Perdidos in a Condo

My Salvadorean Coffee Quest

2009-06-11T16:41:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, I am Salvadorean. I was born in San Salvador, and came to the US when I was 5 years old. Growing up in California, I was always more influenced by Mexican culture than Salvadoran. So it wasn't until college that I began to get "in touch with my roots," sort of speak. In this process, I had always heard that El Salvador had at one point produced great coffee, but due to the war that industry died in the country.

Well, as I have become more of a seasoned coffee drinker, I have started hearing that El Salvador is making a resurgence in the international coffee scene. This has a lot to do with big time barristas using Salvadoran coffee in large competitions. Anyway, until recently all the different Salvadoran coffees I had tried really sucked (including Starbucks' Black Apron and the one that Whole Foods sales.) Some these coffees have been so bad, that my wife (who is particular about her coffee) made me empty out freshly made pots, because the coffee was so terrible. However, deep inside me, I knew there had to be one out there that would redeem the labor of my people.

Back in November, I finally found a contender, Intelligentsia's Los Inmortales (The Immortals). If anything, the name made it sound bad ass. I tried it and yes it was good. I can't say it was the best, but much better than any other Salvadoran coffee I had tried. Although, my big breakthrough came just a few weeks ago when I visited New York. When I went to Craft, a Salvadoran coffee called Los Luchadores (The Wrestlers or Fighters) caught my attention. Again a very interesting name for a coffee. I knew if its being served at Craft it has to be good. Unfortunately that day they didn't have any, so I was determine to find it. Fortunately, our friends ME and RE, who joined us for dinner at Craft, found it and sent us a pound. The coffee is roasted and sold by Four Barrel Coffee in San Francisco. These peeps really know their coffee and like Intelligentsia's coffee, Los Luchadores didn't suck. Actually, my wife and I really enjoyed it. Finally, a couple of coffees to be proud of and share with my friends.

While Los Luchadores and Los Inmortales are a start, I know there may be some other gems out there, so my quest continues.

Culver City Eats at Tub's Fine Chili

2009-06-04T11:32:00.000-07:00

On Monday my wife and I were coming home from our weekly fitness bootcamp session and we were starving. As is usually the case, we were debating what to eat. So driving down Overland we saw a new sign for a chili spot called Tub's Fine Chili. Interestingly enough it is in a small shopping center next to the liquor store where they shot one of the opening scenes of Superbad. Anyway, we pulled over and decided to try it out.

I am always excited to try new restaurants in the hope that I will discover the next big thing before it gets commercial. As it turns out the place was closed, but the owners were keeping it open a little later to see who would pop in. Right away we got samples of the different types of chili. Wow, this was not your average chili....they had steak, turkey, chicken, pork and even vegetarian chili....and it was delicious. They serve and sell the chili by the scoop in these tortilla/pita-like bowls. You can also, order various toppings and tasty buffalo chips.

We finally decided to order one bowl of the "Steak Town" and one of the "Turkey Drive" with a "Tubs Topper" side. The chili was off the hook, well seasoned, flavorful and not overly greasy. Overall, I could have used a little more heat, but they did give us a few small containers of their homemade habanero hot sauce, which sufficed. I was so hungry, I took my two-scoop bowl out pretty quickly, so much for the bootcamp workout.

This place is great, and best of all its walking distance from our condo. We will definitely be back and as long as it is in business it will probably force us to cut back on our Pho Show addiction.

New Print for My Office

2009-05-28T15:10:00.000-07:00

Just received a new Cesar Chavez print that I recently purchased, from a young up-and-coming Latino artist named Ernesto Yerena. I originally saw the original painting in D.C. at an exhibit called Manifest Hope that ran the week of the Inauguration. At the time, I remember really liking it and being bummed out that someone had purchased it already. Nevertheless, the artist released a limited run of a 100 artist prints (50 in turquoise, 50 in brown), so I managed to snatch one up.

This one is going in my office for sure!

I believe there may still be a few left, you can get more info at the Jetset Graffiti web site.

Bringing Some Design to Bedroom

2009-05-26T22:19:00.000-07:00

I finally had a chance to take photos of what we have done with our bedroom. It is still a work in progress, but nevertheless, we've come a long way from when we moved in 2 and half years ago.

Before:

After:

On the to-do list is the renovation of our closets and addition of artwork. Once I get it framed, I'm planning on putting my new Shag print in here.

Also, in case you are reading this on Facebook, these posts are part of my blog, Perdidos in a Condo.

New York Adventures, Friends, Food, Drink and Hotel

2009-05-20T17:13:00.000-07:00

My wife and I just returned from a quick weekend trip to New York City. As usual, we had plenty planned for this outing and not enough time to do everything. Nevertheless, we had a great time and even had the opportunity to share our adventures with some of our L.A. expat friends (RE, ME, JD & visiting friends), who now live on the East Coast....thanks again for all the hospitality.

Some of the great places we ate and drank at, included:

Casa Mono - Small Batali spot on Lexington and 17th serving Spanish (Catalan) cuisine. The Jamon Iberico was really good. Also, Top Chef Ilan used to work there. I had eaten there before, but it was nice to take my wife there.

Rue 57 - Its on 57 and Ave. of Americas, mainly French but interestingly also serves Sushi. This place was a pleasant surprise and the mushroom salad that my wife ordered was one of the most amazing things I have ever tasted.

Craft - This is a Tom Colicchio restaurant, who I am a big fan of. As expected the food was delicious and ambiance was great. We were joined by ME and RE, and we all shared a variety of dishes. A highlight and disappointment for me was the Salvadorean coffee on the menu "Los Luchadores," which unfortunately they did not have that day. Regardless, what a great name for a coffee. I will write more about that later.

The Continental - Talk about a cheap spot to get faded at. This place is famous for its 5 shots for $10 deal. So between our friends we ordered 20....and this was the first bar we hit.

Florencia 13 - Named after the infamous L.A. street gang, this SoHo bar is straight up chingon. With its tribute to gangster culture and cholo paraphernalia on the walls, this place is a magnet for out of town Chicanos and West Coast Raza in NY. The place is tiny but we had a blast. Special thanks to Lori, for being such a gracious hostess. Check out her Beaner Bar in Brooklyn.

Dean & DeLuca - We always see this spot in the background on the Today Show, so we stopped by for coffee and pastries. My wife and I had been to the one in DC, and since they don't have these in L.A. it was a nice treat.

La Superior - This joint is a Mexican restaurant in a real hipeester (out of the way) part of town in Brooklyn. The place itself embodied the arty/bohemian vibe of the neighborhood. Aside from some of the minimal folkloric accents on the walls (various images of the Virgen de Guadalupe, even on a skateboard.) you would of thought you were in some type of minimalist vegan spot. While the decor was subtle, the food was vibrant and delicious. Our group ordered a lot of food, specially JD, that guy eats like its his job. I recommend this place, its good... just don't trip out on the electronic ambient groove tunes playing in the background.

Finally, a big highlight of the trip was the hotel we stayed at, The London Hotel. This hotel was truly amazing, probably one of the bests that I have stayed in. My wife and I are big fans of the show Hotel Babylon on BBC America, and we felt almost as if we had been transported into the show...except this place is nicer. The decor is modern elegant, with a very tasteful earthy color palette. The room was off the hook, super comfy bed, incredible bath and overall it had every luxury amenity of a contemporary home. Our view was also fabulous, as we looked out towards northern Manhattan facing the southern part of Central Park. On the night before we left we even ran into Chef Gordon Ramsay, who has a restaurant at the hotel. Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to eat there.

Guanaco Modern Design on Dwell

2009-05-04T02:00:00.000-07:00

I was at the grocery store this weekend and picked up the latest issue of Dwell. I really enjoy reading this magazine, it always has smart and insightful articles on architecture, design and "modern living." While the content is not very practical for everyday home implementation, I appreciate the vision and innovation behind their concept of future home decor. Nevertheless, I was really impressed when I read the cover story, which featured a home in my native country of El Salvador.

The featured home is the work of a Salvadoran architect named Jose Roberto Paredes, who lives in the home with his family just outside of San Salvador. The article was a pleasant surprise, since the type of homes that Dwell features are usually from European countries with rich architecture traditions. You can read more about this unique home on the Dwell web site.

Art, My Guilty Pleasure

2009-04-30T16:07:00.000-07:00

For my wife it is shoes and purses, but my guilty pleasures are art (whatever I can afford) and music. So I'm pretty excited about the new Shag print I just purchased, its called "The Secret Cul-De-Sac." This print reminds me of life in Culver City, being that it is just west of Downtown and for being part of L.A., it has a very leisurely sub-urban feel. Now I have to save up for the framing, it will probably be more than the print.

Spring Arrives at the Condo...Art and Decor Part 2

2009-04-23T19:19:00.000-07:00

Spring time is now here, although the first part of the week felt like August with temperatures in the 90s. Regardless, last weekend my wife and I headed to Home Depot to pick up some flowers for our place. Check out the results:

Some spring flowers to enhance our outdoor space.

Also, in this next photo, you can finally see where our Ork Los Angeles Poster ended up, along with a new bookshelf we picked up at our favorite furniture store in Culver City, Interiors Made Eezy.

Art and Decoration for the Condo Part 1

2009-04-16T01:58:00.000-07:00

For me one of the hardest things of being a homeowner is decorating. I think that the look and feel of your home says a lot about people living in it. For the most part my wife and I have similar tastes. However, I tend to be more reflective of the items I choose.

For the last year we have been buying art and decorative items for our condo, but it wasn't until January of this year that I actually started placing most of them.

Take a look at some of the items we put in the dinning room:

In the above photo, we have 3 new things: modern candle holders from Target, espresso mirrors from Ikea and (my pride and joy) my first real Shag print titled Il Ballatoio.

Josh Agle aka Shag, is one of my favorite artists. I've been a big fan for the last couple of years. I began 2 years ago buying smaller post card prints for my office, but this is my first real Shag signed print and my first real adult art purchase, which I had professionally framed and all.

Well, that is all for now, I will have a few more decoration stuff to share later.

Weekend Eats at Westside Tavern in West L.A.

2009-04-13T11:47:00.000-07:00

I recently had a resurgence of creativity and I decided to start blogging again. I have a lot more to talk about regarding improvements to the Condo, so I am hoping to post more frequently again.

In the meanwhile, I will share my experience this Saturday at Westside Tavern in West L.A. This place opened about 3 weeks ago in the new remodeled section of the Westside Pavillion. Conveniently located next to the swanky Landmark Theaters, this spot is now a perfect dinner and a movie joint.

