The Garden Wall

We now have color!!


The 'Garden Wall' paint is finally up in the master bedroom. Although we had a lot of distractions and other engagements this week, we were able to squeeze in some time to paint the bedroom. It looks great!!


The only thing is, since the wall is textured, there are some crevices that we missed and a few thin spots that need some touch-ups.

We were in a bit of a rush because we thought our bedroom furniture was going to be delivered sometime at the end of the month. Alas, Costco had a delay in production so we won't have our king bed until Sept/Oct. But this gives us more time to do touch-ups and find a rug and do some fine tuning before it arrives.


There's also a new piece of furniture in the house. Well, new used furniture. My cousin bought a new couch so she was looking for a new home for her old one. Its white with pink stripes. =) Aren't slip covers wonderful? Its really a beige-ish color. It fits nicely in our living room. The other one we have might go in the cottage or downstairs. We'll see. That'll come later.

Well, we're off to Hearst Castle for our 1 year anniversary. Have a good weekend!

The search is over

We've been forever on a search for a light over the kitchen sink. Originally it was supposed to be a recessed light but there's not enough room in the crawl space to put one there. So we've been in search for the perfect light.

What matches wood grain? That was the main issue. The laundry room light is all metal aluminum but that didn't seem to suit the wood grain kitchen cabinets. Luckily we found nickel and wood ceiling fans. That's another story.

We went to Ikea weeks ago and figured we'll buy a cheap one. Out of all of them, this was the one that was closest to what we wanted. But its $30!!! $30 for suck a simple light? It just balances on the cord. Didn't seem worth it. Chris said, "I want something that I see and immediately say that's the one." And that wasn't the one.

We saw these on Sears.com. They look pretty nice but they're small, 6" diameter. the frosted glass looks like it would still give off a lot of light. They look higher quality than Ikea and cost around the same. Went to 2 stores... they don't carry light fixtures in the stores. Denied!

We went to a bbq today and stopped by the local Lowes. There isn't one near our house which sucks. But we found this. Perfect size, decent quality with a metal rod to hang from, under $20, and we had a gift card. SOLD! So we look for a box. WHAT?!? Only one box and its been opened. Tape ripped off and everything. Do they have another one? Find a salesman, find a saleswoman. We found one that was on the phone helping someone else. But he's on hold and in front of a computer. He said there's 16 in stock. SCORE!! But we have to wait for him to finish helping the other people. But its worth it. We finally found our light. One less thing.

Ceiling fans... If you recall, we bought our living room ceiling fan from OSH and had a raincheck for the master bedroom ceiling fan. That was back on July 4th weekend. They had a 10% sale and we wanted the discount and the fan so we got a raincheck. They're supposed to call us.

One week passes, 2 weeks... no call. Maybe they just forgot, lets stop by. "I'm sorry, we don't have any in stock. They're on order." I go to a different store to try to use the raincheck there. "I'm sorry, we can't accept a raincheck from another store." DOH!!

Week 3, week 4... no call. Week 5 we go back again. Its August by now. "Oh, we got 3 in on July 26th but we don't have anymore now." Uhm... what happened to my call??? Someone put all of them on the shelf to sell instead of saving one for me. "Can I talk to a manager?" Manger comes, says there's some at nearby stores. I explain the 'we can't accept a raincheck from another store' thing. He apologizes and informs me that they should've honored our raincheck even though its for a different store. That does me a lot of good now. Manager:" Today is Sunday, we'll have 5 more in by Wednesday." Me: "So if I come back on Wednesday you'll guarantee to save one for me?" Manager: *thinking hesitantly* "Yes, I'll tell Gus to make sure to save one for
you."

Wednesday rolls around... no call but no time to drive to OSH. We go back Thursday. Gus and that manager got off work already and there's new people at the customer service counter. Lady: "Did someone call you about the raincheck?" Me: "No. Manager said they'd be in yesterday." Lady: "Okay, let me check.... Computer says we have 5 in stock." Finally!! Lady: "Let me call the lighting guy to make sure we physically have them." Me: "Since I've had to wait 6 weeks for this fan, can you give me a 2nd one at the same price?" Lady: "Let me ask the manager but I'm sure it'll be fine."

That was easier than I thought. I thought I had to yell and scream to get my way. But I didn't so that's good. If they sell out so fast, I don't know why they don't order more from the warehouse. They claim the warehouse has 200. Whatever. We finally got our fans and every room lighting is accounted for. Maybe we can actually move in soon.

Parental units back again

Friday was Chris' birthday. His parents drove up Friday afternoon and his sister and her hubby late Friday night. We had a little bbq for Chris. Just our families. Can you say way too much food? Both of our mothers like to cook for armies when there's only half an army attending. Luckily I warned my mom so she didn't go crazy this time. But there was a lot of good food and family.

So after dinner Friday while we waited and waited and waited for Chris' sister (traffic, I hear), we primed the laundry room.


