, but because its been threatening to rain everyday since, they hadnt gotten into it because they didnt want to let any water in the house, but now that the weather appears to have cleared up a little hes planning to work all day tomorrow and hes going to get us some samples of the shingles to look at tomorrow as well. cool. i guess theres a silver lining somewhere... the entry still needs another coat of paint. 

well kids, adults, and fans of all ages, thats it for now. youre caught up to this very moment with our lives [and obstacles.......] i'll let you know more when i do, but for now thats all ive got, and ive wasted as much time today as i possible can at work, lol! [dont worry, ive been working too! just taking little 5 minute breaks every now and then to work on this] life is really somethin huh? well, at least its not boring, lol!

keep us in your prayers, wish us luck, or whatever custom youve got thats appropriate, we'll take it!

see you next time!

[sorry this got so lengthy, but to be fair, i really DID try to keep it to as much of a summary as i possibly could!]

concluding.a.weekend

well hello again. nice to see you. thanks for stopping by. would you like something to drink? a comfy chair? how about something to read? alright, well i can handle the reading part at least, lol!

sunday[11.16.08]

we skipped church again. i know, we're going to hell, get over it, lol. moving on...  

we had much too much to do on sunday really, so church just didnt even have a chance considering. [no excuse, i know, im a terrible person.] we were totally drained after getting home so late and working all day long, so we ended up sleeping in a little - longer than id wanted to actually. so by the time we got dressed and were running out the door to start the day, it was already 11am.

well the house didnt get to occupy our entire day im afraid, life in general creeps in occasionally and sunday was one of those days. first on our list for the day was a trip to meijer. im pretty sure ive mentioned meijer before, its kind of the middle sibling between walmart and target. but its great for us, theyve got some quality stuff and specifically theyve got a great clips right there in the store and its open on sunday. so yeah, you guessed it, it was that time again. now i know i swore last time i got a haircut [more like hair massacre...] that id never go back there again, well. thats like saying ill never go to walmart again because i got stuck in line for 45 minutes at one of the 3 registers open out  of 50... it sucks, yes [extremely!], but it doesnt change the fact that im still going back. i did however promise myself that under no circumstances would i let that same girl come anywhere near me with scissors. 

so we got to meijer and as is our usual pattern, i go get clipped while karen gets started on the grocery list. well luckily the hair massachist was no where in sight so i felt at ease signing in for my cut. karen went off to do her thing and 20 -30 minutes later i looked nearly human again [although covered in tiny hair trimmings which is like one of my biggest pet-peeves of all time. it itches like crazy!] and went off to find karen. on the way i stopped by the hardware section and grabbed a couple of hoses to connect the washing machine. well once i found her she was alread 3/4 of the way through the list so we found the remaining items fairly quickly and left. now by this time it was getting to be close to 1pm and we hadnt eaten anything, just had our coffee fix that morning. we were hoping to grab some deli sandwhiches at meijer, but unlike walmart and target they apparently dont do sandwhiches in their deli... alrighty... wendy's it is, lol. [sensing a pattern here? heh.] so anyway, we grabbed some wendy's and then went back to the apartment to unload grocerys and eat quickly before heading over to the house. 

after lunch we had yet another errand to run before we could go to the house and get started for the day. karen needed to go to one of the local art museums for a project in her museum management class, and we'd been putting it off for over a week, so we agreed sunday we were going to get it done - obviously this was the next item on our list. so we head across town to eden park/mount adams [because we cant agree on which one the museum is actually in, lol, its rather ambiguous] and up to the museum. now keep in mind that we're looking just oh so classy in our house rennovating grunge wear [more like something out of the derelict line, heh. please, oh please, someone get that...], so when we walk into this nice art museum we definitely get THOSE looks from the snooty attendies, lol! oh-well, i dont mind mixin my grungification with my culturification ;] so, karen had done all this research about these certain pieces and certain exhibits she needed to see for her project [based on the info on the museum's website] so we mosy over to the info-booth to find out where they are located. thats where things went awry... turns out that the pieces she needs are part of a collection that isnt currently on general display and are only available for view by appointment... awesome... well karen isnt happy at this point, but hey, we gave it our best attempt, right? poor thing was just going to have to make phone calls until she got the whole situation figured out and could schedule to see the exhibits. [sorry love...]