I've been following WT's opening on Eater L.A. and I know they had a number of delays, but this place was worth the wait...the food is great! I visited WT on Saturday with my wife for some late night dining and immediately we were impressed with the bar and decor. The staff there was friendly and attentive, and since it wasn't too busy we were quickly seated. Right away, I was happy to see that they cary my new favorite beer, Racer 5, along with a lot of great microbrews and mainstream beers. Our order conisisted of the meat an cheeses appetizer plate, which was very delicious and almost a full meal. I then ordered a Fish and Chips type plate, with home-made salt and vinager chips, very very good. My wife enjoyed a so-so Mac and Cheese dish along with some great cocktails.

Overall, the food was tasty and the price was reasonable. We enjoyed our visit and are looking forward eating at Westside Tavern again real soon.

Home Entertainment, to Wii or Not to Wii?

2008-08-21T14:49:00.000-07:00

Since the Wii came out, my wife and I have kicked around the idea of buying on for our place. The system seems like its a lot of fun and very entertaining. Also, its amazing to read all these stories from throughout the US of how people have lost all this weight from playing their Wii, as a form of exercise.

All things considered, the Wii is really a smart gadget that would probably be fun to own. But somehow the cost and our already busy schedules are deterrents in getting one. My thing has been that I would hate to buy one and never use it. But we'll see, I really got excited when I heard they are coming out with an Iron Chef video game for the Wii, check out the video below....."Allez Cuisine!"

Shoryuken to my Cholesterol!

2008-08-20T14:12:00.000-07:00

Last year I blogged about my 2007 resolution of getting back in shape. This was a resolution that I miserably failed to accomplish last year. However, 2008 is a whole different story. Thanks to a regimen of pilates, capoeira, and a 5 week fitness bootcamp, I have regained my cardio and overall physical fitness.

For the last 6 years I have been dealing with super high cholesterol, which at my age (32) has really put me at risk for heart disease. I dread going to the doctor and getting my cholesterol checked, because I always know it will be high. But now, I can't wait to get it checked.

Big props to my wife, for pushing me to really make the time to take care of myself.

I want to also attribute, my new kitchen for my renewed enthusiasm for cooking tasty healthy food. No more Krispy Creme bacon cheeseburgers for me, jk.

Also, in case you didn't get the Street Fighter II reference in the title, here you go.

Gyenari Korean BBQ and Lounge, More Culver City Eats

2008-08-11T10:21:00.001-07:00

On Friday, my wife and I had a date night. We decided to DVR the Olympics and went out for dinner and a movie. We were planning to see Dark Knight at the Imax at Howard Hughes Pkwy, but all early shows were sold out, so we decided to go and see what was going on in downtown CC.

On our way there, I remembered that Gyenari Korean BBQ and Lounge had just opened a few weeks ago, next to the movie theater in downtown. So we decided to check it out and see if we could get a table without reservations. The wait for a table inside the restaurant was going to be an hour, but fortunately we found a perfect table for 2 in the patio. They serve a full restaurant menu there, so it totally worked out. The service was pretty good, very friendly, and interestingly the wait staff was mostly female.

Since we had a movie to catch, my wife and I both ordered quick dishes. My wife ordered the Asian Tacos and a lemon drop martini, and I ordered the garlic noodles with a Sapporo. The food arrived promptly and smelled great. My food was delicious, all the flavors were there. However, I couldn't help but notice that some of the noodles were undercooked. I've heard of al dente but this was ridiculous. I couldn't break the noodle with my teeth. Since we were in a rush, I didn't bother to complain. Besides it tasted very good, just difficult to eat. I had a bite of my wife's tacos, and they were also good, very light and fresh. Hopefully we can come back soon and try more of the gourmet dishes.

Afterward, we went next door and caught Mama Mia. Yes, I know, what was I thinking? Surprisingly the movie was a lot of fun and I actually enjoyed it. I guess Batman will have to wait until we can see it on the Imax screen.

Vegas Chillin and Eats

2008-07-28T13:18:00.000-07:00

Spent the weekend at the new Palazzo in Vegas. Luckily for me I got hooked up with a Fortuna Suite, which was super huge....easily the size of 4 standard Vegas rooms. The room had all the luxury amenities of a high-end Vegas suite, with multiple flat screen TVs, mini bar, full size living room area with sectional sofa and spa like bathroom. But probably the best part of this room was the amazing view of the pool, which you could quickly cover up with this high tech remote control for the curtains and blinds. I enjoyed my stay very much and I hope to be back again soon.

Another highlight of the trip was checking out the newly opened SushiSamba, also at the Palazzo. I was totally excited to try it out after hearing that it had opened last week. I had heard great things about the sister restaurants in Chicago and New York, and I must say, aside from the snooty service staff, the food was delicious. I had the miso marinated chillean sea bass, which was perfectly cooked, on top of various mixed vegetables. To drink, I had my favorite, a traditional caipirinha....also made perfectly. Overall the place was packed and the vibe was pretty hip. Just around 9pm they had a DJ playing Latin house, which is always OK with me and meshed well with the vibrant cuisine. Outside, there was a lot people who didn't have reservations trying to get a table, most of them were turned away. SushiSamba will definitely go on my lists of Vegas favorites, I just hope the waiters and hostesses will drop the sometimes off-putting Vegas attitude.

To wrap up my trip, before heading back to L.A. I had a chance to catch an M. Kungl exhibit at the Jack Gallery inside the Venetian Canal Shops. I'm a big fan of Kungl's work and it was very cool to see some of his works up close.

Starting a Wine Collection

2008-07-24T02:08:00.000-07:00

As part of renovating our kitchen, I've set a goal of starting a wine collection. No, not just a bunch of 2 buck Chuck. Actually, over the last year I've learned a lot about wine and have developed a taste for it. In the process, I've even picked up some favorite years and vineyards that I prefer. Some of my favorites are Vines on the Marycrest and Ferrari-Carano. So as I begin to stock up on these amazing wines, I think a nice wine cabinet would complete the new kitchen.

Now, I'm not going to pretend I'm some kind of wine snob....I wouldn't even call myself a wine enthusiast. But lets face it, there is something about having a wine collection that makes you feel kind of grown-up. Besides, it will reflect the wine theme from the art in the kitchen and also encourage me to continue learning more about wine.

Target has a small cabinet that I like and will go nicely with the new kitchen cabinets. The cabinet holds 20 bottles and quite a few glasses. The best part is that its fairly inexpensive, coming in at an affordable $189. Check it out below:

New Art for the Condo or My Office

2008-07-21T10:56:00.000-07:00

Just received a print I purchased last week, its an interesting visual word map of Los Angeles. Reading another blog last month, I came across a very interesting map of Chicago, which laid out the names of all the neighborhoods in the city to create a larger silhouette of the city. I was intrigued and checked out the designer's (Ork Posters) web site. As I browsed the site, I noticed there were maps of various other cities, including Los Angeles. I had been looking for a unique artistic representation of L.A. for a while, and this map was definitely visually interesting.

I still don't know if this print is going to go up in the condo or my office. As I had posted earlier, anything that my wife doesn't like, ends up going up in my office. Who knows my wife may even want it for her office.

Solution for Our Closets

2008-07-18T11:29:00.000-07:00

I was recently browsing the Target web site and I came across the Fab 500 sale. This sale features 500 of their most popular items all on sale until tomorrow. One item that caught my attention was the "John Louis Home Standard Closet Shelving System." I've been looking for something like this for a while now, and its on sale for $199.99.

One thing my wife and I love about our bedroom is that it has his and hers closets. I have my side and she has hers. But since they are pretty old school, its hard to efficiently use the space, specially since we only have one hanging bar across and one long top shelf. And for my wife, there is never enough room for her clothes and shoes. I think this shelving system is what we need. Lets just hope this is one DIY project that I don't screw up.

Staying Local

2008-07-15T13:34:00.000-07:00

As mentioned in my previous post, my wife and I stayed local this last weekend. And aside from the carpet fiasco, which I have since fixed, it was pretty fun filled.

Saturday night, we had tickets to the Hollywood Bowl to see Chris Isaak... kind of a post anniversary date night for us. I had heard that Culver City had a park and ride bus that runs from the downtown area to the Bowl for $5. Considering the high gas prices and the hassle of HB parking, this seemed like a great option and we decided to try it out. From our condo to Downtown Culver City is about 5 minutes. So we arrived around 6:30pm, had time to pick up some pannini sandwiches at Ugo. Normally, I'm not a big fan of their food, but those sandwiches were delicious. I had the prosciutto pannini, and my wife had the sun dried tomato pesto pannini.

The bus left at 7PM and was a 40 minute ride, which is a little bit longer then if we would have driven, but this way I had 40 minutes to chill and relax. The show was great and after the concert we hopped back onto the Culver City bus and headed home. We arrived back just before midnight. My wife and I decided we were still not done for the night, so we walked over to a few old and new hot spots in the neighborhood.

First we checked out the tried and true Carbon. This place is a tiny no frills bar/lounge with a Hip Hop DJ. The drinks are very reasonable but its always packed, and on Saturday I was feeling extra claustrophobic. So after a beer we headed over to a new spot that just opened, Rush Street. I had seen this place boarded up for quite some time, so it was good to see it finally open. The ambiance was hip, comfortable and inviting. The lower level is a large open space restaurant/bar with really interesting Chicago inspired decor. The upper level is more of a loungey bar area with a space for dancing. The DJ on Saturday was great, he played a very diverse range of music that was fun and entertaining. Both my wife and I really loved this place and will probably be back with our friends.

Also this weekend, it was the grand opening of Culver City's Chipotle. This was another place I was anxiously awaiting. I know this place gets a bad rap for being a McDonalds concept, but hey the burritos are good and that's the bottom line. I discovered Chipotle when I lived in DC back in 2001, when I moved back to California in 2003 there were only a handful of Chipotles around. Now, they are slowly becoming a must have in every city. So on Sunday I headed to the new Culver City Chipotle, which is just 2 doors down from Rush Street. The line was huge and the service was slow. But I was entertained by little kids trying to pronounce Chipotle and the people in line, who were scheming how they were going to sneak their burritos into the movie theater next door. I tell you, its only a matter of time before the smell of carne asada replaces the aroma of buttered popcorn at my next moving outing. All and all, gone are the days of driving down to Marinda del Mar for my Chipotle addiction.

The DIY Carpet Cleaning Experiment

2008-07-13T18:17:00.000-07:00

This weekend was the first, in a few months that my wife and I had a chance to stay local and do stuff around the condo. After a never-ending post-kitchen renovation clean-up, Saturday morning I rented a Rug Doctor machine at Albertson's and cleaned the carpets.

I hate our carpet, its super cheap and very hard to clean. Nevertheless, it came with the condo and it needed to be cleaned. The cleaning process was an interesting experiment, the machine was fairly easy to use and the process of cleaning the living room/dinning area, hallway and our master bedroom took about 3 and a half hours. I think the process would go much faster, but I had to constantly change out the water.

