post.project.progress.past

sorry to those of you that were expecting this last week[or even early in this week...], work has been keeping me pretty busy lately and now once or twice a week im meeting with some co-workers during lunch to study for the leed certification exam. so yeah... lunch is getting tighter and tighter it seems. then there was the winter storm and the windows and such and well... time gets away from me... at times... anyway, lets get to the good stuff.

so not this last weekend but the weekend before, my mother-in-law came into town to visit us and help with whatever she could at the house. well... the week before she came we had to start getting ready for her arrival and figure out what projects we wanted to tackle while she was here. the most obvious projects involved painting but we werent sure which rooms, and we still needed to finish the ones we'd already started. not to mention we were still appalled with the paint in the entry way and there was no way we were letting anyone else see it like that... 

thursday|1.15.09

so thursday night, we put on our painting gear after work and got to it. we started by working on the second coat of the kitchen so that we could get it at least halfway done and push all the appliances back out to the walls where they belonged and out of the middle of the kitchen. [which alleviated a lot of tripping over each other in the kitchen, lol] that coat got started pretty quickly after we got everything prepped and as karen worked on the kitchen, i got down to business. it was time to fix that damned entry. 

so i got started taping and prepping and before i knew it karen was done with the kitchen and not really in the mood to do the entry, so i told her to take a break and id finish prepping and get started on it, she could join me when [if?] she felt like it. well i was able to get about 75% of the new paint on the walls when karen joined in [my memory eludes me at this point as to what she was doing in the other rooms of the house, but im sure it was something productive that wasnt painting] and she picked up the last bit of entry painting. we were really happy with the way the new paint was going on and it was already looking a million times better, even wet! we decided that was it for the night as far as painting goes, but we still had much to do in preparation - besides that coat needed to dry for the remainder of the night anyway. so we spent the remainder of the evening searching for our extra set of bed linens, unpacking the rest of the stuff in the attic and general cleaning organizing and such. i think we even got around to moving the mattresses upstairs and putting the bedding we finally found on the bed that night as well. needless to say we got a LOT accomplished - we didnt want to do much more than a second coat of paint in the entry if we had to the next day - she was coming in friday evening after all.

friday|1.16.09

so friday morning we woke up to a very pleasant surprise - the entry looks fantastic!! it was about freaking time! just one coat of the new paint was like magic so we said to heck with another coat we were done and cleaned all the plastic and tape up before work - the transformation was really just unreal to us. so anyway, the day went by fairly quickly as i remember and by the time we were home anne's flight had either arrived on time or a little late, but either way she was just getting on the road and wasnt due at the house for another half hour or more. so we busied ourselves tidying up a few last minute things cleaning up all the tape and plastic in the kitchen and putting the furniture in a much more pleasing arrangement, having a beer, chillin. soon enough she arrived and we began her arrival with hugs and... presents! presents? you got it! karens parents had just returned from a little holiday in new zealand and karen and i both got gifts! well turned out to be socks! awesome! haha, mine were possum fur - i kid you not - apparently its quite warm stuff down under. haha! after the presents we gave anne the grand tour of the place and she was a bit overwhelmed with it all. apparently the pictures we post here just dont do it any justice, the house is so much bigger and looks much better in person! [well thats great news!] after the tour we were just about time for dinner so we headed in the direction of the restaurant for the evening. karen and i have been wanting to try this place for some time but never got around to it, so we decided this was the perfect opportunity. we took anne to a local place in our northside neighborhood that always gets raving reviews - honey. 

well dinner was pretty good in my opinion. i cant remember now exactly what each person got, i remember i had the fish & chips and we shared some "honey fries" and that everything i ate was quite good. the atmosphere was fairly laid back, but refined and sheik. if i had any complaints about the place, its that we somehow got the table directly in front of the door, so we were greeted with many an icey-blast throughout the night as people came and went. overall id say it was a good experience though, and we'd have no problem going back again. 

after dinner we went back to the house for a little night-cap and to go through all of the pictures from the trip - wow were they gorgeous. i want to go to new zealand really bad... its just beautiful! other than that whatever else we did escapes me at the moment, but i remember it being a nice night, and a good preface to saturday.

saturday|1.17.09

well saturday morning we were up and going by about 9am, karen and i started off by getting coffee and breakfast together while anne went about getting ready. we had fresh fruit with our coffee and i made pigs-in-blankets for the main course. they were quite scrumptious, i must say. [although, not the most challenging thing to prepare, haha, i guess i shouldnt pat my back too hard] after breakfast and conversation then a quick rundown of the days objectives, we got gussied up to brave the bitter cold and walked a few blocks to the local hardware store. karen and i had made a vow the weekend before that we werent going to go to lowes or the depot until february came [we'd been spending 200+ a weekend for a few weeks now on project stuff and we wanted to stop ourselves - not to mention force ourselves to finish all the projects we already bought supplies for!] but luckily we only needed a few items. well by the time we got there we discovered that they didnt open till noon [it was around 10:30] - bummer. so we walked back and discussed what we'd do in the mean time before we could get the few things we needed to get started on the bigger projects for the day. well in the mean time we decided to finally install the toilet in the upstairs bathroom. woohoo!

well it proved to be a little bit of a task between removing the old toilet, cleaning up the aftermath of the removal and getting it prepped, then following all the directions and installing the new toilet... but we got it done! somewhere a little after noon we'd successfully installed the new toilet and we were mighty pleased with ourselves. the only thing we needed was a new water line hook up [the old one was too short for the new toilet] and we'd be ready to test it out. well the next thing on our list was to go back to the hardware store, and karen needed to go return some library books, so we let her go run that errand while anne and i walked back to the hardware store to get our few items. we were able to find everything we needed after a little help from the guys that run the store and we got home at the exact same time karen did, great timing! so the next thing on the list was actually a few projects. 

anne wanted to start prepping the rest of the kitchen to paint, and while she did so karen and i got to work in the project room sanding and painting some trim for one of the doors and our coffee table for the parlor. while we were at it anne asked if we'd cut a piece of scrap wood to act as a brace for the kitchen counter top that was caving in behind the sink, so we got that done as well - and it looks much better now! after we finished our first coat of paint, anne was making progress in the kitchen and i started plastering the walls while she finished up cleaning and taping. at this point we needed to let the plaster dry for a while so we decided it was time to work on the base boards for the entryway and really make that room start to come together. 

well it was definitely a pain in the ass but eventually we started making a little progress with the trim although it was a major fight. at some point i was nailing in a board and it bounced, knocked another board over that was leaning against the wall and hit me square in the face. at that point i was done fighting with the stupid baseboard and returned to the kitchen to finish the last fo the taping while the girls kept trying to work on the baseboard. before long they managed to get the rest nailed in and started going around with caulk to seal em up and make em look prettier. well it wasnt long before i had a nice black eye thanks to that stupid board, grr.... at some point wetook a break for lunch, although i cant remember when now, and again at some point we decided to get thai food for dinner. well, while i went to pick that up the girls finally got around to getting a first coat on the remaining kitchen walls and before long the kitchen was drying and our stomachs were happy... mmm thai food... well after dinner i worked some more on the kitchen while the girls started to hang some of karens art work in the entryway and other than that the nights a bit of a blur. i dont think we got much more than that done but the place was really looking amazing - not to mention we got a ton of work done with annes help, thanks mom!!

sunday|1.18.09

well sunday morning anne left to go see her family in indiana and i vaguely remember that karen and i put a second coat of paint on the kitchen and also installed a molding type thing to the entryway light. it was kind of a pain in the ass and we had to mess with it a lot to get it in there [jury-rigged for the time being at that] but we were pretty happy with the way it looked. other than that, time has gotten away from me and i cant remember what else, if anything else we got accomplished, but the weekend was definitely a successful one. the entry was looks great now and the kitchen does too, just awesome! so now i guess you all want to see pictures again, eh? well dont you worry, ive got you covered [although i seem to have misplaced them for the moment, i will get them up tonight as soon as i get home, i promise!]. and as seems to be the trend lately, ill put a few highlights here, and then you guys can check out the full set at the photo site. 

thanks for sticking with me through this one, i know it got a bit long - but hey, its for your benefit and entertainment anyway! stop complaining, lol!

