Remolding & New Phone

Remodeling Day Thirty-Four

Today our contractor Danny was back to finish up the Guest Bathroom. He started with finishing up the grout work. Next he changed the size of the vent, so that the vent would fit into the new vanity. The next thing he had to do was to change the plumbing to make it work with the new vanity. Once that was completed he put up the mirror. After he was done with that he had to head out to Home Depot to pick up a wax ring, since that ring had been missing since the house was built. So it was a good thing that we decided to remodel the guest bathroom. While Danny was at Home Depot he also picked up a Drum Auger (plumbing snake), that Harry and I needed to deal with our plumbing problem. As soon as Danny got back he installed the toilet, did some clean up and was done. With the guest bathroom completed the Phase Two of the remodel for our contractor is completed. Harry and I still have a few odds and ends to complete and we still have ton of unpacking to do but things are coming along. And one of these days hopefully in the near future we will be done. At least done enough were we feel that we don't have to get up and remodel or paint something.

Since Danny got us the snake Harry started to take apart the kitchen sink pipes. He cleaned out the U pipe and put it back on but we were still having issues so I got in there was the snake and after some finagling I got the snake to go down the pipe for 15 feet (the length of the snake). It didn't seem like we unclogged anything but when we got everything back together and tested it the water went down fine.. so yay for us.

Later in the day we drove out to the AT&T store in Palmdale to buy me a new phone, since I was going crazy without mine and knew I had lost it forever. I was looking at a LG Neon with a text pad but the employee showed me another phone that was nicer, with a bigger screen and was a better deal so I went with the Samsung Impression... And I love it. My plan still has 6 days left on it but the manager allowed me to get the phone at a discounted price. We tried to get Harry one because I knew he's been wanting a new phone as well but his contract isn't up until January.. but that's only a few months away. After that we went to Home Town Buffet to grab some lunch and I have to say we were the youngest people in there. It was around 3:30pm and the place was packed with older people and I figured it was their dinner time. After lunch we went Bed, Bath & Beyond to return the super soft bamboo sheets that we had gotten yesterday, since the sizes were messed up. We hoped that we would find a bigger set, but they had sold out of them so we just got a refund. I do know I'm going to look for other Bamboo sheets in the future. We then checked out Ashley’s furniture store for accessories, but didn’t find any night stands and coffee / cocktail tables that we both were in love with. So, guess we will have to find those items somewhere else.

After that we headed home and relaxed for the rest of the night.

Shopping for Accessories…

Today we took Harry's truck in for an oil change, the dealers is out in Canoga Park. So we left around 11 am and drove to the Dodge dealer. Turns out that they had to perform some additional service steps that have mostly to do with the guarantee on the car. They wanted us to leave the truck and of course we couldn't do that so we made an appointment for Thursday. It sucked that we wasted time and gas driving over there but what can you do.

So we headed back to Santa Clarita to go shopping at Bed, Bath & Beyond since we had coupon for 20% off the the entire purchase. To prepare us for the shopping trip we went to Chili’s and we both had a delicious burger for lunch. After lunch we walked through the entire store and checked out a lot of stuff. And with most things there were just too many choices to choose from. We purchased place mats and napkins for the dining room. Next on the agenda were new bed sets for the guest room and the master bedroom. We looked at a ton of bedroom sets and finally decided on a very nice set in earth colors for the master bedroom. We weren’t quite happy with the tread count of the sheets that came with the bed set so we opted to buy a second set of sheets made of bamboo.. they were so soft. Once we were done with that it was back to the bed sets again, as the guest room gave us even more trouble than the master bedroom. We finally decided to go with a rather bold color choice, a mostly black bed set that’s set off with some white. Harry thinks that the green guest room can easily take the black of the bed set, especially if you counterbalance it with white curtains. I on the other hand wasn’t so sure about that. But we ended up buying it. We also picked up 4 additional pillows, since the pillows we’re currently using have definitely seen better days.

