click to enlarge
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Maternity Photo Session - Update
As you remember from my last post, we had some maternity photos taken and I put up a sneak preview of the photos.
I just got my hands on the actual photos so I uploaded my favorites to Picasa (with decent resolution for your viewing and downloading pleasure).
I just got my hands on the actual photos so I uploaded my favorites to Picasa (with decent resolution for your viewing and downloading pleasure).
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| Maternity Photo Session |
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Maternity Photo Session
Three weeks ago, we did a maternity photo session with Nicole Loggins Photography.
I learned through one of my Meetup groups that this family photographer was looking to expand her portfolio into the maternity and newborn photos space. I contacted her right away and signed up for both a complimentary maternity photo session and a newborn photo session (boy, I feel greedy. teehee).
I searched the internet for "maternity photos" to get an idea what I will be getting myself into.
After looking around, I was afraid we would end up doing something very naked, like this:
Or something very limber, like this:
Or something that included a gun, like this:
To our relief, the photographer, Nicole, only needed tasteful photos for her portfolio. PHEW!
We did the outdoor photos at the nearby park, Cheviot Hills, and we did the indoor photos right inside our living room (she brought her portable photography studio. It was very cool to see a studio get setup and broken down so easily!).
Nicole's photos look great and we felt very comfortable with her (not awkward at all!). If you are in the Los Angeles area and looking for a family photographer, I recommend looking into her. =)
To see a preview of our maternity photos, you can view it on her blog HERE.
The newborn photo session is next!
The session will be held sometime within the first 7 days that the baby is born. How exciting.
I learned through one of my Meetup groups that this family photographer was looking to expand her portfolio into the maternity and newborn photos space. I contacted her right away and signed up for both a complimentary maternity photo session and a newborn photo session (boy, I feel greedy. teehee).
I searched the internet for "maternity photos" to get an idea what I will be getting myself into.
After looking around, I was afraid we would end up doing something very naked, like this:
Or something very limber, like this:
Or something that included a gun, like this:
We did the outdoor photos at the nearby park, Cheviot Hills, and we did the indoor photos right inside our living room (she brought her portable photography studio. It was very cool to see a studio get setup and broken down so easily!).
Nicole's photos look great and we felt very comfortable with her (not awkward at all!). If you are in the Los Angeles area and looking for a family photographer, I recommend looking into her. =)
To see a preview of our maternity photos, you can view it on her blog HERE.
The newborn photo session is next!
The session will be held sometime within the first 7 days that the baby is born. How exciting.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Two dinners for Valentines Day
For some people, they get all touchy when I ask them if they do anything on Valentines Day. I start getting some response like "we don't need a day dedicated to showing our love for each other, we show our love everyday of the year, yada yada yada...."
GAG.
I'm sure we all show our love everyday to our loved ones, but it doesn't hurt to have an excuse to celebrate holidays and special events right? Isn't that why celebrating Christmas and birthdays was invented? Just another excuse to goof off, exchange gifts, and have a good time? =D
Also, since this is our last year celebrating Valentines without a screaming, pooping baby, I figured that I wanted to do something a little more special.
For our Valentines Day, we decided to do not one, but two things:
1. Have a nice dinner out, on a day that is *NOT* Valentines day, to avoid the inflated prix-fixe Valentine menu prices)
2. Cook a nice meal at home
Notice how everything that I like revolves around eating? =)
---
We chose to have our nice dinner out the Sunday before Valentines.
We knew we wanted to dine somewhere with a nice view of the sunset over the ocean, but all the places we looked in Santa Monica were ridiculously priced. After going down south on the map a bit, we found the restaurant, Kincaids, (located on the Redondo Beach Pier) with pretty decent reviews on Yelp. This was perfect, since we've never been to the Redondo Beach Pier either.
We made dinner reservations for 5pm (since the sun sets at 5:30pm) so we can get a view of the ocean during the daytime, during the sunset, and in the evening, assuming we ate our meal slowly. =)
Prior to our dinner reservations, we walked around the pier, bought some ice cream, and got startled by giant pelicans.
that pelican wanted Jeff's ice cream
For dinner, the food was only OK (I don't know what all the Yelpers were raving about. It was really only mediocre), but at least the ocean view was quite nice. Also, I got to try my very first key lime pie for dessert, which I really enjoyed.
---
For our nice at-home dinner on Valentines day, I made surf & turf (lobster tail and rib eye steak -- our favorite cut!) with mashed potatoes and asparagus on the side, and chocolate-dipped strawberries for dessert.
The meal was very fast and easy to make and it came out delicious. I wrote up how I made the meal on my cooking blog.
Unfortunately, it was kind of a bad thing that the meal took less than 30 minutes to make!
My plan was to have the meal almost ready when Jeff returns home from work. His commute normally takes 15-20 minutes, so I planned to start cooking when Jeff leaves work, that way, the food will be ready in 10-15 minutes after Jeff arrives home.
Jeff texts me at 6:40pm saying that he is leaving work. I start cooking the potatoes, pruning the asparagus, and butterflying the lobster tails. I pop the lobster and asparagus into the oven... hmm... still no sign of Jeff.