While I was happy with the way the carpet looked while it was still wet, this morning when I saw the results I was not satisfied with the end result. There were dark patches scattered throughout the various rooms. Makes me wonder if I should invest in putting in hardwood like in the kitchen. Anyway, my experiment failed and now need to call a professional to make sure its done right.

I don't know if its because I don't have the handyman gene, or what, but I don't know why my DIY projects never work out for me. Oh well, practice makes perfect. But damn, its getting expensive fixing up my mess ups.

Inspiration for Our Next Project

2008-07-09T17:44:00.000-07:00

Staying at the Colony Palms this weekend was great, the casita we stayed in was recently renovated and had some really nice contemporary design elements that got the wheels in my head turning.

Probably the most inspirational element was the bathroom, which had a Pottery Barn catalog feel to it, with a Mediterranean vibe. Both my wife and I dug it a lot, so hopefully we can translate some of these features into the renovation of our own bathroom.

Check out a web site photo of the bathroom we had in our room this weekend.

5 Year Anniversary and Weekend Getaway

2008-07-07T10:35:00.000-07:00

After a hectic week of renovations, my wife and I were in serious need of some R&R. Saturday was our 5th year wedding anniversary, so we decided to take a quick getaway to Palm Springs. I had never been there, but its just 2 hours away from Culver City (far enough to feel away from the city) and has a bunch of great little spa/resort places.

We stayed in a casita at the Colony Palms Hotel, which was very cute and hip. The hotel had great ammeneties and a really cool pool area, with a loungey downtempo house music soundtrack playing in the background. We spent a lot of time sipping cocktails poolside, and enjoying the relaxing environment. For dinner we ate at the hotel's restaurant, which was delicious and I finally opened a bottle of Dom that I was saving for a special occasion.
Many props to my wife for finding this place, happy anniversary babe.

On the way home Sunday, we stopped by the outlets in Cabazon for some shopping. We checked out a lot of stores, but I really dug the Crate and Barrel Outlet, both my wife and I picked up some goodies.

Pictures Worth a Million Words

2008-07-03T11:18:00.000-07:00

Ok, everyone....tada, our new kitchen!

Some before and after photos:

Version 1:
This is what our kitchen looked like when we bought our condo in October 2006.

Version 1.5:
Upon moving in, we made some minor upgrades,

Version 2.0:
This is our kitchen today, completed July 2, 2008

Now that the kitchen is ready, ALLEZ CUISINE!!!

Eating Out During Kitchen Renovation

2008-07-02T16:27:00.000-07:00

I am happy to announce that our kitchen should be ready today. Still some minor lingering issues left, but for the most part it will be done and we can begin to move everything back to our cabinets.

As you can imagine, not having a kitchen for a few days resulted in us eating out a lot. During this time, my wife and I visited two cool new Culver City restaurants, Pho Show and Father's Office.

Fathers Office was pretty good, they had an awesome beer selection and interesting sweet potato fries. My wife and I both had burgers, which were tasty, but not as good as the Albi Room (another nearby bar). The drawbacks, were waiting in line to get in and then the free-for-all seating arrangement. I think this place is probably better for drinks than dinner, but nevertheless we were quite satisfied with our visit.

Pho Show is a restaurant I have been anticipating since January. For the longest time the restaurant was an empty space with just a sign. So I was so happy to see it completed and open for business. Finally we have a pho place nearby!

Since moving to the the West Side, we've longed for a decent neighborhood pho place. For the longest time we kept going to Pho 99 in Brentwood, which was a good 10 miles out of the way. So last Wednesday my wife and I decided to take a walk and check it out. The results were mixed, the food was good but not impressive. I felt the broth and the noodles were missing something. I found myself adding more stuff then usual to my pho to get the taste I'm use to. Overall, I will definitely be back. The proximity and the price is just right, and the food will satisfy my occasional pho fix.

Aftermath of Day 2 and 3

2008-07-01T14:30:00.000-07:00

Sorry for not posting since Day 1, but I have been dealing with a major case of the remodeler's blues. Both Day 2 and 3 went without any problems. The cabinets were assembled and installed last Thursday. Then on Friday, the cabinet molding was done and the granite counters were installed. The sprint pace of this project was pretty intense, and as promised the cabinets were completely swapped out in 3 days. Bottom line, the cabinets and granite counters look awesome...not bad for only $7k.

The company we chose to do our cabinets was Jing Cabinets in Culver City. They promised an unbelievable 3 day turnaround on our kitchen, which they made happen. Now you're probably wondering, if everything was done in 3 days why am I so blue. Well, mainly its because of the amount of touch-ups and fixes that result from upgrading a 30+ year old kitchen. Jing Cabinets, basically guts your cabinets and unplugs everything (plumbing, appliances, electrical connections), and installs the new cabinets without connecting anything back up...including the free sink they gave us.

It wasn't a big deal to me when they told us about not doing the plumbing, upon signing the contract. But when I actually saw the number of fixes that we needed to do post installation, it really bummed me out. Here are some of the things that we've had to fix after installation.

1) They took off my range hood to install cabinets, but didn't reinstall it (which is fine), but then refused to even cut the whole in the cabinets to install it. Status: Done

2) They disconnected all plumbing and removed dishwasher, which we were alerted to when buying cabinets. The bad news was they lost some screws to our dishwasher and cut some of the plumbing parts under the sink. So we've had to replace the entire plumbing under sink, again. Status: Done

3) Also related to plumbing is the sink installation, reconnecting our garbage disposal and installing our new faucet. Status: Done

4) As result of removing the old cabinets, we had some damage to the walls. We will have to patch up and repaint the kitchen. Status: Done

5) Our electrical outlets were too low, and some of them got in the way of the 6 inch granite back splash. We've had to move them a bit and added 2 new ones.
Status: Done

6) Our phone wall plug, had the same issue as our electrical outlets. So we updated it and finally covered the existing whole (thats been there since we moved in) beneath it. Status: Done

7) The granite counters were installed and look great, but the cabinet folks don't put the sealer to protect it. So I had to go to Home Depot and put it on myself. Status: Done (but I don't think I did it right, will try again)

8) Various pieces of our crown molding were also damaged as part of the installation. Also, our new pantry door is at different height as our old door, so we have to get a slightly shorter molding. Status: Done

9) And the big whammy that I need to get Jing Cabinets (who haven't been as helpful after the work was done) to fix, there is a 2 inch gap under one of the cabinets, between the flooring and cabinet. I totally missed this when I did my inspection of the work. I guess I was so excited to get new cabinets that I just overlooked it. I actually caught a smaller thing with the granite counter and the dishwasher, which should be easy to fix. Status: Still Pending

Overall the experience wasn't so bad, I mean aside from the fact that none of the workers that did our cabinets spoke any English(only Chinese) they did pretty good work. And I do love my new kitchen very much. I guess its just the lingering effects that prevent us from moving our stuff back into the kitchen that has me down.

I will post photos of the results soon.

Day 1 Complete

2008-06-25T17:06:00.000-07:00

First day of our kitchen cabinet makeover is now complete. It was fairly anti-climactic and it went pretty quickly. Some how I envisioned the demolition process like they do it in HGTV, where they take a sledge hammer and just crush all the cabinets to pieces, not the case.

Around 10 a.m. I had a really quiet young Chinese man named Tom, in a white van, meet me at the security gate. He didn't speak any English, and I only know 3 things in Chinese...but only two words that I can actually use, "hello and thank you." The third is "I love you," which I don't think I will get me any where with him. By lunch (1:30PM) he had already taken apart all the cabinets and cleared everything from the kitchen. The guy was working nonstop, so I went out and bought him a Subway sandwich. When I returned, the kitchen designer also had just arrived and she made sure that all the measurements were correct and that all the materials were delivered.

So far, so good. Before Tom left, he had already assembled 3 of the cabinets. I wasn't sure about the 3 day turnaround, but I think they may just pull it off.

Check out some of the pics:

I'm Dreaming of a New Kitchen

2008-06-24T17:34:00.000-07:00

I'm dreaming of a new kitchen....ok, more like daydreaming. I'm so distracted because tomorrow we begin the 3 day task (I hope) of changing our kitchen cabinets, which has me a bit nervous/anxious.

A few weeks ago I blogged about our plans to change out our cabinets, and that little cabinet store I found on my way home. Well, we decided to go with them and our new cabinets are finally going to happen. The cabinets were ordered last week, we chose our granite counter on Saturday, and tomorrow is day 1: DEMOLITION (shivers run up my spine).

Check out the plans for our new kitchen:

Good Taste, Better Home, for the Wannabe

2008-06-19T11:27:00.000-07:00

Since buying our condo, I have been relentless with my wannabe designer kicks. I am notorious for buying things for the house that my wife makes me return, give away or just tolerates. I know I'm not talented at design, but hey I try and in the last year and half I have learned so much.

So it was to my surprise to see the June issue of Better Homes and Gardens (no, don't think I subscribe or anything, just stumbled upon it on another blog) had the lanterns I bought from Ikea (for our balcony) on the cover. Wow, I felt so redeemed....I may actually have good taste for a wannabe.

Addicted to Etsy

2008-06-18T14:40:00.000-07:00

In my quest to begin buying art for the condo, I have been scouring the net for artists that catch my attention. Some of my favorites to date include Shepard Fairey, Shag, Michael Kungl and Will Rafuse. I have pieces from most of those artists, but they live in my office at work. Since at home, I am not the only one that has to like what is hanging on the wall, it becomes quite a challenge matching my wife's taste for art and mine.

Most recently, I got hooked on a site called Etsy. A co-worker turned me onto this site a few years back, but really never had looked at it in depth. As I began to look for new artists and new art, I became lost in the thousands of prints in so many styles. I got so into looking at all the types of art that I don't think I blinked for a good hour. The outcome was I found a really cool digital print from a talented graphic designer in San Francisco, Melissa Crowley. I immediately emailed it to my wife to see if she approved. My first thought was maybe this would look cool in our bedroom, but we'll see. To my surprise my wife really loved it, so I bought it. Check it out below.

The Tiny But Great Outdoor

2008-06-17T01:05:00.000-07:00

Notice that outdoor is singular, thats because the only outdoor space we have is a small balcony. For me this was a really tough area to decorate because its only 5 X 12. At the same time, for a long time we used this space for storage. This was until I came across a posting some posts online, regarding decorating small balconies. I immediately knew I could do something with this space and began to study any pottery barn, crate and barrel, ikea or Bed Bath and Beyond ad that came to our place.

After I finished clearing out the balcony, I only had my grill and a container for our recyclables. So my first step was an attempt to bring a bit of color to the boring brown balcony, I bought a hanging planter box with some flowers. Wow, the flowers made a difference right away.