[1.31.09|additions...]

so here they are, as promised. sorry it took so long to get them up, but as it turns out i had to do quite a lot of searching to find the pictures i took a few weeks ago of all the progress we made that weekend, and then once i did find them, i wasnt happy with the turn-out [they were a bit blurry and grainy to say the least]. so... i had to retake them. however, i assure you the only change since then is the new windows - which you can hardly tell in these pictures. 

and now, as promised...

as i mentioned before the rest of this series showing the updates of the kitchen can be found at the my.pix link. 

and while im here i may as well answer a few questions... yes, that is a hole in the wall. yes, we put it there. yes, it was intentional. its a kind of "art installation" of mine and karen's. originally we were going to put a door in the door frame and the idea was that youd open the door to a brick wall. karen really loves the idea of this, we [karen, anne, & i] decided ultimately that it was much nicer with out the crappy door however, so for the time being this is the finished product [minus some possible additional door molding]

secondly, the 6 white squarish shaped things on the wall there are some of karen's art. i wont go into too much detail on the specifics of the artwork - its certainly not my place, but i have always enjoyed this series. additionally, the bench is a re-purposed piece of trash that karen and i discovered in over the rhine and karen just had to have and has since painted. we thought it worked well in the room. its a great place to put your shoes on! =]

okay i think thats all i'll cover for now, hope you enjoy the rest of the pictures! have a great weekend!!

win-ders!

[oh yeah, love that texan twang!]

so obviously the big topic of yesterday was the new windows. so heres a "small" update on yesterday...

when i last left you the guys were working on the windows and id gotten my truck stuck after dropping karen off at work and id discovered my own little ice-wonderland.

well after i finished blogging the guys were all but finished with the upstairs and had moved downstairs. so i went up to take some pictures, but much to my dismay, all of the pictures were turning out like crap. it was so bright outside, especially with the sun reflecting off all the snow, that everything was crazy back-lit and silhouetted. and the flash only seemed to make matters worse. so i resigned myself to waiting till dark out to get the rest of the pictures.

not long after id gotten back downstairs there was a knock at the door [which was hard to hear on account of the hammering and drilling] and one of the installers hollered at me that there was a guy at the door. confused, i went to answer and a nice gentleman greeted me and asked if i needed a plumbing inspection. hot damn! id totally forgotten to call them that morning in all the excitement of the windows, luckily id attempted to schedule in advance and here he was! im not sure if ive mentioned this part before, so ill take a quick side-step to fill you in.

[inspections]

well as karen and i decided to get the windows put in we also decided it was time to go about getting home owners insurance if at all possible. so last week id made a phone call to our insurance agent and discussed the matter with him, and he seemed happy to work with us, but there was no way of getting around that thorn thats been in our side from day one... you guessed it, the certificate of occupancy. we'd been trying to get all the work done necessary to get the c.o.o. [lol!] but at this point we'd really been putting off contacting the city building inspections office because well... we hadnt exactly done everything legit and we were afraid it was going to bite us in the ass. now before you think poorly of me, we didnt really know either way how it was going to go, so it wasnt like we were attempting to be shady. let me explain... the wall for starters, well when we hired the masons out to do the wall we discussed getting a permit and they told us that the only reason we'd need a permit is in case the inspector was out while they were working and wanted to see it. since we were getting it done as a weekend job and it wasnt going to take more than that weekend [and the inspectors dont normally just drive around on the weekends looking for people out doing masonry work] we shouldnt have anything to worry about. now i specifically asked him if there was going to be an issue with the c.o.o. and he said as far as he knew there wouldnt be, as long as the work was done correctly they shouldnt care one way or the other about a permit. second was the plumber. when we hired the plumber we discussed permits yet again. after our discussion he formed me that most likely we would need 1 to 2 permits depending on the situation, but he was going to see if he could get around them by doing things a little differently but he'd let me know. i told him that it was fine with me, but that if he needed to pull one, go for it, i didnt mind paying for it... and thats the last i heard about it. so getting back to last week [and now that we're clear that i did ask my contractors up front about permits] after talking to the insurance agent i had no choice but to call my guy at the city building office. dont get me wrong hes a really nice guy [as many of you will remember from when i previously spoke about him in regards to us having the house barricaded oh so many eons ago...] and totally willing to work with me, i was just dreading the conversation because i didnt know how it was going to go. 

well sure enough i get him on the phone and the first thing he does is pull up our file on the computer and i hear "well, weve got a problem. im not showing any permits here." ef. so i discussed with him the situation and after talking through everything and being the nice guy he is, he said he had no problem working with me to get the permits and get the certificate of occupancy afterward. so he gave me the number of the inspectors office and told me to call my contractors and to call him back when i got my ducks in a row. all ill say is that im damn lucky, apparently there were some pretty nice fines i could have incurred, but he said this sort of thing happens all the time and as long as he can see that im trying to work with him, he'll let all that stuff slide and we'll get it done. [did i mention NICE guy?!] 

well after that conversation i called my contractors up and discussed the options with them. the mason was clueless... he didnt really know anything about permits and said he'd try to help me out if there was no other option, but he didnt know how much help hed be... great. the plumber was more helpful, he said that from our conversation he felt like i didnt want him to pull a permit, and apparently there was some miscommunication. but it was no big deal to him, hed get a permit pulled and call an inspector and let me know. well that was good news [and a segue to the inspector showing up] so i still had an issue with the masonry permit and wasnt sure what to do there and went ahead and called the inspectors office to ask them. well again i talked to a really nice guy, he gave me all the info i needed and it turns out i can pull the permit for the masonry work myself, so theres no problem at all. all i have to do is go down to their office and fill out the paperwork and we're good to go on that one, theyll schedule an inspection of the work, and unless they have a problem with what they see, we should be in business for getting the c.o.o.

so fast forward to this week, monday. we get home after work and i find a notice that the plumbing inspector had been by and that i need to call his office. well crap, the plumber never told me he scheduled a time for him to come out, so obviously he couldnt get in to see anything. well i called him up and discussed the issue and thats when we attempted to schedule for thursday morning. [i say attempted because he said he couldnt guarantee any appointments and this was obviously before the winter storm disaster blew through town...]

[fast forward to the present]

so when i saw him at the house i was elated! i welcomed him in and he got right to it. we went down into the basement, i showed him the hot water heater [the permit in question was for a new hot water heater - in you get a new one, you need a permit. so just keep that in mind if youre thinking about getting one. also, if you do any work related tot he main waterline - you need a permit. somehow my plumber got around that one i guess...] he went through his check list quickly and 5 minutes later he wrote out a form, put a sticker on my hot water heater and told me to have a nice day. that was it. we got our permit. pretty damn painless, lol! so now i just have to get around to pulling that permit for the masonry and schedule that inspector and we'll really be in good shape, eh? 

anyway, after the inspector left it was nearing 11:30 and the window guys were making some progress so i decided i better see about getting my truck un-stuck so i could get to work later. i went out and did some rocking for a while, forward, reverse, repeat. it moved a little here and there, then eventually i finally got a little traction and moved laterally about 10 ft, at which point i was stuck again and getting ever closer to that snow pile with the chewy toyota center [yummy... heh]. well at this point i was now half in middle of the road, half on the side of the road turned nearly perpendicular to the curb and not moving. i started the process over again, when my favorite neighbors come out to investigate, haha. theyd heard me working at it [ive got a v8 engine, lol, its not quite when it revs... although just the 2wd obviously, heh] and decided to see if they could help. and not long after they showed up, the window guys had stopped working and come to lend a hand as well. so tracy jumped in the front seat [the smallest and lightest of us all] and the rest of us got in back and started pushing and she tried to go forward. at first we made no progress, so we told her to try and reverse a little so she could get some momentum. and it worked! she backed up a little, then we all pushed as she got about 6 inches of momentum, and thats all it took! she finally was able to get it over the snowbank and onto the street! so that was a small victory. =] we got sahara out and parked in a much better location and then i went back in to watch the window guys install the remaining windows and help resolve any problems that may arise.