The lobster and asparagus were done so I decided to start cooking the steaks, since the oven was already hot. Of course, now in hindsight, I probably should have simply started the steaks once Jeff arrived home.
It's 7:30pm, and still no sign of Jeff!
I call him, thinking that maybe he got held back at work.
NOPE! Apparently, Valentines Day caused A LOT of evening traffic.
The lobster and steak was getting cold, so I put them into the oven to keep them warm, but left the oven door ajar to prevent the oven heat from overcooking the meat. That was the best idea I could come with.
I really have no clue how to keep meat warm without overcooking it/drying it out.
Jeff finally arrived home around 7:45pm.
It took him 1 hour and 5 minutes to drive 5 miles! A commute that normally takes him 15-20 in typical after-work traffic!! Ridiculous!
I served dinner immediately and despite it looking quite delicious, it was actually quite hard and quite cold. =(
Oh well... it was the thought that counts I guess.
And the food was still decent.... since we love lobster, steak, mashed potatoes, and asparagus anyways...
So there you have it.
We had two mediocre.... not so spectacular but still decent.... dinners for Valentines Day.
GAG.
Also, since this is our last year celebrating Valentines without a screaming, pooping baby, I figured that I wanted to do something a little more special.
For our Valentines Day, we decided to do not one, but two things:
1. Have a nice dinner out, on a day that is *NOT* Valentines day, to avoid the inflated prix-fixe Valentine menu prices)
2. Cook a nice meal at home
Notice how everything that I like revolves around eating? =)
---
We chose to have our nice dinner out the Sunday before Valentines.
We knew we wanted to dine somewhere with a nice view of the sunset over the ocean, but all the places we looked in Santa Monica were ridiculously priced. After going down south on the map a bit, we found the restaurant, Kincaids, (located on the Redondo Beach Pier) with pretty decent reviews on Yelp. This was perfect, since we've never been to the Redondo Beach Pier either.
Part of the Redondo Beach Pier
We made dinner reservations for 5pm (since the sun sets at 5:30pm) so we can get a view of the ocean during the daytime, during the sunset, and in the evening, assuming we ate our meal slowly. =)
Prior to our dinner reservations, we walked around the pier, bought some ice cream, and got startled by giant pelicans.
that pelican wanted Jeff's ice cream
This pelican gulped a fish down whole! You can see the fish in his mouth, getting swallowed
For dinner, the food was only OK (I don't know what all the Yelpers were raving about. It was really only mediocre), but at least the ocean view was quite nice. Also, I got to try my very first key lime pie for dessert, which I really enjoyed.
FINALLY! My very first key lime pie. I wish the lime to whipped cream ratio was inverted
---
For our nice at-home dinner on Valentines day, I made surf & turf (lobster tail and rib eye steak -- our favorite cut!) with mashed potatoes and asparagus on the side, and chocolate-dipped strawberries for dessert.
The meal was very fast and easy to make and it came out delicious. I wrote up how I made the meal on my cooking blog.
Unfortunately, it was kind of a bad thing that the meal took less than 30 minutes to make!
My plan was to have the meal almost ready when Jeff returns home from work. His commute normally takes 15-20 minutes, so I planned to start cooking when Jeff leaves work, that way, the food will be ready in 10-15 minutes after Jeff arrives home.
Jeff texts me at 6:40pm saying that he is leaving work. I start cooking the potatoes, pruning the asparagus, and butterflying the lobster tails. I pop the lobster and asparagus into the oven... hmm... still no sign of Jeff.
The lobster and asparagus were done so I decided to start cooking the steaks, since the oven was already hot. Of course, now in hindsight, I probably should have simply started the steaks once Jeff arrived home.
It's 7:30pm, and still no sign of Jeff!
I call him, thinking that maybe he got held back at work.
NOPE! Apparently, Valentines Day caused A LOT of evening traffic.
The lobster and steak was getting cold, so I put them into the oven to keep them warm, but left the oven door ajar to prevent the oven heat from overcooking the meat. That was the best idea I could come with.
I really have no clue how to keep meat warm without overcooking it/drying it out.
Jeff finally arrived home around 7:45pm.
It took him 1 hour and 5 minutes to drive 5 miles! A commute that normally takes him 15-20 in typical after-work traffic!! Ridiculous!
I served dinner immediately and despite it looking quite delicious, it was actually quite hard and quite cold. =(
Oh well... it was the thought that counts I guess.
And the food was still decent.... since we love lobster, steak, mashed potatoes, and asparagus anyways...
So there you have it.
We had two mediocre.... not so spectacular but still decent.... dinners for Valentines Day.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Baby Shower!
Our baby shower was last Sunday (which also happened to be Super Bowl Sunday.... whoops.... so we ended up having a baby shower/super bowl party), and we had a great time. It was great seeing people I have not seen in a long time, and it means a lot to me that people are willing to take time out of their busy schedules to be at my baby shower. I only wish that we had more time to chat with everyone!
My sister hosted the party and the party really came out a lot nicer than I expected. When the time comes for me to return the favor for her, I don't think I can pull off a shower quite as nice!