My second step was to buy some type of patio furniture, so to conserve space I bought a bistro set that I picked up for under $75 at Bed Bath and Beyond. Cool, now I can drink my coffee and admire my flowers on the weekend. After I got the bistro set, I ran into a creative block, and didn't touch the balcony for about 4 months. My flowers died and didn't even replace them.

Anyway's a few weeks ago I got a creative breakthrough, and decided to head to Ikea. I came across these really cool lanterns, so I decided to use an old gift card that my wife had given me a year ago. I still had about $30 on the card so I bought 2 of the lanterns, a smaller table lantern, and some candles. When I got home, I realized that I would need hooks to hang lanterns, so I went over to Home Depot. While there, I decided to pick up some new flowers for my planter. Later that weekend I decided to install the hooks to hang the lanterns, and plant the flowers. Boom, the lanterns looked great and the balcony began to have a little bit of character. My wife and I had dinner (with candlelight) out there a couple of times, and afterwards I realized that only one thing was missing an outdoor rug. I picked one up at Target a few days later. Check out the final result.

Kitchen Cabinets

2008-06-11T11:27:00.000-07:00

When we moved into our condo, the kitchen was in really poor shape. We kind of upgraded it a bit by putting laminate flooring, repainting it, and new appliances. Just those minor things really made a huge difference.

Despite the upgrades, our cabinets were still hurting pretty bad. They are water damaged, and many of drawers and doors are broken. A few months back I was opening a door and it came off in my hand. Around the same time I began to notice that some of the cabinets were coming off the frame and you can see the bevels holding them together. I don't know why I didn't see all these problems during our inspection, yet another lesson learned after the fact.

Anyways, we have finally managed to save enough cash to change out the cabinets. We have gone to Ikea and looked a various kitchens that my wife and I liked. Ikea is great DIY, but when you are missing the handyman gene, it can be a bit of a pain. First, the nearest Ikea is about 20 miles away, so its rare when we have time to go. Second, their setup is designed for you to do all the measuring and layout design, and third the nearest Ikea approved contractor for demolition and installation is another 15 miles away. Now some of you may be reading this, and saying "what a wus, measuring is easy, and so is the installation." Well, I just don't trust myself with those tasks, and the last thing I want to do is have to incur another cost for a miscalculation.
The other draw back to Ikea cabinets, is that while they are affordable, they basically particle board, which is what we currently have (not the best).

So on Sunday as we were coming home, we saw a local cabinet store was having a sale, for a 10X10 kitchen with granite counter top and free sink for $2600. Wow, what a deal! So I called the next day and scheduled a free estimate. Yesterday I met the kitchen designer in the afternoon and she took measurements and priced it out with demolition and installation, at $5900. Wow, still not bad and the cabinets are real wood and granite counter tops. The lady told me that it would take about 2 weeks to get the materials and 3 days to install. I think that is pretty amazing, considering that I have heard stories of it taking about 2 weeks to install. So, my next question is, are these peeps legit? Fortunately the cabinets lady informed me that my next door neighbor, just had some work done by them. I guess I will ask my neighbor about her experience.

Now, we have one dilemma, my wife wants white cabinets (more expensive). More on that later.

Triumphant Return

2008-06-09T16:27:00.000-07:00

Oof, it took me about 11 months to add a new post, but I guess I finally have stuff to talk about.

Just a quick update, with more details to follow in the next few days.

1) Finished completing bedroom furniture (roman shades, curtains, nightstands, dresser, mirror, chest, and lcd flatscreen tv).
2) Put up some decent artwork, got a Rafuse canvas print for the kitchen.
3) Finally completed the furniture for living room (new coffee table, 2 book cases, and roman shades).
4) Completed balcony (bistro set, outdoor rug, balcony garden planter, and hanging lanterns).

In the works, new kitchen cabinets (might as well put that hard earned government stimulus check to use.)

I will begin posting photos soon.

Bad HD Karma

2007-07-19T10:32:00.000-07:00

A few posts back I went off on how cable companies rip you off with HD service. My solution was, screw Time Warner I'm getting myself an HD antenna that will give me all the free channels uncompressed and at better quality. I was determined not to give Time Warner any more money.

So after doing my research about what the best antenna would be and the type of coverage I would get in my area, I learned that all my efforts would be useless. Our condo complex is at the base of some hills and it turns out that we reside in a HD shadow spot. This means that the signals traveling down from the Mt. Wilson transmitters are blocked by the hills casting an HD reception dead zone. If you think I'm crazy, check out this HD "signal strength"map that I found, the purple areas are the reception shadows and our condo is near the red circle.

Talk about a cock block from mother nature.

Summer Grilling

2007-07-16T14:51:00.000-07:00

Back in March I got a grill for my B-day, finally put it together and broke it in.

Ah, what a manly feeling...cooking meet over fire.

A Homeowners Right of Passage

2007-04-18T13:25:00.000-07:00

The day we moved in to our condo, our next door neighbor put their place on the market. Unfortunately for them, the market slowed down and it wasn't until last month that they were able to sell it.

Needless to say, since the start of April we have a new neighbor. So for a few days we had contractors coming up and down the stairs getting the place ready for the new owner...this sure brought back memories.

As a matter of fact on Saturday I had a flashback to when we locked ourselves out, weeks after moving in. I was doing some work late night, when I heard some grinding outside my door. Ealier I had heard voices and rumbling up and down the stair case. I figured that the neighbors were moving things in still. But after the grinding continued I went to take a look. Oh oh, our neighbors had locked themselves out and had to call the locksmith to open their door. Man, what a bummer. I couldn't help but laugh.

Seems like the locksmith is to unofficial welcome wagon...."welcome to the neighborhood, suckas!"

Looks Much Easier on TV

2007-04-17T09:54:00.000-07:00

Well, since our move we really haven't bought any new furniture. For some reason, our coffee table kept bugging me. Maybe it was because it didn't really match the rest of our living room. So I decided to be bold and paint it.

I mean how hard can it be to paint a table, I see them do it all the time on HGTV. So I headed off to Home Depot and went straight to the paint aisle. Hmmm, what to buy? So I always see on the Home Depot commercials how friendly and helpful their workers are etc, and they are, but most times they are understaffed and overworked so they are not the cheeriest people. So I asked the paint guy what I would need to paint an old Ikea. He quickly directed me to get some gripper primer and then chose whatever paint I wanted. Ok cool, so far so good.

Next I headed towards the brushes and rollers. Err, to brush or to roll that is the question. Again I asked the paint guy and he said go for the brush. Ok, so which brush do I use? Upon finally choosing a moderately priced brush I'm finally out the door with my paints for about $30. It was about 8pm and I was determined to get the gripper primer on that night and maybe the first coat.

So once I get to the condo, its straight to work. Cleaned the table, put the primer on. The can said it was fast drying so in an hour I could begin painting over it. Well, thats the case if its not cold. It was about 53 degrees and the night condensation was not helping. Nevertheless I quickly put on the first coat before I head to bed. On a side note, I learned its not easy to paint something dark brown at night.

Next morning, bright and early I wake up and go look at my table. Still moist from the morning condensation it had dried with streaks from the brush. It didn't look good at all. Also some of the brissles from the brush had come off and were in the paint. Gees, this was not what I was expecting, I should have used the rollers. So I head back to Home Depot and I buy some sandpaper and rollers. So I began to sand and repaint, and its starting to make a difference.

My wife and I had brunch plans that day, so we took off for a few hours while the table dried. When we came back 3 hours later, the table had dried and it looked good....well, whats that....ah dang it....some dust fell on it and had dried in the paint. Freaken aye! Gees, I guess I'll have to resand it and paint it again another day. I must say, this stuff looks much easier on TV.

Our New Neighbors

2007-03-14T16:28:00.000-07:00

Wow, it feels like years since I had a chance to update this blog. I've been so busy and have not had any time to sit down and continue telling my stories.

About 2 weeks ago I realized we had 2 new neighbors move into our complex. More specifically, they have moved into the pool. It seems that every time I walk by they are always just lounging there...ah the life of a duck.

Yup, our new neighbors are 2 ducks that have taken over the pool. They just kick it there all day, like they own it. Its quite funny, because I have no idea how they got there. In the mornings I see them busy attempting to catch a squirrel in front of our condo, which provides for a very comedic sight...especially when a nearby cat gets involved. Picture this, two ducks trying to catch a squirrel in a tree and a cat nearby trying to catch the ducks....man its hilarious.

Anyways, I don't know how long these ducks will stick around, but I'm sure as it gets hotter they will be evicted by the maintenance staff.

More Culver City Hype....I Came Here for the Food

2007-02-08T17:54:00.000-08:00

Being the foodie that I am, I love listening to Good Food on KCRW, and last week they did a segment on Culver City's culinary revival. The show featured an interview with Patrick Kuh of the Los Angeles Magazine, who talked about some the culinary hot spots around town. His view of Culver City parallels the article in the New Yorker a few weeks ago. You can listen to the interview on KCRW's web site.

I have actually eaten at only one of the places mentioned, which is K Zo. Enjoyed the sushi, seamed to me a bit stuffy and pricy. My wife and I went there after it opened, but I will probably give it another shot.

Restaurant critic for Los Angeles Magazine, Patrick Kuh, reports on Culver City's diverse restaurant offerings. He dishes up a mélange of foods, from Beacon's affordable yet delicious Asian fare to the Industry Café and Jazz, which features a vegetarian-friendly Ethiopian menu and weekly live jazz. World-class chefs, magnificent wine selections, health-conscious foods and a wide range of international cuisine can all be found within Culver City.

Here are Patrick's picks:

Ford's Filling Station 9531 Culver Blvd. Culver City, CA 90232 310-202-1470		Industry Café and Jazz 6039 Washington Blvd. Culver City, CA 90232 310-202-6633
Kaizuka 9729 Culver Blvd. Culver City, CA 90232 310-253-5038		K-Zo 9240 Culver Blvd. Culver City, CA 90232 310-202-8890
Tender Greens 9523 Culver Blvd. Culver City, CA 90232 310-842-8300		Wilson 8631 Washington Blvd. Culver City, CA 90232 310-287-2093
X'Otik Kitchen 6121 Washington Blvd. Culver City, CA 90232 310-280-3961

Its All About the Accents

2007-02-07T17:44:00.000-08:00

This weekend my wife surprised me with a bit of color in our bathroom. Friday, she went shopping for condo stuff....next thing I know the bathoom is redecorated.

Really, there wasn't a whole lot of color that was added, but the subtle accents on the new curtain made it feel that way. Also we replaced our old school furry bathroom rugs with designer looking ones, really sleek (you can't tell from the photo, but the rugs contrast slightly with the floor). So here is a before and after photo of our bathroom, dang I had forgotten about those ugly checkered floors.


Before	After

Hopefully we can paint the bathroom soon and change the mirror/light fixture, and then the bathroom will be complete.