alrighty, now onward to the house! its after 3pm at this point and we still havent started our work for the day... [how does that always happen??] so we get there and check on the situation as we last left it. youll remember we were painting the entry and had already gotten a coat of primer on the walls and a coat of paint on the ceiling and removed all the current molding. well i didnt have the pictures uploaded yet for yesterdays post, so you get to see the before picture now :]

so basically the walls are this awful yellowy-pink color with some kind of weird faux finish done in brown blobs on top of it. its just atrocious... and obviously why we needed the primer coat. the ceiling was also a pale yellowish color, but after the cleaning it was in good enough shape to just go right ontop of. these pictures are post base molding removal, sorry you dont get to see how ugly and non-proportional it was, lol! [maybe if you go back to the original house pictures on my.pix link in the right column you can find something - if you really just have to know... weirdo...] well we decided that the primer coat and the ceiling had both dried well, but the ceiling was going to need another coat and the walls were going to need more patching - now we could see all the places we hadnt seen the first time around. ugh... well i was in no hurry to start patching again, so i left karen to do that while i went to go and hook up the washer. we were hoping to maybe get a load done and try it out that night, so i was hoping the new hoses would be all that was necessary. 

well after a few minutes i had the hoses all hooked up and the washer in place [no applause necessary, im pretty sure a chimp with a wrench could do it...] so now the real test, turning on the water, lol! the plumbers had left us with water, but we werent entirely sure what all lines were hooked up and what ones werent. well, here goes nothing. i turn the knobs, crank it on and... ah, yes, the sound of working water, and no pipes exploded or anything! lol! however, before i had time to blink 3 times the hot water faucet started dripping... crap. alright, off they go. well after i turned it off... it was still dripping... shit. so i rigged up an empty coke can and some wire to catch the drips and crossed my fingers that it would eventually stop - which it did. well, maybe we wouldnt be doing laundry that night, but at least we knew to tell the plumbers to check those faucets out and make sure nothing significant was wrong. and they did look pretty sitting there side by side :]

anyway, enough stalling, onto the real stuff. so i went and helped karen patch and do some touchup primer-ing. while that was drying we decided to start cutting new base molding. so we determined out plan of attack [which took some discussion... karen wanted to do it piece by piece and mark them as we went around to make sure they fit - i wanted to just get all the measurements at once. eventually we agreed to get all the measurements and then obviously we would adjust the pieces from there to make sure they fit in the space, but we needed something to start with.] so we went through and got all our measurements and then i went and set up the miter saw in the kitchen [insert grunting like tim allen because its totally appropriate here, heh] and got ready to start cutting. karen brought in the first pieces of trim and after a little marking with the speed square and fighting off the little anxiety, we cut the first piece - smooth as butter. awesome. and whats more? it fit perfectly! on the first try! score! haha! so after that we continued to cut out the rest of the trim over the next couple of hours and making sure they all fit in their little spots. [yeah, i miscut a couple, but we were able to salvage them all with very little wasted.]

after we'd officially gotten all the pieces cut it was time for more painting. so i sucked it up and painted all the pieces of molding [yes, with all those stupid curves and profiles, ugh...] and karen started the second coat on the ceiling. well, i ended up having to put two coats on the molding and finished roughly the same time karen finished the ceiling's second coat. then it was on to the walls... the first coat... gah, scary. so we popped open the cans and man, it was a beauty of a color... we did a good job selecting the palette for this room =] well it wasnt long [about 10 seconds, lol] before we realized that this paint was going to go on really thin and was going to need at least a few coats... ugh. so we started the first coat and in the process discovered places where the plaster wasnt completely dry yet, lol, and that our detailing brushes didnt have anywhere near the same texture as the rollers, but oh-well, its just the first of many coats and hopefully itll get better later. by the time we finished that first coat it was already pretty late [after 9] and we were pretty hungry, so we decided to call it quits for the night. it was obvious we werent going to finish this project over the weekend as we'd originally planned, so there was really no point in killing ourselves to get more work done when we had to get up early for our real jobs in the morning.

so with that the weekend was over and we were a little dissatisfied with the progress of our project... but hey, no worries, we'll get it done eventually! =]

alrighty, so thats sunday, and thats the weekend. and... my lunch break is yet again over. so... you guys are just going to have to sit tight for all the rest of the excitement that happened on monday! lol! have a great hump-day and try to relax a little this evening, huh? 

love you guys, catch yah later!

for.my.favorite.mother.in.law

well i know my mother-in-law is waiting as patiently as she can, so lets get to this shall we?

saturday[11.15.08]

i forgot to mention in my thursday portion of the last entry that i also filled out one of those online forms for a free termite inspection from terminix. we havent seen any termites in the house, but the inspector noted some past termite damage in his report [which means youre much more likely to have future infestations and i'll explain why later] and during the inspection he kicked over a dead stump in the front yard only to discover a virtual hive of termites swarming around in there. so to be on the safe side, we wanted an inspection just to make sure or possibly to investigate some preventative measures. so i filled out the little online form and later that day the guy called me and set up an appointment for saturday morning between 8 and 10am. 