We had about ~32 people total, which is a pretty large crowd to squeeze into our moderately-sized living room. I was concerned that not only would people not fit, but there wouldn't be enough seats for everyone. Our couches seat about 8-11 people (depending on how "friendly" you are), and we also pulled 6 dining chairs and 3 office chairs into the living room as well. So that is a grand total of 19 seats, which means that a total of 13 people would be seat-less!
But in the end, it all worked out and I think it was due to people taking turns standing and also people trickling in at different times.
We set up some tables and lawn chairs in our front yard for the activities and games since we thought that people wouldn't fit and burst out of house. That didn't happen so a lot of the games were done indoors, but we still did the "decorating-onesies" activity outside, since it's messy anyways. I really love all the creative onesies that people made -- who knew all my guests were artists?
I already blogged about all the food served during the shower on my cooking blog, so go over there to read about that. In a nutshell, we served "afternoon tea" food such as: sandwiches, scones, bite-sized desserts, and Darjeeling tea. We also served fresh fruit, lemonade, and sangria (alcoholic) to add more variety.
Some guests thought that the food was catered/ordered, but nope! It was home made!
Grace also ordered this really adorable cake from Kee Wah Bakery. How did she know that fresh strawberry Chinese cake was my favorite? ;)
I really didn't expect there to be any decorations (to be honest, I forgot that homes are typically decorated for parties), but Grace bought balloons and streamers to decorate both the indoors and outdoors of the house. Credit goes to Grace, Kevin, Brenda, and Jeff for doing all the decorating. =)
For the games, I truly hate stupid baby shower games like the "no crossing your legs and arms during the baby shower" game (how is that even a game?), or the "let's see who can eat 'poop' out of a diaper the fastest" game, or the "let's feed each other baby food while blindfolded" game.
Grace kept the games on the tasteful side and did the "baby mad libs" game, the "who can drink out of the baby bottle the fastest" game, the "guess mom's tummy size" game, and also did a diaper raffle.
(I really like the "list the baby name of animals" game (you know me, I love animals!) but unfortunately, we had no time for that.)
Grace and I made prizes for the games and we had so many left over! Makes me wish we designated more winners.
After all the games and activities were over, people mingled and stayed behind to watch the Super Bowl game. Chips, salsa and carrot sticks were served.
I was surprised by how easy clean up was. I'm glad with so many people over, people were still able to keep the house fairly clean.
However.. we did find 1 random strawberry jam smudge on a door........
To view all the photos from the baby shower, go here:
My sister hosted the party and the party really came out a lot nicer than I expected. When the time comes for me to return the favor for her, I don't think I can pull off a shower quite as nice!
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| From Baby Shower |
We had about ~32 people total, which is a pretty large crowd to squeeze into our moderately-sized living room. I was concerned that not only would people not fit, but there wouldn't be enough seats for everyone. Our couches seat about 8-11 people (depending on how "friendly" you are), and we also pulled 6 dining chairs and 3 office chairs into the living room as well. So that is a grand total of 19 seats, which means that a total of 13 people would be seat-less!
But in the end, it all worked out and I think it was due to people taking turns standing and also people trickling in at different times.
 |
| From Baby Shower |
 |
| From Baby Shower |
I already blogged about all the food served during the shower on my cooking blog, so go over there to read about that. In a nutshell, we served "afternoon tea" food such as: sandwiches, scones, bite-sized desserts, and Darjeeling tea. We also served fresh fruit, lemonade, and sangria (alcoholic) to add more variety.
Some guests thought that the food was catered/ordered, but nope! It was home made!
Grace also ordered this really adorable cake from Kee Wah Bakery. How did she know that fresh strawberry Chinese cake was my favorite? ;)
 |
| From Baby Shower |
I really didn't expect there to be any decorations (to be honest, I forgot that homes are typically decorated for parties), but Grace bought balloons and streamers to decorate both the indoors and outdoors of the house. Credit goes to Grace, Kevin, Brenda, and Jeff for doing all the decorating. =)
 |
| From Baby Shower |
For the games, I truly hate stupid baby shower games like the "no crossing your legs and arms during the baby shower" game (how is that even a game?), or the "let's see who can eat 'poop' out of a diaper the fastest" game, or the "let's feed each other baby food while blindfolded" game.
Grace kept the games on the tasteful side and did the "baby mad libs" game, the "who can drink out of the baby bottle the fastest" game, the "guess mom's tummy size" game, and also did a diaper raffle.
(I really like the "list the baby name of animals" game (you know me, I love animals!) but unfortunately, we had no time for that.)
Grace and I made prizes for the games and we had so many left over! Makes me wish we designated more winners.
 |
| From Baby Shower |
After all the games and activities were over, people mingled and stayed behind to watch the Super Bowl game. Chips, salsa and carrot sticks were served.
I was surprised by how easy clean up was. I'm glad with so many people over, people were still able to keep the house fairly clean.
However.. we did find 1 random strawberry jam smudge on a door........
To view all the photos from the baby shower, go here:
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| Baby Shower |
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Free Yogurtland!