Busted!!!

2007-02-03T10:50:00.000-08:00

Remember when you were little and you left something somewhere that you meant to pick-up later, but ended up getting in trouble for it because you forgot about it. Gosh, remember how stupid you felt. Well, believe me its worse when you're an adult.

Yesterday I received a notice from our homeowners association telling me that I have violated our parking garage code, code number blah blah blah. I was illegally storing computer supplies in our parking garage and if I didn't remove it before some date I would be fined. Errr, that sucks.

Apparently a small computer tower that I had been lugging in my car's trunk since we moved (yeah I know it was 4 months ago), which I temporarily placed in front of our 2 parking spaces, was considered "illegal storage."

I felt so stupid, I took it out of my car because I needed some extra room in my trunk one day and I was too lazy to take it upstairs to our condo. So I just left it there for 2 weeks, and bamm got BUSTED for it.

Oh well, lesson learned...don't mess with the homeowners association...BIOTCH!

Don't Hate on Culver City

2007-02-01T11:57:00.000-08:00

In a prior post I talked about how booming our city (Culver City) is these days. Culver City is a part of the Westside that I have always been fond of. Maybe its because it was the only L.A. city that I've been to that mosts resembles my suburban hometown of Anaheim. My wife and I love living in Culver City, and lately we keep being reminded of why we chose to live in this hidden gem of a city.

A friend of mine sent my wife and I this article published last week in the New York Times, In Culver City, Calif., Art and Food Turn a Nowhere Into a Somewhere.

J. Emilio Flores for The New York Times

The article talks about why Culver City is becoming the place to be in Los Angeles.

My wife believes her moving to Culver City is the reason why its now on the map. Ah Truthiness, always keeping it real.

Traveling with My Bathroom

2007-01-25T20:46:00.000-08:00

As you probably have read before, our bathroom was one of the worst features when we purchased our condo. The shower head and faucet was old and corroded. The floor was this ugly checkered vinyl flooring, and the toilet....woo, that thing looked like it hadn't been cleaned in years.

So before moving-in I promissed my wife that I'd fix it up. So as part of our renovations, we changed the flooring, put in a new toilet, changed out the shower head and faucet. Today the shower looks a lot more modern, but is still not complete.

Both my wife and I love to travel. So our goal in the renovation of the bathroom, was to take our favorite things from hotel bathrooms we liked and bring them into ours. So for our shower head, we put in a fancy chrome Kohler Revival head. The shower head is nice and big and sprays a wide soothing stream of water. Then for our shower rod we went for the curved rod that gives you a lot more space in the shower. For the toilet we trusted our plumber, and we went with Toto...which is cool because thats what they have in a lot of hotels as well.

Anyways, this week I am at a conference in San Antonio and what do you know. Staying at the Marriott, my hotel room has the exact Kohler shower head, curved shower rod, toilet and similar tile. Wow...its like I never left home.

The Empty Wall

2007-01-18T16:53:00.000-08:00

This weekend I finished chopping down and throwing away our Xmas tree. We really lucked out this year, we got a really nice symmetrical and tall tree. But now that the tree is gone we no longer have anything to put there. As you may remember we got rid of the old entertainment center unit that was left behind by the previous owner. So now we have a bare wall.

Since buying our dining and sectional sofa in October, we haven't really bought any other major furniture that defines or adds function to the room. I guess I would like something that will fit with our modern looking place, but also be functional. I've been obsessing over the perfect item for that wall and I have found 2 credenza's that I think will really look dope next to our bare wall.


From Pottery Barn	From Crate and Barrel

I know my wife will want to see them in person first, and I'm split...so figuring out which one to get will be a little tricky.

So what do you think?

The Leak Behind the Wall, I Think

2007-01-16T09:59:00.000-08:00

Ever since the kitchen sink leak a few months back, I am really paranoid about our plumbing. These days it seems that every little noise I hear, immediately sparks an investigation for puddles, water damage or moistness.

One noise that has been driving me crazy for the last few weeks is in our bathroom. Every time we turn off our faucet, we begin to hear this dripping sound from behind the wall. Its like drip, drip, drip, drip.....dang it, it must be a leak. At first I tried to ignore it, I pretended that I wasn't hearing it. But as time went on, it just got louder and louder. So I decided to go speak to our association, who referred me to their maintenance guy. He asked me if there was any water damage on the walls or any moistness. I said "no," and he was like "then don't worry about it!" His theory was that the vibration of pipes from the water pressure can cause that dripping sound and is very common throughout our complex "Besides," he said "you live on the second floor, so you're good as long as your neighbor doesn't complain."

Somehow this was not the type of reassurance that I was looking for.

Typically in a condo one owns the space but nothing that's inside the walls. This is good to some extent, because in the event a pipe breaks behind the wall we don't get stuck paying for the repairs . The bad thing is, what if the water floods our place and damages our stuff....that's all on us and our insurance that hasn't kicked in yet.

New Year, New Home, New Me

2007-01-06T12:55:00.000-08:00

Phew, the holidays are finally over and its time for a new year. Due to all the expenses recently I haven't really worked on the condo much, but I will probably start putting to use some of the gift cards I received.

One big accomplishment in the last few weeks was finally hooking-up my DJ setup in our second room. In another life I was a dj, and I would spin records almost everyday. I was a turntable junkie obsessed with post-modern disco and deep house. Unfortunately over the years, my career, lack of space and lack of time have pulled me away from my passion. So after 3 years of having my equipment stored away in a closet, I finally have a place to set it all up and lose myself for a bit in my music collection. So now our second room is an office/dj studio/guest/storage room. Wow, hopefully I can narrow the rooms function a bit more over the next few months.

With 2007 here, I am trying to tranform the old RAR into a new lean mean fighting RAR...well no, I'm tripping, but at least get back into running shape. In yet another life, I use to be a long distance runner. But ever since I ran the San Diego marathon in 2002, the furthest I've run recently is from my living room to the bathroom after some bad Mexican food...and that was more like a sprint. So our complex has a small gym with tredmills and weight lifting machines, so I figure I should start using them. Not to mention, we have a local community college nearby with a nice track. Hmm, yup I can do it....and to get me started I even bought myself some new running shoes. Alright, now I'm convinced I am going to do it. Wish me luck.

Getting into the Season

2006-12-21T16:58:00.000-08:00

Those who know me, know that I'm the biggest scrooge. But those who know my wife, know that she is the biggest X-mas lover. I have made it my goal this year to change my ways and fill myself of the holiday spirit. So Merry Christmas everybody! I promise I'm not being sarcastic.

For the last 2 weeks I've been working hard prepping the condo for my wife's Christmas decor. So I've rigged our balcony with lights, I'll post pics later...and we got rid of that old entertainment center that came with the place, so that we would have space to put our Christmas tree. Check it out below.

Props to my wife for making this time of year and our place so special.

Dinner Parties are Fun! (If you are a guest!)

2006-12-14T13:12:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday, all of my family came over to visit the new place. I didn't realize how nervous I was about it, until the day of, when we were preparing everything for their arrival. Just like Señor RAR, I guess I also wanted my parents approval, or at least a sign that they thought we made a good investment.

So Señor RAR graciously made dinner for my entire family, which was no easy feat since there were 9 people coming, plus ourselves. He made his delicious Bruschetta, Chicken Cacciotore and Steak Salad. I made a delicious dinner salad, and dessert, Lemon Merengue Pie and Chocolate Satin pie (Thank Goodness for Marie Callenders!!!)

It was madness though! Cooking, cleaning, decorating. It turned into a "dinner party" because as the day went along, we thought of different things to make (Mojitos/micheladas) or to decorate the place. We even had a chance to set the table with our new china, which we hadn't been able to use since the wedding, and very formal place settings. It felt like playing house, I tell ya! I don't think we sat down since 10 a.m. until after 11 p.m., when my family left!

All in all, the dinner party turned out to be a great success!!! My parents really liked our new place, especially the color scheme we have going in the different rooms. It's nice to see that all that effort we put into picking the "right" colors for each room, really pays off when people comment on how nice everything looks. They also enjoyed dinner very much, so Señor RAR gets props on that one.

I feel a little bad for my family though, because since Señor RAR was cooking, he wasn't able to give his very thorough "condo tour." Instead, my parents had to experience my version, which is significantly shorter, but perhaps not as interesting (wink, wink).

I think we are now ready for the housewarming party!!!!!!!!!!

Sort of Failed Experiment

2006-12-08T14:43:00.000-08:00

Last night I couldn't resist the urge to go to Best Buy and look at the wirless video senders. As you may recall from a prior post, I am trying to send a video signal wirelessly to a portable dvd monitor in my kitchen.

So just my luck, I came across the Leapfrog LF-30S transmitter open item that the price had been slashed to $95. So I said, what the heck lets try it out. So I took it home and connected it to my second cable box in the bedroom, so that my wife can see one channel in the living room and I can watch something else in the kitchen. The installation was painless, although I was not happy about the added cables that come with the transmiters. Regardless I turned them on and they worked. Wow, I even set-up the infared feature on the unit so I can change the channels from the kitchen....very cool.

Uh oh, whats this? Static interference, no! It can't be, I was right the 2.4Ghz frequency is an issue. The wirless internet I got going, plus our cordless phone, and believe it or not our microwave are causing too much interference. I tried changing up the channels on the transmitters but nothing. Ahhh! Why don't things work how they are suppose to work. Oh well, I guess I have to keep looking for that 5Ghz transmitter that is all over the Internet, but impossible to buy because its out of stock in most places.

So now what? First return that piece of junk transmitter and then I have another expirement I want to try. Lately I have a theory about the HDTV genre. I've been intentionally avoiding getting an HDTV cable box, because I believe there aren't enough channels available in High Def to make it worth paying the extra $5 a month. So since the FCC has mandated that all public channels be available in HD as of this year, available over the air, I am considering just buying a powered HDTV antenna, which will hopefully allow me to view all the standard channels in HD (thats about 19 channels)... which are a lot of channels compared to what Time Warner offers, especially since a lot public channels are still not available through their service. Anyways, since our tv has a built-in HD tuner I think that forking out $45 for this antenna may be worth it. By the way, the whole Comcast/Adelphia buy-out by Time Warner is such a scam. Why can't people get all the channels available?

Ok, by now anyone reading this blog probably thinks I'm the biggest geek ever. So if I totally bored you with my tech rant, go enjoy some of the techno pleasures that are available online. I'm sure Truthiness can tell you all about it.

Somewhere in heaven, an angel got her wings (or My Wife's Cooking, Part II)

2006-12-05T11:53:00.000-08:00

I gotta say that it's been a great year for Señor RAR. First, the Democrats win the House. Then, the UCLA beats USC (Go Bruins!). And so I decided that I would give him the third miracle (hence the title post) and make him dinner. Yes, I know....Shock!

