I know, why would I complain about that a bill hadn’t come yet, especially one as large as my biannual property tax bill. But usually it comes in August… and due to this or that, it only just arrived. The interesting thing is that my property taxes actually went DOWN by about 13%, hardly something I was expecting. The payment site was getting slammed yesterday, but was up this AM. Done and Done.
One thing that is cool about owning vs. renting is that you actually get to make decisions on stuff and then make changes.
We recently decided that we were going to spend a little money upgrading our master bathroom. I say master, because it is connected to the master bedroom, but there is little MASTER about it. It is relatively tiny and just not that awesome. It is fine for us, but it could be way nicer. So we decided that we were going to give it an overhaul. Nothing insane, no moving walls around or anything, just some new coverings. We are going to replace the vinyl flooring with tile, the fiberglass shower surround in tile, the too large vanity with a better sized one. We will also replace all the accessories, etc.
The biggest thing is the tub (no pun intended). The issue is we have a space of 60×30 for the tub, which is a standard size, but we want a deeper tub. Rebecca actually TAKES baths, so having a deeper tub would be a great improvement. BUT alot of the nicer tubs are 60×32 and that 2 inches would involve moving a door AND putting the tub REALLY close to the toilet. So we are stuck with 60×30. And finding that 60×30 tub is proving a bit of a pain. But I think I can make it all work.
In observance of earth day (and the fact that the weather was perfect) I redid the backyard yesterday. I pulled up all the old grass, tilled up the dirt, removed the 2 bushes on the side, installed the in ground sprinkler system, and laid new sod. It was hard work, but nothing too complex. And I am really happy with the result. The line for the sprinkler is under the grass, but it is not buried in the garden box. I figure we will likely redo the garden soon, and we can bury it then. And by we, I most likely mean rebecca and her mom. Or somehow involving her mom.
I really like the sprinkler system. I know, it is lame, because we don’t have the much grass. But they rule. They pop up, cover all the grass and the garden, with virtually 100% coverage and nearly zero overspray onto the patio. If is weren’t windy, you could sit there and have the sprinklers on with out worry of getting wet. One of the heads isn’t perfectly straight, and it is pissing me off. Provided it isn’t raining at the end of today, I will be out there cleaning up the yard waste, and I will try to fix it.
But yeah, owning your own place rules. Once the garden and sod are all good, I will take some pics. It will be a great yard for mason too.
As many of you know, I drive a loud audi. It is actually probably too loud, but I enjoy it, so I am not feeling too bad about it. Anyway…. last night I drove home from work, as I tend to do, and I parked in front of the house. I parallel parked it in the spot in front of the house, so I was making a decent bit of noise. I parked and got out and as I was pulling out the keys to unlock the front door, it opens and rebecca is there holding a smiling mason. Not used to being greeted at the door, I asked what was up.
Turns out as I pulled up and was parking, mason was hanging out on the 3rd floor with rebecca. Mason pointed at the windows and said ‘daddy’. That is awesome, my child recognizes my car by sound.
The joys of being a father.
so the primary reason there have been so few blog posts lately is directly related to mason. While his 1st birthday was this past saturday (10/21), the party is this upcoming saturday (10/28). Since we are having 30ish people at the house for this family gathering, we have been working to get all the random projects done.
As we approach the final days, we are actually doing really well. The downstairs has received a lot of attention, and it is looking great. The den is essentially done, with all the shelves up, pictures hung, etc. I still need to fix the hanging rug, but that isn’t much. Quarter round, touch ups, etc are all done and the room is looking great. And the rug my mom found looks awesome on the floor.
The downstairs bathroom is also done, or as done as it is going to get before the party. I replaced the vinyl floor with a black granite tile, which came out good for my first time. I replaced the exhaust fan with a nicer unit that has an integrated light, which really brightens the room and looks pretty good. Mike and I replaced the existing ‘vanity’ style light bar with a nice 3 halogen unit (which took some work) and it too lights the vanity very well. I also replaced the old boring fixture with a nicer nickel one and we updated the pulls on the cabinets. Touched up the walls, swapped the shower curtain, and it is looking great. I am happy with that room. I would still like the change towel hardware and the counter top, but that isn’t happening soon.
