Home Improvement

Hey guys,

Well on the day of our 8th anniversary we spent most of the day running errands, it’s kind of dumb that you have to prove that you are actually a resident of a property before they will give you such a security risk as a city approved trash can. Heck, we could be terrorists planning a trash can attack on the garbage disposal facility. At least we were able to squeeze in a lunch at the Studio Diner. We were picking up essential items, like a trash can and light bulbs among other items. My mom and dad kept working throughout the day. Which we appreciate greatly.

Here’s the new faucet and finally a decent picture of the fridge, and yes a picture of the house from the outside. Sorry it’s like a week late, and yes, I know it’s pink! Believe it or not, but even Estela doesn’t like it pink. That will change sometime down the road. By the way, that’s our new favorite saying. As in, “We’ll take care of that down the road.” Everything that isn’t directly related to getting the house to a livable condition will have to wait till some point down the road when we can get to it. This means just about everything else we find these days.

Well, sorry there wasn’t more to report today. This weekend should be crazy. We’ll be tearing into that bathroom more and if it doesn’t rain, maybe painting and addressing the plumbing issues plaguing the kitchen sink. Have a great night. Hopefully we’ll have some big progress to report after this weekend. Take it easy…

Congratulations!!! By reading this blog you have volunteered to help us paint this weekend! See you bright and early Saturday morning… I know you think I’m kidding, but I’m not. I will hunt you down. Don’t think that I won’t! We’re not above forced labor. Just ask Abe!

Just kidding. Things are progressing extremely well. We finally caught a break. When we tore into the bathroom and the closets on either side of the bathroom we discovered that all the mold was not caused by any serious plumbing leaks or issues. The problem was that old damage was never repaired properly and the walls of the bathtub/shower weren’t sealed in any manner in the same zip code as correctly! I can’t even describe to you how this shower was patched then covered up then used constantly used even though water was literally pouring into the walls!

Some yummy stuff huh? Instead of removing all of this junk and replacing the walls, then fixing the leaks. They just covered it all up with another sheet of drywall (not even the green moisture kind!!!) Yikes, some people right? I’m just thankful that Gil was with us all day and helped tear it all out. Tomorrow we’ll start tearing out and replacing the rest. I can’t wait to actually have a shower that isn’t a biohazard zone.

On top of that, we got the window in the kitchen fixed. My mom was more excited about that than anything else we’ve done. The window was just a pane of glass sitting on the windowsill not even attached or anything. We set it in place with window adhesive and sealed it in with silicone window caulk. Thanks go to Lemon Grove Glass. the tape and caulk only cost us about $5.00 and it maybe took us an hour. Not too shabby… Thanks to Gil and Dad for helping on that one.

We also started to tackle the kitchen sink. Dad removed the garbage disposal (which just smelled like roses didn’t it dad?) The new faucet and piping should be in place tomorrow. Mom as always was everywhere doing a little of everything. Oh, and when you see her, compliment her on figuring out how to clear the remote memory on our garage door opener. (She’ll like that.)

That’s about it for today. As always, it’s getting late and my eyelids are getting heavier. We’ll talk to you tomorrow and let you know what other fun we’ve had. Good night. Have a good one!

Well, mom and dad (Gary and Ellen) were the only ones working on the house today. Estela, her parents, and I all had to work today. Another one of those days where the house didn’t look a whole lot different but quite a bit actually did get done. A HUGE guy from SDG&E found our small gas leak. They were able to fix that by replacing the main valve leading into the stove. No more getting high or threat of explosion. Yay! There was much rejoicing!!! A lot more cleaning and prep-ing was done today. Plus, Gary and Ellen were able to set up shop. They got our spare bed set up in the living room (sorry about that by the way) so they have a place to stay. Hopefully things will continue to get nicer and we can get carpet in there soon guys. They also got some curtains hung, despite our first set of curtain rods being to small (ask Estela for the story there.)
Tony made some big progress on our kitchen plumbing problem. The problem is that our kitchen sink currently drains directly into the back yard about a foot from our back door. The previous tenants (or even somebody before them!) modified the drain plumbing and mucked it all up. They put in a new stand pipe which is only about 2 feet tall and then the pipes go down about 6 inches and then become level as they work their way around the entire house. Needless to say, this doesn’t really allow for proper drainage.Therefore the pipe is clogged somewhere and now just overflows out the mini stand pipe. Whoo hoo! (friggin geniuses.) Anyways, Tony got it all dug up so we can start replacing it all. He also got rid of a bunch of our yard waste which mainly came from the spider infested bushes that used to adorn our entry way. Thank you Gil!
Well, that’s about it for today. Thanks again for tuning in. We’ll be back tomorrow. Same Bat time, same Bat channel.

Ewww, Mold... I hate mold!

As Ozzie Osbourne said we’re,  “goin off the rails on a crazy train.” The house project got a little more complicated today… As we were getting some painting done in an effort to get some carpet installed tomorrow, we found a neat little surprise. We knew there were some plumbing issues, but dang! This one brought the whole renovation effort to a halt. Frantic calls had to be made to stop the carpet guys from showing up in the morning. This is going to be fun. It looks like there’s been a pretty good leak for quite some time. Needless to say, a little drywall work is called for.