After that we went looking for curtains. Well that is easier said than done. We either couldn’t agree on the same curtain, or when we did agree they didn't have our size. So this was a pretty frustrating experience. We decided to pick up curtains later as we were tired and just wanted to get home. We then relaxed in one of the massage chairs… and since we really liked them we decided to purchase one of those massage units. After that we bought a welcome mat and a trash can, that is supposedly “doggy” safe… but we will see how “doggie” safe that trash can really is. We ended up with alot of stuff and a bill of about 470 bucks and that's with the 20% off.

When we got home I noticed that my cell phone was gone. We tore apart Harry's truck and retraced our steps to the house but no luck. I know I had it on our drive home as I was checking my tweets. The only time I got out was to get the mail at the entrance to our street. But both Harry and I went back there looking for it and still couldn't find it. I don't have a clue what happen to it. I did want to get a new phone but not like this.. I lost everyone's numbers and feel totally lost without it.

Trying not to feel horrible about losing my phone we moved on to unpacking and setting up both the master Cal King bed and guest Queen bed. When I went to put the fitted sheet on the Cal King I noticed that it was coming up way short. It looked like it would fit a double but not a Cal King. The flat sheet was okay and the pillow cases seemed a bit small for king pillows.. I'm bummed because this was the only one they had at that Bed, Bath and Beyond since they were clearance and 50% off. Guess will try and BBB in Palmdale and see if we can exchange them.

We finally get to sleep in our brand new Cal King Bed tonight...

Remolding - Day Thirty-Three

Today we had the delivery of our mattress scheduled in the time between 11 am and 3 pm. We hoped that the mattress would be here early so that we could take Harry's truck for a oil change, as this needs to be done ASAP. Of course nothing ever works out as planned. The mattress delivery was a little after 1.30 pm and we didn’t want to do the oil change after that since we didnt' want to get stuck in traffic. So guess the oil change will have to wait until tomorrow or Wednesday.

We also got word from the VET that Daisy is ok. Apparently she didn’t eat the rat poison after all. That’s quite a relief. Now she has to stay on Vitamin K for the next 2 week. After that period we have to go back to the VET and have more blood work done, to see that everything still is ok. Until then I will keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best!!

After we went to Palmdale to go shopping at Lowe’s and Target. First we stopped by Lowe’s to pick up Dowels and Wood Glue to fix the issue with the Cal King Bed. We also had to pick up Drain Cleaner because our kitchen sink is draining very slowly. It was slow when we moved in but has gotten worse since we moved it.. might be the fact that we have been cleaning out our paint brushes in there. Guess I shouldn't do that anymore.

After Lowe’s we headed over to Target to shop for End-tables, curtains, sheets and other accessories. While we were looking at all the accessories it hit us that we could get a lot of that stuff at Bed, Bath & Beyond and we have a 20% coupon for that store. But the coupon was in Harry's truck and we had brought my jeep. So we decided to get the accessories tomorrow. We just bought an end-table for the TV-Room and a 1 quart Ice Cream Maker that can make ice cream without salt and ice. Now we have just to find a few recipes for dairy free ice cream...yum!!!

Once we got back from shopping the first thing we did is poor half of the drain Cleaner into the kitchen drain and hoped for the best. Meanwhile we went to deal with our Cal King Bed. We started connecting the one post of the footboard that had missing thread for the screw and then we glued the 2 dowels into place and left the footboard untouched. While the glue was starting to harden, we turned our attention to the headboard. We connected the headboard to the 2 remaining posts and then connected to 2 sides as well. At last we connected the the footboard to the rest of the bed. Once we had completed the assembly we put the box spring and the latex mattress into the bed. It's as finished as it can be for now. Tomorrow we’ll be buying sheets for the Cal King and finally be able to sleep in our new bed.

After that we went back to the kitchen to check on the progress of the Drain Cleaner. Well it was pretty much what I expected… not much improvement at all. So we put the second half of the drain cleaner in and hoped again for the best. And again it didn't work.. so now the only option left is to take the drain apart. Harry was very excited as this is something he always wanted to do…

Owning a house is fun and keeps you ‘entertained’ all the time…

KOTG Microcast #10 Quest for PAX

The Guild’s Marketing Guru Brian went to PAX last month along with Kim Evey, Sandeep and Jeff. He sent us a little report as to what happened as well as interviewing a guildie who dressed up as Codex (McKenzie Eakin).