so saturday morning started early. [morning karen did not appreciate this, lol. shes gorgeous even when she wakes up, but usually a bit grumpy when leaving the super cozy+comfy bed & bedding, hehe!] we actually slept in a little longer than i wanted after staying up for the movie the night before [and just to clarify, yes, the wine-tasting thing was actually at whole foods, lol! you guys must have thought it was pretty random we just decided to meet amanda at whole foods, lol! sorry im a bit unclear on things at times - my mind only works in so many directions at once, hehe] so we didnt actually get going till 9, but we were at the house by 9:30 and hadnt actually heard anything from the inspector so we got lucky. actually... we were a little worried about that... 10 was quickly approaching and we had lots to do that day. however, at 9:55 when i was getting ready to try and decipher which of the hundred or so recent calls was the terminix guys number, we had a knock on the door. awesome. right on time - more or less. 

so we let him in, made introductions, hand shakes, what have you and then ventured into our basement... or "the lair" as im thinking of re-naming it for the sake of comedic injection.  anyway, into the lair we go. so we discuss why we called him, not having seen termites actively, and all the stuff i mentioned much earlier, and he pokes around for about a half an hour thoroughly checking everything in the lair and talking us through it all. come to find out [here it is!] that the reason termites are more likely to come back if youve had past damage is because they leave a pheromone tracking sensor for all the other lovely cousins of theirs [and they have large families, let me tell you... you thought china was overpopulated, shit, china as termites could live in just a few houses!] to come and find at a later time if they ever vacate the place [forcibly or otherwise]. 

anyway, we have a great stacked stone foundation, everyone weve talked to says its in great shape, will last another hundred years [man i love real craftsmanship] but the terminix guy says theyre terrible for termites. so many little voids and such between the stones let the little bastards right in. well anyway, he determines that we have no termites and that we should be in the clear for a while longer. the house had obviously been treated within the last 10 yrs [he actually pointed out where] and that usually protects the place for at least 10 years. so, weve got at least another season or so. he offered us a protection plan we can get in on thats like 175 bucks a year [in monthly or quarterly installments if you like] that covers us for up to a million bucks in damage, but we decided to fore-go that for now and if we need to we can get another free inspection in 6 months-a yr and the offer will still stand if necessary then. not to mention, he says theres a number of houses up and down our block that are already covered under this plan, so hopefully if any termites do pop up, theyll kill em off at another house before they find ours.

so now to the rest of the day. 

feeling pretty good after passing that first test, we decide to grab a quick breakfast [oh wendy's breakfast, how i love thee, what took you so long to arrive in our lives?? although whataburger will forever be number one for fast-food breakfast on the go! holla!] and coordinate our plan of attack for the day. after breakfast we decided to head out to home depot to stock up on supplies for the weekend projects. 

so what are the projects you ask? [and i know you do] well, we decided to completely re-vamp the entry. karen wanted a bit of a break this weekend, so we were just going to do easy stuff [ha! right!] like paint and new molding. simple enough, right? so we go to the depot and spend quite a bit of time making decisions. these are serious matters to a couple of designers, lol, and we had to make sure we got just the right stuff. well after a RECORD BREAKING COST, we left the depot some hundreds dollars poorer, but with tons of linear feet of molding, a few cans of paint and primer, a 2 gallon bucket of plaster, some new faucets [the plumber had mentioned we'd need to replace the faucets in the kitchen and the attic bathroom] and other tools, odds, and ends. i tell you, remodeling... not cheap. but ignoring the price [because its the only way i sleep at night...] we had all kinds of great stuff to work with and a ton of work left to do, so homeward-bound!

well the trip to the house was very short-lived, because to do all this fun stuff, we needed tools. ah. tools. like what? well... we got all kinds of awesome stuff for wedding presents [registering at the depot was probably one of our greatest ideas of all time!] and amongst the tools still in our storage were a miter saw [kind of a must for properly installing molding, eh?] all our paint rollers, extension polls, painting tape, and other paint stuff, a circular saw, a power sander, oh, and the washing machine we bought some months ago, lol! [not really necessary for the projects, but weve been talking about getting it out ever since we scheduled the plumber to come out.]

well to add a little extra fun to this day, it had been drizzling all day long. so not only was everything in the back of the truck, from the depot, wet from the drive to the house, but we were also going to have to move everything from the storage unit in the rain as well - fantastic. [mrs.holm would LOVE that sentence, hehehe...]

