a thanksgiving dinner that couldn't be beat

for thanksgiving this year - we headed up to the sisters in LA - and had an awesome dinner and got a chance to celebrate isaiah's birthday..
i sent ben to buy isaiah's present - and ben came back with a bunch of nerf guns - which ended up being a big hit. the kids as well as the adults were running around shooting at each other - it was a fabulous time.. at one point it was war - and all the kids were running around trying 'get' uncle trevor - and trevor was running around defending himself with a wiffle ball bat, and a nerf bat - i was cracking up..
the nerf war of 2008


because it was isaiah's birthday as well as thanksgiving the theme was pirates/transformers/kung fu panda
here deborah and i were pirates - ready to eat our turkey

to relax after the war and dinner - we watched a movie..
uncle ben and deborah watching kung fu panda -

more thanksgiving fun

isaiah and his auntie kai - enjoying some mario cart -

dance party

uncle trevor and kelly ann

auntie loan and noah tearing it up

it's all fun and games till someone loses an eye

today is the second time i had a pt who came to the ER with an injury from playing the wii... apparently it's an epidemic..

poker party fun

this weekend we headed up to my brothers for some poker party fun.. we had good food, good people, and lots of fun.. it was a great way to spend a saturday night..
ben rockin trevors new oakleys - getting ready to 'bring it'

dano and gil concentrating on thier games

at some point in the night we busted out loans cotton candy machine..

the fam

the black hole

growing up in my household, if you misbehaved, you had to write sentences... my mom often choose bible verses for us to write about a hundred times or so.. one of my moms favorites came straight out of the book of philippians 'i will do all things without grumbling and complaining' - with as many times as i had to write that verse over and over - you think i would have learned by now..
but poor ben had to remind of that sentence multiple times today - because on average i complained about every 3.5 seconds this afternoon.. (in my defense we are two months into a project that ben said 'shouldn't take that long' - and this weekend the santa annas and all the construction dust created the perfect storm for my sinuses - and my allergies went into over drive..)

here are some more pix of all the fun:

ben tried to hang a door about 9 times with no success.. we kept measuring and remeasuring - eventually we even bought a new door thinking that the old door must be defective - which was not the case.. we finally called our friend kevyn who came over for reinforcements.. kevyn figured out that we had a rogue 2x4 - which was not straight, and was causing all problems.. so big thanks to kevyn for saving the day..


ben putting up cement board.. good times..


me doing the most thankless project known to man.. to me - this is my least favorite job.. ben had me 'mud' in some nail holes from the dry wall he hung, and then i had to sand them over - and mud them again... it was very dirty - and dust got everywhere..


so after spending a couple hours helping ben - i realize that i should not complain.. because he has been working on this project non stop for the last 8 weeks - and i realize that next time overtime is offered at work - i am totally taking it - and paying someone who knows a little more about construction then i do..

Bedroom/Bathroom remodel update

I'm taking lots of pictures, just not posting them sorry

Progress update: I'm kicking ass

Drywall is up. Chara helped me tape and mud. she is also very conscious about plumbers crack
its starting to look like real walls and stuff

Started the shower panwaterproof membrane is down and drain is installed
next comes the cement board on the walls. trying to do an elliptical curve in the piece above. those are tricky
shower niche in the wall
niche finished off
our shower valve
thats it for now. shower walls are almost covered. next is to finish the shower pan and finish up the dryall with sanding and such. so much fun.

california dreaming..

i hate to brag but - the weather this weekend was fabulous.. it was sunny and 91 degrees both saturday and sunday - ben and i took advantage, enjoyed, and headed to the beach both days.. gotta love california..

double duty

ventured out in the rain this morning and voted (someone had to cancel out bens vote).. no long lines as expected - the only delays were due to people who don't normally vote not knowing how things are done..

then headed to day two of jury duty - and was promptly excused.. - apparently most lawyers don't want ER nurses on their jury...

so today - i have done my civic duty x2 - and now i am ready for a nap..

go vote....right now

go vote

right now

get up

go outside

go to your polling place

and vote






unless you live up in the mountains and you know your vote doesn't count anyway.

food and friends

for the first time in months all of my girls had the same day off together.. so we headed to an amazing restaurant by the beach and had an awesome lunch..
i really miss these gals - and am so happy that we got to spend some time together..
mis amigas

tis the season

just another reason why halloween is so awesome..