im happy to report, that there werent really any problems. haha. the only one we did face was when they first got there and they told me that theyd been sent with one window that was the wrong size. for whatever reason the fabricating guys gave them two of one window and didnt give them one that we needed, so they ended up with a duplicate of sorts. not sure what happened there, but it was no biggie. he said he got the right dimensions, hed put in the order for the right size and then in 2-3 weeks theyd be back out to install it, piece of cake! 

so at about 1pm they were on their way and i was on my way into work for the remainder of the day. i ended up staying a little later than id expected to [about 6pm] and poor karen was stranded till i could pick her up, but once we got home she seemed very happy with our new windows! the difference in the living room is just crazy with having 2 windows now that arent covered in plywood, lol! anyway, the rest of the evening was pretty laid back, we had chinese take-out and watched rocknrolla [i really liked it, very much in the tradition of snatch or lock, stock, although a bit slower... could have used a little more momentum throughout. i was a little shocked at how small jeremy piven and ludacris' roles were in the overall scheme of things, but maybe thats just me...] before turning in early. it had been a pretty exhausting day for me.

oh and one last thing, my dad called from saudi arabia this morning to tell us that he and my mom are making a trip up in a couple of weeks for a visit, so that shoud be a lot of fun. maybe we can get some of that electrical problem figured out, lol!

well, i know all you really wanted was pictures of the windows, so heres one for the site, and the rest can be found at my.pix.

cheers!

monster-cles!

good morning adoring fans. [i could probably use a little adorning as well, but eh...]

as i am writing to you new windows are being installed!! yesssssss! the ringing of hammers and the whirring buzzes of drills are creating a symphony of glorious glorious music to my ears! its been a long time coming, and its finally here!!

this morning as karen and i debated the treacherous ice-laden roads from here to her office, the wonderful phone call came in - "confirming our installation of your windows in about an hour?" | "yes, please!" as i vaguely recall mentioning in some blog-past we had finally taken the step to order our windows a few weeks ago. they were supposed to call me back to schedule an installation time and karen and i were getting antsy as first one week, then two weeks, then two and a half weeks went by without a phone call [or the half down payment being debited from our account] until last week on i believe it was wednesday afternoon, during my lunch break while i was studying for the leed test with a co-worker, my cell phone rang with a most spectacular call - "hi, this is window world, im calling to schedule your window installation, how does next thursday sound?" | "fantastic!" well this morning next thursday officially became today and i awoke with excitement and anticipation. 

around 8:30am karen decided she did want to risk the roads and go into work after calling her office and confirming that there were in fact a large number of robots rolling into the office as usual. grr.... damn robots... anyway so we embarked on our journey downtown and to our surprise the roads were actually in fairly decent shape. traffic was still a little heavy but the roads were mostly clear on the way down. it took nearly half an hour to get to her office, but it took about 10 minutes to get back and greet the window installers with a huge smile and handshake. we'd left a key for them to get started as soon as theyd arrived and theyd done just that. as i pulled in behind a snow pile [with a chewy toyota center] and thoroughly succeeded in getting my truck very stuck [now?? after all we made it through the last two days? now it gets stuck?!] i was elated to find our installers had already unloaded the windows onto the porch and one guy was already removing a window from the second story front room. yee-haw! i cant imagine why, but i am in GREAT spirits this morning! 

well anyway, to fill you in on the details i have so far, the windows look amazing. i momentarily had a conversation with the fantastic neighbor across the street whom ive mentioned on occasion in the past and had the chance to see two fully installed windows smiling back at me. damn they look good! tracy was pleased as well, lol, our poor neighbors have had to suffer through the wreck of a house weve had so far just as much as we have, lol!

well at this point i was truly pleased with the progress and went inside to inspect the now mostly finished "closet" on the second floor. so i went in and there they were, gleaming in the sunlight as i played with one to see how smoothly it opened and closed... and thats when it happened. oh yes, thats when i noticed something else gleaming at me. the most awesome monstrosity of an icicle that i could ever have imagined!! awestruck, my shoulders slumped as i stared in wonder at its majestic radiance... even more excited than before i bolted downstairs to get my camera and capture its amazing essence. well, in my attempt to capture the beast from a good angle i was looking through various windows in the room and thats when it happened again. oh my god!!! theres more!! as a scanned the edge of our newly-constructed-although-not-quite-finished-box-gutter i saw dozens of spectacular ice formations riddling the gutter line and the ladder jacks that were buried in snow. overjoyed i went down the hall to an empty opening where the installers had finished removing a window and were on their own quest to find its new replacement and leaned out to find an amazing plethora of sights. i snapped dozens of photos there and down the hall from another window before running downstairs and outside to the side of the house for a different angle. and then... it happened again! even MORE amazing formations! the side of our house is covered in the most fantastic ice!! haha, im sure you all arent nearly as excited as i am, but these things are just sensational. karen and i went out last night after staring at a particularly large icicle on the neighbors house [through our one decent dining room window] convinced wed find some good ones in the front yard. but seeing as it was dark out and there was nothing good on the fence or front porch, we gave up, distraught and disappointed. if only we'd gone out sooner and crept around to the wonderland of glory on the side of our house!! i wish i could create a frozen museum out there and preserve the ice-scape!! anyway, ill quit boring you all with my silly fascination and instead get to some pictures! im only going to post a few here for you, but if youd like to see the entire myriad of awesomeness, you can check the my.pix link.

and without further adieu...

flash.alert! winter.storm.warning!

reporting to you live from the snow & ice storm of the year in cincinnati, our lead correspondent [namely, me] comes to you with an update on weather conditions and other breaking news coverage. 

"thanks chris, well it truly is quite a storm out here, chris."

...alright, enough of that...

it all started monday night when temperatures dropped and the snow started falling. come tuesday morning we awoke to 4 inches of snow covering everything. being the dutiful husband that i am, i took up my snow shovel and got to work on the front porch, the steps, the path, and eventually the sidewalk - clearing about a 5ft path across my property and half the property of the vacant house next to us. next in line was the truck, so i turned it on with the defrost on high  and got to work un-burying the truck from the apparent avalanche that had overcome it during the night. well i had just finished scraping and clearing all the windows and taken a step back to check out the drivers side, only to find that the passenger side [where id started originally] was completely covered in snow again, it was still coming down obviously. ugh, i gave up and decided the heat in the truck could handle it - i was done.

anyway, we managed to make it to work, a lot slower than usual, but with no real problems. the roads were pretty bad, but we made it okay [i was actually the first one there!] and slowly some people started straggling in half hour, hour, two hours later. half my office called in, and the other half showed up late - some, really really late. karens office however, was a different story. im sure youll recall me describing her nazi-controlled craziness in previous posts, and yesterday was no exception. according to information we've received from fairly reliable sources, every person in her office was there, mostly on time, and working a full day as if nothing had happened at all... im not sure when the aliens landed there and reprogrammed all those people into robots, but at my office people were normal and acting normal - as they should with the streets that bad!

cincinnati is no where near prepared for heavy snow - just ask any cincinnatian[or at least all the ones ive asked]. they get one or two storms a year like this [or so im told] so theres really no incentive for them to invest in the very expensive tools required to handle this kind of a storm as if it were a regular thing [like they do in denver every year. i think last winter they were saying on the news they denver spent an estimated 11million dollars more on snow maintenance than they had budgeted - and trust me they budget A LOT! but i digress...]