so we went to the storage place and after oh... 2 hours or so, we'd finally found [that was the hardest part, lol!] all the stuff we needed [and some stuff we just wanted, lol!] and loaded up to go back to the house. now for those of you that are optimists and were just totally sure the rain had stopped in that 2 hours, you are wrong. the glass - half empty "my friends." so back to the house with a truckload of stuff, in the freezing drizzle. [did i mention freezing before? it was effing cold this weekend!] well most of the stuff was fine and we unloaded it all with no problems, just a little dampness. but the washer. well... this this is pretty freakin big, and wet, and slippery, and it was much less fun to unload. luckily, wed remembered to get the dolly. and although karen got a good bump on the head [poor thing!] we managed to get it in the house, and in place with only SOME difficulty, lol! well once we got it in place we discovered, um, yeah we didnt have the proper water hoses to hook it up. great, put that on the list for the next trip, lol! oh-well, its after 5 at this point and we've still got tons to do! luckily, the plumbers had rigged up the plumbing temporarily and we had water! and hot water at that! and toilets that flush! amazing!! =]

well, the next several hours are much less exciting. before you get to the fun of painting, you have to do the prepping. ugh. so we spent hours [literally] pulling nails and screws, patching the holes, i learned to plaster through a little trial and error [remember that chunk of stair wall we ripped off a few entries ago to see what was behind it... yeah, that was bright...], tearing out all the old obnoxiously bright orange trim that that same loser had shottily [yes i know its not a word] installed, just generally scrubbing all the walls, floors, and ceiling, and finally [oh, yes mom, my favorite part... gr...] taping. [ugh.] eventually we even got a nice even coat of primer on the entire entryway and one coat of the ceiling paint onto the ceiling [it didnt need a primer] before calling it quits a little after midnight. 

obviously this was a lengthy day [with a lengthy post to match!] and my lunch hour is again, over. so you guys will just have to hang tight for yet another installment of our looong weekend. but dont lose hope! the next installment will have pictures!

the.finale[finally]

for those of you still hanging onto your seat edges, with white knuckles, gasping in anticipation, for the final reveal, of our decision.... fear not! the time has come!!

taking into consideration the voting that did take place, and well... our preference overriding anything we didnt agree with [lol!], we finally came to a decision yesterday on this over-dramatized naming game. 

and the winner is.... [...drum-roll for those that deem it appropriate...]

678

haha, how anti-climactic... i do apologize. the fireworks and pyrotechnics here were amazing, but we neglected to anticipate the trans-media loss of spectacula as it were. oops. ;]

now for those of you that were questioning the reasoning behind all of the names we presented in the first place, [and dont already know the reasoning behind this one...] 678 is fairly simple. its like our theme number, lol! 06.07.08 was our wedding date, will forever be our anniversary, and well, its a pretty stinkin cool coincidence considering the story behind it. lol! 

the.story[super.quick.version]

we got engaged 01.11.08. originally we set an anticipated wedding date of 08.08.08 [also a coincidence id never even realized till this very minute, lol!]. this date was originally chosen as pretty much the only time that would work between our two graduate school+summer scheduling arrangements as well as the photographer [love yah lace!]. well as a few weeks went by this date became more and more of a scheduling nightmare [to say the least] and we were getting frustrated trying to make it work. well my mom, being the genius she was, candidly suggested we just move the thing up to spring break [which at this point was like a month away, lol!]. she was kidding of course, but as has become a small trend, her joking inspired reality. i thought about it for two seconds and said, well... no, not spring break, but we could maybe pull it off first thing this summer! obviously she went pale [or maybe thats just my memory being creative, but its a fun image either way]. so i called the photographer and asked her to check her books and see what she had available. we tossed around a few dates [completely irrelevant of what they were - we were simply trying to coordinate her openings with the available times at the museum - i.e. "the wedding place"] well there were two dates that she had available june 7th, and may 29th i think it was. well may was still too early id only just be moving back to texas [from colorado - grad school - i think you follow] so we opted for june. and then it wasnt till a while later that we actually wrote the date out in numbers and realized our awesome coincidence, lol! and there you have it. the story of 678. our anniversary, and now maybe just a little more. [lol!]

that was pretty quick right? for me anyway... ;]

thanks to all that helped in the process, we do appreciate the comments, the ideas, and the love from all you guys. 

stay tuned for further updates involving 678 and well, everything else, lol!

slacking

hello out there to all you readers!

sorry ive been slacking a little lately in the updates, but we've been super busy.

so heres a quick update from last week but i might need to do a few installments to get everything from this weekend and this week in. theres just so much to talk about! lol!