I voted today

now Chara is threatening to make me sleep on the couch.

New window

nothing is easy with this project. This window especially caused me to say some bad words.

Here is the old hole for the shower window.

Here is me making that hole bigger.cutting stucco is super messy too
nice new big hole.
luckily i have the best neighbors in the world and Don showed up at just the right time as my wife ditched me to go shopping. Don and i put in the window. Here is Don's hand
and the window installed.
i need another day off already.

I am Joe the Plumber*

*but i do not owe any back taxes and do not support John McCain

Project update:
Did some of the plumbing for the new shower. here i re-routed the water lines to the new valve

Here is the new valve. Its on the opposite wall from the shower head so i had some crazy pipes going to and from. a lot of plumbing but hopefully it will turn out cool.

Here is the pieces building for the new shower body sprays

Here it is completed. I had to create a loop to have it all pressurized correctly. fun times

almost done with all the plumbing. i don't like plumbing that much.

Concrete is just messy

whether i'm cutting it out or putting it back it its just messy and not that fun. Especially the lugging around 90lb bags of concrete from the floor onto a cart, from the cart into the truck, from the truck through the window into the bathroom etc. Its just not fun.

Anyway finished the plumbing and put in the concrete to fill in the holes.

Safety First

so among the many blisters and bruisings i've sustained from this remodel this was the worst injury thus far. Working late into the night and very tired i was finishing framing up a wall. I had put a clamp up on a beam and then stood up on a step ladder to do something and WHACK stepped up right into the clamp with my forehead. my glasses went flying and i was very dizzy. That was a good sign to call it a day.

now i got this sweet cut on my forehead.

The major remodel project of 2009

I have too many projects going on but this one i've been putting off for a long time. Its one of the last major remodels and one of the last rooms in the house we haven't touched yet. I've been putting this project off for a while because A. its huge, B. its a lot of plumbing work (and i don't like plumbing work), and C. its HUGE.

I've been taking pictures thus far but have not blogged yet so here is a quick update as to where i am on the project thus far.

Here are some little before pictures:

Chara came home one day to all of our bedroom furniture distributed throughout the house and thus began the great project. she was not happy with this surprise.

our very tiny bathroom

Here is our tiny bathroom before. i need a wide angle lense
took the shower door off and gave it away on craigslist.the shower
and i started tearing into the shower


removed all the tile on the floor and unhooked the toilet
dismantled the vanity and removed italso gave this away on craiglist
and here we started tearing into the walls
all the tile and drywall removed from the showermore drywall removed and shower pan removed
that thing was heavy
old bathroom shower area gutted
old bedroom gutted. carpet gonethe dog helping

removed old shower wallmoved the toilet water feed. Yes i'm moving the toilet on a concrete slab.

and now the big fun of the project and one of the big reasons why i put it off for so long. moving a toilet on a concrete slab is not fun at all. at all.

I rented this beast. gas powered concrete saw. super loud, super messy and the exhaust fumes almost made me pass out every time i used it. so much fun.
first cuts
more cuts
after many hours of cutting and taking breaks to breath fresh air i got the main area cut for the toilet. those concrete chunks are heavy!

I have a video of me cutting i'll try to put it up later. But this was definately the hardest part of the project. The saw hooks up to your hose to allow water to the saw. but the water feeds were broken and had holes everywhere so water sprayed everywhere but the saw it seemed. I was a complete mess.removing the concrete
I'm also moving the sink so i had to make way for a new drain line. that means more cutting.took it out in one big heavy piece because i was tired of cutting
a sledgehammer in the right place broke it up
and here is the final trench
here is the re-worked toilet and sink drain plumbing

framing up the new shower/bathroom wall
moving another wall for the new sink area
moved the wall switch to accomodate for the new wall location
installed a new light/vent for the water closet area
and here is a random shot of the new wall in place with some of the old wall removed.

and thats mostly where i am to date. I got the lights installed in the shower. Today i am finishing the plumbing of the toilet and sink drain and filling in the foundation with concrete. then i'm finshing moving the second wall and getting the new sink area wired in with electrical and move the water lines to that area as well.

Lots of fun thus far. More pics to come i'm sure.