Contrary to popular belief, though, I do cook and I think I'm pretty good at it, if I may say so myself (you can even ask my family and college roommates and they'll vouch for me as well!). I have lots of experience since I was in charge of cooking for my family (8 of us total) for about 3 years. However, this is why I never thought of cooking as fun. It has always been a "chore," well at least until I started cooking for Señor RAR. But yes, sadly, life and work and everything gets in the way sometimes and it doesn't leave much for room for cooking a real meal.

So the other day, I was searching on the web for recipes for some of my "famous" Mexican dishes (since I had not cooked in so long, I kind of forgot how to make them!) and I found this great recipe for Chicken Tequila Fetuccine, which is my favorite at CPK. It was surprisingly easy to make, particularly since I was never taught to follow recipes when I cook. And it actually tasted like the dish at CPK, with alot more kick to it...after all, I do love spicy foods!

I have to admit, it was pretty nice cooking in our new kitchen. I don't have a "triangle offense" when it comes to cooking, but it was pretty cool to have so much counter space to prepare everything. It definitely made cooking easier and dare I say it, fun. The best part was seeing how much Señor RAR enjoyed it. I think this will get me off the hook from cooking again for at least a couple of months. And yes, I did school him and that feels a little more satisfying than the actual meal!*

*For those of you who don't know us, Señor RAR and I have always had a little competition going on when it comes to pretty much everything. So the last sentence is in reference to that. I am not a mean person, I am just AWESOME! :)

My Wife's Cooking

2006-12-05T10:07:00.000-08:00

I don't know who said it, but someone said that the key to a man's heart is his stomach. I'd have to agree with that, and long ago my wife won me over with her amazing Mexican dishes she would cook for me when we were dating. However as we both got busy with work and school, very soon those meals were mere distant memories.

Well, last night my wife won my heart forever when she surprised me with the most amazing meal ever. She made me a chicken tequila and lime fetuccini that was the absolute BOMB!!!!! I don't know what made me more excited, whether it was the fact that she was cooking again or that she was cooking in a kitchen that she once hated (before we renovated). I tell you, that dish has put a spell on me so that everytime I think of how good it tasted my mouth begins to water. Dang, I can't wait to finish off those leftovers later today.

Since normally I'm the one that cooks at home and I usually brag about my cooking to my wife, I have to say that with this meal she schooled me like a third grader...you know like at the age you can do multiplication, but not much else. Dang it, I better start watching Food Network again.

Friends, Beers and UCLA Football

2006-12-04T02:15:00.000-08:00

Wow, on Sautrday UCLA beat USC and took them out of the championship game. Ah, that was as good as seeing USC get clobbered by Texas last year...wait, no. UCLA beating USC is always by far better than anything else. It took seven years, but this victory couldn't have been sweeter...and watching it in our condo with brewskis and good friends was the icing on the cake.

Anyways, this weekend I called up my best friend form UCLA, and invited him and his wife to join us Saturday and watch the big game. Both my wife and I are proud Bruins and one day hopefully our kids will be too. It was nice having our friends over, we got a chance to show them our place and entertain them. We had a great time watching the game and eating. I made a nacho fiesta platter and my wife made a delicious but spicy guacamole, which we washed down with plenty of Pacificos and Dos Equis. As the game went on, we kept knocking on wood so we wouldn't jinx the game. As the game approached the 5 minute mark we started to believe. Yes, the Bruins were going to win it...and then they intercepted with lik a minute left and we knew it was all over...we were jumping up and down making a ruckus, it trully was awesome.

One irony is that before this season, the last time I went to UCLA footbal game was the last time they beat USC in 1998. I guess I should go to more games. GO BRUINS and good luck in the Emerald Bowl.

The Parent's Approval

2006-12-01T15:31:00.000-08:00

Believe it our not, next week will be 2 months living in our condo. Its amazing how time flys, however its only been a few weeks since our place was finally presentable. With less boxes to unpack now, I feel a lot better about showing our place to friends and family.

Anyways, one of the things that had been bugging me after getting our place, was that my parents had not seen the place or had they expressed any interest in seeing the place. What bugged me even more was that my wife's parents were so eager to come over and I was jealous at how excited they were about seeing the condo. Well, I figured since I was heading down to Anaheim (aka Anacrime) for Thanksgivng I thought I would invite them to come up that weekend. While their reception to my invitation was lukewarm, nevertheless they accepted.

Since my wife and I spent Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving with her family, we ended up spending all Sunday morning getting the Condo spiffied up. I had wanted to cook my famous salmon dish with orzo risrotto, a favorite of my parents, but I ran out of time. Well, 5:00PM hit and my parents arrived. My parents were accompanied with my grandma, my sister and my sister's fiance. Oh the stress, what will my parents think? Will they like it or hate it? For some reason I was desperate for my parents approval.

So upon arrival I began giving my grand tour of our humble little condo. They were really impressed with the color schemes, and how well they blended from room to room. They loved our dinning room area and kitchen. They liked our bedroom and bed frame. My dad loved the seperate his and her closet space, which is a luxury he does not have at home with my mom. All and all they were very happy for my wife and I and were proud of what we had accomplished with the place. Phew what a relief. Also, it turns out that their uneasiness about coming up to see our place stemmed more from their general phobia of Los Angeles than anything else...OC people, they might as well become their own state.

Since I didn't have time to cook, we ended up going to a local italian restaurant C&O Cucina in Marina del Rey...a favorite of my wife and I. We had a great time and really pigged out.

Wireless Wired Zen

2006-11-29T23:26:00.000-08:00

A few posts ago I went off on how much I hate coaxial cables etc. One thing I hate more is cable clutter. One of the challenges for our living room has been positioning the TV in a functional spot, with the cable being trapped underneath the carpeting. The cable issue is tricky, because I have to also figure out how to set up the wireless cable internet.

Where to begin, hmm I found a way to conceal my cables in the living room. Awesome, I hope my wife can live with the rubber strip that hides the cables. I don't think it looks that bad and it does the trick. Now on to the cable modem.

Time Warner really did a tight job with the cabling in our bedroom. I was able to split the line for the TV in our bedroom to set up my cable modem and router behind the tv. It actually worked out great because it's kind of hidden and doesn't really get in the way. Plus, another pet peeve of mine is protruding wifi router in broad site. I know there are issues with range and line of site connectivity, but I lucked out by buying a Wirless Pre N router...which is suppose to be powerful enough to send your wifi signal throughout a mansion.

Ah I love it, less wires and cables make me happy. Now I just have one wiring wireless project pending. I want to shoot a wireless audio/video signal to a little dvd monitor that I want to put in the kitchen. This way I can watch my baseball and basketball games while I cook. The only thing is that I need to find a 5.8ghz transmitter(which are rare), so it doesn't interfere with our router and cordless telephone that operate at 2.4ghz (very common frequency).

Peace to technology.

I Love My City

2006-11-20T02:14:00.000-08:00

Ok before anything, I have to say that my hometown is Anaheim...and if I thought it would look good I would tattoo it across my back. I love Anaheim, I mean this is the place I grew up in and will forever have a special place in my heart.

However, our condo is in Culver City, which is 55 miles away in West Los Angeles. Its nothing like Anaheim, but I can't help myself from falling in love with Culver City more everyday. There is all kinds of development going on throughout the city, making it a very cool modern place to live in. In Sunday's L.A. Times I read that the City has invested about $65 million in improvements since the 90's. Thats some serious tax-payer cash, and it shows. All kinds of cool little places popping up everywhere.

One such place opened this weekend, Famima! Its like a supped up 7-11....better yet Famima! is to 7-11 what Gap is to Old Navy. The place is stocked with all kinds of goodies. I checked it out on Saturday and won a free Pannini, dang nothing tastes better than free food. While its a bit pricey, they pride themselves on their "Premium Experience," so I better go recycle my cans because I know this place is gonna bankrupt me.

TV Cable Fever

2006-11-16T14:04:00.000-08:00

Since we purchased our LCD flat panel, I've been fixated on getting the best picture quality and hooking up all our components together. Very quickly I realized how little I knew about digital video. For starters, these days there are like 6 different ways to transfer video. What happened to just plugging the yellow rca cable to the back of the tv? Anyways I found a cool little tutorial online that gives you the low down on everything you need to know to hook your cable and hdtv monitor, and get the best picture quality.

So here are the basics in order of best to worst:

HDMI cable - The best quality, true digital quality.

DVI cable - HDMI's adopted sibling

VGA cable - Mostly from computers

Component cable - 3 cables that seperate red, green & blue colors for great quality

S-Video cable - 1 cable that separates brightness from color for very good quality

Composite cable - the good old yellow rca cable, fast plug and play for descent quality

Coaxial cable - the worst and most used, the stiff white and very long cable that comes with your cable box.

I hate coaxial cables they are ugly, always too long and as you can see from my list above of inferior quality. But the worst thing is that its everywhere. They use it to run the main cable line into most homes, I mean they might as well run a telephone line through my place. Since our condo was built in the 70's the cable is not built into the walls, which means we have to run it under the carpet and along the edge of the walls...not the prettiest thing.

Flip That House

2006-11-13T17:14:00.000-08:00

Dang another lazy Sunday came and went. This weekend we spent it watching the Flip That House Marathon on TLC. It was pretty amazing to see how people take these beat-up homes and totally transform them. I mean we took a few rooms in our place and supped them up, which was pretty hectic...I couldn't imagine a whole home.

The one thing that gets me when I watch these shows, is that I realize that we totally over paid for our place. Everyone keeps saying how kitchens and bathrooms sell homes. Well, our kitchen and batrhoom were a total dump and we still bought it...gosh we're suckers. Its ok, just another lesson learned and aside from that we have been able to really customize our kitchen and bathroom to our taste.

The Greatest Day Ever!

2006-11-09T13:28:00.000-08:00

Aside from my wedding day (obligatory, duh!) and the day I passed the Bar, yesterday was one of the best days ever!!! (Not to mention that blue is my favorite color!) What made it even better was that I got to enjoy all the election results in our new home. So this got my poetic juices flowing, if you will, and I came up with this...cliche, yes, but sweet nonetheless.

Enjoy!

New Condo: $$$$ *

Flat Screen TV: $$

2006 Election Campaign Spending: $$$$$$$$$$

Watching a woman become the New Speaker of the House in your new home on your new TV: PRICELESS!!!!!!

* $$ - Hundreds of Dollars
$$$$ - Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars
$$$$$$$$$$ - Way too much money to spend!

Bringing the Kitchen Back to Life

2006-11-09T11:04:00.000-08:00

Here are some more before/after photos of our kitchen. Its pretty amazing what a little love will do to a place.


