Yun and I purchased some new phones today which I find very exciting. I got the motorola droid and she got the htc droid eris. I like this phone a lot in part due to the operating system and the sweet apps. The gps is really nice. There is a handy pandora app to stream music in the car. A helpful app for the bank for our banking needs and so many others.
This is my first blog entry from the phone.
The framing work is nearly finished. The house has a strong wood smell which smells like progress! Its nice to have the walls going up and see the actual layout (as opposed to the drafting program). These are exciting times for the house.
I joined a golf tournament at work and we play after work every Wednesday. I have some Mizuno blades which are a bit difficult to use. However, I received a nice new Callaway hybrid last night which was a welcomed substitute to the 2 iron. The weather has been so nice lately.
I tried another hotdog/taco stand for dinner tonight. I paid $1.50 for two tacos and $1.00 for a sweet Sonoran dog. This was probably my favorite place to date (Irvington and 12th).
We had the cement poured in the main house today. This is exciting because now we can move on to framing and other good things.
There are a number of strays in our new neighborhood – which is a lot of fun of course. Scout and Tila are huge fans. One in particular has really nice blue eyes – a female german shepherd. Sadly, she appears to be in heat, which is even more sad having recently given birth to three mostly not cute puppies.
I was able to lure her into the back of the Rodeo this afternoon with one of her puppies. The other two puppies were nowhere to be found, but they are fully weened, so I think they’ll be ok. We then took the trip to the doggie prison aka animal control.
There were so many nice looking dogs in the pound. I would love to have a few more, but it wouldn’t be practical. If we’re ever to look for another dog, it will be the first place I look.
I took the day off in order to guide a crew of guys as to the layout of the sewage system. Once the measurements were completed we headed to Lou’s Plumbing Supply where I purchased $300 worth of abs pipes and connectors. The final pipes are being connected now and the dirt is being put back in its proper place. The water main to the house has finally been capped which will resolve this frustrating leak. I determined the city’s valve must have a leaky gasket because the valve is completely shut off and the meter doesn’t move to reflect the amount of free (and unwanted) water I am getting. At any rate, I should have water running to the guest house this upcoming week.
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We met with Nancy and Phil, Chris and Brittney for the maundy thursday service at church and then we went out to eat at the Shishkabob House for dinner later. I had the beef oozie and it was so good!
Further destruction on the floor today as the sewage system was ripped up to be replaced with the non-clay version. I took Friday and Monday off in hopes to get the drainage completed in order that we can lay cement next week.
I accidentally locked us out of our old house tonight, so we paid $50 for a guy to come out and pick our lock. He didn’t even ask if we lived here. I must look really honest.
Yun spent the weekend in Prescott on a retreat while I stayed in Tucson to work on the house. In an effort to continue the circuit of fine dining in South Tucson, I had lunch at Taqueria Jenny #3. This place can be found on the west side of 6th just north of Valencia on the side of the road (where they probably found the meat for my tacos). The food was great and I have every intention to try Jenny #1 and #2 (where ever they are).
Later I spent some time touring our new neighborhood, mostly in an effort to find a place to get a po box (which I was unsuccessful). However, in the process, I found some other fun things like a greyhound track and a bowling alley (both within 5 mins of the house). There are some exciting times ahead!
Work on the house consisted of completing the weeding of the new property (and our current house which was out of control), securing the fences from any attempted escape by the dogs, meeting with a plumber who is helping to resolve my sewage issues, and the ongoing effort of trying to restore the abominable door of the casita.
The water pipes have all been ripped out (mostly all), and I am having a new valve installed on Monday where the water main hits the house. Future plans include adding a PEX manifold there and then running PEX piping through the house.
The sewage is a mess. The house had no venting, so those will need to be added (Monday) and a lot more removal of cement (4 feet thick!) is necessary to replace the old clay pipe. I’m also moving one toilet, so more cement removal with that task (also Monday).
It is of course very exciting to have electricity. We have already used 2 kilowatts!
Today was another busy Saturday working on the house. Nacho reported for work early and helped complete the gutting of the main house. We loaded up the truck and and I took a trip to the dump with Yun’s father.
Yun sold our couch and recliner to a couple that responded to our craiglist ad while we are at the dump. Yun did a wonderful job at negotiating for the full price that we were asking and I got to deliver the furniture to their home 40 mins away. The couch was heavy too!
We arrived back to work some more on the guest house. Yun painted the kitchen and we did some repairs on the drywall. We have electricity now, so we were able to work until after dark.
It was a scorcher today and I have what feels like 1st degree burns on my neck and face.
Yunuen and I spent the day in the hot sun selling the clutter from our house at Nick and Betsy’s neighborhood yard sale. Nick and I both had a 10×10 spot next to each other. We sold a lot of junk from our garage which included a number of tools for the yard. I no longer have aspirations to attempt to grow grass here in the desert and so I sold most of that stuff. I still have the brand new $70 valve timer I bought at Lowes which I am going to try to sell on craigslist along with the lawn mower I was unable to sell.
We had an oven which came with our new house that I had desperately wanted to sell. About an hour into the day I agreed to an offer of $25, which I somewhat reluctantly agreed to given the initial sticker price of $50. It was a fairly nice oven and I think $50 would have been a good deal. About an hour later, the man returned to say his wife didn’t want a white oven and asked if I would refund his money (which I did). I should have charged a restocking fee. We did up eventually selling the thing right before our departure, but for only $15! I was pretty happy I didn’t have to load it back up and take it home though.
Yunuen and I are currently driving down to Mexico for the weekend. I’m using a recently purchased Asus netbook which I bought to replace my old laptop. I really like it a lot, particularly the extended battery life (11.5 hours).