this morning so far has been a slightly different story. first off, the weather had been reporting that we were going to get freezing rain and sleet and tons of icing as the evening and night came on tuesday - which we did. it started sleeting around 1 and karen and i ditched work at 3 before the roads got so nasty that we couldnt make it home. we were lucky and got home pretty quickly and smoothly before all the traffic got terrible and the roads got ridiculous. anyway, over night we were supposed to get up to another 4 inches of snow on top of the 6 we ended up getting by lunch on tuesday meaning that come wednesday[today] morning i was expecting some 10 inches outside and for work to be cancelled. so you can imagine i didnt even want to get up this morning, but i did so and the first thing i did was to check the window.

well there actually appeared to be the same amount of snow out as there had been when we got home last night, but id definitely been hearing ice pellets bouncing off the skylight all night|morning. so i assume we never actually got the snow, just a ton of freezing rain and ice. so we got up and did our usual morning routine only to find that when we got outside, the entire truck [and everything else for that matter] was covered in a thick layer of ice. and i do mean thick, we're talking 1/8" - 1/4" of ice on my truck. as you can imagine, scraping the truck this morning was an exhausting task and it took quite some time and effort. luckily it hadnt regathered by the time i finished and karen certainly had a great time sitting in the truck watching me... from the warm... gooey... center... gr.

anyway, so this morning we were supposed to have an electrician come out at about 9:30am to look at the house and give us an estimate so i was going to take karen to work and then come home and then after he did his electrician thing, i was going to go to work as well. well we finally got on the roads although they were definitely worse than tuesday[yesterday] morning - as we were approaching the on ramp to the highway we actually passed a salt truck that had broken through the road this morning and was half submerged in the road and its load was covering 2 lanes [which obviously had been closed at that point], it was a very crazy sight [id certainly never seen anything like it.... just how weak are these roads??] and i was worried we might come across some other roads that were going to cave in... not a good thing.

anyway, we took it slow and steady and eventually made it to karens office after passing several cars that were in ditches or off the road in some other fashion and a ton of slippery roads - luckily we hadnt slipped or slided much on the way. so i dropped karen off and then turned around to head home and about 3 minutes after i left her office the light ice we'd been having all morning stopped coming down and was replaced with snow. at first it was light, but it was quickly gathering on the roads, and soon it got more heavy and the roads got really slippery. needless to say it was a very slow drive home and i slid all over the road to get there. at one point everything steering related locked up on me and i went sailing off the road - luckily though, there were no cars around [the streets were nearly vacant] and i was able to just throw it in reverse, get back on the road and be on my way. but i did make it! [hooray!] and with no dents scratches or bruises [to me or the truck] to show for it. anyhow, its coming down really hard at this point - the snow is just relentless. they say we could have 4inches or more by noon on top of everything from yesterday but then it might stop. either way, the roads are going to be terrible at that point, so theres a very real possibility that i might just not go in to work today. 

right now its 9:40 and the electrician has neither called nor shown up at the house, but in this weather i sincerely doubt he will. at this rate it may very well be a day off for me and poor karen will be stuck at work and not be able to share it with me... 

but maybe itll get better, and maybe by 1-oclock ill be at my desk for at least a half days work. we'll see... for now though, im going to end this little winter storm update and return you to your regularly scheduled programming. perhaps later today ill get around to finishing the blog i started near the end of last week chronicling the weekend before's adventures [that would be the weekend of the 17th & 18th for anyone keeping score. we did nothing this weekend, haha! and it was FANTASTIC! i really needed a break...]

thanks for tuning in, we now return you to...

[and at the request of the brother, starting now all pictures from the blog will also be available via the link in the left *ahem* right [apparently im dislexic today...] sidebar for my.pix for your viewing pleasure.]

the.chronicles.of....[6.of.x]

christmas

moving

kitchen

new years

craigslist

electrical

roof > remodeling

im really going to try to make this the last installment and get caught up because we're really just oh so close anyway that this might as well be a normal update [instead of a catch-up, hence changing roof to remodeling if you didnt already notice.] 

electrical.

heh, well... this has proven to be a fun one. i think the last i mentioned electrical was when i was installing light fixtures, although i cant remember for sure. since then we've had more... lets say "fun" with the electrical in the house. 

[kitchen] 

it all started in the kitchen when we first moved into the house "permanently." as we were setting up the kitchen we tried plugging in the microwave to the outlet directly beneath the microwave cabinet only to discover that this particular outlet had no juice. well after a trip to the breaker box while karen stayed in the kitchen we discovered that resetting all the breakers did nothing to bring life back to this particular outlet. so plan b, extension cord to the nearest outlet that id have a little juice in it. im pretty sure you arent supposed to plug a microwave into an extension cord [although we did use a heavy duty orange outdoor cord that could handle a larger load, we're not dumb] and the microwave makes sure to let you know its unhappy by moaning and making the most pathetic sounds its capable of so that youre sure its going to give out on you at any moment. its kind of like when youre running out of gas and your car starts whimpering and having a pity party for itself. [damn electronics and their sulking!] so that was part one.

part two started on christmas day. mom-in-law had shipped us a really nice ceramic space heater as part of our christmas presents and it had arrived on christmas eve. well, while we were cooking and having a merry time on christmas day, we decided to plug that bad boy in and see if we could get the rooms we were in a little toastier as well. seeing as how karen was in the kitchen we thought that would be the optimum place for it [i was fine in the dining room near by] and plugged it in. well it kicked on with no problems and started warming up, but after about 5 minutes the circuit breaker tripped and the entire ground floor save the parlor lost power. [which alerted us to how poorly zoned in the breaker box our freaking house is... ugh! blow one and lose everything?!] well karen had just started up the microwave when it happened so she assumed that was the culprit [still pouting mind you] so i headed down to the breaker box and started throwing switched till everything came back and then up the stairs i went, back to my computer, and 5 minutes later... the exact same thing happened. damnit. back downstairs, start throwing switches, everything kicks on, back up stairs, 5 minutes later, you guessed it. this time i decided it had to be because of the heater and the microwave all on the same breaker, that little guy is pretty powerful. so i move the microwaves extension cord into the utility room around the corner this time, and we try again. and the same thing happens. at this point im getting frustrated so i move the heater into the dining room and we try it again, same thing. grrr... no more heater, sorry babe. additionally, ive decided to search the house until i find a shorter extension cord for the stupid microwave because its just getting weaker and weaker sounding [we had it on a 25 footer]. well eventually i found an 8 footer that we'd used at the first apartment for the fridge[dont ask] and the microwave seemed to like that one slightly better. [the longer the cord the more distance the power has to travel obviously]. 

[breaker box]

so the breaker box, as i mentioned is in the basement. i also mentioned that every time id go down id start throwing switches until everything came back to life. im sure you were all thinking that sounded pretty dumb of me, so let me explain. back at home in tx we had a breaker box and when youd trip one the breaker would flip to off and a little orange light would come on. this would alert you to the specific breaker that was tripped, enabling you to reset just that one and regain power. additionally, there is a handy little chart in the door of the box that lists the various zones and the corresponding breaker assignments. this is all pretty standard stuff in beaker boxes, hell in our systems 2 class back at a&m we even had to draw and plan one of these stupid things out, im fairly well associated with how they work. however...

in ciny, our break box trips and nothing changes within the box. none of the switches move to the on or off position, ever, they remain wherever you left them. the little orange lights, never come on, regardless of whether the breaker is tripped or not, they always remain off. and lastly, that handy little chart in the door of the box, is blank except for some chicken scratch on 3 of the lines that appears to say attic, kitchen and upper [all of which do not actually correspond to any of the named locations through our various trials, and keep in mind there are probably 20 something breakers in the box.] so really my only option is to start at the top and keep flipping until they all magically come back. i have figured out that number 14 is the furnace, and i believe is dedicated to it, but other than that, i havent taken the time to remember them. [mostly because im so aggravated and standing in the dark, that im not really in the mood to remember as i curse at the stupid thing.]

