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Cabinets & Sound of Music for a Great Weekend

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We just got back from visiting our in-progress home.   Yes, we’d been there just 2 weeks ago and saw that there was some major progress made as drywall had been put up!

Two Weeks of Travel & Stress, But We Made It

In two weeks time though, a lot has changed!     First thing we noticed once we were there was that the drywall had been pretty much sealed up.   If you look at the pictures from the post above, the drywall was up but it didn’t look finished yet.   It looks finished now.   What got us over here today though was that we had confirmation that all the cabinetry was up!!!  And boy oh boy, finished walls and cabinetry up in all the rooms makes this place look that much more finished.  It’s fucking fantastic.  Look for yourself!

Cabinets & Finished Drywall – Sept 23, 2018

Phase 2 has a first layer of stucco up
The drywall has been properly finished up
These are some real walls now
Our staircases have railings now
Downstairs bath has a cabinet!
Office is bluuuueee
Look at that – a real railing
OUR KITCHEN HAS CABINETS
IT’S SO EXCITING
THE ISLAND EXISTS
Our TV alcove
Laundry room cabinets
Love our flat panel cabinets and the hardware
Where the stove, oven, and microwave will go
And where our refrigerator goes
Patio still in progress
Railings up to the bedroom level
Landing cabinetry in place
Looking up to the roofdeck windows
The master bathroom cabinets!
Our master shower, with tile
Toilet cabinets
Larry in Nicki’s nook
The guest room bathroom cabinet
Stairs up to the roof deck
Lots of exterior work still going on
A few more layers are coming
I’m a refrigerator
Went for a walk – here’s Valley Glen park
It’s beautiful
The Great Wall – a long mural of California history

You’ll see in those last few pictures that we ended up going for a long walk.   Larry’s commute will be markedly improved once we move, as he’s no longer going to have to cross the 101/170 interchange or the 5/134 interchange – both of which are terrible and soul-killing.  Mine though?  It’s going to take some figuring out.   For going into DTLA, I do have plenty of options but none of them are like, super easy.  There’s an Orange Line stop about a mile south of the house, so Larry suggested we walk it to see how it goes.   The day was right for it, so off we went.  Saw the pretty Valley Glen Community Park before getting to the Orange Line stop.   Definitely a do-able walk, but I’m thinking some kind of bike or scooter would make this easier.  Anyway, on the walk back to the house, we walked up Coldwater Canyon and saw the Great Wall mural of California History.  It’s pretty cool.   Walking through the neighborhood was a nice way to get a better feeling for the area, and I think we’re gonna like it here.

YESTERDAY was the Sound of Music Sing-a-Long at the Hollywood Bowl, and it was wonderful.  I don’t have to explain it again, do I?  It’s what we do every year and we’ll continue to do as long as they keep having it.  Based on yet another sold out crowd, I doubt it’s going away any time soon.  Melissa Peterman was the host (for her 14th time in a row!) and is just fabulous and glorious and so quick on her feet.  Love her.   There was a marriage proposal this year, which was new!  Anyway, The Sound of Music is just as glorious as it ever was, and I love it so.

Sound of Music Sing-a-Long, Sep 22, 2018

In our Terrace Box
Mila and Sonny
Larry with Mila
Enjoying our spread
Ilona and me
The wonderful Melissa Peterman
The remaining Von Trapp Girls: Marta, Gretl, and Brigitta
pictures

It Begins – and lots of other pics too

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First, the stress of yesterday’s PwC event at Magic Mountain proved to be mostly needless.  Of course I’m glad that felt compelled to be prepared, so that’s good, but it was such a welcome relief when it was time to do it and then sure enough, I was done.  Even got decent feedback after the fact.   The reward for making it through was then we got to go enjoy Six Flags!   The weather was pretty much perfect for a visit to the park, and better yet, there were like NO lines.  It’s likely the slowest time for them as most schools have started back up and it’s not really a hot time for tourism, I guess.

Friday, Jan 12 – PwC at Magic Mountain

Kristy, Viv, Nicole and Sarah

The rundown of rides this day was basically all extreme.  And a day later, I’m still kinda feeling sore.  But we went on X-2 TWICE, which holy hell.  Riding in the last row of that ride is one of the most insane things you can do.  Then we went to Viper, then on to Tatsu.   Tatsu…is ridiculous.  It’s almost more intense than X-2 as it really feels like if your harness were to snap, you’d just get flung out to your death.  And it would be quick as you’d be a splat on the ground before you know it.  But what a ride!   We then followed that up with Gold Rusher which is great, as always, and ended the visit at Twisted Colossus.  So Twisted Colossus ended up still being my favorite of the coasters and there was an insane thing that happened:  One of my coworkers was in the seat in front of us, and as the train went inverted, the carabiner he had his keys on disengaged!  He immediately realized this but we were also on a rollercoaster that was currently barrel-rolling.  The keys managed to get lodged into the area by his feet, which was a miracle, as it was still a small gap, but the thickness of one of the keychains saved him.  The carabiner was long gone, but his keys weren’t.   He said that as they were flying away from him, they had been floating in front of them for a moment like they were in space  Lucky lucky man.

Other Things!