I also cleaned out a bunch of the closet, emptying a few boxes and making space in there. I ran a piece of PVC pipe through the wall and put the linux server in the closet to keep the noise out of the den. I also moved the humming AC adaptor for the Directv splitter in there too, much nicer from a noise point of view.
In the laundry room I hung a few shelves to get the paint cans off the floor and free up some space. We also got a bar to hang the brooms, etc from the wall, and it is kinda awkward, but it works.
Ralph is supposed to do the tile this week in the foyer, and then I need to chase it with sealer and some quarter round and that room will be done. Score. That will be it for that floor for now… We need to get the VW ads on the wall in the downstairs hallway and I want a key hook of some kind, and we need to get some pics into the picture frames on the wall in the foyer, but… it is pretty much there.
Upstairs I put the transition piece in and we swapped all the drawer hardware in the kitchen. We also put roman shades in the living room as well as the wall hanging over the couch. A few touchups and it is looking great as well.
We didn’t do much on the 3rd floor. We put up the chair rail in mason’s room (looks great!) and replaced all the closet doors/bathroom cabinet hardware.
So overall, it is looking great, as so long as ralph comes through on the foyer, we are going to be looking great on saturday for the party…
After all this is done, I will take a bunch of pictures for a before and after thing. It is going to rule.
So I worked on the basement bathroom today…. and I am tired…
Let me step back… when we bought this townhouse/condo whatever, there was no interior decorating at all. None. Original white walls that had 13 years of crap on them. The floors were either 13 year old cheap shitty filthy carpet or crappy 13 year old vinyl flooring. Nasty. So while I have done lots in the house, this weekend I was finally going to finish the basement bathroom. It used to look like this:
awesome huh. Gotta love that floor. So I finally got the vinyl flooring all off, which was a pain to say the least. For some reason there was a lot of glue holding that floor to the concrete beneath. I found the best solution was to score the vinyl, scrap it with a floor scraper, then use heat to get the glue and cardboard up. Those butane torches worked great, although they made the room really warm and I am sure those fumes were not good for me.
We had picked up a nice shiny black granite tile from the tile outlet down the way from fireside bowl. I had always wanted to go in there since highschool, so that is where we ended up. Today I cleaned the floor, pulled the toilet out, laid out all the tiles out as I had planned (thanks sketchup) and made all the cuts required.
Tomorrow I am going to actually mix the thinset and actually lay them. Word. Then I need to grout and seal them. All thats left in that room is a new light fixture, new faucet, some finishing touches (the walls are very bare) and I can call that room done.
so lets play some catchup…
mason: doing great.. talkative (but just no in english) and almost always in a good mood. he is always smiling and can be so easily entertained. As I type this he is scooting around on the floor playing with a piece of paper he pulled off an empty box. Funny stuff. He is pretty social, and he still sleeps really well. We are beginning to ween him and we have started giving him formula as well as the solid foods, and he is all about that. He is also getting big enough that we need to get him into a normal car seat, as we aver overdue. He isn’t crawling yet but he scoots around on the hardwood on his belly, which is fun to watch, primarily because he can only really go backwards.
house: we are making progress on the house, in preparation for mason’s first birthday party, which we will be celebrating on 10/28. We have hung a bunch of stuff on the walls that we had been meaning to get up, and we got some black tile for the basement bathroom. Unfortunately, I haven’t finished pulling up the glue from the linoleum yet, which is a pain, but is coming along. We have a grocery list of stuff that we need to finish though, amongst them is tile for the front entry, which will likely be a slate. Should be super nice.