Hope you guys enjoy it,

Kenny & Jenni

Other Important Links

• Knights of the Guild Feeds/Downloads http://knightsoftheguild.com
• Knights of the Guild Daily Blog http://knightsoftheguildpodcast.blogspot.com/
• Knights of the Guild Fan page on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/group
• Knights of the Guild Group on Watchtheguild.com http://community.watchtheguild.com/group
• Knights of the Guild Livestream Channel http://www.livestream.com/knightsoftheguild
• Follow us on twitter @knightsofguild

• Knights of the Guild Cafe Press Online Shop : Where you can buy KOTG T-shrits, magnets, buttons and so much more. http://www.cafepress.com/KOTG

• The Guild http://watchtheguild.com
• Geekerdome Network http://geekerdome.com
• Between the Lines Studio Podcast Network http://Betweenthelinesstudio.com

Promo’s played during the show this week:

• Rick Moyer’s “Stargazer” CD
• Tuning into Sci fi TV
• Upsidedown Happyland
• Awkward Pictures

Doggie Scare

Today Harry and I took the day off from painting or doing anything to the house. Instead we were going to have a nice relaxing day. We did plan to go to Home Depot to pick up some wooden dowels to fix our Cal King bed as the mattress where being dropped off today.

Around noon I went into the kitchen to make some lunch and I noticed an empty box of D-Con rat poison pellets. When we moved in that box was full and since it was in the pantry it never crossed our mind that our Dog might eat them. Well a few days ago we took the door off to be painting so that room was open for a few days and sure enough the full box of pellets were gone. Immediately I thought that Daisy ate the poison and ran to my computer to look up what to do next. Everything on line said it's most likely fatal and the dog won't show signs of sickness for 24 to 72 hours and Daisy has been fine. I called our contractor to see if any of his workers spilled the box and dumped the pellets but he said he wasn't aware of it. I think called our vet and once I told them what happened they said you need to bring her in immediately. So Harry and I grabbed the dog and headed down to our vet.

They took her in right away and a vet came out and asked me what happened. I explained the situation and she left. She came back and said they gave her a large dose of Vitamin K. They also drew blood and would know for sure tomorrow if she actually at the poison or if something else happen to it. They also gave us some vitamin K pills to give to Daisy for the next two weeks. I asked the vet if she is going to be alright and the vet said if she did eat the poison a few days ago she is showing no normal signs of being poisoned and with a few months of the vitamin K treatment she should be fine. So it's still a wait and see but things seem to be okay. It was a scary moment thinking we might lose her, she's a pain in the ass sometimes but she is still our baby.

Of course this little interruption caused us to not go to Home Depot and we had to reschedule the mattress deliver to tomorrow. Oh and this vet visit cost us over $450, but she is part of our family and worth every penny.

Remodeling - Day Thirty-Two

Today I was up once again at 7:30am.. not sure what it is but I can't seem to sleep past that time, maybe it's because I know how much work we still have to do. Well I was up and I jumped right in. Our contractor Danny was coming today around 8:30am and I needed to get the painting done in the guest bathroom so he could put the sink, vanity and mirror in. So I started with a layer of the deep red color. As last night Harry and I decided that we would be one large wall in the deep red and everything else in the yellow. So I got one layer on, at least where the sink and stuff would be going. I then went to the kitchen and started to paint above the island where we removed the set of cabinets to open up the kitchen. I started painting yesterday and wanted to finish it. I did a bit of painting there and then went back to the bathroom to do another coat. While that dried I went back to the kitchen island and painted some more. This island area is really sucking up the paint.

I finished the bathroom area just in time for the contractor to show up. Of course I found out that they pushed back the installation of the sink and stuff for another day but at least it's done now. They went to work on laying the rest of the baseboard in the kitchen and pantry and then moved on to finishing the tile in the guest bathroom.