tuesday[11.11.08]

so tuesday was one of the last times i blogged and i mentioned that we were going to dinner for one of karen's friend's [caye] birthday. well we ended up meeting a couple of people at this local korean place [well, sort of local - its accross the river in that other state we dont talk about, heh]. well at first it was just 5 of us, and we decided to sit down at the table that was already prepared for the party and wait for other people to arrive. challenge 1 - sitting down. this was an authentic asian experience, let me tell you, we had to remove our shoes and sit on the floor indian-style on little pink pillows, and wow was this an interesting task, lol! i dont know about you guys, but im not quite as flexible as i was in say... 3rd grade, anymore, lol! not to mention im only slightly taller now. [hardy-har-har...] anyway, the sitting ended up being quite an experience the whole night as a group of 8-10, twenty-somethings all curled up under this table, lol! my legs were numb after like 20 minutes and i just ignored it most of the night. 

anyway, so before long people started straggling in and we made introductions one by one, and eventually even the birthday girl showed up, lol! [second to last, heh] and we all had some conversation, presents, and then got down to the business of ordering. being that this was my first time ever having korean food, i had no clue what to get so karen and i read the menu a multitude of times. the group ended up ordering a couple of different appetizer dishes for everyone to share and they were all delicious! at that point i was feeling much better about my entre choice and i ended up getting a grilled pork dish. karen got a giant stone bowl concoction that had chicken, rice, veggies, and a myriad of other goodies in it. i gotta say, we loved it! everything was just so amazingly flavorful! im a lot more adventurous in my eating these days and will try most everything [which is a good thing! because a couple of years ago i wouldnt have touched anything on that table except the rice, lol!] and it really pays off. there are just so many wonderful foods out there that i havent gotten to experience yet and slowly i hope to get around to most of them, lol! the only thing i didnt love that night was this steamed korean cabbage thing that i dont know how to spell but its something like kim-chi i think.

well when it was all over we had a great time mingling with new people and eating delicious food. we had some really interesting conversation and met some really nice people, ond obviously there was the food! overall an a+ for the night. =] 

thursday[11.13.08]

yeah nothing special really happened wednesday so im skipping to the juicy bits. 

thursday, a roofer finally called me back!! yesss! so he went out to the house and had a look at everything. he said he needed to replace all the box gutters [nothing new to us there] redo some flashing and facia, and we discussed ripping all the slate off and replacing it with shingles. he was of the same opinion that the slate would end up costing us a lot more money if we left it there, ultimately damaging the new gutters again at some point - not mention a maintenance nightmare. for the whole job, we discussed our options, and his initial estimate was waaay lower than that first guy [25k!] we talked to over the summer. so i was definitely satisfied with his thoughts on the whole thing and looked forward to getting his quote in writing to see where we would go from there. 

also on thursday morning we had an interesting little experience at the house. our neighbor from across the street [the ones weve gotten to be pretty friendly with, theyre great!] called me up in the morning to ask if i was having anyone out at the house today. well, no, not exactly... why? turns out theres a few hours shes home most days and she happened to notice this guy kind of lurking around our front porch. a bit odd to say the least. he didnt seem to be doing much really, just hanging out on the porch and then eventually talking to a guy who lives a few houses down for a little bit. anyway she called me to let me know he was there and that shed let me know if she saw him getting into any trouble while she was home. well not long after she called the first time he apparently moved on about his business and found some other place down the street to lurk i guess - but he didnt do much of anything other than trespass. either way, it got karen and i thinking about our security issue again - given that we sometimes keep tools out at the house that we know we're going to use everytime we're there, and we certainly dont want anyone breaking in and stealing tools - or appliances that we've recently acquired!

well when we bought the house it had a security system pre-installed that came with it. the thing looked in fairly good shape to me [but what do i know about secuirty systems, lol], and it was clearly labeled with the security company who had originally installed it, so karen and i had already discussed a few times if we wanted to try and get it up and running again. the guy at work whos been helping me find contractors had mentioned a few times that he recommends having an active security system in the house when rehabing [as he does] to prevent theft, and to definitely have it clearly marked that you do. so anyway, i did a little research on the top security people in the area [the system's company being one of which] and found that the company that had installed this thing originally actually had the best deal in town and the most options. so i ended up calling them up that day and was able to set up an appointment for the very next day to inspect the system we had and see where to go from there. cool! so now friday has a plumber getting started and a security system guy coming out, its starting to look busy!

friday[11.14.08]

friday was an active day indeed!

at 8am we were supposed to meet the plumber to let him and get started replacing all the plumbing in the basement and basically getting the house functioning. well karen and i were there and waiting at 7:55 but by 8:15 he hadnt shown up yet and karen was getting anxious about being late to work, so i drove her to work and the plumber would just have to wait if he got there soon. well as soon as i dropped her off the phone buzzed and it was the plumber wondering where i was. haha, of course. so i told him to sit-tight id be there asap, and headed that way. i got there around 8:45 and let them [he and his associate] in and we discussed what all he was planning to do that day and the money exchange, etc. a little after 9 i was getting back in the car and heading back to work. 