Before	After

Both my wife and I were happy to get rid of that old checkered floor and those old appliances. The counters were actually repainted by the previous owner to give them a newer look. However, we are hoping to change out the cabinets and counters sometime next summer.

Pimp My Living Room

2006-11-08T11:38:00.000-08:00

I've been pretty bad about posting photos of the things I blog about, so here is a before after shot of our living room (check out the accessories on the drapes, they look better in the photo).


Before	After

The coffee table is from our old apartment and temporary while we find one we like for that space. We also want to put some artwork in the dinning room along with a small bar. As you can tell, we've come a long way.

On a complete different side note, my wife and I were super happy with the election results....its nice to see the country go blue. We stayed up late last night at a victory party for some local members of Congress. Finally, we will see some real breaks for the working middle class in America. Ok, enough politics.

Window Treatments, What Was I Thinking?

2006-11-06T13:22:00.000-08:00

This last Saturday JC Penny was having a massive storewide sale. I had heard that JC Penny was the place to go for curtains and other window treatments. So I convinced myself on Friday that I would wake up early on Saturday and take advantage of the mega discounts and buy curtains for our place. Needless to say, the store was packed with women, which was a bit intimidating.

First off, I didn't realize how complicated it was find curtains. I was quickly overwhelmed by the number of women who were hogging up the sales people, these women were ordering all kinds of curtain things. I soon became confused with the selections and types of window treatments available. I had to figure out fabric types, lengths, color, styles, accessories and price, which was much more involved than I imagined. Then there also was the wife factor, since she wasn't able to go with me I wasn't sure she would like the curtains I chose.

So after finding some curtains I liked, I decided to ask for help. The sales lady was very nice and answered all my questions. The curtains I chose were ivory and had this draping accesory fabric that mad it look very elegant. The 5 pieces without the discount were $180, but for being there early they gave me some additional discounts and the total came out to $75.....man, what a deal.

Putting the window treatments up was a whole other story. I had purchased some rods a while back at Target, when they were on sale. So after finding where I had placed them, I went to work on measuring and installing the rod. Since the curtains would cover our sliding window door in the living room, I measured the height and screwed in the brackets that hold the rod. After making sure it was level and symetrical, I began hanging the curtains. Hmm, they don't look anything like they do on the photo that comes with them. Oh well, lets put them up. After about an hour and a half of working on this, I was gonna like them no matter what and even though they seemed very wrinkled and akward, I was satisfied.

When my wife arrived later in the day, she totally didn't like the way they looked. She said that style of the treatments didn't match the rest of the living room's feel. When we discussed it we agreed that the draping accesory fabric was the main problem and made it look a bit tacky. So once I took that detail off, it made a huge differnce and we were pleased.

First Home Cooked Meal

2006-11-02T10:07:00.000-08:00

As of last Saturday our kitchen's renovation has been completed. We have a new stove and hood, new dishwasher and microwave. The place looks great, now we just need to put away all our dishes and stuff.

Nevertheless, since we got our stove installed last week I've been itching to start cooking. Unfortunately we have been so busy lately that we haven't gone grocery shopping and our fridge is empty. So yesterday I decided that on my way home from work I would stop by Ralph's and pick up some food to make. Ooh,what to make? I decided to go with one of my signature dishes, baked salmon with an orzo rissotto. Picked up all the ingredients and headed home to break-in the stove.

Allez Cuisine! I had that kitchen work triangle moving like a pro, fridge to sink, sink to stove, etc. etc. I really love my kitchen, its so spacious and very comfortable to cook in. By the time my wife got home from work, the food was ready to plate and serve. Cool, we also got to eat in our new dinning room for the first time too. Then to set the mood a bit, I turned on my Bose Sounddock and put on some smooth bossanova...ahh Bebel Gilberto (my wife calls it salmon music, because I always play it when I make this food).

The food came out great and my wife enjoyed it. I felt accomplished and was proud of my new stove. I was impressed with the burners on the stove, they really distributed the heat very evenly. My only gripe was on the tempetature knobs, they get a little hot, which was weird to me. Can't wait until my next meal, also I hope that my wife will get inspired by all the new appliances and treat me to one of her amazing Mexican dishes. By the way, in case you haven't noticed, Truthiness is my wife and she will be chiming in on the blog to give her perspective on things.

Just in case...

2006-11-01T15:21:00.000-08:00

Just in case there are more people who read this blog, other RAR and myself, please take notice that RAR tends to exagerate a little bit sometimes, so take everything RAR says with a big grain of salt. Therefore, my purpose will be to give you the real side of the story depending upon the level of exaggeration of RAR's post...yeah, if you got that, I will give some of the candy we have left over.

That being said, I have never seen anyone so excited to hand out candy to complete strangers...what's up with that? The funniest thing is that RAR is sooooo excited to have trick or treaters, but he only gives them like one piece of candy each! Que CODO!!!

Where Are All the Trick-or-Treaters At?

2006-11-01T00:39:00.000-08:00

Since 2000, every year I buy candy to give out at Halloween. The first three years I lived in Virginia and not one trick-or-treater came to my apartment. The last 2 years I've lived in an apartement in West Los Angeles and once again no one ever came. Anyways, I always got stuck with a bunch of candy. I don't know why I kept buying candy, I guess I always thought that the year I didn't buy any candy I would get barraged by trick-or-treaters.

This year I knew I had to get kids come to our door, I mean I've seen many around our complex. I couldn't wait to get home and give out candy, I knew this would be the year. Well, I finally got to give out candy. We ended up getting about 10 kids, but at least I was happy to have ended my drought.

Lazy Sunday

2006-10-31T09:50:00.000-08:00

Since moving-in to our condo, my wife and I have been so busy that we really haven't had a chance to enjoy a full day there...so on Sunday we decided to sleep-in. Ah it was nice, nothing beats waking up late and knowing you have nothing to do but lounge all day. The best part about it was that we had an extra hour due to daylight savings, so we ended up waking up around 1pm. Gosh, I haven't done that in a while.

After getting up we just kicked it in the living room watching our new flat LCD TV. After getting the TV earlier in the week, it was amazing how it quickly defined the space. It was like the Matrix, I saw exactly where everything should go. So I placed the couches back into a sectional arrangement, found the peferct wall for the TV and bam we had a living room. I tell you, theres nothing better than lounging on a super comfortable couch and watching TV on a new hip LCD flat panel. Although, I really need to get an HDTV cable box to take my picture quality to another level.

Man, I hope I can do this every weekend.

$75 Lesson

2006-10-30T01:15:00.000-08:00

Part of living in a second floor unit means that if you lock yourself out, you're probably not going to be able to enter through the window. Well, as I learned yesterday it will cost you $75 to get a locksmith to open your door.

I'm notorious for forgeting my keys, and usually (for some reason) when my wife goes out with me she relies on me to carry the keys. So when we went out for the night, as I closed the door, my wife asks me if I had the keys. I touched my pant pocket and realized I didn't. At first my wife thought I was kidding, but then saw the look on my face an knew I had done it again...left my keys inside.

Great, what to do? So I thought that maybe the security at our complex would probably have a number for local locksmith. So we went to the security booth and the guaurd lent me his phone book. I managed to track a locksmith that provided 24 hour service. When I spoke to the guy he said he would be over in 20 minutes, he also informed me that it would be $75 and he only took cash. Err, only had $60 bucks on me. So my wife left me at the security booth and went to a nearby ATM to get some cash. So as I waited for the locksmith to arrive, I sat on a bench close by. Who knows how miserable I must have looked, because when my wife returned I could hear her laughing at me in her car from like 40 yards away. I said to her, "Why is it that lately every mistake I make costs me money?" She turns to me and laughing says, "You're a homeowner now, remember." I didn't laugh.

About 10 minutes later the locksmith arrived. The guy arrived in shorts and loafers without socks. It seemed like he just grabed some shoes and came over. It later made more sense when he told me he had been barbcueing in his backyard. He had a hard time opening the door, and after trying to pick the lock with no results, he went to get his drill. I thought, oh great...I just changed the locks too. But fortunatley he tried something else and the door soon opened.
Forking out the $75 bucks hurt, but to add insult to injury the locksmith told me it was his birthday and that he left his party just to come and open my door. I totally felt like an idiot.

Breaking the Seal

2006-10-27T13:24:00.000-07:00

Yes its official, I broke the seal on our new condo by putting my first dent into the new laminate flooring. Ahh, freaken aye.

The last few days have been filled with ups and downs for me, probably the biggest downer was making the dent on the kitchen flooring. Stupid me, decided to change the direction the refrigerator doors open. It had been bugging me that the fridge doors opend toward the kitchen and not away from it. Since I didn't have a manual, I thought I would wing it. I took out my power screw driver and began taking the doors off. So in the process, both doors came off at the same time and I fumbled around to keep them from dropping. I managed to stop the bottom door with my shoeless foot, which hurt like a mofo, but as I reached for the freezer drawer it slipped and hit the laminate floor with a big thud. Ohh, the pain! I don't know what was more painful, the fridge door smashing against my foot or the freezer door making a dent in the new floor. Nevertheless, I took it like a man and I didn't cry...even though I wanted to.

So I began to change the hinges and handles on the fridge doors and came across a small obstacle. How do you take the handles off? The screws on top were easy, but how do the ones directly on the door come off. I first tried to pull them off like many of the screw plugs on the fridge, no go. Then I tried to spin it around and unscrew it, negative. Dang, how do these things come off. So after 10 minutes of trying to take them off I yanked one off and snap it broke. Errr, this whole experience is not going to well, but I quickly noticed that there was a cover that slid off and covered the main screw. Ok, my wife is gonna kill me when she sees the broken handle. So I composed myself and began putting everything back together. I soon figured out the correct method of putting and taking the doors off. To put-on, work from bottom to top...and to take-off work from top to bottom. Lesson learned too late, but at least the doors now open away from the kitchen for much easier access.

After that little debacle, I felt like crap. So I used my wife's shoping therapy to make me feel better. When my wife came home she wasn't too upset, so we headed to Sears and bought a new 26" flat panel lcd tv. I had been researching this for a while and I found this great Sylvanian tv on the Circuit City site. Its amazing how much cheaper these televisions are these days. However I was still weary of the plethora of inexpensive no-name brands that are out there. So I read through all the online reviews for this model on the CC site and I was convinced that I wasn't going to throw my money away. So we ended up buying at Sears because they have a price match guarantee and they'll even take 10% off from the price difference. Ooh exciting...we got a new toy, which helped take away some the sting from the floor incident.

Yesterday, we had the contractors come in and finish the molding in our kitchen and bathroom. They came in and put the caulking, filled in the nail holes and painted them white...it looks very nice. Our stove was also recently delivered, so the kitchen's makeover is almost complete. All we are waiting for now, is the dishwasher and the range hood. Wow, this kitchen looks totally differnt now. I will post pictures when its complete.