[attic]

which leads us to the most recent electrical problem we've encountered, the attic. for those of you that have been playing catch up or have fairly good memories, you might remember that since moving into the house karen and i have been residing in the attic space and primarily use the attic bathroom which has had the only working shower/tub [but not a working toilet - although in our defense we had bought a new toilet and even moved it all the way up into the attic and had it sitting just outside the bathroom door waiting for the fateful day it might be installed, but thats not this story...]. so given this information, i think its pretty safe to assume that the attic power outlets in and out of the bathroom + the bathroom lights are the primary electrical that we use on a daily basis. other than the kitchen theyre the top dogs. well i believe it was the day after new years and karen and i were getting ready for bed. she was brushing her teeth, i was taking out my contacts, i believe one of us had just gotten out of the shower[probably me, i bathe pretty frequently - although karen might have taken a bath, she likes to do that to unwind at the end of the evening sometimes as well] well out of the clear blue[black] the entire attic power shorts out. actually now that im remembering it all, karen was in the shower and i was brushing my teeth, but what we were doing was meaningless except to say neither of us were using the power other than the light in the bathroom. so grumpily... i trotted down to the basement[from the attic mind you] and reset every switch but the main power switch [ive never flipped that one, id really rather not - just seems like a bad idea...] and then back up to the attic. ef. nothing was on. i asked karen if theyd even flickered, and she said no. so while she finished her shower i went back down to the basement[lair] to see if i could figure anything else out. i started inspecting the box, trying to decipher any other words from the chart, and at some point i closed the door [dont ask me why, because i really dont know] and found that hiding behind it was yet another, much smaller breaker box with two switched. hm, maybe the attic was on a different box? would kind of make sense, the attic did have the newest electrical outlets and most likely the newest wiring in the house. so i reset both of those, it was really the only option i had left at that point, and slowly, but more eagerly trotted back upstairs. ef! still nothing! wtf?! well i was out of ideas, there was really nothing else we could reset if none of those had worked. so i went back downstairs to find our 50' extension cord and the standing lamp and then back upstairs and set the lamp up in the bathroom while karen did her best not to trip over, bump into, or fall over anything in the bathroom/closet as she got dressed. it took a while but after trying 6 outlets i finally found one that worked in the second half of the attic [hence two switches, two zones. at least thats my thought anyway] and the light came on. well, its not ideal, but itll have to do. and thats the attic. 

[concluding thoughts]

at this point. we're a bit stumped as to what we should do about our electrical problem. its clear that we have one. but we're doing alright in our makeshift situation for the time being. additionally, we never set aside in our budget and planning anything to do with electrical problems [the inspections before we bought the house never lead us to believe we'd have any] so theres no money to do electrical. since all these problems, ive talked at length with my dad whos currently in saudi arabia [and used to be an electrician for at least a half dozen years] and we've come to the conclusion that its most likely going to take a lot of work to get us in a good situation [like rewiring the whole house for instance]. the most likely resolution for this problem is going to be for us to slowly rewire parts of the house [starting with the kitchen, then the attic, so on and so on as necessary] and get the outlets, lights, appliances, etc. on their own breakers and the right way this time. my dad is going to be back in the states in february or march and he might be able to come to cincy for a few days or something and he and i could attempt to do some of it ourselves, but we dont know for sure yet how possible that really is. 

in the meantime, we'll make do. =]

well at this point i had originally intended to add remodeling into this blog, but that was when i was intending to cover that topic at the end of last week. then some work stuff came up and i never had the chance to write this blog last week and the story has changed since then. so now, im going to call this point the end of this saga [yes, there is an end!!] and starting tomorrow [i hope] we'll dive into all the fun that happened this last weekend! so in essence... we're caught up! woohoo!! didnt think id manage to do it, did you? oh ye of little faith... ;]

well, lunch time is up and ive got work waiting for me, so i hope you all had a marvelous weekend! have a happy mlk day today[although i dont think its ever been a very significant holiday in my life... im working today obviously. and happy inauguration day tomorrow!!

till next time...

the.chronicles.of.decem... ef.[5.of.x]

christmas

moving

kitchen

new years

craigslist

electrical

roof

ack! ive told you guys so much, but theres still so much left! this is getting exhausting, but we are making progress... i guess...

 so we've now made it half-way through new years, lets just pick up there and keep this thing going, hm? im bound to catch up eventually. especially since theres nothing going on in the present worth mentioning that you arent already aware of, so that helps. i guess.

new years[2nd.half]

so new years day we slept in considering the festivities from the night before and the time we went to bed. i think we got up around 11am and after very short deliberation we agreed we were both in the mood for a diner breakfast. also on the agenda for the day was going to the depot to use more gift cards, but we'll get to that later. since we were alreay headed in the direction of the depot we tried to figure out what diner breakfast establishments were in the near vicinity. after a lot of thought we finally remembered day break. for those of you living in and around the cincinnati area, youre probably familiar with day break in the hyde park shopping center. its a small, quaint little restaurant that serves breakfast all day [for a decent price and from our experience a good quality meal] in a nice relaxing atmosphere - EXACTLY what we were in the mood for. 

well given that it was new years day and inching ever closer to noon, we werent even sure if they were going to be open [not much else was as we drove there] but to our surprise and elation, it was! so we parked and trotted up to the door only to find a line stretching to the door of people waiting to be seated. well... that was fine with us. we really werent in a hurry and karen really really wanted breakfast, so we figured it wouldnt be terrible to wait. especially after we overheard from the girl in front of us, that had just returned from asking, that the wait to be seated was only 20 minutes. pft, that aint bad at all. so at this point its roughly 11:45am and we're now in line to be seated in roughly 25-30 minutes [conservatively]. 

so we waited our turn in line discussing the projects we were intending to work on later that day, the materials we wanted to get [most of this pertaining to the fore-mentioned pegboard wall/kitchen project + a little more], listening to the conversations of those around us [i heard the most fascinating conversation from the people in front of us about the design and construction of a carbon fiber bike frame and i was practically entranced, lol! it was very interesting stuff!], and other general waiting type stuff. finally we arrived at the front of the line, requested our table and a few minutes later were shuffled to our seats. at this point it had been closer to a half our from my memory, but we were in high spirits and starving! 

eventually our waitress made her way to our table to bring us some water and take our order. the first question she asked was if wed like a pitcher of coffee [they bring a whole pitcher to your table and leave it, pretty sweet deal] and after inquiring about the wait - it might be a little while - we decided most definitely we needed coffee. so while she went to get the coffee we decided what delicious mouthwatering breakfast entrees we were in the mood for that morning [karen = the flying pig omlette, which has every kind of breakfast meat you can get from a pig piled in a 4 egg omlette with day break potatoes, & cheddar & jack cheese. me = the loaded skillet, which has eggs, cheese, daybreak potatoes, & two other options from a list - i chose steak and avacado! and to share between us, a couple of big fluffy pancakes with all the trimmings. we were hungry yall. period.] and when she finally [not exaggerating here] returned with our coffee we excitedly gaver her our order and started in on our coffee. 

