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| A strange British car that opens from the front. |
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| A VW Bus that had a "convertible" top. |
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Block Party 2013
If you are a faithful reader of this blog, I think there are 5 of you, then you know that I am on our block party committee. But block party is a bit of a misnomer because in reality it is a community party. We usually have 500 to 700 people show up. I'm a little late writing this because Sept 21st was our party, sorry. Anyway here are some pictures and a video from the event. Most of the photos are from the car display we had. Click on the photos to enlarge.
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
The rug we chose is ....
#1
At the store we really liked #2 but once we got it home it just didn't really look that great. If I can offer any advice it is to take a rug home and see how it looks on your floor.
We got #1 and #2 at one store and #3 and #4 at another store. I really liked #4 and would like to have bought that one too but we just couldn't afford both rugs. They don't give them Persian rugs away for free ya know!
Thank you all for voting and maybe I will try another poll sometime again.
At the store we really liked #2 but once we got it home it just didn't really look that great. If I can offer any advice it is to take a rug home and see how it looks on your floor.
We got #1 and #2 at one store and #3 and #4 at another store. I really liked #4 and would like to have bought that one too but we just couldn't afford both rugs. They don't give them Persian rugs away for free ya know!
Thank you all for voting and maybe I will try another poll sometime again.
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Floor Rugs
Now that we completed the condo our focus can shift back to our house. "A" wanted to reward herself since she has finished paying off her student loans, which is no small feat. We want to have three nice area rugs, one for our dining room and two for our living room. Each rug will need to be approximately 8'x10'. One thing we really don't want is a cheap machine made rug. So we went decided that it would definitely be a hand made rug, but which kind?
We had a really nice rug that we purchased from a local furniture store that was made in India, hand tufted I believe. The problem with many Indian rugs are that they usually put some kind of glue on the back that will keep it held together after the tufting. This glue eventually breaks down and starts to really stink and no amount of cleaning will fix it. That is what happened to our rug, so we decided to go with a hand knotted rug.
Quite a few countries make these rugs (Pakistan, Turkey, Afghanistan, Iran, etc...). I happen to have a few Pakistani rugs that I bought when I lived there but they are too small for our needs in these three areas. We went to the Miramar area and brought home four rugs that we thought would work. "A" doesn't like the typical Persian rugs that have the flowery or flowing type patterns, she is more drawn to the tribal type rugs. So we looked at three rugs from the Heriz area of Iran and one from Afghanistan.
Below are the rugs that tried numbered from 1 to 4, can you guess which one we chose? Please vote to the right of this post. Answer will be given after the poll closes.
We had a really nice rug that we purchased from a local furniture store that was made in India, hand tufted I believe. The problem with many Indian rugs are that they usually put some kind of glue on the back that will keep it held together after the tufting. This glue eventually breaks down and starts to really stink and no amount of cleaning will fix it. That is what happened to our rug, so we decided to go with a hand knotted rug.
Quite a few countries make these rugs (Pakistan, Turkey, Afghanistan, Iran, etc...). I happen to have a few Pakistani rugs that I bought when I lived there but they are too small for our needs in these three areas. We went to the Miramar area and brought home four rugs that we thought would work. "A" doesn't like the typical Persian rugs that have the flowery or flowing type patterns, she is more drawn to the tribal type rugs. So we looked at three rugs from the Heriz area of Iran and one from Afghanistan.
Below are the rugs that tried numbered from 1 to 4, can you guess which one we chose? Please vote to the right of this post. Answer will be given after the poll closes.
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| #1 Heriz, Persian |
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| #2 Afghanistan |
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| #3 Heriz, Persian |
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| #4 Heriz, Persian |
Thursday, September 12, 2013
Renovations part 5: completed and condo rented
We finished with the final preparations for the condo on September 1st and it was listed on the 5th. I got word today that it has now been rented. It was actually a little faster than I expected so we are happy. In the end we rented it for $1,345 with a one year lease.
It was a long haul and took much longer than I expected but I am glad we did it. If we ever buy another rental property I think we will try to get a move in ready place. Then again maybe not :)
Below are the before and after photos.
It was a long haul and took much longer than I expected but I am glad we did it. If we ever buy another rental property I think we will try to get a move in ready place. Then again maybe not :)
Below are the before and after photos.
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Renovations part 4
Where to start? I wanted to write a post this weekend but I worked every day (Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday). By the end of the day, I was so mentally and physically exhausted, that I had no desire to write.
Everything has been a battle with this condo. I had to call in a plumber because there were old “spaghetti lines” used for the water supply to all the sinks. I purchased the new hoses and the valves but couldn't remove the old ones because they were frozen in place and I was afraid to ruin the copper pipes. Also when I tried to connect the gas range I found that the supply nozzle was incorrect and I could not get a tight fit and the gas line was too high so the rage would not sit flush against the wall. If the range did not sit against the wall then we couldn't open one of the drawers.
When the plumber came out he moved the gas line and installed a correct nozzle. It also seems there are two types of copper pipes used in residential, “L” and “M”. When the valves are installed on “L” pipes it does not affect the end and you can just install the new valve. With “M” pipes the valve will compress the end and this causes the pipe to leak when the new valve is installed. Take a wild guess on which type I had?
He initially tried to use the old connection but it kept leaking so he had to go back and cut each pipe and then reconnect the valves. Thankfully he had enough pipe available to cut, barely.
The blinds we ordered did not fit because each of the damn windows are either not standard sizes or are different by ¼ to ½ inches. So now we will need to go and have custom windows cut.
It is finally looking like a livable place and now we are left with the small things that seem to take so much time.