on the way to work i decided to drop my paycheck off at the bank [always a good idea, lol!] and no sooner had i pulled up to the drive-thru than my phone was buzzing again. well, the security guy had called at 8am to say that they werent going to be there at the original time[10am - 12pm], the reason for which being that the guy that was supposed to do it had to go to the emergency room the night before[although they didnt say why], and that theyd try to reschedule for later that day or monday. at first it was a touch of a bummer, but no big deal - monday is still better than later alternatives[this whole house thing has definitely taught me some patience when it comes to contractors & etc, lol!]. so when my phone buzzes, oh yes, its the security people. theyd had a cancellation and they were en route - be there in 15 minutes... okey-dokey... so i did my bank thing, turned around and headed back to the house, lol! i got there the same time he did so we got out, shook hands and went inside. 

the plumbers were a little confused to see me back so soon, but just did their thing and ignored me while the security guy and i did a little sweep of the house and he looked at all the contact points, sensors, the keypad, etc. well when we finished he let me know that the system installed was in pretty great shape from what he could tell and the only thing he recommended doing was adding two smoke alarms that were wired into their system [that way if we werent home when they went off, theyd call the fire dept. for us and then call us - sounds good to me.] and i wanted an extra key-pad installed in the master bedroom. well the end result of that meeting was amazing! basically by having the system pre-installed we got to wave all the installation and equipment costs and saved ourselves over $800! awesome! the only catch was that we needed a phone line through their company to use with the system, but thats really no big deal considering. so i left there and was finally to work by 10am and had accomplished quite a bit that day already!

however, not long after id been at work, the phone started buzzing again, lol! who could it be this time? well i answer and its none other than another roofer! score! id contacted this guys last week but to no avail. turns out he was on vacation last week, but now he was back and ready to work. now this guy is a contractor that pretty much my entire office recommended to me in chorus. hes done a lot of work for at least half the office. roofs, floors, additions, you name it. so he calls me up, and hes a real nice guy, southern accent to boot. [well obviously i feel comfortable talking to that, lol!]

so anyway, hes on the phone with me and heads over to the house. he looks around, asks me some questions here and there, we discuss things, and he throws out a few general numbers but then stops himself short and asks if we could just do a walk around later that evening and he can really show me what he wants to do and explain the cost. not only that, but hes really willing to work with us on the cost of things. he says he does this to help people more than to make money, so hes willing to try and get in our budget the best he can. so i told him sure, we could meet him after work to talk it over and go from there. 

-cut to 5pm-

so after work i picked up karen and we met this contractor/roofer out at the house. he walked around with us pointing out things here and there, explaining how he was going to repair different parts and how he was going to try to salvage everything existing that he could to keep the cost down and not replace things he could repair, etc. well a half hour - 45 minutes later wed discussed at length the situation with him, and karen and i were both getting a good vibe. then he gave us his initial estimate....

now we were engulfed in good vibe! haha! he was well under the other roofer i talked to that week and was ready to start in 4 days! amazing! so we shook hands and he promised to get a contract together with the scope of work and email it to me as soon as he could and we'd go from there. awesome! well i gotta say, we were feeling really good when we left him. it was going to cost a lot less than the initial 25k we were quoted to fix the roof, and we really liked this contractor in general. hes just one of those friendl,y cut and dry kind of guys. no bs, tells you how it is, a firm handshake, and a big smile. so needless to say we're happy with those circumstances. =]

additionally, the plumber called me a little before 5 to let me know the progress of the days work. hed gotten a lot of the fixtures hooked up, some things needed to be replaced and repaired, but we had working water in some parts of the house, and working toilets even! amazing! he even got the hot water heater installed and working! so we were definitely in business for our plans to clean over the weekend, lol! karen was happy about that one anyway ;]

friday.night

so when we left the contractor my phone was buzzing again. this time it was a friend of mine from work at bhdp - amanda. she had been wanting to hang out for a while now, and had invited us to go to a wine tasting thing at one of the local whole-foods in cincy and was checking to make sure we were going to make it. we told her we were on our way and that we'd see her soon. amanda is a sweetheart and she loves karen [i completely understand!] and weve had fun when weve hung out with her before. so eventually [after a LOT of friday night traffic - ugh!] we arrived and amanda was there to meet us with a huge smile and a hug. i love nice people! well i wont be long and drawn out on this little story, but we had a lot of fun. we tried a few wines at these little stations and some tiny portions of food "pairings" and just had a nice time in general. we met a bunch of amanda's friends and had some nice conversations, and eventually we all shared some whole-foods pizza [delicious!] and capped the night off with a movie and a little more wine over at amanda's. it was a fantastic evening! and pretty relaxing considering all the events of the day/week/our lives in general as of late, lol! thanks amanda!!