Don't know if you heard, but on Monday, Yogurtland was giving away free yogurt from 4pm-7pm.
I did not hear about the deal until about 6pm that evening, so after ruminating back and forth whether to go or not, I decided to head on over. After all, I do love Yogurtland!
I really expected there to be not a long line, since I figured, I didn't hear about the deal sooner so perhaps no one else heard about the deal either.
Nope, turns out, the line was huge and I had to wait around 40 minutes.
I made sure to get mymoney's time's worth and get myself a nice big helping of froyo:
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(a girl in line behind me helped me get my yogurt this tall!!)
I have to admit, I felt a bit silly and embarrassed walking out with such a greedy portion.
I made sure to drive home carefully so I wouldn't create a yogurty mess in my car.
I did not hear about the deal until about 6pm that evening, so after ruminating back and forth whether to go or not, I decided to head on over. After all, I do love Yogurtland!
I really expected there to be not a long line, since I figured, I didn't hear about the deal sooner so perhaps no one else heard about the deal either.
Nope, turns out, the line was huge and I had to wait around 40 minutes.
I made sure to get my
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I have to admit, I felt a bit silly and embarrassed walking out with such a greedy portion.
I made sure to drive home carefully so I wouldn't create a yogurty mess in my car.
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Brand new front entry door
Last week, we got our front door switched out for a new one! The switch also included a brand new doorjamb, threshold, and other door-related terminology. =]
The end results?
We didn't want a steel door since they are "colder" and dents very easily.
The benefits of fiberglass are: they won't crack, warp, swell, rot or peel, are up to 3x stronger than their wooden counterparts, do not need the constant maintenance, and are resistant to attack by insects and microorganisms.
We could have gotten a fiberglass door that looked just like a wooden door (with the wood grain) but we decided that a white door is good enough. A white door makes our dark living area seem brighter and is much more affordable. My only "must have" was that the door needed to have the half-circle glass window at the top. I think windows on doors are so pretty but I didn't want one where it allows people to peek into my house, so the half-circle glass at the very top of the door fit the bill! The window also allows light to enter our home, which we really need. I hate that our house is so dark.
Ready to see the Before and After photos??
AFTER:
Despite our original door being a "standard sized" door (which is 80" x 36" x 1 3/4"), our doorjamb was not standard sized. It was cheaper to just custom order a door that fit our doorjamb, than it would have been to change our doorjamb to fit a standard sized door.
It took about 2.5 weeks for our custom door to be made and delivered, and the door-install guy took about 3 hours to install the door.
I was very happy with our door-install guy. He was very resourceful and was able to transfer our existing doorknob onto the new door, despite the doorknob missing pieces and was improperly installed on the original door (so it was difficult to remove!). He also was able to rebuild our threshold by using some existing threshold pieces that he dug up, combined with some new material, and he did it without charging us extra! (we were supposed to figure out/build the threshold ourselves!). He also did the door installation without getting a fine layer of dust around the entire house, and actually left the work area cleaner than when he arrived.
I'm glad the entire process went smoothly and I did not have any complaints (I always have something to complain about, so that says a lot. =D).
We estimated around $1K for the entire project, but I think it came out closer to $800. Very successful indeed!
The end results?
- The front of the house looks noticeably nicer!
- The living room is much warmer now that there is no draft
- The front door does not look nasty, filthy, and gross.
- More light enters the home
- The door locks properly
A picture of our old front door removed, waiting for the new door to be installed
We decided to go with a fiberglass door because wooden door is way too high maintenance (sand and re-stain every few years), is heavier, and warps depending on the temperature. I can imagine a lot of traditional people preferring wood, simply because wood is "nicer" and "fancier", but I really don't see how killing trees is "nice", and I also go with what is practical. We didn't want a steel door since they are "colder" and dents very easily.
The benefits of fiberglass are: they won't crack, warp, swell, rot or peel, are up to 3x stronger than their wooden counterparts, do not need the constant maintenance, and are resistant to attack by insects and microorganisms.
We could have gotten a fiberglass door that looked just like a wooden door (with the wood grain) but we decided that a white door is good enough. A white door makes our dark living area seem brighter and is much more affordable. My only "must have" was that the door needed to have the half-circle glass window at the top. I think windows on doors are so pretty but I didn't want one where it allows people to peek into my house, so the half-circle glass at the very top of the door fit the bill! The window also allows light to enter our home, which we really need. I hate that our house is so dark.
Ready to see the Before and After photos??
BEFORE:
The door is filthy and the threshold is a wreck
AFTER:
Door looks much nicer!
And the threshold has been fixed too!
BEFORE:
Broken doorjamb. The previous owner busted it, and we tried to "fix" it.
This prevented the door for locking properly sometimes.
This prevented the door for locking properly sometimes.
AFTER:
Door jamb is intact and good as new! Does this mean our door will lock properly now?!
BEFORE:
View of the filthy backside of the door, wrecked threshold, and damaged moulding
AFTER:
Nice and clean! And light streams in too =)
BEFORE:
Nice and clean! And light streams in too =)
BEFORE:
The black security door screams "ghetto".