Chris' dad was working out the plans for the washer and dryer hookups. Originally there was a plastic sink in the left corner of the short wall and the washer was in the right corner. The dryer sat midway through the long wall. There was a makeshift cabinet above the washer covering 1/4 of the window and wire shelving screwed into the wall above the dryer. Next to the dryer was a makeshift door and wall. Cubicle walls in an office are sturdier. We got rid of everything. We still have the sink but it needs new legs. The legs and screws securing it to the ground were rusted and broke off when we removed it. I think we'll need a whole new unit but we'll see... for now, we paint away...


Saturday, before the bbq, our lemon tree got a nice haircut. Brother-in-law Eric felt so bad for the tree that he couldn't help himself. This lemon tree had been neglected for years probably. It was the densest lemon tree I've ever seen. And since the branches and leaves were growing so close together, it had mold on it. Eric has a very green thumb so he pruned and cut and sawed off the infected branches. It was like a giant bonzai tree. Its 100 times better now. And its got a friend. Marielle and Eric gave us a plumaria tree in a pot. Its about 2 feet tall right now. I hope we don't kill it. =)


Sunday Marielle and Eric had to go back to Agoura but his dad was working away at the hookups. He bought all of the pipes he needed that morning. Mid day he says, "Uh oh!" Great, now what? Apparently he miscalculated and had to go back to Home Depot and have the cut and rethread the pipe. So they stop what they're doing and go to H/D. An hour or 2 later they come back. It sounded like a near fiasco. The guy was about to do it wrong if Chris' dad didn't say something. Luckily they were watching.

After a few hours, Voila! All that's left now is piping for the drain. That will have to wait for the sink.


His parents left today for Vallejo on their way to Idaho for a wedding and an Alaskan cruise from Vancouver. They'll make their way back here in mid September. His dad was able to finish the laundry hookups as well as the laundry room and bathroom light fixtures. Someday they'll have bulbs and power running through it so we can have some light.

Paint has arrived

Today we bought our paint. Check out our colors. The living room and kitchen will have one red wall. The other 3 walls in the living room will be the gentle rain color. The other 3 in the kitchen will be the cinnamon cake. The master bedroom will be painted in garden wall and the guest bedroom will have winter lake. All of the window frames and door frames, as well as the doors, will be in white semi gloss. The ceiling will also be white.












After Home Depot, we were able to put another coat of primer in the kitchen and move the stove and fridge back in. The funky peeling paint looked fine after some sanding and more primer. You can't see it behind the fridge and stove anyway. The opposite wall, apparently we missed some sanding and other parts started bubbling after the primer dried a while. Weird! We popped the bubble and tried smoothing it out. Hopefully it'll shrink back and look okay with a few coats of paint over it.

The Franciscos are coming back up this weekend on their way to a wedding Idaho. And Chris' sister and family are visiting as well. Great! More people to help paint. =)

We sprung a leak

Our goal for the week is to finish priming the kitchen and move the stove and fridge back in before his parents arrive on Thursday. So Monday and today we worked on the kitchen. We patched the oopses from Sunday so we couldn't prime the kitchen again until Tuesday. The remaining 2 walls were done and 3/4 of the ceiling when all of a sudden Chris notices he's making wet footprints instead of dry ones from the sanding.

OH $#+%$@!! THE KITCHEN SINK IS LEAKING!! OH $%^(&*! IS THE TILE OKAY???

We have a double stainless steel kitchen sink and if you recall, Chris' dad installed a garbage disposal in the kitchen as well as put in a P trap. Well, we guess when Chris stood on the counter to tape the cabinets, something got loose in the pipes and all the joints came appart. The only casualty was a soggy roll of paper towels. Luckily the smoke alarms were still in their plastic packaging. Not sure why they were stored under the sink, but whatever. We mopped up the water and let the fan dry the rest. After a while Chris was able to tighten all the fittings and get it back to working order. But for a minute there, it was pretty stressing. Maybe we should learn more about plumbing.

What a 'prime' day.

Primer, primer, primer. Today is primer day. We've recruited help from my brother and Chris' friend, Andrew. Thanks for the help, guys!!

We finished up the master bedroom... AND ceiling. Well, one coat on the ceiling. And Andrew did a great job on the old wall papered wall in the kitchen with 2 coats of primer. The two paint-chipped walls were being sanded by Chris.

I finished texturing the hallway while they were getting Costco pizza for lunch. After lunch they started painting the freshly sanded walls. And much to our dismay, the paint was peeling off the spackle! Like it was lifting back onto the roller. WHAT THE HECK??? This totally sucks. So they moved onto the livingroom. We'll have to sand/patch the kitchen again later. We think maybe the nappy roller got dried up and had hard spots. Or there wasn't enough paint. Or they went over the spots too many times and the spackle got wet and didn't have time to dry so it lifted from the wall. Whatever happened, the shorter nap worked better in the living room.