this is where the story takes a turn... i dont remember exactly how long it took, karen and i got quite carried away in conversation about our respective college experiences, dorm life, city life, and the food options - dont ask me how we got on the topic because i cant remember that much. i was wearing my a&m hoodie, perhaps that sparked it, but eventually the woman sitting within about a foot and a half of me [definitely in my bubble] at the next table leaned over exasperated and asked "just exactly how long have you been here?" well we took a second, thought about it, looked at our watches... hmm... it had been a while, a long while, and my stomach was in knots. well we realized at that point we'd been there about an hour and a half since ordering and this woman and her child had arrived soon after us. well...she was starting to get livid. the waitress was no where to be found and as we surveyed the tables around us we realized that NO one had food at their table. well this woman wasnt exactly reserved with  her opinions whcih sparked conversation with a number of tables around us one of which revealed that shed talked to the hostess a few times, the waitress had been missing for a while and the manager had apparently locked himself in his office and no one had heard from him in quite some time... uh-oh... this wasnt good... soon the waitress did reappear and we discovered after a lot of effort that they were short staffed in the kitchen, they werent calling anyone else, it would be at LEAST 20 more minutes for our food but she couldnt say for sure, and there was nothing she could do about it. well at this point the woman behind us was irrate and she eventually left with her child in a storm of animosity while questioning the sanity of those of us still seated. haha! we had to laugh, because she was very very right. so karen and i discussed our options at length, i went to the restroom while she thought it over, and once i returned we [also quite exasperated at this point] decided to give up and get some freaking food already. there was really no end in sight to the waiting, no one could give us any time frame, and a number of people clapped and cheered as we left our coffee cups sitting on the table, lol! at that point we'd waited something like 2 hours, and i think thats pretty much my limit - especially when the manager isnt doing anything to correct the problem!! ive worked in a restaurant, ive pulled double duty, hell ive pulled triple duty. you try managing, cooking, waiting tables, and bartending with one other co-worker during a lunch rush for nearly an entire summer... its not fun, but you get pretty good at it, lol! this idiot should have called some cooks in, he should have been back there cooking himself, he should have been making the rounds apologizing and comping drinks, he should have done SOMETHING! but no. not a damn thing. i think its sufficient to say that i am now boycotting day break for a period yet to be determined, i doubt itll be anytime in the forseeable future.

i dont know how much longer the rest of those people waited before they regained their sanity, but i had plenty of clarity, haha! so karen and i circled to the other side of the parking lot and went to tgi-fridays, where there was no line, no wait, and they were mysitified by our story, lol! well we sat down ordered some really amazing food and indulged our appetites until we couldnt eat another bite... it was incredibly satisfying... you cant even imagine. i think my favorite part was the ultimate mudslide drink we shared, man this thing was amazing!

so after our lunch fiasco, we made our way to the depot for the productive portion of our day. at home depot we went straight to the paint department where we spent the next half hour to 45 minutes staring at paint swatches, coordinating, discussing, planning, and eventually selecting the color palattes for the kitchen, the parlor, and the dining room, and taking all of it to the mixer-man to mix-up for us. well at two cans per wall color and one can per ceiling and accent color for 3 rooms, it was going to take a little time, so we left the paint center to see about finding our peg board. well friends, this is the point in the story where the depot now disappoints us. their selection in peg board was all but non-existent. and as for hooks and hangers for peg board, there were none to be found - anywhere. so a little disheartened we returned to the paint center to pick up our paint, and the check out with the paint and a few other items [like a new ladder, a few small paint brushes, tape, etc.] and boy howdy was it expensive! who knew you could spend so much money on painting supplies! good thing we had gift cards, lol! ;]

so now what? we didnt find our peg board and accessories... the only other option we had was lowes, whcih just happened to be about a block away, lol! we hadnt yet been to a lowes in cincy, and i hadnt been to one at all in quite some years, so we didnt know what to expect, but decided to give it a shot. well i tell you what, we were impressed. not only did they have plenty of peg board options to choose from, they also had hooks and hangers, and there was never a moment when we couldnt find someone eager to help us! at the depot we're constantly searching the isles for someone to direct us to a product that we cant find, retrieve something we cant get our selves, or some other circumstance requiring a little assistance. granted we usually can find someone within a few minutes of searching, but at lowes they were everywhere! it was a nice change, ill tell you that. we got in and out in a flash with them directing us to all the things we wanted. so with that, i'll go ahead and say it - i might just have to switch! haha! granted, the depot has a comparable selection on most everything weve needed so far, and we do have a lot of gift card left to spend there, so we wont be leaving the depot any time soon, but i think we'll be considering our options from now on - especially since the two are so close to each other!

and thus, we conclude new years. im sure you thought we never would, heh. 

craigslist. 

well this topic should be considerably less long winded, but i guess we'll see how it goes - you know how i get. 

so the only reason i bring up craigslist is to again praise its awesome-nity [so great it deserves to have a word made up on its behalf!]. last weekend we really hit the craigslist jackpot and jackpots come in 3's!

first of all, we've been perplexed for a while now about the furniture to house ratio predicament we've found ourselves in. the house is more than 3 times the size of any apartment we've ever had, and while we do have 2 peoples worth of stuff + wedding presents, it still doesnt fill all the rooms or even come close really. at this point the most ostentatious problem we faced was the parlor. temporarily we had karens leather couch in the parlor, but it really didnt fit and we wanted it in the "media" space anyhow. we'd been thinking about it a while and had come to the conclusion that we wanted really big-fluffy-cushiony-comfy couches and chairs for the parlor because eventually we want it to be kind of a "slightlt less than formal living room + library" type space and large luxurious furniture works great for entertaining in a comforable atmosphere or kicking back with a book or your laptop. well anyway, we recently hit the jackpot [like i believe ive already mentioned] and found an entire set of furniture that closely matches what we were looking for, at only $200 for the entire set! we got a huge chair, a sofa, and a full size couch - complete with sueded micro-fiber slip covers - from a nice little indian couple who were having a baby soon and were ready to redecorate their entire place. the furniture was a little heavy and very difficult to move at first, but eventually we figured out how to hold it and moving it got significantly easier[although getting it through the front door certainly wasnt, lol!] 

second on the list was a true find - in that we werent even looking for it, we just happened upon it and it turned out to be an awesome buy [i promise ill try and put pictures of all these things up soon, i really didnt think to take any before now, sorry!]. its kind of a vintage wine rack/cage that holds up to 45 bottles [i think] and its just sooo cool! i dont think we'll ever get near that many bottles in it, but its a really fun little piece to have in the house and we just love it. not really too exciting of a story here, but we're really happy with the deal we got on it =]

lastly, wasnt a buy, but a sell. my old truck! thats right, the piece of crap truck that ive mentioned a few times on this blog, was actually sold. and for a damn good price too! certainly not anywhere near the money ive put into it [far far far from it...] but FOUR times what the salvage yards we called were offering! so yeah, im pretty ecstatic about that one. we put it up with some pictures at about 9pm and by the time we went to bed aroun 10:30 id already had about 11 e-mails from people interested in it. well, the guy we ended up selling to didnt flinch at the busted spindle and thought it would be a perfect addition to his farm as a work truck. its kind of poetic i guess... that thing started out as a work truck from some woman in houston [who took terrible care of it!], then came to me, and im sure it'll see the end of its days in a pasture somewhere now as well. and the circle of life comes round to completion, eh? well anyway, good ridance! =]

and now folks, its that time again. but hey! we made some serious progress! only two topics left for next time [most likely thursday's lunch, i have a l&l tomorrow, heh] and those should go pretty quick... well, haha, we'll see anyway. 

hope youre all enjoying the week so far, have a great evening!!

the.chronicles.of.decembria[4.of.x]

well i didnt finish, but i did make a little progress last night on catching everyone up with all the events and projects of our busy holiday season. hope you all are enjoying this so far, and hopefully i can make a little more progress today over lunch. lets see how far i get, haha...

christmas

moving

kitchen

new years

craigslist

electrical

roof

new years.

well new years was pretty awesome. i think it was probably my favorite of all time. [although i did have some fun with matt & tina a few times over new years, haha!] but before we get into the end of 08 and the start of 09 and all the excitement surrounding it, lets take a quick step back to the 30th. 