well gang, ive gotten you updated up to the weekend and this is where im going to stop. theres sooo much more to tell, but my lunch break is over now - so its back to work for me! hope youve enjoyed this installment, hang on tight and the next one will come your way soon!

post.script: yeah, im going to stop saying quick update, lol, they never are! ;]

photo.enlargement

so its recently been brought to my attention that i never explained to all of you in blogland how my pictures work.

i only put a small, thumbnail-like, version of the pictures in the actual blog text, but if you click on this picture itself they should open in a new window at full size so that you can see all of the detail. sorry i forgot to mention this, im sure you all thought i was crazy putting these tiny pictures up and expecting you to see what was going on in them, lol!  

hope this gives you all a littl more clarity, happy viewing!

post.script: something is going nuts with my blogger today and the text wrap doesnt appear to be working properly, so if this post appears very oddly formatted, i do appologize.

reconstruction[the.conclusion]

picking up where we last left off...

sunday.

sunday was another fun & exciting day of work, although there wasnt quite as much destruction... for the most part anyway, lol!

we got started fairly early again, meeting the masons out at the house around 8:30-9ish to get them access to whatever they needed and get ourselves started on the day. yes, we missed church on sunday [blasphemous i know, but i doubt god will sweat it much, hes got bigger things to worry about im sure]. so first things, finish up the hanging fixtures for petes sake!

well one of them we decided not to modify, the aqua colored one, we just loved it the way it was so we didnt mess with it. we've got plans to design the room somewhat inspired by the fixture, so while karen was putting finishing touches on the fixtures we were messing with, i got started on installing this thing. 

now to preface this, i had never in my life until this point wired up a hanging lamp [or much of anything else for that matter]. but thanks to some awesome d.i.y. books my amazing mother-in-law sent us, i was confident in my ability to decipher brightly colored step by step graphics [lol, isnt that what i do all day at work anyway?]. so i got out the new ladder [yes it is alu-min-ium-as they say 'down under' - and that did worry me a little], my pliers, screwdrivers, etc. and got started. 

well needless to say, anything new with no real prior knowledge has a learning curve [much like the installation of new door hardware], and this was certainly no exception. after a long series of trial and errors [mostly concerning the damned length of the chain vs. the length of the wires, grrr...], a multitude of redos, and a dash of making the friggin thing fit; not only had i installed the aqua fixture, but i had also wired into it one of the other lamps [that we decided wasnt worth the hassle to disassemble in order to modify] in the same box and they were both functional! score! i hadnt even electrocuted myself! =] and karen was a great helper, i assure you. she was a champ at holding the fixture over her head on the little step latter for endless lengths of time while i cursed at the stupid chain links, wires, caps, plaster, and other uncooperative elements - this lamp had a freaking attitude that would rival some family members of mine, lol! ;]

not to mention during some times when i didnt need her help [while i was on the ground splicing wires or experimenting with some part] she had snuck off upstairs and finished disassembling the last studs in the attic that we'd left the night before - double score!

so in the end, the first lamp[s] took a few hours to get up, but i/we was/were successful and i took a step back admiring with pride this thing that i had accomplished. until i felt a tap on my shoulder. hm? i turned to face my wife whos standing there looking at me like im an idiot and holding the fixture that goes in the entryway, lol! we werent finished, this was no time for taking a break, and she wasnt about to let me forget it, lol! ah, wives... so i clambered up the ladder to inspect my next victim. well the entryway fixture was a slightly different situation. there was no nice little electric box pre-installed with all the trimmings and ready to go. this was two wires hanging out of the ceiling, daring me to mess with them. ah, i see. well that was fine by me, no biggie. a half an hour later with the help of my trusty drill [god, i love that drill!] i had this thing wired up, installed, and ready to test. flip that switch baby! *insert awkward silence and darkness* hmm... well what the hell? i know i wired the damn thing right... 

so i climbed back up, switched the wires, try it again sweetie. nothing. shit. alright what am i doing wrong? i switched the wires back to the way i knew they were right and ventured down to the basement. had i tripped the entryway at some point? well when i got down there all the fuses were in order and nothing was out of place, so i thought id just reset a bunch of them and see if that worked the kink out of the system. so i start flipping the switches back and forth and then i hear karen hollering through the floor above me "its on!" sweet! "but..." shit. "but the lights in the parlor[as we've decided we're going to call it from now on] turned off when this one came on." huh? how is this even possible? i have the fuse switched into the off position and the light in the entry is on, while the lights in the parlor are off like theyre supposed to be. wtf...? so i flipped it back to on, they switched back obviously, and i went back up stairs scratching my head...