Finally, another downer. The day the stove was delivered I came home from work early to wait for the delivery guys (whom I almost missed). I walked into the kitchen and noticed a small syrupy brown puddle under the sink. I immediatly thought my wife might have dropped some soda on the floor by accident, so I cleaned it up. I went to the bathroom for a second and when I returned to the kitchen the puddle was there again. Thats weird, something is not right. As I openned the door underneath the sink it smelled wierd and noticed an even bigger puddle. Oh great, were the new pipes defective? I began clearing all the stuff under the sink, and the boxes that were in the empty dishwasher slot. It was very moist and some mold had formed. I quickly began wiping everything down and put a fan to begin drying everything, but for some reason I couldn't find where the water was coming from. I finally stuck my hand behind the pipes and felt a tiny mist, it was a leak and it was coming from the pipe that connects to the dishwasher. When the plumbers repaired the sink a few weeks back they broke the old copper pipe that connected to dishwasher. Since we didn't have a new dishwasher yet, as a temporary fix they soldered the pipe to seal it. But I guess they missed a spot, which means that the mist had been running for 3 weeks. The sucky thing is that if the cabinets weren't already so water damaged I probably would have caught it sooner. I'm hoping we can put in new cabinets next summer. In the mean while I have a bucket to retain the water, just until we get our dishwasher installed on Saturday.

Ah, the joy of homeownership.

Laundry Room Blues

2006-10-25T00:04:00.000-07:00

So tonight I decided to do laundry, this would be my first time since moving into the condo....ooh exciting. Our complex has a pretty nice laundry facility with plenty of modern washers and dryers. The best part is that its only 75 cents per load, what a bargain.

So as I gathered my dirty clothes, I quickly noticed that I was out of chonies (thats underwear for the non-Spanish speakers) and socks. Cool, caught it just in time. So it was just past 10PM and I headed down the courtyard to the laundry room. Since it’s about 100 yards away I decided to listen to music on my walk, so I was pumping some old Jamiroquai on my Ipod. Completely oblivious to everything I put in my clothes in the machine. My wife asked me to add some of her clothes, so it came out to two loads. On my way back I switched it to my new Amigos Invisibles CD I just got.....jamming to the Venezuelan Ultrapop.

When I get to the condo, my wife was watching Boston Legal in our bedroom. She started telling me she wanted to have a baby....aah ah baby? Whoa, easy there. Since my sister got engaged last week, my wife has this interesting theory that we will/should have a baby before the wedding. Change the channel, ah look NipTuck is on, and the dwarf manny is kissing the wife of the surgeon....gees what a weird show, but I love it. Oh yeah, I think my clothes are done washing.

So my wife and I head to the laundry room we get there and I realize I forgot the keys. Ok, back to condo got my keys and back to the laundry room. Hmm, something’s weird the door doesn't open and the lights are off. My wife says we should check the other side, so we do. Chingators! On the other side there's a huge sign "Laundry Room Hours 6AM - 11PM." Dang it! Ahhhhh, all my chonies are in there. So my wife asks me who is going to wake up at 6 tomorrow to get them, errr...no comment, but I know it will be me.

Sure Feels Good to Be Home

2006-10-23T15:20:00.000-07:00

It's Monday the 23rd and its back to the grind, back to work and the city living. My wife and I arrived last night from our Hawaii trip and boy, it sure is good to be home. Not to say I didn't enjoy relaxing on a beach doing nothing...but there’s only so much relaxation one can take.

After being away for a week, walking into our condo was a bit strange. The experience was reminiscent of when my wife and I returned from our honeymoon (in Maui) 3 years ago, and walked into our new apartment that we hadn't lived-in before. It was weird, thinking about it gave me goose bumps....its quite amazing how much we have accomplished in such a short time.

After dropping off our bags in the condo, my wife and I headed to get the mail. That was something that had me a bit concerned, especially since I'm convinced that the post office has screwed up my mail forwarding. Err, we had a lot junk in the mail box....but barely any forwards. Dang it, I hate dealing with the post office. I think I'll have to call 1-800-Ask-USPS, I've heard they can fix any mail problem.

Anyways, my wife pointed out something about me that tripped me out. She told me that she notices that I walk a little taller around the courtyards in our complex. When she told me that, I was like "Thats funny, but I guess," but in my head I thought "Hell, yeah! I'm a homeowner sucka!" (Baby, if you're reading this....I wasn't calling you sucka...it just a figure of speech.)

I Miss My Condo Already

2006-10-16T15:42:00.000-07:00

After spending all of September getting through escrow insanity for our condo, we knew that there was light at the end of the tunnel. What kept my wife and I going was knowing we were going to spend a week in relaxing Hawaii. Well, we made it...but it really hasn't been that relaxing.

As we were in the air, our pilot informed us that a 6.6 earthquake had hit the Big Island and that it had impacted all the other islands. Being from California we're use to earthquakes, but come on not on our vacation. We landed in Honolulu around 11:30AM local time, and we were told that there was no power on the island, which meant nothing was working. We were manually exited off the plane and in the dark awaited for the airline to bring out our luggage. Man, it was so chaotic trying to find our bags.

After we got our bags we headed to Alamo to pick-up our rental. Luckily it wasn't crowded and despite not having power, the staff was pretty efficient. Cool, we got an Impala. We drove east on Nimitz Hwy to Waikiki. We arrived in about 10 minutes. Since the stop lights were down, everyone was driving extra slow. Upon arriving at our hotel, it was pitch dark and we were told our room wasn't ready. Err, not cool. The lady at the front desk was very nice and gave my wife and I a voucher for free lunch. This worked out, because we were starving. So after checking our bags with the bell desk, we were off to eat. Since there were only a handful of places open, everywhere you went (including the bathroom) there was a long line. Getting our free meal wasn't too bad, but when we wandered to the streets later to pick-up some supplies....we ended up waiting in line for about an hour and a half. It also didn't help that it started pouring rain while we were in line. Errr, not the relaxing time I was expecting.

Man, I miss my condo already.

The Sectional Puzzle

2006-10-14T12:47:00.000-07:00

All our furniture from Levitz has been delivered and its time to arrange it. We purchased a very versitle sectional that can be arranged in like 10 different configurations. Although, after 2 hours of trying to figure which one would work best for our living room, I'm not sure this was the best furniture for our place.

Dang it, what end goes where? Its so confusing and it doesn't help that they don't give you instructions on how the different ways to set up this sectional. One of the challenges with our living room is that it doesn't have a logical direction. So where does the TV go? I'm convinced that this will be my excuse to get a flat panel TV, which can be placed on the wall.

Anyways we decided not to set the furniture in a sectional style, but to place them as two separate pieces facing each other...hmm that works. Errr, but my wife is not too happy with the way it looks. I'm sure the more we see it, the more we'll get acustom to that setup. However, I do love the couch colors, they totally fit perfectly with the paint we chose.

Well, my wife and I will be taking a break from all this condo stuff, at least for a week. Before we decided to buy the condo, we had planned a trip to Hawaii for next week.....and I must say it couldn't have come at a better time. I figure with all the new expenses, who knows how much travelling we'll get to do.

The Price of Fixer-uppers....a bottomless pit.

2006-10-13T10:17:00.000-07:00

This morning I sat in my living room for like 10 minutes admiring all the amazing upgrades we've made in just one week. But it’s more amazing how the costs add up so quickly. We were fortunate to get a credit of $1500 from the seller, which now seems like it was not enough. I mean, around every corner of this place there is a new repair that is followed by an expense.

Just last week when were laying the flooring for the kitchen, our plumber which happened to be there, glanced over at the plumbing under the sink. He quickly asked me if an inspector had taken a look at it, because it was all corroded. What the previous owner did was cover the corrosion with tape to hide the damage. Thank goodness our plumber caught that, because I would've had a heart attack if the kitchen flooded after laying down new laminate flooring. Nevertheless, that was an added expense not in the budget.

To date we have put in about $2800 in upgrades to the condo that includes our credit. For the most part, I have been happy paying the guys who have worked on the place. Most of the work has been done by Latino immigrants (Salvadoreans to be exact), which gives me great pride because I too am Salvadorean. All our contractors did a great job and for very reasonable pay. There was time when I felt guilty, because I thought I wasn't paying the guys enough. Which leads me to wonder about all the anti-immigrant sentiment going around the country, these folks just wanted to work and for many they were moonlighting from their day jobs.

Anyways enough politics, we actually had our first guests last night. My 2 sister and laws and one of their boyfriend came over. They were very impressed with what we had done with the condo. The boyfriend described it as straight out of "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," which made me feel good because I did read one of their books on home design before we began planning the renovations.

Today we get the rest of our furniture delivered from Levitz, my wife stayed home to wait for them this time.

Waiting for the Furniture

2006-10-11T13:22:00.000-07:00

Worked from home this morning and waited for Levitz to deliver our furniture. They had told me they would arrive between 10am and 1pm. I hate waiting for deliveries with long time ranges. I always think that I'm going to step out for minute, then they show up and we miss each other.

Anyways, the Levitz guys arrived around 11am and delivered part of our new couch set and our new dinning set. When they opened the table, it was all messed up from one of the corners. The delivery guy was furious, because that meant having to lugg that heavy thing downstairs and back to the truck. I don't know why they didn't have a dolly, it would have probably been less work.

The couch was a pain to get through the front door, after a half hour of attempts they finally made it fit by taking the feet off the couch. Once set up the sofa's brown color really went well with the brownish color we picked for the living room. Dang, this place is starting to look good.

Anyways, we should be getting the rest of the living room set and the new dinning room table on Friday.

Home Sweet Home

2006-10-10T11:16:00.000-07:00

We did it, we finally did it. My wife and I bought our first home, a 2 bed 1 bath upstairs condo. Our new place is cute in a nice family-friendly complex. Its also a bit dated and needs a little love, but regardless it will be a work in progress.

Last week was crazy, we got our keys on Tuesday, began renovating on Thursday and moved in on Sunday.

But dang, I'm beat from this weekend. In less than a week we coordinated the all the contractors (paint, flooring, plumbing & electrical), hired the movers, packed everything and moved in. The last few days have been all about long days and short nights.

I can't even count anymore how many times I bought and returned stuff at Home Depot. Really saved a lot buying all the supplies for the contractors, but it was crazy finding my way through the halls of HD.

Anyways when it was all done, we painted our master bedroom, living room, dining room and kitchen, changed floors in kitchen and bathroom and updated our plumbing and electrical outlets. Phew.... the place is starting to look awesome.

Nevertheless, right now our home is disaster. We still have boxes everywhere and its kind of hard to decide where to start. I'm confident we'll get there. For now we just need to clear the living and dining room for when we get our furniture delivered tomorrow.

Ahhh, the work never ends.