The door also did not go all the way to the top,
so it did not stop mosquitoes from entering during the summertime.
The door also did not go all the way to the top,
so it did not stop mosquitoes from entering during the summertime.
AFTER:
The front of our house suddenly does not look scary ghetto.
We will need to get a cute, white screen door before the summertime to keep out mosquitoes and flies.
We will need to get a cute, white screen door before the summertime to keep out mosquitoes and flies.
Despite our original door being a "standard sized" door (which is 80" x 36" x 1 3/4"), our doorjamb was not standard sized. It was cheaper to just custom order a door that fit our doorjamb, than it would have been to change our doorjamb to fit a standard sized door.
It took about 2.5 weeks for our custom door to be made and delivered, and the door-install guy took about 3 hours to install the door.
I was very happy with our door-install guy. He was very resourceful and was able to transfer our existing doorknob onto the new door, despite the doorknob missing pieces and was improperly installed on the original door (so it was difficult to remove!). He also was able to rebuild our threshold by using some existing threshold pieces that he dug up, combined with some new material, and he did it without charging us extra! (we were supposed to figure out/build the threshold ourselves!). He also did the door installation without getting a fine layer of dust around the entire house, and actually left the work area cleaner than when he arrived.
I'm glad the entire process went smoothly and I did not have any complaints (I always have something to complain about, so that says a lot. =D).
We estimated around $1K for the entire project, but I think it came out closer to $800. Very successful indeed!
Monday, January 30, 2012
Hanging drywall is harder than it looks .... when it rains
What was originally planned to be a weekend activity ended up being an exhausting task that took over a week!
We decided to hang drywall in our garage because the garage was very dangerous without it! There were pointy-ends of rusty nails jutting into the garage and spiders crawling everywhere inside the foundation. Also, it was just hideous to look at.
Cousin Yao volunteered to come down to LA for a few days in November (of 2011.. this blog post is a bit overdue) and help us out with the drywall! horray!
The plan to install the dry wall seemed very easy:
1. Rent a truck
2. Buy drywall and drive it home
3. Install the drywall
4. Joint compound the seams and nails.
5. Let joint compound dry, then joint compound again.
6. Sand down the joint compound.
It should really take a weekend to complete this list. Maybe a couple extra days to wait for the joint compound dry, but that should be about it.
A few days before Yao's arrival in LA, we tried to rent a truck to gather all the supplies so everything will be ready-to-go when Yao arrives. Home Depot trucks are $20 for 75 minutes, which is pretty good and easier than getting a Uhaul, since we are getting the drywall from Home Depot anyways. Jeff called all the Home Depots within the vicinity but all the trucks were taken! (the truck rentals are on a first-come-first-serve basis).
Jeff finally found a Home Depot that was far away, but had a truck available.
It was around 7:15pm when Jeff called and the store closes at 9pm, so Jeff high-tailed it over to Home Depot and got there around 7:45pm. Unfortunately, the store employee was slow and didn't get the truck rented to Jeff until 8:15pm!! Remember the store closes at 9pm? So Jeff had only 45 minutes to drive to truck home, unload the dry wall, and drive the truck back.
Like a maniac, Jeff quickly drove the gigantic truck home and unloaded the heavy drywall off the truck bed onto our drive way, with the help of our roommate. Then Jeff high-tailed it back to Home Depot and returned the truck at 8:53pm! Amazing!
In all the truck-rental madness, we forgot to use our 10% off coupon to pay for the dry wall. =(
The weekend rolls around and Yao arrives. On Saturday, Yao and Jeff spent all afternoon (~4-5 hours) figuring out how to install the drywall. There were issues with the screw not screwing in completely into the studs. After 2 more trips to Home Depot to get missing supplies and the proper length screws, the boys figured out how to efficiently install the dry wall, and installed a grand total of 3 sheets of drywall by the end of the afternoon!
On Sunday morning, it is raining a bit but the boys begin working on the garage anyways. It took about 10 minutes to install the first sheet of drywall, so it was expected that it should take no more than 2 hours to install the remaining 10 sheets of drywall.
Of course, all good things don't last long.
It started raining harder so I suggested bringing in all the drywall from the driveway, to prevent it from getting wet (drywall is pretty much chalk powder with glue, so when it gets wet, it warps and melts).
The drywall is very heavy, so Jeff and Yao moved the sheets, 1 by 1, into the garage. After all the sheets were moved into the garage, they realized that water was entering the garage and was getting the drywall wet! So they pushed the drywall, 1 by 1, back into the garage further, but the water traveled into the garage faster than they can move the drywall. They tried to prop up the drywall on some 2x4 wood blocks, but the water flooding into the garage was too high.
They then decided to put the sheets on top of the ping pong table! (Noooooo!).
To test if the ping pong table's hinges were strong enough, Yao did the "Yao test" by laying on the ping pong table and see if it could support him. The ping pong table supported him just fine so they started loading the drywall sheets on top of the ping pong table.
3/4 of the way through, the ping pong table collapsed! (The ping pong table is a goner. So tragic).
