House Project

Well, Alicia and I have been hard at work with the house project. We have been without any living spaces downstairs for a month, and we have now torn up the floor in the kitchen.

I'd like to mention that Casey and Graham have been a TREMENDOUS help to us in the project. Not only have they gotten their hands dirty, and helped us a ton, they have also been willing to listen and discuss COUNTLESS options, ideas, and whatnot with us. Thanks a ton to both of you!

Step 1: Demolition

Between the storm, and us choosing to replace the remaining floors downstairs, we have a lot to take out of the house. This includes:

• Remove all carpet downstairs
• Remove all tile downstairs
• Remove all baseboards downstairs
• Remove all window and door trim downstairs
• Remove most of the drywall in the front of the house downstairs (we had this contracted out)

This is mostly complete. We are going to dispose of the removed materials this weekend. This has been a lot of work, and I'll be glad to see it go.

Step 2: Drywall Repair

The water that came into the house caused a lot of drywall to be damaged and/or moldy. This was all ripped out by Hugo! Just yesterday, he finished putting in the new drywall, as well as finishing and texture-ing it. If anyone needs drywall or paint work done, let me know, and I'll give you his contact info. He did a fantastic job at a very reasonable price.

Step 3: Paint

We have decided that now is an excellent time to paint the downstairs. We had already painted the den, so we only need to paint the formal living, formal dining, kitchen, and breakfast areas. We are going to leave the foyer the existing color since the high walls would be very difficult to paint. Hopefully we can finish painting in the next week or two.

Step 4: Level the Floors

After completing the painting, it will be time to level the floors. We will be using a self-leveling cementious underlayment available at home depot. This stuff basically gets mixed with water, poured on the floor, and within a day or two, you have a nice new level floor to install over. Fun stuff. The sixty bags, along with 20 bottles of primer, were delivered from home depot this morning!

Step 5: Install new floors

The next step is to actually install the new flooring. We have discussed and debated back and forth over which flooring to choose. Real Wood? Engineered Wood? Laminates? How much do we spend? Do we do it ourselves? What installation method do we want; float, nail, or glue?

It has taken us quite a while to answer these questions, but at the end of the day, we have decided on laminate planks. These will not only be cheaper, but they are the easiest to install, and are the most durable. Sounds like a no brainer right? One would think so, but when actually faced with the decision, it was not that easy...

We will be ordering from www.builddirect.com. After we have ordered and received the floors, I'll let you all know what we think. They seem to have good prices and alot of good information, so I hope they don't disappoint us.

The floor we picked is by a manufacturer called K-Swiss, and it's a darker colored laminate.


We must have ordered 30 samples of laminates, and another twenty of engineered woods, and this is what we've decided on. We haven't actually placed the order yet, but it won't be long now.

Step 6: Baseboards and Trim

After installing the floors, it will be time to put the baseboards and window/door trim on. Now, if you know me, then you know that I can be very particular about certain things. Alicia says she doesn't care in the least what the trim looks like. I have a little more of an opinion than that...

I came across this baseboard design when browsing the web, and I really like the look of it. But $45 for eight feet?!?!?!?! I think not...

So, Graham and I put on our thinking caps. We determined we can make our own for a fraction of that cost, using some clever design, some MDF, and Graham's awesome tools! We haven't actually started yet because it's so far along into the project, but it sounds promising.

I did get in touch with Houston Hardwoods, and they can custom mill some matching this design at a very reasonable price as well, so that might be another good option. We'll decide as the time gets closer...

Step x.5: Paint cabinets?

One of the ideas we have thought about pursuing during the project is a little makeover to the kitchen cabinets. We don't particularly like our existing cabinets. Alicia hate's the color, and I hate the traditional design of the doors. What better time to take on something like this than when your downstairs is already torn to shreds?

There is no better time, and that's what we thought too...

We haven't made a decision on this, or even on exactly what we'd be doing, but it's something we're considering.

Conclusion:

Now that I've most certainly bored you to death, assuming you were bored enough to actually read this, I guess I'll let ya go.

If anyone wants to get some good exercise and help us out, just let me know!

Ike... House... Floors...meh

So, things have been crazy lately. Alicia and I braved the storm de Ike, and were able to defeat some of the water that came flying through our windows. Unfortunately, the rest of the water totally defeated our carpets. This presented us with a choice: put in more crappy carpet, or spend some extra money and do hardwood floors like we want?

Well, if you know me, then you know what I wanted to do. New floors!

A few months back, I mentioned I was bored and needed a project. Well... I got one.

We are ripping out all of the carpet and tile downstairs in the house to replace it with hardwood floors. We are doing it ALL OURSELVES!! :) Yeah, it's fun. And it's gonna get better.

I'll keep everyone informed.

peace

Boba Fett dance

This is one of the greatest internet movies I have ever seen!

Wow that is cool!

