Muchacho Polaco

taqueria jenny #3

Posted on March 28, 2010 by Ryann

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!

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

mucho trabajo hoy

Posted on March 21, 2010 by Ryann

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.

Posted in home restoration | 2 Comments

yardsale

Posted on March 13, 2010 by Ryann

It was a scorcher today and I have what feels like 1^st 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).

Posted in friends | 1 Comment

CONSTRUCTION

Posted on March 10, 2010 by Ryann

Today marks the advent of a new phase! Formerly we’ve only known destruction, but today something was actually constructed. Because there are two homes on the property, there are two separate meters for electricity. Both homes were wired for 100amp, but today they were changed to 200amp. We also changed where the electrical boxes were located to hide them along the side of the guest house which cleans up their former location. My friend Jesus did an awesome job.

Posted in home restoration | Leave a comment

Tucson fine cuisine

Posted on March 6, 2010 by Ryann

I am thinking about blogging my opinion on every hotdog stand in South Tucson. That may take a few years. This morning we had hotdogs for breakfast along with some homemade potato chips. It was so good and so close to our new home. I already feel healthier.

Yesterday I took the day off to head to Mexico with Bruce and Enrique to meet with Josue to inquire of the work with the church plant there. It was an encouraging meeting and I had a great breakfast.

I had a chance to work on the guest house yesterday – still tearing down walls. My friend Jesus stopped by yesterday to map out a plan for my electrical needs. With Jesus’ talent, I anticipate having electricity this week. It requires a permit and a city inspection, but I’m hopeful. Apparently the guest house was not a recent addition – there are indications (from the wiring in the attic) that it was built in the 40s. We now believe the guest house was the original house and the main was the addition. Always fun surprises.

We bought some white corn yesterday on the side of the road. I don’t remember ever having tried this. Yun tells me it is not sweet like the corn I am used to. We paid $4 for 12 ears.

Today Nacho continued the horrible job of removing tile in the main house. This is his third week on this task. Nacho is an incredibly hard worker and we will continue to employ him for as many Saturdays as he is interested. Having electricity will make most of the work substantially easier and will eliminate the need to depend upon battery operated tools.

I did recently purchase a sweet Ryobi cordless reciprocating saw which has proven invaluable. I used it today to slice through some walls.

Yun parents are now on their way up from Mexico and we have big plans for Chinese buffet! My uncle Dennis flies in tomorrow so we hope to see him for dinner.

Posted in home restoration, Mexico | 6 Comments

mexican hotdogs!

Posted on February 28, 2010 by Ryann

Yun and I worked on the house Saturday and around lunch time stopped for food at the place in the photo above. Given the scruffy looking animal above, I opted for the carne asada. They were so good and I don’t care how dirty the place looked. These are the only places around town that have authentic tasting Mexican food. None of the so-called Mexican restaurants in town are remotely decent in our opinion.

Posted in food | 2 Comments

edge of darkness

Posted on February 22, 2010 by Ryann

I watched this movie tonight and found it absolutely horrible. Generally I turn a movie like this off after 5mins. I’m not sure how I ended up watching the entire thing. I highly recommend not watching it.

Posted in movies | 2 Comments

pictionary champions

Posted on February 20, 2010 by Ryann

We had some friends over this evening for some pictionary action. Team Jankowski coupled up with Team Netherton to take on Team Cepin and Team Bateman. The picture above was Phil’s winning drawing of argyle which led our team to victory.

The ladies prepared an awesome dinner.

Posted in friends | Leave a comment

new design layout

Posted on February 15, 2010 by Ryann

Tonight I tried to update our prior plans with the idea from my tile drawing below. I like this layout a lot more.

Posted in home restoration | Leave a comment

new design

Posted on February 13, 2010 by Ryann

Today was another productive Saturday in regard to home renovations. We had a mountain of trash that I had to get into the dumpster, which I was able to eventually accomplish. Insulation is messy and takes up a lot of space. The house is mostly gutted at this point.

Jeff came over today to help me work out the plumbing situation. The house has undergone renovations and additions in the past which pose some difficulties. One of which is to figure out where the water main enters the home. We think we have an idea, but there will need to be some jack-hammering in the next few weeks to be sure. The drain pipes also present a difficulty in determining what goes where. My intention is to rip out all of the current plumbing once I can tap into the main and then install a PEX system. This will make things clean and easy.

Jeff had some great ideas as to the layout of the house. We essentially have an empty shell at this point with our only limitations being the drainage system. I had previously posted a layout, but today’s planning completely changed that. I had to take notes with a marker and a piece of tile (picture above).

I am excited about the new layout possibility because it should look and function a lot better. We hope to have this resolved in the next few weeks in order that we can get the cement poured to even our floors and then we can begin on the framing.