Easter 2010

I think this is the warmest Easter we have had in a while. As usual the Easter bunny paid us a visit and hid eggs thru out the house. Unfortunately, the house is a disaster. I'm putting in a new floor in the dining room so we have the dining room table in the living room. I'm sure the construction site made the Easter Bunnie's job that much harder. Oh well he can deal. I will say one thing. The Easter egg hunts now a days are completely different from when I was lad. Morgan and Gwen work together and do not fight...at least during the hunt. When I was a lad it was cut throat. Anything goes, and the strongest of the fittest. Damn good thing I was the oldest.

The Living Room

A year ago now we refinanced the house. We originally had one of thus funky 80/20 mortgages where you get a mortgage to pay the down payment of another mortgage and avoid PMI. The whole thing was shady but it was the only way at the time we could swing buying a house. Then the bubble burst. Anyway now we have one normal mortgage and we got a kick ass rate.

During that we had to have the house appraised twice. Both appraisers said get rid of that old 1950s ceiling as fast as you can in the living and dinning room. While I ripped the ceiling down I took down the plaster walls, insulated, rewired, fixed some plumbing issues, ran new network, phone, cable lines and so on. Normally when I redo a room it takes a couple months tops but this project took 9 months from start to finish. I really wanted to push my finish carpentry skills to the limit and that takes time.

We still have to install new floors. We plan on putting in solid bamboo flooring. It looks good, its durable, cheaper then oak, and is environmentally friendly. Before I can install the new floor I need to replace the front door. It is original to the house and the house was built in the 1900s. The door is drafty, the door knob doesn't work right, and its covered in a million layers of lead paint.

Sorry, I don't have the before pictures or any videos of the construction. I made them, but its been 9 months and I haven't a clue where I saved them.

Disney on Ice

January has been a very busy month. The kids went with Katie and Lynn to see Disney on Ice. Chris bought tickets for X-mas and everyone had a good time. I've been trying to finish stage 2 of my epic home improvement project. I got to the point where we could move back into the living room which is good timing since Katie got a Wii for her birthday and we need the space to move around and play.

Xmas 09

I totally forgot to post this video a month ago. Sorry for the belated Xmas video.

Test

I'm testing something

Trimming the Tree

We were a little late this year putting up the tree. I've been renovating the dining and living room since this summer which is why you haven't seen to many updates on the old blog. I found all sorts of surprises and what not that are taking more time than I thought to overcome. However, the room is almost done. I still have to sand and paint the trim and we still need to replace that nasty carpet. We are not sold on the color scheme in that room. It could be the fact that the color of the carpet just clashes badly with the walls. Perhaps when the carpet is gone it will look better?

Morgan and Kumar's Christmas Special

This year Morgan was in a "Holiday" Concert because you can't have a Christmas concert anymore - that would not be politically correct. So this video is anything but PC. Enjoy!