Water was still entering the garage, so they decided to move all the sheets of drywall to the back of the garage. Yao figured that should buy them 1 hour to think. So they moved the drywall, 1 by 1, to the back of the garage. Before the sheets were all moved, the water reached the back of the garage!
At this point, our roommate suggested that they use 2 coffee tables (which were already in the garage) to hold up the drywall. That was a great idea, since the coffee tables are strong enough to support the drywall and are high enough off the ground to avoid the flooding.
So Jeff and Yao moved the remaining sheets of drywall off the ping pong table, moved the ping pong table out of the way, then loaded all the sheets of drywall, 1 by 1, onto the coffee tables.
At this point, the boys were sloshing through water in the garage.
There was about 4 inches of water in the garage and a lot of our items in the garage got water damaged, including the some of the drywall.
No more work on the garage could be done on Sunday because it was just raining too hard. (Since when does it rain so much and so hard in LA?? It was just not meant to be!). Also, the boys were exhausted from spending the last couple of hours ferrying 10 sheets of drywall all over the garage.
The weekend ended with only 3 sheets of drywall installed.
Yao was in town until Thursday, so Jeff decided to take Wednesday off at work, so the two can work on the garage. Thankfully, on Wednesday, it was bright and sunny. Some of the drywall was warped, but we wanted to work with what we had, rather than go rent another damn Home Depot truck just for a couple of sheets of drywall.
As expected, the installation of the drywall moved pretty quickly and all the sheets of drywall were hung by the end of the day.
Of course, something bad always has to happen.
Turns out, during the initial calculation, we did not include a buffer and we were 1 sheet of drywall short. It was already Wednesday evening, so this problem needed to be figured out on a different day.
On Saturday, Jeff and I went to Home Depot and purchased 1 sheet of drywall. We had no intention of renting a damn truck, so we borrowed an employee's utility knife, and sliced the drywall into 3 small pieces (I can always use joint compound to "glue" these 3 pieces back together!). We loaded the 3 small pieces into Jeff's Camry, drove home, and installed the 3 pieces on the dry wall.
Finally!!
After an entire week, we finally finished hanging drywall in the garage!
All that was left to do was:
1. Joint compound the drywall seams
2. Apply drywall tape onto the seams (I went the cheap route and bought the non-adhesive tape, which means that I need to use extra joint compound as the "adhesive").
3. Joint compound over the drywall tape, and over the nail holes.
4. Wait for the joint compound to dry. (this requires waiting overnight).
5. Joint compound again.
6. Wait for the joint compound to dry. (more overnight waiting)
7. Sand down the joint compound until the wall is smooth.
I slowly did these steps myself over the course of several weeks. Jeff helped joint compound some of the hard-to-reach areas, and he did the sanding.
Joint compounding would have been MUCH easier if some of the drywall was not warped. And maybe if I was not 5-6 months pregnant.
Finally! The garage is complete!
The walls look great now, and I think there is less spiders in the garage now too.
If we want, we can now paint the walls, but we are still undecided if we want to bother painting or not.
We still need to clean all the debris from the garage, but won't be easy, since we will need to remove all the contents from the garage first.
Once we get all the debris cleaned up, we can start putting everything in their proper place in the garage, and hopefully purchase more racks and storage solutions for the garage.
It's going to look great!
We decided to hang drywall in our garage because the garage was very dangerous without it! There were pointy-ends of rusty nails jutting into the garage and spiders crawling everywhere inside the foundation. Also, it was just hideous to look at.
Cousin Yao volunteered to come down to LA for a few days in November (of 2011.. this blog post is a bit overdue) and help us out with the drywall! horray!
The plan to install the dry wall seemed very easy:
1. Rent a truck
2. Buy drywall and drive it home
3. Install the drywall
4. Joint compound the seams and nails.
5. Let joint compound dry, then joint compound again.
6. Sand down the joint compound.
It should really take a weekend to complete this list. Maybe a couple extra days to wait for the joint compound dry, but that should be about it.
A few days before Yao's arrival in LA, we tried to rent a truck to gather all the supplies so everything will be ready-to-go when Yao arrives. Home Depot trucks are $20 for 75 minutes, which is pretty good and easier than getting a Uhaul, since we are getting the drywall from Home Depot anyways. Jeff called all the Home Depots within the vicinity but all the trucks were taken! (the truck rentals are on a first-come-first-serve basis).
Jeff finally found a Home Depot that was far away, but had a truck available.
It was around 7:15pm when Jeff called and the store closes at 9pm, so Jeff high-tailed it over to Home Depot and got there around 7:45pm. Unfortunately, the store employee was slow and didn't get the truck rented to Jeff until 8:15pm!! Remember the store closes at 9pm? So Jeff had only 45 minutes to drive to truck home, unload the dry wall, and drive the truck back.
Like a maniac, Jeff quickly drove the gigantic truck home and unloaded the heavy drywall off the truck bed onto our drive way, with the help of our roommate. Then Jeff high-tailed it back to Home Depot and returned the truck at 8:53pm! Amazing!