on the day before new years eve karen had gotten us tickets to go to a musical at one of the local cultural arts centers. shes a member of all these different email lists for all kinds of art related groups, clubs, what have you, and on one of them the week before christmas there was the mention of a new show coming to town and karen thought i might like it and got us tickets. well it ended up being a lot of fun for both of us. the show was part of a young professionals club thing in town and our tickets included a catered pre-party with other young professionals that were also attending the show. it was a chance to mingle and meet people and socialize a little before the show [which we really didnt take advantage of seeing as how the "young professionals" were all in their late 30's to early 50's... anyone else find that a bit odd??] and get to enjoy some really awesome food as it turned out that was catered by a local restaurant/culinary arts school. 

well as i mentioned we didnt really socialize much but we did  have a good time and really enjoyed the food. and all this was a nice precursor to the nights festivities. so enough suspense aside, the show we got to see was monty pythons spamalot! i dont know how many of you are familiar with monty python, ive only actually seen the holy grail as far as the movies go, but i loved it and i was really excited to see this show. karen had seen parts of one of the movies she thinks and wasnt sure how well she liked it, but we both ended up loving the show! it was hilarious! and they tied in all kinds of humor tied to the cincinnati area and even the current media cycle, it was pretty awesome. if you ever have the chance to see spamalot and youre into the monty python humor at all, id really recommend this show - if nothing else it makes for a nice out on the town for a quazi-cultural event. [because really, how cultured can it be if its monty python, lol!]

so now we can get to the new years festivities hm? i just had to mention the show because we had so much fun! so new years eve karen and i both had to work, but immediately following we went home and got showered and dressed for the nights exciting events. i wont bother trying to make this one overly dramatic and suspenseful, haha, we were attending my buddy mike and his fiance's wedding downtown at a fancy hotel. we were actually really excited about it and had made sure to get some good presents the weekend before, get them wrapped and ready to go. the wedding/new years party was a black tie affair and karen had picked up a sexy new dress [and i didnt look too shabby either, lol] so leaving not a moment too soon we arrived and got seated about 5 minutes before the wedding started. 

the ceremony was beautiful to say the least and i certainly dont want to see the price tag for it. first of all we were in a gorgeous art deco ball room at a very nice hotel in one of the oldest buildings in downtown cincinnati. the detailing and decor were awesome, very much in tune with karen and my love of art deco style [it definitely brought memories of our art deco decor at our wedding, haha!]. other than the ball room, the ceremony itself was just very very nice [and i couldnt possibly do it justice with words]. there was a violinist, a classical guitarist, a soloist, mike even brought in a bag-pipist! [that irish blood runs deep, lol, and i cant imagine bag-pipers are easy to find...] the decorations were beautiful, the dresses, you name it. it was pretty much the event of the year and definitely lived up to it. 

following the wedding we all went to the pre-reception in the lobby of what would be one of the nicest reception halls i think ive ever been in. this part was pretty awesome all in itself. there was a lot of seating or standing tables to choose from and in the center of the place was an hors derves table piled high with goodies while wait staff circulated the room with even more trays of goodies. and the food... wow. i cant even tell you. there were tons grilled veggies and jumbo cocktail shrimp with a variety of sauces [karen and i loved the portobelo and the shrimp!] on the main table, and circulating there were little bruschetta type pieces and im not entirely sure what was in them [we think olive was definitely part of it, but other than that i couldnt tell, they were awesome though!] and also [what we did find out was in them] duck spring rolls that were just mouth watering. i dont think id ever had duck before, but these spring rolls were very delicious. and accompanying all that there were three open bars with your choice of drink, wait-staff circulating with pink champagne of some kind, and an ice sculpture that was chilling another special drink. i dont know that im an expert on classy, but i do recognize pricey, haha!

after the newly married couple had finished their pictures and were ready to start the next phase of the evening, we were all ushered into the banquet hall [wow!!] and directed to our assigned seats where we introduced ourselves to our table-mates and enjoyed more drinks and some really scrumptious chocolate covered strawberries [dressed as bride and groom, lol!] that were waiting for us. before long the happy couple made and the entourage made their grande entrance [and boy was it, lol, every person made a hollywood entrance with announcers, their own song, and a lot of hoopla, lol!] to a chorus of applause and exaltation. after cutting the cake and getting some introductions and pleasantries taken care of, we all got yet another amazing treat - dinner! dinner was phenomenal... again i dont want to see the price tag on this thing, it must have been upwards of 100 bucks a plate - easy. the first course was various types of bread with a main crab bisque and a small plate of something with an asian salad thats escaping my memory at the moment. but i do remember it was all very delicious and we were having nice conversation with all of our table mates and sharing humorous memories and stories about the couple. it was really a lot of fun! now the main course, that was really something! there was a gorgeous piece of fillet minion on a bed of mashed potatoes all wrapped in bacon and topped with more shrimp! wowee! it was delectable - i cant even relate it to you... the fillet was perfect. and i do mean perfect! ive never had a steak this good! for desert we had wedding cake served to us, and more drinks and great conversation [im sure ive forgotten something, but the food was all just so amazing and there was so much going on that night, i do appologize.] at some point in the night there were a series of toasts and traditional dances, mixed with all the traditional festivities surrounding the bouquet and the garter, and plenty of dancing - tons of good times. 

but we're not finished yet, oh no. as midnight approached, we were all given glasses of champagne, party hats, beaded necklaces, and party horns to really bring in the new year the right way. there was more dancing, more partying and of course the traditional kiss at midnight with your special someone. karen danced her little heart out [as she always does, lol] and eventually we even got our turn to talk to the happy groom, lol! by around 1am i was exhausted and we were ready to make our exit, so we gathered our things said some good byes and headed to the door for one last attempt to say our thanks and dote the bride with her much deserved praise. [mike is a lucky lucky man, she looked amazing all night, and she was just glowing! well done sir, well done.] we finally did get the chance to give her a hug and our thanks for a wonderful evening before heading home to crash. now at this point i would absolutely love to show you all some extraordinary pictures of the epic event, however im afraid karen and i both managed to forget our cameras in the rush to get ready and arrive on time after work... bummer, i know. it really was one of the most beautiful weddings ive ever been to. either way, karen and i are really just elated for the new couple and we wish them a world of happiness in the new year and the rest of their lives together! congratulations buddy!

well, that was new years eve... [and happy birthday to mom by the way! dont worry, i didnt forget to call her, haha] and new years day was another story all in itself. however, im afraid i dont have the time to tell it now... my time is up. so i guess we'll have to just keep this going tomorrow, lol! hope youre all having a great day and a fantastic week to come!

cheers!

the.chronicles.of.decembria[3.of.x]

the topical blog - noun : 1. kind of like a topical cream, only slightly less disgusting. not to be confused with a tropical blog which has insurmountably more pleasurable weather conditions.

2. a blog formatted on the basis of topics, rather than a chronological story line, in the attempt to create a slimmer, leaner, less verbose blog [for the sake of the readers/the sanity of the author] 

just to hopefully keep me on track, and possibly to keep you guys interested, im going to go ahead and list out the topics that i hope to cover in this blog, and if not, then one or two or however many it takes thereafter... [lets hope i can do it in one, i really dont like being so far behind]

christmas

moving

kitchen

new years

craigslist

electrical

roof

and with that, lets begin shall we?

christmas. 

well last i blogged, i believe i summed up christmas pretty well. we'd just finished christmas day and a wonderful feast and we were quite happy as we retired for the night. already the house felt like home and i dont think we ever had trouble adjusting to the new sleeping situation. 

the day following christmas, we made a terrible mistake. we'd gotten a number of gift cards from various friends and relatives and we were excited to spend them, not to mention i'd heard through an inside source of mine that target was going to be having a pretty sweet christmas sale on all their leftover merchandise and the wife and i were excited about stocking up on goodies for next year that we didnt get this time around. 

so like complete morons, we headed out to do some shopping on the day after christmas. [oh how naive we were...] so our first stop was target and it should have been an eye opening experience if we'd cared to pay attention. we spent about an hour to an hour and a half there leaving somewhere around 10:30 with a basket piled high of christmas decorating goodies we'd gotten for a very reasonable price. but it had been a total mad house in there. there were so many people picking through the leftovers it was nearly impossibly to maneuver a cart through the droves of post-holiday sale victims [ourselves included]. so this should have been our warning, and we should have gone home for a nice relaxing afternoon. but we didnt. 