well, luckily, two of my cousins are electricians by trade, and this is obviously an electrical problem, so i made a few phone calls and called up cousin wade. after his initial shock of finding out id not only bought a house, but did so in cincinnati, with my wife? wife? lol! where has he been lately? haha. anyway after that he talked me through a few things and we discovered that some idiot had wired a 3-way switch wrong and while its not a real fix, we did figure out how to manipulate the switches in a way that we can turn the entry light on and off at the switch we want to control it. good enough, thanks cousin wade! 

well after i got off the phone with wade, i was perturbed with a light switch that im guessing the same idiot had installed up-side-down, and decided to fix it right quick. heh, up until this point i hadnt shocked myself at all when i was actually handling the wires, but of course on the simple task of removing the face plate and flipping the switch right-side-up, i managed to get myself not only once, but twice, lol! yes, thank you, i appreciate the applause. moving on... 

so after i "fixed" the light switch, we moved onto the dining room fixture. this was another one that karen had finished modifying that morning,and possibly my favorite fixture of them all, i might add. im afraid the pictures of these guys dont do the mod justice, but you'll see eventually when we get some better ones. so anyway, back up the ladder, score, this one was in great shape. an even better box to work with than the first one, and the lamp had tons of chord to work with. this one went up like a breeze, 10-15 minutes tops. the only part that took any time was figuring out the two switches in the dining room to get the thing to turn on and off, lol! its a little redundant to have 2 switches that operate the same light on opposite sides of a 12ft space, but nothing surprises me in this house anymore, lol!

at this point we decided to take a quick run to grab some food and run to the hardware store to get a few s-hooks and a plant hook for the second light in the parlor so we could properly hang all these things where we wanted them. a quick check on the masons [moving on fantastically! we had half a rebuilt wall!] and off we went. lunch was the local taco bell, because neither of us had had it in a while, or felt like cooking, and it was 3 doors down from the local hardware store. lunch was delicious, as usual, and the hardware store was fast, and we were home before we knew it, with everything installed and adjusted to our liking. and now the moment youve all been waiting for!

luckily you can see them all if you get at the right angle, heh. 

well, at this point we decided we better move on to other things on our to do list for the day. we hit the grocery store to re-stock the kitchen cabinets for the week, and by the time we had dropped those off at home it was slowly starting to get dark. we went back to the house to see how things were coming along and then milled-about the house trying to decide what else we wanted to tackle in the near future while we waited for the masons to finish up. not too long after we'd assessed the future rehabbing situation, they were finished and we went about paying them and closing up the house for the day. the wall looked great! see for yourself!

happy with the days work and ready to get on with the rest of the day before it was pitch black out, we left them to finish cleaning-up and went on our way to continue the night. 

we ended up doing laundry [no, not yet with our own washer and dryer, we still need working plumbing for that to happen... soon though, this weekend even!] and went home to quickly put away our clothes, get dressed and primped, and have a very, very, short dinner. ...why you ask??

because we went to a concert! lol! i know, on a work-night too! oh, that crazy wife of mine... so sunday night we went to see girl-talk[definitely not parent, grandparent, or closed minded people appropriate - but killer music if youre into this sorta thing]. one of karens absolute favorite bands! ...well... its really more like a guy, a few turn-tables, and a laptop. its kind of an electronica/dj situation. but we had a total blast! karen got her dance fix for a while and we sweated buckets in the dead center of the throbbing crowd as we danced for hours and had a great time. it was a ton of fun, a great concert, and im pretty sure i saved the life of a crowd-surfing girl who i caught from hitting the ground and tossed back up onto the wave of arms, lol! it was so much fun! however, by the time we left we were soaked to the bone with sweat and it was like 34 outside, lol! needless to say we froze all the way home before a quick shower and then jumping in bed. i think i finally drifted off to sleep a little after midnight, but it was totally worth it. if for no other reason that to see the joy beaming off my wifes face. she had the time of her life and im glad i got to be there to share it with her.  =]

well. i think... yeah, thats it. l0l! youre caught up now. yesterday was a total snore of a normal work day, today is proving to be much the same. the only real beacons of excitement in our week are a friend of karen's birthday dinner tonight and the plumber coming on friday to fix our plumbing!! so stay tuned for more updates, go vote in the lightning round if you still havent yet, and ill touch base with you soon!

concluded!