cars: I have been busy enough that my free time hasn’t been spent at the garage, which is too bad. the jetta is really close to ready… check out that blog for more on the project. The Audi performed very well Blackhawk Farms with the ACCCC last month and it was great being on the track. I have a short video that I stole from josh and edited down to just the part I am in, which you can watch if you want, even though it is long… check it (warning, 20mb). I have only been driving around in the city lately, not pushing the car much. I had noticed a few thunks in the rear lately, I assuming it was stuff in the back of the car rolling around. I happened to be driving the camry home the other night and as I pulled behind the audi, I noticed something hanging down. Sure enough, the swaybar was BROKEN. Kinda nuts, I’ll get some pics tonight. but it is odd. Needless to say, the camry is doing fine. I’ll likely buy some better tires for it next summer, as I hate these RE92s, and one has a slow leak. But whatever. I am still impressed by the gas mileage for a car of its size.
computer stuff: I still think my macbook is dope. still very happy with it. The move to the intels was a great move by apple. I also got a nice case for it that fits in my backpack, very nice.
side stuff… I have been inspired a bunch of times readin the MAKE blog and I have a few little projects I am going to work on, but I have been so busy with side web work and other shit I haven’t had time to play. I finally got around to learning layout with CSS vs. tables, and that has worked out well for me. I am by no means an expert, but I am getting the hang of it. I don’t know why I had such trouble figuring it out in the past, it is easy. I think I just wasn’t motivated enough.
Other than that, nothing super amazing to make note off… off to hang some more stuff on the walls. or back to the basement bathroom. And I need to go to the garage to talk with dylan about websites we are working on. And I have some work to do for work work. awesome.
It seems we are always busy… so what is new? I’ll do it in some list method…
• Mason is doing great. He is smiling lots, has begun laughing on his own, and is eating like there is no tomorrow, so I would imagine another growth spurt soon.
• I got my new glasses. I don’t have any pictures come to think of it, but they are nice. I am totally used to them now. They are dope. I picked them up on friday, 6/2. The place was nice, urban eyecare on milwuakee. Close, insurance covered them, and I like the glasses. Can’t beat that.
• Gardening… so we planted some flowers. And by we, I don’t mean me. Rebecca and her folks did the plant buying and the planting. The backyard looks great. I think we are going to do some new sod. I need to read up on what is involved, time windows, etc. I REALLY want to build an in ground sprinkler system, but everyone tells me it is over kill. Which it is. But I still want to build it.
• Outings… we went to the Chicago Botanical Gardens with Lisa, we have gone out the burbs a few times, hung out with Robyn a few times… been busy, but nothing too awesome too report…
• I am still not drinking pop… well, I have had like 4 cans in the last month…
• We worked on the house a bit… I may have mentioned it, but we did a bunch of touch up, I laid peel and stick vinyl tile in the laundry room, hung new lights in the basement hallway, hung some more shelves in the den, hung the projector screen in the den, bought the chair rail for mason’s room, painted clouds in mason’s room, etc… Slowly but surely…
• The jetta is getting close to done… the list of things to do is pretty small, and I am getting excited. Check the Cali The Jetta blog for more on the progress. Once I can drive that, the Audi goes to Al’s at Chicago Performance and Tuning for the A/C repair. THAT will be nice too.
• Been doing some more side work, which is nice money, I like money. I haven’t gotten paid on much of it yet, but we are getting there.
• Rebecca and I both got sick, and it sucks. On Sunday AM we both wokeup commenting that our throats felt weird. Well, now it is wednesday and I am home sick. I am feeling a bit better, but rebecca is still moving along. I stayed home to babysit and recover so rebecca could get some sleep. Being sick sucks, especially when both of us get sick at the same time.
• Autox on saturday, and we are planning on moving all the shit to the new garage on sunday. Busy Busy.
• I hacked one of the tivos. I am still playing with it, so it is not 100% awesome yet, but progress is being made. It is cool.
I think that is all for now… I think. I will try to be more current with my posts, I swear.