In all the truck-rental madness, we forgot to use our 10% off coupon to pay for the dry wall. =(
The weekend rolls around and Yao arrives. On Saturday, Yao and Jeff spent all afternoon (~4-5 hours) figuring out how to install the drywall. There were issues with the screw not screwing in completely into the studs. After 2 more trips to Home Depot to get missing supplies and the proper length screws, the boys figured out how to efficiently install the dry wall, and installed a grand total of 3 sheets of drywall by the end of the afternoon!
On Sunday morning, it is raining a bit but the boys begin working on the garage anyways. It took about 10 minutes to install the first sheet of drywall, so it was expected that it should take no more than 2 hours to install the remaining 10 sheets of drywall.
Of course, all good things don't last long.
It started raining harder so I suggested bringing in all the drywall from the driveway, to prevent it from getting wet (drywall is pretty much chalk powder with glue, so when it gets wet, it warps and melts).
The drywall is very heavy, so Jeff and Yao moved the sheets, 1 by 1, into the garage. After all the sheets were moved into the garage, they realized that water was entering the garage and was getting the drywall wet! So they pushed the drywall, 1 by 1, back into the garage further, but the water traveled into the garage faster than they can move the drywall. They tried to prop up the drywall on some 2x4 wood blocks, but the water flooding into the garage was too high.
They then decided to put the sheets on top of the ping pong table! (Noooooo!).
To test if the ping pong table's hinges were strong enough, Yao did the "Yao test" by laying on the ping pong table and see if it could support him. The ping pong table supported him just fine so they started loading the drywall sheets on top of the ping pong table.
3/4 of the way through, the ping pong table collapsed! (The ping pong table is a goner. So tragic).
Water was still entering the garage, so they decided to move all the sheets of drywall to the back of the garage. Yao figured that should buy them 1 hour to think. So they moved the drywall, 1 by 1, to the back of the garage. Before the sheets were all moved, the water reached the back of the garage!
At this point, our roommate suggested that they use 2 coffee tables (which were already in the garage) to hold up the drywall. That was a great idea, since the coffee tables are strong enough to support the drywall and are high enough off the ground to avoid the flooding.
So Jeff and Yao moved the remaining sheets of drywall off the ping pong table, moved the ping pong table out of the way, then loaded all the sheets of drywall, 1 by 1, onto the coffee tables.
At this point, the boys were sloshing through water in the garage.
There was about 4 inches of water in the garage and a lot of our items in the garage got water damaged, including the some of the drywall.
No more work on the garage could be done on Sunday because it was just raining too hard. (Since when does it rain so much and so hard in LA?? It was just not meant to be!). Also, the boys were exhausted from spending the last couple of hours ferrying 10 sheets of drywall all over the garage.
The weekend ended with only 3 sheets of drywall installed.
Yao was in town until Thursday, so Jeff decided to take Wednesday off at work, so the two can work on the garage. Thankfully, on Wednesday, it was bright and sunny. Some of the drywall was warped, but we wanted to work with what we had, rather than go rent another damn Home Depot truck just for a couple of sheets of drywall.
A view of the boys hanging drywall.
On the right wall, that's how the entire garage walls looked before we installed the drywall.
On the right wall, that's how the entire garage walls looked before we installed the drywall.
As expected, the installation of the drywall moved pretty quickly and all the sheets of drywall were hung by the end of the day.
Of course, something bad always has to happen.
Turns out, during the initial calculation, we did not include a buffer and we were 1 sheet of drywall short. It was already Wednesday evening, so this problem needed to be figured out on a different day.
On Saturday, Jeff and I went to Home Depot and purchased 1 sheet of drywall. We had no intention of renting a damn truck, so we borrowed an employee's utility knife, and sliced the drywall into 3 small pieces (I can always use joint compound to "glue" these 3 pieces back together!). We loaded the 3 small pieces into Jeff's Camry, drove home, and installed the 3 pieces on the dry wall.
Finally!!
After an entire week, we finally finished hanging drywall in the garage!
All that was left to do was:
1. Joint compound the drywall seams
2. Apply drywall tape onto the seams (I went the cheap route and bought the non-adhesive tape, which means that I need to use extra joint compound as the "adhesive").
3. Joint compound over the drywall tape, and over the nail holes.
4. Wait for the joint compound to dry. (this requires waiting overnight).
5. Joint compound again.
6. Wait for the joint compound to dry. (more overnight waiting)
7. Sand down the joint compound until the wall is smooth.
I slowly did these steps myself over the course of several weeks. Jeff helped joint compound some of the hard-to-reach areas, and he did the sanding.
Joint compounding would have been MUCH easier if some of the drywall was not warped. And maybe if I was not 5-6 months pregnant.
In the process of joint-compounding the drywall seams
Finally! The garage is complete!
The walls look great now, and I think there is less spiders in the garage now too.
If we want, we can now paint the walls, but we are still undecided if we want to bother painting or not.
The finished product: A drywalled garage. The joint compound is completely dry and sanded.
We still need to clean all the debris from the garage, but won't be easy, since we will need to remove all the contents from the garage first.