Harry got up and joined me in the Kitchen and started painting the trim of the pantry door. I finished the area above the island and it looked AWESOME. I then moved on to finishing the fireplace mantel. I added another coat of polyurethane and let it dry. Then Harry and I did trim here and there in various rooms.

When the contractors left I went to the mantel to pull off the painter tape and of course there was bleed through of the stain on the new tile so I had to clean that off. After a few minutes I finish the fireplace and mantel and I have to say it turned our WONDERFUL. This is my favorite thing we have done to the house.

After that Harry and I put up the wood blinds in the Living room and put the finishing touches on the Living Room.. one more room that is complete. Well almost we still have to buy some accessories.. and speaking of accessories we purchased a area rug from Home Depot online that we saw yesterday. It will go nicely with the living area.

Once that was done we went into our guest bedroom and set up our old Queen poster bed and moved our mattress into that room so we would be able to build of Cal King poster bed. We got everything out of the boxes and after a brief moment of thinking we were missing parts and instructions we got to work on building it. But our first attempt failed as the very first post we started with didn't have the thread inside the hole for the screw so we couldn't put the bed together with one missing post. We were both frustrated as we really wanted to get this done and we got the bed from Living Spaces and it was the last one they had so we couldn't take it back for a replacement... I'm sure will come up with a way of getting around this.. but for now we don't have a bed and our mattress are arriving tomorrow.

After the bed fiasco we took a break and jumped on our computers. While Harry facebooked (he's new obsession) I cleaned up the Dining Room to match our newly finished Living Room. We then had dinner and watched to TV to finish up the night.

We got a lot done but there always seems to be just a bit more to do. So as of now our Office, Living Room, Dining Room, Kitchen, TV Room and Guest Room are 90% done, leaving our Master Bedroom/Bathroom and Guest Bathroom to complete. I know will get there but even when this is all done we have to deal with the outside and then there is my toy room/garage conversion.

Remodeling - Day Thirty-One

Today Harry and I were determined to finish our Master Bedroom as we would be receiving our Cal King Bed on Sunday. So I tackled the tedious and very frustrating touch ups. Since we are using two colors you need to make sure nothing bleeds from one to the other and have straight lines. Well you tape off one color and paint the other then pull the tape off and because our walls are textured the color bleeds under the tape so you have to then do touch ups to your touch ups and soon you say screw it.. it looks good enough. Harry started his day with another tedious job, door frames. He worked on the Master Bedroom closet doors. You get the same issue of bleeding and doing touch up on touch up.

While we were busy with that Danny made great progress in the Guest Bathroom. He finished texturing the walls in the Kitchen and Guest Bathroom. Once the texture is dry we can paint those walls again. And I say again because we had already painted the walls before we decided to do some remodeling. This is where pre-planning saves some time. After that our contractor started laying the tile in the Guest Bathroom, he managed to finish the majority of the tiles. Once that was accomplished Danny continued to work on the Baseboard in the Kitchen and Pantry. It turns out that we were short by about 15 feet of quarter round. So it looks like Harry and I are heading back to Home Depot again tonight.

Around 1 pm my buddy Will stopped by to visit us and help out a little. Will is the first of our friends to visit our new house, in fact he is the first person other then our contractor to visit. We took him on a tour of the house and then chatted for a bit. We then started sanding down the DVD Holders. Our plan with the DVD Holders is to sand them down and spray paint them black. That way they will fit better in our new TV room.

After Will had left Harry did some touch work, while I started re-painting the wall above the Kitchen Island. Once that was finished we headed out to Palmdale. We had to stop by at Home Depot to pick up another 16 or 18 feet of quarter round for the Baseboard. We also ended up getting a few paint samples for the Master Bathroom, since we still haven’t decided what color we’re going to paint the Master Bathroom. While we were waiting for the paint we walked through Home Depot and checked out several rugs for the Living Room. We found one that we really liked but couldn’t find any pen to fill some form, but Harry read that you can also order the rug online. So that’s what we’re going to do. On our way back from the rugs we picked up the paint samples and also picked out two Screen doors. Once we were done with that we headed back home for some dinner and TV time.