My friend Matt asked me today how home ownership was treating me. My reply, “Like a b _ _ _h.” (Insert expletive here.) Oh well, like I said, “Shocking, but not surprising.” Whoever lived here prior to us obviously had issues themselves. Remember that the walls aren’t the only thing the was growing Fungus. The carpet had some funk to it too. Not to mention the smell of “Pee” as mom put it. Anyhoo, just one more item on the list right guys?

Our new, non coin operated laundry center!

On a positive note, the new washer and dryer are awesome. As requested, here’s a pic of the appliances. I’m sorry I don’t have a pic of the fridge (which we loooooove by the way. and not in a wierd way. a normal healthy fridge love kind of way!!!) It’s an awesome upright side-by-side Kenmore job. Without even planning on it, all of our appliances are Kenmore by the way.

Abe, driving a cab is nothing compared to painting!

We also did some damage on the painting side of things. I mean “damage” in a good way. We were able to cover most of the ugly colors with primer. KILLZ Primer rocks by the way. And Abe and I were able to paint the master bedroom and most of the guest bedroom. No more Avocado and Coffee colors! Yay! A big thanks to Abe. Talk about cheap labor. The guy painted for like 5 hours straight and all he asked for was Carne Asada! How awsome is that? If you ever need a Taxi in San Diego, call USA CAB and ask for Colonial Cab #997!

Also, I know I promised that I’d have pictures of the outside of the house on day 2. Give me a break. I keep forgetting. Got a few things on my mind these days. I’ll remember one of these days. Besides, I don’t want all you crazies stalking us. Just kidding! Ooh, I almost forgot. Gil and Gary got some good patching done on the floor. Tony and Anna blitzed the Yard. Gil took out the stupid bushes which were only serving as spider nests anyways. And mom, was everywhere doing everything. Thanks guys! This wouldn’t be possible without y’all.
Anyhoo, the beer is about to put me to sleep so, I’ll sign off for tonight.
Peace y’all…

Well, day 3 is in the can. Literally… today was mostly cleanup and trash removal. No pictures today because the house doesn’t really look different. Even though it doesn’t look like we did much, we actually did a bumload. We got a big chunk of the house prepared for painting. I snaked my first drain. Anyone who has done that is familiar with that smell. If you’re not, let me say that you are missing out. We got a problem toilet fixed. And anybody who knows me knows that one working toilet isn’t always enough!!! Ha ha!

The most exciting thing is that our fridge, washer, and dryer were delivered today. Thank you Sears Outlet Center! Not only did we get a great deal, but they delivered the appliances about 30 minutes into the 3 hour window so we didn’t have to wait all day for them. I’m stoked that tomorrow I’m going to be doing laundry… and I don’t even need quarters!!! That’s like the first time in 10 years! Except for the few times I got to do some at Mom and Dad’s or at Ron’s (my brother that also lives in San Diego) house.

I think that’s about it for today. I can’t thank our parents enough. Tony, Estela’s dad, did some great door work and fixed the aforementioned toilet. Our moms, Anna and Ellen are cleaning machines. Gary, my dad, ran all over San Diego with me and was patching holes like crazy. Now it’s time to kick back with my Blue Moon beer and watch The Princess Bride until I pass out.

Thanks for tuning in, we’ll post more tomorrow. Thanks for the read and comment Nicole. You’re welcome to come by and help out anytime!!! He he he!

Ron Jr. Scraping like a maniac!

Well, I think we broke some child labor laws today… We put 2 of my nephews to work helping remove the fungi infected carpet only to discover some awesome pink linoleum underneath. Thank god it was pretty rotted/water damaged because it actually came up pretty easily. Ronald Jr. had fun scraping it up. I think I’m gonna start renting him out by the day. He did some damage, and it was in a good way! A big thanks goes out to Gil too! Nothing like having a new marine in the family with nothing to do home on leave. He was a one man wrecking crew!

At first, I was a little bummed to miss the Super Bowl. This is Arizona’s first one after all. But, we got some good work done. We got a problem door fixed, carpet removed, and the linoleum surprise taken care of. Along with some more cleaning and some paint prep, we’ll call it a good days work. I know I’m feeling it already! My arm’s a little sore trying to lift my Bud Light.

Our House,

We finally got it!!! After 3 months of back and forth and fighting with banks, title companies, real estate agents and ourselves a little, we got it!!! We almost can’t believe it. We’re so stoked to be in our house that I even forgot to take a good picture of the outside! That will be tomorrow. Anyways, now the hard work begins. We’ve got quite a bit of Home Improvement.
Day one got off to a good start. After getting the keys, the main goal was to replace all the locks and get a couple of new doors. Clean up will be an ongoing process as the house is pretty filthy.

Estela cleaning up!

And we mean filthy! There is actually Fungus growing out of the carpet! We don’t even want to know what the heck is up with that… There is plenty of cleaning to be done! Pinesol, 409, and Bleach are our best friends now! Tomorrow will be more cleaning, tearing out that nasty carpet and maybe some painting. We’ll keep you posted.

Thanks for stopping by, we’ll talk to you later.

Estela and Brian