Finally… they are out of the garage… $280 picked up… so if you figure… we had 12 year old appliances, we bought some 2 year old GE white appliances, considerably nicer than ours, for $600. Then I sold the old ones for $280, net cost to upgrade was $320. Not a bad deal. Now I need to clear some more shit out of the garage, and we MAY be able to park a car in there soon! How novel!
I need to have more time that I focus on updating this blog…
over the weekend we worked on house stuff. We touched up some walls, put up shelves, put in a the hardwood stair nose, did yard work and some gardening. Rebecca’s parents came down and helped. We got stuff done.
Laundry room… cleaned cosby’s box and the washer/dryer, put down primer and then vinyl tiles. I still need to put up some more shelves, find a plumber to install a laundry sink, and I would like to put in some baseboards. Then that room would be done and I could get some more stuff put away in there.
Den… I managed to break some furniture while hanging up the screen for the projector. I also hung some more of the shelves and got the pottery put up. I need to get my mom to sew some velcro to my rung from india so I can hang that. Then hang up the elephants and clean up some more. Put in the last of the quarter round and see if that rug will work and that room will be done. I MAY want to add a small coffee table and I WOULD like a bigger screen… we’ll see.
Main floor… Rebecca’s folks worked on the touchup of the yellow paint. I installed that stair nose on the steps and hooked up the icemaker in the refrigerator. I also secured the dishwasher and put in that piece of trim there. We got more red paint, so we still need to touch up the red around there. We are looking at new drawer pulls for the kitchen, I think that would be a nice touch.
Upstairs… we trimmed the doors in mason’s room and the bathroom, touched up some of the trim.
So we still need to finish the basement bathroom, put up the light in the basement hall way, fix the ceiling fan in the bedroom, find some artwork hanging thing for the hall VW ads, etc.
The list goes on. BUT it was a VERY productive weekend, and I am feeling very good about it all. Oh, and we cleaned and took pics of the appliances, so I need to get those listed. I am eager to get that stuff out and perhaps get a car IN. That would be nice.
so I haven’t posted in a while, primarily because I have been busy, and I rebuilt my laptop and didn’t put the software back on it…
So what has happened since thanksgiving? Hmmmm… work is going ok, selling lots of stuff on ebay. The ebay thing is getting old, but we do need to move the stuff, and it is my job, so that is that. The boss is out of town tomorrow through end of the year, so hopefully I will catch up on all the little things that haven’t been getting done. Not that it is huge, but I have little things I would like to implement that I haven’t had time to work on…
I have a website project that I need to get working on… It is a site for a company that does something (I honestly am not sure what) but I am hoping to have the skeleton of the site done soon. There are some admin pages to control the content, so that will be kinda cool to work on.
Car related… the Jetta hasn’t been touched, but the Suzuki Throttle Bodies came. Those are cool. I need to order the standalone engine management too. Oh and start building the engine. I have been thinking about painting the car myself, although we need a bigger compressor for that. The Audi is doing fine. Al got me a great deal on the AC compressor that I need, so that will be fixed by summer. I also put snow tires on the Camry, although I didn’t replace the valve stems, so they leak air. awesome. Now I have to pay to get them fixed since we are driving to detroit this weekend and I am not risking that…
Mason related… I will post more on his blog, but he is doing good, although nothing super notable. He is smiling more, which is cool, but it is usually when we engage him. Soon it will be in general, which will be neat. He had some shots the other day, but he did quite well, barely cried and was fine since then. I am still waiting for him to be more exciting. It will come quickly.
Christmas is NEARLY here, which is kinda freaking me out cause I am not ready. We put the tree up, and there are pics posted of course… I also built shelves into the wall, which I still need to sand and touch up, but they came out pretty nice. I like them. Pretty modern looking.
I haven’t got my shopping done, which sucks cause I haven’t had time to think about what to get people. Time is slim now. And I am getting late in the season to shop online as I usually do. Grrrrr.
The xbox is cool. NES and SNES and Genesis games are cool. Old. But cool.
So there are more pics of Mason that everyone should check out. We are ending month 2. Word. He rules.