Kenna of the Bells

Dum du da dum
dum du da dum
dum du da dum
dum du da dum

So, Alicia and I got this dog, Kenna, and she's awesome. She is an AKC English Mastiff, and she's awesome! We love her very much. Not only that, but she's gonne be HUGE! :)

So obviously, with such a large dog, training is going to be key. We have started with potty training, as we find that very important. We have read on the internet about people teaching their dogs to ring some bells when they need to go potty. So we decided to give that a try. We put some bells on the door Wednesday of last week, and starting making her brush her nose against them when we took her out.

Then, yesterday afternoon (only four days later!!!) as we were in the kitchen cooking, we heard the bells jingle! Hallelujah! We let the dog out, and she went pee! We honestly thought this was a fluke until a few minutes later when she did it AGAIN!

I don't think we are completely out of the water yet, but we are off to a good start! :)

Anyway, check out the pictures of our new girl. She's pretty cool...

Feeling Inspired

Did you ever feel like it was time for a new project? I have... and I do.

I have tossed around thoughts of what I want to do. Maybe something around the house? Toolbench? Server closet/room? Hall closet? Maybe something more along the line of systems stuff. Build a new server, and setup a domain at home? I still like the idea of putting thin client...ish systems in our house. Setting up a Windows 2008 domain, and RDP server? With 2008 you can publish individual applications through Terminal Services, so I don't need Citrix to do that anymore. I wonder how that looks on a Vista machine. I guess the published apps would be "aero", so that might not be too pretty. Something to think about.

Or maybe I should build something else... like some new speakers? ;)

I feel very motivated to do something productive, but I can't figure out what it is. I also don't know where I'm going to find the time to do it.

Maybe I should do all of those things! :)

Anyway, I started playing with Ajax a litte while ago, and created this... http://ahren.homeip.net
What do you think? I had big plans for this database interface that would list all of the servers in an environment and give you an easy, organized way to view them and sort them. That link is as far as I got. hahaha.

Anyway. I guess I'll go now.

Married! WOOHOO!

Well, Alicia and I are married! :)

We tied the knot March 1, 2008 at 12 noon. The outdoor ceremony was awesome, the weather couldn't have been better, and the reception was TONS of fun. In addition, we got to see some friends for an after-party that we really wanted to visit with.

All-in-all, it was one of the best days of my entire life! I love Alicia very, very much, and I am excited to start the rest of my life with her by my side!

We went to Jamaica for the honeymoon! "Yeah mon, no problem..." is all I have to say about that! What an amazing place! I highly recommend it!

We are all moved into the new house, and things are awesome. Thanks to everyone who came, and to those who wanted to, but couldn't! I am so fortunate to have so many people in my life that care about me.

Alright, that's enough cheese. Now for the nerdy stuff...

So, I got some awesome tools for my garage! :) Tablesaw, Circular Saw, Jigsaw, and more! I am going to start my first project in my new garage soon: a workbench! Any suggestions? I may not listen, but you are welcome to offer them up.

At some point I want to put some sort of air-conditioned switch/server closet in my attic, but that may have to wait a while. That will happen right before the thin client install in every room!

I installed my own thermostats in the house. They are touchscreen... pretty fancy. We also hung a pot-rack over the kitchen island that someone gave us as a gift. Pretty awesome stuff! I'll have to post some pictures of the house interior when we have more stuff put away.

Alright, I guess I should go now.

Thanks!

The rest of my life

Well, the rest of my life is beginning. For those of you that haven't heard, Alicia and I are getting married! :)

Assuming all goes well, we are getting hitched on March 1st, 2008. That's right, only six weeks away! Yes we are crazy :) And no we are not in a hurry for any...particular...reason. We just found a place we like that was available and decided we are going to "do this thing" :)

We are also buying a house! We are options pending for a new home in wonderful Pearland, Texas. Now we just have to finalize inspections and financing and we are good to go!

From a 700 sq. ft. apartment to a 3300 sq. ft. house. That is what I call a big improvement :)

I'll keep you all posted!

Awesome Co-Workers

So, some of my co-workers; Chris, Ethan, Carlos, and Julie surprised me with an early birthday present today.

Guitar Hero 3

I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I am!!!!! Thank you guys SO SO much! This is the most excellent thing every!

Now I have three days to unlock tons of songs before the birthday bash! :) Woohoo!

Happy New Year

Well, the new year is upon us. It has sure arrived quickly, and I'm pretty sure it's going to take me forever to remember to sign checks with an 08. But it's here, and I welcome it.

Thanks to everyone who helped my 2007 to rock.

I have been playing Assassin's Creed on PS3. Let me just say, that game is AWESOME. It is long...but the controls are really good. The graphics are excellent, and game play is challenging, yet fun. I highly recommend it.

I can't WAIT for Guitar Hero 3 and Rock Band. I hope someone pays attention to my birthday list, otherwise my decision to not buy them will look dumb. :D

We went to Jerry's party this weekend. That was muy fun. Thanks for having us Jerry! It was great to see all my friends again.

I guess that's enough of an update for now. I'll do more later.