Once we get all the debris cleaned up, we can start putting everything in their proper place in the garage, and hopefully purchase more racks and storage solutions for the garage.
It's going to look great!
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
dineLA Restaurant Week
You may have already heard of "Restaurant Week", which is a bi-annual nationwide event that promotes trying out new restaurants by luring you in with a prix-fixe menu at a sensational price.
To find out when Restaurant Week is at the city near you, check out the site here.
Although I've heard of dineLA Restaurant Week for quite some time now, Jeff and I actually never participated. We never really found the time, I guess. And the price is not always that great of a deal (the prix-fixe menu is typically a 3-course meal, and the flat rate price you pay is usually around the cost of the appetizer and entree, so you are pretty much getting the dessert for free. If you don't usually order dessert, then it really isnt a deal then).
What got me interested in dineLA Restaurant Week this time around, was an email that I got from American Express: Sync up your Amex card with Foursquare, check-in on Foursquare at the restaurant, pay for your dineLA meal with that Amex card, and get $5 off your credit card statement!
Now, $5 isn't that much, but it *does* give me a good excuse to try out dineLA, so I enrolled.
After reviewing the super long list of dineLA participating restaurants, then refining my search by only selecting the lowest pricing pricing tier (which is $26 per person), I decided to go to the restaurant "Little Next Door". I've heard of this restaurant, the prix-fixe menu looked great and the yelp reviews looked positive.
Upon reaching the restaurant, we realized that the restaurant I had in mind was "The Little Door", and "Little Next Door" is actually the sister restaurant of "The Little Door" (and is located... you guessed it... next door to "The Little Door". haha!), and is not as upscale. Whoops.
The names are so similar, anyone can get confused!
After coughing up $7 for valet (damn you Beverly Hills/West Hollywood), we were seated immediately (probably because it was 8:30pm on a Tuesday night).
We both chose the escargo for appetizers, Jeff ordered the moules frites for the entree while I ordered the steak and frites. Dessert was unfortunate because they were all out of flourless chocolate cake but at least they still had lemon tarts available.
The food was good, not the best, but still decent and $26/ person is pretty good for a 3 course French meal!
And I thought their lemon tart was absolutely amazing.
Remember my Amex deal, where you get $5 off your credit card statement?
Well, Jeff synced up his Amex to his Foursquare on his Iphone while at the restaurant, and we asked the waiter for separate checks. We each paid with our own Amex, which makes it $5 off per person, making the meal $21 per person!
Woohoo. =)
What a fun dineLA experience that was.
To find out when Restaurant Week is at the city near you, check out the site here.
Although I've heard of dineLA Restaurant Week for quite some time now, Jeff and I actually never participated. We never really found the time, I guess. And the price is not always that great of a deal (the prix-fixe menu is typically a 3-course meal, and the flat rate price you pay is usually around the cost of the appetizer and entree, so you are pretty much getting the dessert for free. If you don't usually order dessert, then it really isnt a deal then).
What got me interested in dineLA Restaurant Week this time around, was an email that I got from American Express: Sync up your Amex card with Foursquare, check-in on Foursquare at the restaurant, pay for your dineLA meal with that Amex card, and get $5 off your credit card statement!
Now, $5 isn't that much, but it *does* give me a good excuse to try out dineLA, so I enrolled.
After reviewing the super long list of dineLA participating restaurants, then refining my search by only selecting the lowest pricing pricing tier (which is $26 per person), I decided to go to the restaurant "Little Next Door". I've heard of this restaurant, the prix-fixe menu looked great and the yelp reviews looked positive.
Upon reaching the restaurant, we realized that the restaurant I had in mind was "The Little Door", and "Little Next Door" is actually the sister restaurant of "The Little Door" (and is located... you guessed it... next door to "The Little Door". haha!), and is not as upscale. Whoops.
The names are so similar, anyone can get confused!
After coughing up $7 for valet (damn you Beverly Hills/West Hollywood), we were seated immediately (probably because it was 8:30pm on a Tuesday night).
We both chose the escargo for appetizers, Jeff ordered the moules frites for the entree while I ordered the steak and frites. Dessert was unfortunate because they were all out of flourless chocolate cake but at least they still had lemon tarts available.
The food was good, not the best, but still decent and $26/ person is pretty good for a 3 course French meal!
And I thought their lemon tart was absolutely amazing.
The escargo. I asked to take the shells home to add to my snail shell collection but they said "no", they reuse the shells. =\
The moules! They were tender and delish, but there was 1 dead one in there. =(
Frites are not pictured.
Frites are not pictured.
Steak and frites.
The lemon tart that made me want to die of happiness.
Isn't that cat-face logo so adorable?! It reminds me of the 7-legged spider drawing.
Isn't that cat-face logo so adorable?! It reminds me of the 7-legged spider drawing.
Remember my Amex deal, where you get $5 off your credit card statement?
Well, Jeff synced up his Amex to his Foursquare on his Iphone while at the restaurant, and we asked the waiter for separate checks. We each paid with our own Amex, which makes it $5 off per person, making the meal $21 per person!
Woohoo. =)
What a fun dineLA experience that was.
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