Clone Wars Season 2 Premiere

I have been looking forward to this since the season 1 completed it's run. This is such a great series and so much fun to watch. I'm a huge Star Wars fan, in fact it's what started my whole life of Geeky goodness as well as collecting action figures. And this show is just so well written, acted, and animated and is a great addition to the Star Wars universe.

This season is being called Clone Wars: Rise of the Bounty Hunter. At the end of the last season we got a glimpse of a bounty hunter named Cad Bane and this season it seems will be revolving around him and other bounty hunters. First two episodes premiered tonight and they were AWESOME. There was some audio issues with the HD version on Cartoon Network but it really didn't take away from the fun experience. I can't wait to see how this season rolls out. If you're a fan of Star Wars you need to be watching Clone Wars.

Magic Jack

This morning I got up and decided I would set up our new magic jack. Both Harry and I have cell phones and haven't had a landline in a few years.. but since our cell phones can suck sometimes we figured we would get a landline again but we didn't want to pay a ton so we opted or this instead. Setup didn't go at planned I kept having issues but finally got everything installed and then it was time to pick our number. We planned to have a vanity number but everything we tired was taken. We tried for over an hour with 50 or so names and numbers and nothing was available.. finally I got frustrated and would just get a random number. But when I clicked on that it gave you the option of paying $3 a year and you could pick your first three numbers and then pick from a set of available last four digit numbers.. in the end we didn't get our cool "geekyguys" number but we got a number that will be able to remember and is kind of cool. So now we have a landline just in case our cells don't work.

Remodeling - Day Thirty

Today I started my day with the mantel once again.. now that we got the stain to our liking I need to polyurethane the entire thing. The mantel is going to be a real stand out piece in our house.. glad it's turning out so well.

If you guys remember yesterdays Blog Entry, one of the French Doors was damage. So when our contractor showed up today, we asked him if he could take a look at it and see what he could do. In no time at all he had the issue with the trim and separation of the one corner of the door fixed. Shortly after that the issue with the alignment of the French Doors had been fixed as well. After that Danny started fixing the walls over the kitchen island, as there was some damage to the wall after he had removed a couple of cabinets.

After that our contractor continued the work in the Guest Bathroom. There was in issue with the sink we purchased, as the old sink/cabinet had a vent coming out the bottom of it and our new sink/cabinet is four inches smaller then our old sink which means the vent will be sticking out.. which of course we don't have so we decided to turn the vent sideways and have it come out the side of the cabinet but of course there is an issue of the vent itself being too long so in the end I asked if he could just cut four inches off the vent and have it come out the front of the cabinet and that's what we plan to do. Things never go as planned but luckily this was a fairly easy solution. After that Danny started with fixing the walls over the kitchen island, as there was some damage to the wall after he had removed a couple of cabinets.

While all that was going on Harry was dealing with the door of the Pantry. He removed the hardware and spray painted it in a metallic silver color. He finished painting both sides of the door with two coats of a ultra white color.

After our contractor had left Harry and I went to Palmdale to do more shopping. First we headed to Sit and Sleep and picked out our new Cal King Bed, Michael the sales person was great and showed us many different ones but in the end we picked out a bed made of latex and soy. We manage to keep it within our budget of $2000. I know that's a lot for a bed but getting a good night sleep is very important and the older you get the more important it is. So after Sit and Sleep we went to Lowes to exchange the broken entry light. This time we took it out of the box in the store to make sure there were no cracks.. all looked great. Next was Best Buy to pick up a Magic Jack. For all of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, it's a device that enables you to use your regular phone via the internet, without having to pay the phone company. You just pay a one time yearly very low fee. After that we headed to Home Depot and picked up paint supplies and about 22 feet of quarter round for the Baseboard in the Kitchen and Pantry. Which I have to say was a strange experience. Quarter round comes in these very long 16 feet sticks and in the aisle there is this table with a measuring tape and saw and you can cut down what you need. After Home Depot we stopped by Baja Fresh and grabbed some dinner and headed home and watched some TV before calling it a night.