Everything has been a battle with this condo. I had to call in a plumber because there were old “spaghetti lines” used for the water supply to all the sinks. I purchased the new hoses and the valves but couldn't remove the old ones because they were frozen in place and I was afraid to ruin the copper pipes. Also when I tried to connect the gas range I found that the supply nozzle was incorrect and I could not get a tight fit and the gas line was too high so the rage would not sit flush against the wall. If the range did not sit against the wall then we couldn't open one of the drawers.
When the plumber came out he moved the gas line and installed a correct nozzle. It also seems there are two types of copper pipes used in residential, “L” and “M”. When the valves are installed on “L” pipes it does not affect the end and you can just install the new valve. With “M” pipes the valve will compress the end and this causes the pipe to leak when the new valve is installed. Take a wild guess on which type I had?
He initially tried to use the old connection but it kept leaking so he had to go back and cut each pipe and then reconnect the valves. Thankfully he had enough pipe available to cut, barely.
The blinds we ordered did not fit because each of the damn windows are either not standard sizes or are different by ¼ to ½ inches. So now we will need to go and have custom windows cut.
It is finally looking like a livable place and now we are left with the small things that seem to take so much time.
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| Living Room/Dining room |
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| Hallway looking to 2nd bedroom from laundry |
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| 2nd bedroom |
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| Master bedroom/Master bath on left |
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| Kitchen from dining room |
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| Dining room from kitchen |
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| Kitchen |
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| Guest bath |
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| Master bath |
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Renovations Part 3
The Electricians did their thing and the painter kind of did his. I got word that the work was done and all that remained was to clean up. Mmmm maybe not so fast. The guy said to take a look and if I noticed anything then to write up a punch list. They were suppose to use flat paint for the entire condo except the kitchen, bathrooms and doors. It turns out that everything was done in flat (actually eggshell).
Then I discovered they painted over the bath fixtures. Not sure why they did that, but not good. And it continued downhill, because someone used the toilet in the guest bathroom and did not flush it. Now granted the handle was broken, so it would not flush, but is it that hard to lift up the tank lid and pull the flapper up? I mean C'MON MAN!! I guess the guy figured out that something was wrong when his turd didn't magically go away. He must have thought that the water was off so he turned the water supply "off". Guess he never heard of "righty tighty, lefty loosey". So if you turn the knob and you turd still doesnt go away, LIFT THE DAMN TANK LID AND TAKE A LOOK!!!! Nope "I'll just leave it and hope no one notices".
Moving on they also painted over the vents, which is actually a good thing, because they were pretty nasty and we were thinking of replacing them.
There were other smaller discrepancies and so I made the punch list and also texted Elmer. He is the guy in charge and I am pretty sure he did not do this painting job. I got a text back this morning and he was not too happy. He left the painter on his own to do the job trusting that he would do a good jobe. It turns out the semi-gloss was there but the guy he used to paint did not "notice" it. So today he is sending over another painter to repaint using the semi-gloss and fix all the over spray.
Speaking of over spray, I mentioned that one of the toilets handle was broke? Well we bought two new toilets (which we will get a rebate on due to the high effecincy) and placed them in the bath tub for the floor guys to install. Damn if the painter did not get paint on it when they washed their stuff in the tub.
Apparently my dry wall patch job and texture work sucked. Once the paint was up it really stood out. More work for me, yea! These are the photos before the painting.
Thursday the floor guys should begin their work!
Then I discovered they painted over the bath fixtures. Not sure why they did that, but not good. And it continued downhill, because someone used the toilet in the guest bathroom and did not flush it. Now granted the handle was broken, so it would not flush, but is it that hard to lift up the tank lid and pull the flapper up? I mean C'MON MAN!! I guess the guy figured out that something was wrong when his turd didn't magically go away. He must have thought that the water was off so he turned the water supply "off". Guess he never heard of "righty tighty, lefty loosey". So if you turn the knob and you turd still doesnt go away, LIFT THE DAMN TANK LID AND TAKE A LOOK!!!! Nope "I'll just leave it and hope no one notices".
Moving on they also painted over the vents, which is actually a good thing, because they were pretty nasty and we were thinking of replacing them.
There were other smaller discrepancies and so I made the punch list and also texted Elmer. He is the guy in charge and I am pretty sure he did not do this painting job. I got a text back this morning and he was not too happy. He left the painter on his own to do the job trusting that he would do a good jobe. It turns out the semi-gloss was there but the guy he used to paint did not "notice" it. So today he is sending over another painter to repaint using the semi-gloss and fix all the over spray.
Speaking of over spray, I mentioned that one of the toilets handle was broke? Well we bought two new toilets (which we will get a rebate on due to the high effecincy) and placed them in the bath tub for the floor guys to install. Damn if the painter did not get paint on it when they washed their stuff in the tub.
Apparently my dry wall patch job and texture work sucked. Once the paint was up it really stood out. More work for me, yea! These are the photos before the painting.
Thursday the floor guys should begin their work!
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Renovations Part 2
Progress is slowly moving forward on our rental property. We finally have the granite installed and tomorrow the electricians will wrap up their part. This weekend I patched all the holes that the electricians made on Friday and textured the patches. Tomorrow morning I will meet with the painter and he should begin on Tuesday. I had the floor guys scheduled for Wednesday bu will now push them out to the following week.
Whew!! Playing general contractor is rough work. But thinking of the $$$$ that I am saving is keeping me going. Below are the photos of the granite and the flooring that we have picked out.
Whew!! Playing general contractor is rough work. But thinking of the $$$$ that I am saving is keeping me going. Below are the photos of the granite and the flooring that we have picked out.
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| This is just some of the stuff that we will be installing. |
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