we spent the rest of the day in traffic and going to forever 21, dillards, and american eagle at the mall and picking up a few items [mostly clothes, but a few accessories] with our gift cards. waiting in parking lots and sitting in mile long lines at stop lights did nothing to hinder our spirits however, and the gluttons for punishment that we are we also went to bed bath & beyond to finally use our wedding gift cards on some much needed drapery and window treatments, and then finally even to tj max for some serious husband torture while the wife took her time going through [and im pretty sure this is accurate] every single rack, garment by garment, and eventually leaving an hour and a half later with... nothing. thats right, nothing. ugh, that was a long shopping visit after we'd already spent the entire day shopping at it was somewhere around 7pm. i honestly cant even remember if we ate lunch in all the madness! lol! if i had the chance to do it all over again, id probably keep my ass on the couch with a movie and some hot chocolate, but we had fun and we did get quite a lot accomplished! =]

moving. 

saturday we made a pact to ourselves that we were going to get out of that apartment that weekend if it killed us, and thats exactly what we did. we got up early, made our way to the apartment with a load of empty boxes and some cleaning supplies and went through the exhausting task of packing up every single last item in the apartment, loading  - what ended up being 4 or 5 trips worth of boxes, the rest of the furniture, and other various items from the apartment - hauling to the house, unloading, and returning to the scene of the crime for more punishment. by the end of the night however, around 9pm, we'd done it. we were completely out of the apartment and only needed to take our keys and drop them off with the manager on sunday afternoon. 

actually, it wasnt all terrible, we managed to take a break at about lunch time to grab a quick bite and make a quick run to the salvation army where we found a couple more awesome hanging light fixtures that we were still in need of, a few more corner cabinets for a functional art project of karens, and [believe it or not] a few suit jackets for me, lol! you wouldnt believe the awesome selection our salvation army has on clothes. it was absolutely amazing! karen actually found what appeared to be a practically brand new express jacket in the womens suit jackets that she swears would have cost around $250 new, and was only 4 bucks! it was awesome. in the mens they had all kinds of name brands that id heard of, but regardless of labels they had just about every shape style and color you could imagine, ranging from the hilarious, to the very cool vintage, to the boring, you name it. we actually had a really good time there and by the time we left we'd only spent 35 bucks for a LOT of great finds! if you have a salvation army resale store near you and youre into this kind of stuff, i seriously recommend checking it out, we are always shocked at the fantastic stuff we find there. 

kitchen.

sometime early the next week [i think it may even have been monday] after a lot of discussion, karen and i had decided that we needed to make the kitchen our next project. most of the necessity arose from finally getting all of our stuff into the house [and it was a disaster by the way] and realizing that we had way more stuff than we had storage space in our kitchen. somewhere between everything karen had, everything i had, and everything we got for wedding gifts, we'd assembled about 2 kitchens worth of kitchen stuff and we only had this tiny little corner of cabinets in the kitchen to put it all in.... you do the math on that one. not to mention we had always thought the cabinets looked like they were in pretty good shape  and  would be perfectly fine to use for some time yet. well once we put on the new door hardware and started trying to clean these things we realized just how disgusting they really were, and as soon as we started putting stuff in them we realized how weak and poorly structured they were... so as a combination of all these things karen and i discussed at length what our options might be and ultimately decided we needed all new cabinets and a lot more of them pretty seriously.

i dont know how much research any of you have done into new cabinets, but we quickly found out that its a pretty expensive ordeal. that monday night we went first to a place in town called home emporium - and it is an awesome place! its kind of a salvage store of sorts and they sell a lot of bulk material and unfinished furniture, wholesale tile, man... it was remodeling paradise. we took our time going through the place and browsing all the different things in the store [and making mental notes for future projects of course!] but were mainly focused on the cabinets. our contractor [i suppose we'll get to him at some point] had told us this place had finished and unfinished kitchen cabinets for a really reasonable price, hence why we'd stopped by. however after we started looking at their selection, none of which was really our style.. it was all very ornate or more traditional looking, and seeing the price tags on everything [which we quickly did the math in our heads on what we were thinking about putting in] and seeing how limited we were in sizes and customization... we decided that these cabinets werent for us. [however, we're definitely going back for tile when we get around to those projects!!] which left our only other real option - ikea. 

i know theres a lot of opinions on both sides as to the quality, value, etc. of ikea furniture, but id always been impressed with their kitchens when id walked through their showroom. to me, they never looked cheap or ratty, and always seemed to have a more modern sleek style that was more in line with my own. so even though it was now around 6:30pm, karen and i decided to detour on our way home and check out what our options would be if we were to seriously consider ikea. well i really had no idea how many options there really were, but the entire process is a bit confusing at first. basically the way their kitchen cabinets are setup is in 3 parts. first there is the skeleton of the cabinets. all of their cabinets use the same skeleton of parts that come in a very wide range of sizes, shapes, depths, heights, you name it. the customization factor is no issue hear, you can really get almost anything you want and create whatever combination you desire. the second layer of their cabinets is in the shell. this is essentially the style of doors and panels that you like. so if you like the ultramodern with ultramodern finishes, or the more traditional style doors with more traditional finishes, if you want glass in some of your doors, if you want metal edges, if you want wood, plastic, the list goes on and on and on. so once you pick the shell, then theres the accents. this is all your hardware, your organizational inserts, that sort of thing. well anyway, it took us quite some time to go through the kitchen showroom and pick out the styles we liked, compare prices, figure out the whole 3 part system and how that worked, and come up with what we thought would work for us. by the end of the night we had a lot of fun ideas in our minds and a pretty good idea of what style we were thinking about getting, but we certainly werent jumping into anything just yet. 

since that initial day weve measured the kitchen out completely and ive modeled it in 3d and we've gone over a number of different arrangement options, color schemes, organization systems, etc. but the most determining factor of the whole extravaganza is really the price tag. and at this point we really just cant afford it - even if we do feel its a necessity. so we've also started thinking of some other more... creative or inventive, ways of dealing with our storage problem. well after some ingenuity and a little thinking outside the box we came up with a pretty slick solution that were really excited about. additionally the kitchen just needed a world of help and painting could do wonders for it aesthetically. 

at this point [some weeks later] we've completed the design, crafting, and installation of about two-thirds of our new storage system and weve gotten one wall fully painted with two coats, and two other walls painted [literally as i type this its drying] with the first coat. all this after a ton of scrubbing [like you wouldnt believe!], cleaning, plastering, taping, and prepping. but im happy to report its really coming along! we're extremely happy with the storage system so far and the color is just amazing! we love it! as with everything we've hit a few snags along the way so far. the track lighting in the kitchen for example, but we've powered through so far and we're really expecting a great turnout in the end! we've decided we're going to have to make due with the cabinets we do have for the time being, but we really would love to get the ikea kitchen someday in the future, its just hard to say when that might be. anyway, without further prolonging, how about a few before and progress shots of the kitchen hmm? haha, i know you want them! [try and keep in mind that the pictures really dont do the color justice, its really sensational in person!]

yeah, thats right, its peg board! haha, dont hate. it works perfectly on that wall because its too tight to ever put cabinets on, but also allows us to incorporate storage and we still have the space to work on the other walls we are thinking of putting cabinets or shelves on. its really a fantastic solution for our circumstances and we just love it! [i wouldnt recommend our set-up for a novice installation however, mostly considering the pain-staking assembly considerations and preparation, lol! it was a bit of a pain in the ass... to say the least.]

and thats where i think im going to stop. thats my lovely wife preparing dinner in the images and she just finished, so i think im going to indulge in a little of karens chicken chili! 

goodnight!