They were able to put one coat of primer on two of the walls in the living room while I stripped the paint from the window frames. We bought some non-toxic orange scented paint stripper from Walmart. It works okay. I just have to wait longer. But dang, this window is taking forever. I only did about half the window so far. One application of the stripper stuff only seems to take off one layer of paint. For our window frame we've got sea foam green, then white, then sometimes a blue underneath. So it goes stripper, wait, scrape, stripper, wait, scrape, stripper, wait, scrape, scrub brush, sponge, rinse, sponge, rinse, sponge and maybe it'll be all off. Chris doesn't have the patience so I get to do it. =)

But let me tell you, the place looks so much better with the primer walls. Even though its all white, its 10 times better than that crap that was on it before. I can't wait until the color gets on the walls. FUN!! Chris' friend gave us her leftover can of red Behr paint for the kitchen and Chris got another flat version for the livingroom. We're almost there! Our Home Depot 10% coupon expires on Thursday so we'll be getting the rest of our color paint this week. I'd think color paint is more fun than primer.

Daniel-san I feel your pain

This week we finished grouting all of the tile... finally. Concentrate Daniel-san...Grout on, wipe off, grout on, wipe off. That was just Tuesday. Wednesday was remove the haze day. You're supposed to use a dry cheese cloth and "buff" off the haze. Similar to buffing a car. (Where's Daniel-san when you need him?) But apparently we didn't wipe off enough of the grout from the tiles on Tuesday cuz this stuff wasn't coming off.

Time to consult the internet. Some of the forums I found said to use 50/50 vinegar/water. Some said just a sponge. So I tried the sponge. Much better. Thursday was Cinderella day... scrubbing tile with a sponge and a bucket. Chris was installing a new door knob to the basement and TSPing the rest of the door frames.

M: Can you see the difference?
C: Uh.. no.
M: This part doesn't have the brown stuff along the edges. Aren't the grout lines straighter?
C: *blank stare* Uhhh.
M: You still can't see it???
C: No =(
M: *sigh* ...men!

Today I buffed the clean tiles and now they're all shiny. It said to wait a week before sealing the grout. That'll probably be Tuesday. Joy.

Chris slapped on another coat of primer in the master bedroom. We got a nappier roller that would hopefully get more paint in the texture better. It worked okay in the beginning. It might've been nappier than we needed. After I was done with the floor I patched up the kitchen walls. All the paint chipping left divots and some spots that didn't come off. So I was putting on spackle so we can sand it later to get a flat wall again. We'll sand and prime the kitchen tomorrow.

actual tile conversations

I wake up, go to work, sit in my cube, leave work to go to the house, work on the house, then go home...

Recently it seems there are a lot of days where the only people I'll see during the course of the day are the person I've ordered my lunch from and Melissa. This is just a taste of the kind of stuff we seem to talk about.

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(installing backerboard)
M: It says here to put in screws every 8 inches.
C: Okay. *proceeds to put a screw in every 8 inches around the perimiter of the board*
M: Uh. I think it means every 8 inches.
C: *stares at it for a minute* Holy Crap?!?... I think we'll need more screws.

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M: Maybe we should just get new linoleum?
C: *complete shock*
M: I keeeeeeed! I keeeeeeeed!

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C: Should we keep this? *refering to tile layout map*
M: I have a copy on the computer. We won't need it again anyway.
C: But this is the actual one we used! We should keep stuff like this! Printing another one up would be like creating a replica?! No one goes to museums and stuff to see replicas?! You think that the Wright brothers plane and Sputnik at the Smithsonian are replicas?! Wait.... they are aren't they?
M: So... should we cement it under the tile so that if they ever pull it up it's like discovering buried treasure?
C: Now you're talking silly.

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(new drill)
C: oooooooooh! I can drill a hole to China!

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(adhering tile)
C: This one rocks.
M: Push down on it.
C: *grumble*

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(while grouting)
M: I hope we know what we're doing.
C: *laughter* I hope we know what we're doing too.
C: You think people can actually walk on this stuff?

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(hunger)
M: I'm hungry.
C: Me too.
*half hour of more work*
M: I'm hungry.
C: Me too.
*repeat as needed*

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(hunger option 2)
M: I'm hungry.
C: Me too. What do you feel like eating?
M: I dunno? What do you want to eat?
C: I dunno.
*half hour of more work*
M: I'm hungry.
C: Me too. What do you feel like eating?
M: I dunno? What do you want to eat?
C: I dunno.
*repeat as needed*

Tile Step 2... The end

Finally... all of the tile is cut and glued on. It only took 3 days. It says to wait 24 hours before grouting so we'll do it tomorrow.

A note about thin-set adhesive. This stuff is kinda smelly. It looks like a huge bucket of spackle. Its pretty smooth but doesn't dry brittle like spackle or joint compound. Its got more give like glue. The 3.5 gallon bucket said we'll only need one bucket to cover the size floor that we have. Uh... it took 3 buckets for 2 layers... one under the backerboard, one under the tile. Hmm...

A thought always comes to mind. Are we doing this right?

Our friends came over the other day to drop off boxes. They like what we've done so far. He told me later that the financee said it looks professional. And they've come to the realization that if they ever want to tile their kitchen floor, they don't want to do it themselves and would rather pay someone than to mess it up if they did it themselves. =) Its not that hard. Yet time consuming.