Today, Larry & I took my mom over to see the model homes at the Glen LA so she could get to see for herself what the general layout of the house will look like.  It was the formal grand opening this weekend, so we of course saw most of the sales team, but we also saw plenty of potential homebuyers and actual homebuyers.  We ended up meeting a member of the family that will be living directly next door to us, and then we met a couple who will be living across the driveway from us.  All seemed very nice and it’s exciting to get the sense that this will be a fun neighborhood.  Fingers crossed.

Saturday, Jan 13 – At The Glen LA with Mom

Mom chills as we get ideas for the outdoor area
In the Plan 2 Model w/ lights on
Atop Plan 2 on the Roof Deck
More progress being made
Like this area especially with a rooftop fridge
We like these bathroom tiles
Good ideas for a nice rooftop barrier
We like the look of this pendant lighting
I am IN LOVE with this planking on the rooftop
It’s not cheap
Making our way to our home
Humble Beginnings
That’s the garage
Looking back towards the finished stuff

Those are the most recent pics and I think it could be fun to try to capture periodic shots from the construction site in order to eventually capture a time-lapse of the progress.  Easier said than done, I’m imagining.

Anyway, the rest of the weekend should be nice and relaxing, hopefully.   I figure while I’ve got energy and the time, here are some picture sets from December, mostly from around Christmas stuff:

Mon, Dec 25, 2017 – Christmas at Mom’s House

My Christmas Loot from Larry!!!
A rare sight indeed is when Porto’s parking lot is empty
Christmas Dinner getting worked on at Mom’s
Our Thanksgiving ham from Whole Foods was saved for Christmas. It’s enormous.
Trent & Stacie
Family time
With Trent
Tower of Terror Jenga is always a fun time

It was a fun time to spend Christmas at Mom’s with Stacie and Trent.  The food was great (and happily, our overbuying for Thanksgiving helped as we just froze this ham and then used it a month later).  And wine is always a winner.

Making Cookies

I love making chocolate chip cookies as they turn out so damned good.  It’s just a lot of work.  I ended up making cookies throughout the entirety of watching Die Hard, which is a long time.  But so worth the effort.  The recipe for these cookies I’ve shared on this site previously and is slightly weird in how it does things, but the results can’t be argued with.

Cookies mise en place
Ralphie is interested
Hmmm
Scared of the handmixer
mmmm….cookie dough
The cookies are goooooood

I think the last thing I’ll post about as I’m getting antsy and want to do something else besides type on my blog is the pictures from the Sperske Christmas Even that my cousin Erin held down in Carlsbad.   Happily, it was held in the early afternoon, so we didn’t have to stay down there overnight.  It also meant a LOT of driving for one day.  But it was worth it to see family again.  Erin & Eric’s house is perfect for these kinds of get-togethers and their recent renovations inside are fantastic.

Sat, Dec 23, 2017 – Christmas Eve in Carlsbad

Larry and me
with cousin Erin
Erin and Cindy
The food spread was pretty great

And that’s that.  Time to play some video games and shoot some Nazis.

on life, pictures

A New Home Awaits Us in Summer 2018

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Yet again, a few months or so without an update, and I have little in the way of an excuse except much like before, I’ve not been all that motivated to post.  Plenty of pictures have been taken and fun adventures enjoyed, but the days when I thought people read this site are over.   Yet I do enjoy having a log to look back at, and so with that in mind, a big ass life event is occurring:  Larry & I are buying a house!

Yep, we put a deposit down yesterday on a home that is getting built as we speak.  It’s in the community called TheGlenLA – you can visit their website here:   http://www.theglenla.com/.  It’s located in ‘The Valley’ which is a shock to both you and me as I’d never have guessed I’d buy a home there…but, when the price is right, you can get something new and to your liking, and you don’t have to spend a shitton of money to renovate it the way you really want it…it’s hard to sniff.  Happily, Valley Glen is right next to North Hollywood, close to Burbank, and just north of Ventura Boulevard, so there’s lots of cool things for us to do.

We’re buying the “Home Plan #2” version, which suits us really well.  It’s bigger than the #1 plan, but not as big as #3.  Normally I’d be like buy as much as you can afford, but the main variation in #3 is that there are 2 guest bedrooms and a Master on the bedroom floor rather than just one guest room.  For our needs, we really don’t need 2 guest rooms.  Anyway, here are the floor plans from the website:

Floor 1
2nd Floor
3rd Floor
Roof Deck

Here are some videos we took while walking through the model home of Plan #2 as well.  Marvel at how photogenic and magnetic we are on video!

Walking Through the 2nd Floor:

Walking Through the 3rd Floor:

Walking on the Roof Deck:

There is a lot of time between now and when we actually get to move in to the house.  Expectations are that we’ll move in around August 2018, meaning we’ll have to extend our lease at our apartment for another 6 months.  Not the worst thing, I guess.  Also will give us time to continue saving and increase our down payment.   As of now, we look to be able to hit 20% down which is a-freakin’-mazing.

Almost immediately, we will need to make some design decisions too!   That’s the cool part about this whole experience, as we can get it customized to how we want it.  Options of course cost money, but there are some things like flooring and electrical systems that make sense to get done the way we want now before having to rip apart walls later on.  The first appointment, for electrical, is this Friday!  CRAZY.

Anyway, here are some pictures we’ve taken from our various trips to the site.  Expect more pictures as we continue visiting the site and stress unnecessarily about things out of our control!