Video Blog - Flooring goes down

Remodeling - Day Fifteen

Today Harry and I got an early start. We got up around 8 am and started packing up the truck. After that was done we headed to Home Depot to pick up more paint and a new painting poll, since Harry broke one yesterday. By 10 am we had reached our new house. The first thing we saw was a little out of the ordinary, the garage door was open. So as we got to the front door I asked Danny our contractor if he had opened the door.. he said yes..because he had brought to more worker and they wanted to start working on the hardwood floor, which is in the garage. This was unexpected news as we didn't expect the floors to go down until next week. So we quickly went inside to see the progress.

They had pulled out the carpet in the TV-Room and started laying down the Hardwood Floor. Our contractor had also made some progress in the Office and the Master Bedroom with re-texturing the wall and he had made substantial progress re-tiling the fireplace.

After checking out all the new construction work, Harry and I started putting up a second coat of paint in the Pantry. Once that was done we started painting the kitchen. When we opened the paint can I wasn’t quite sure about the color. This is the color that Harry wanted on the walls. So we put a little of paint on one of the kitchen walls. I looked at it from several different angels and still wasn’t quite sure if I liked the color or not, neither was Harry. When the color finally started to dry we were happy with it. But it's defiantly not your typical kitchen color.

For lunch we ordered pizza from a local pizzeria and expected that what you usually get in LA. There were 2 surprised with that. First one pizza was about 25 bucks and the second surprise was the size of the pizza. That thing was huge. All five of us barely finished one pizza and we had ordered two, so there are plenty of leftovers.

After Lunch Harry and I finished up painting the first coat on the kitchen walls between the counter top and the ledge. Once that was done, we pulled the tape off the pantry and inspected the quality of our paint job. There were a few places where we had to do touch up work. Once that was accomplished we checked the paint job in the kitchen as it was already dry, so we started putting up a second coat of paint. While we were doing that Danny, our contractor started ripping out the tile in the Entrance. By the time Harry and I were finished with the second coat of paint in the kitchen our contractor had almost completed laying down the floor in the Entrance.

After the the contractor had left we pull tape off in the kitchen where we no longer needed it. Not quite sure what happened, but we had to do quite a bit of touch up work. After that we finished the final wall in the dining room (at least the first coat).

It was around 8pm and we were exhausted so we headed home for the day.

15 days of painting and not an end in sight.

No Painting Today

Today we stayed in our rental as we had Bill (owner of our rental) bringing over a few people who are interested in renting the house. We still have quite a bit of packing to still do. So attempted to finish packing up my toy room. I have done a few hours here and a few hours there but only made a dent. This time I jumped in and packed up about 98% of it. All that is left are some books and that room will be done. We only have a few more things to pack. Most of it is daily stuff that we use and won't be packed until the day before we move.

Our Family Got Bigger

Today in Austria our family grew. My sister-in-law, Harry's sister Greda married Bernd. I wish them all the best.












Herzliche Glückwünsche

9/11

Eight years ago that horrible event took place that changed The United States forever. Today I will take a moment of silence to remember all those we lost.

Remodeling - Day Fourteen

Today we headed out to our house around noon and got there around 1.30 or so. First on the agenda was the a short video for Harry's sisters upcoming wedding (tomorrow). We had come prepared with a speech, but that didn’t make the video any easier. Harry got a kick out of the screw ups, especially me trying to say Congratulations in German. Harry thinks that the ‘Making of the Wedding Video’ is way funnier than the video itself.

Once that was done we continued painting the pantry which went fairly quickly. After that I put a second coat of paint on the trim in the hallway, while Harry started to put the first coat of paint on the remaining wall in the dining room. He couldn’t finish the upper half of the wall since he had broken the long painting pole. So in order to finish the rest of the wall we will have to buy an new pole first and more paint.

Will this every end!!!!!

Video Blog - Paint, paint and more paint

Remodeling - Day Thirteen

Today we went to Home Depot to pick up a couple of supplies. We needed 1 additional can of paint for the living / dining room, 2 cans of paint for the Office. We also picked up more paint rollers. Once we were done with that, we headed to Ralph’s since we needed some lunches and soda for the house. After Ralph’s we headed back to the rental in Reseda. We packed up Harry's pickup truck with another load and headed out to our new house.

Once there we unpacked the truck and checked how much progress our contractor had made. He started to lay out the tile in the Master Bathroom and was dealing with the texture of the one unfinished wall in the dining room.

I started taping the trim of the Pantry area. When our contractor Danny went to lunch Harry put a second coat up in the Hallway. The only thing that needs to be done in the hallway is, the trim. It needs another coat of paint. That’s was something Harry didn’t get finished before our contractor came back from lunch and started dealing with this wall again.

By that time I had made some progress taping up the trim in the pantry area (did I mention I hate taping trim) so Harry could start painting the trim. By 4.30 Harry had painted all the trim in the pantry and I had almost finished painting the shelves. We had to leave at 4.30 pm, since our current landlord wanted to show the rental to prospective customers. Tomorrow we will have to finish the first coat of pain in the pantry area, and then put a second coat of paint on the trim in the hallway and maybe we can start with unfinished wall in the dining room.

Contractor will finish the office windows today, hopes to finish the master bedroom and start to work on the fireplace tomorrow and finish the fireplace and start the master bathroom and then finish the master bath and trim in the entire house on Saturday. He will then do floors on Monday and should be done by Wednesday.. at least that is his plan.. if it happens that would be great as I really want to move in next week... guess will wait and see.

Remodeling - Day Twelve

Today we went to Home Depot to pick up the Laminate Hardwood Floor. If we have measured the rooms right we need about 1.000 square feet. That would be roughly 60 boxes. When we got to Home Depot we only saw only 24 boxes. The next thing we did was to look for a sales associate. He found us another palette that had 26 boxes. So we ended up with 50 boxes. We decided that for right now that’s enough and if we really need more we can always go back and get another 10 boxes.

After that we waited for the guy to do his magic with the forklift and bring the palette down from the top shelf. Once that was accomplished I went and paid for the floor while Harry went and got the truck and drove the truck to the loading dock. The forklift guy put the hardwood floor into back of Harry's pickup truck and man that stuff is really heavy. Once we were done with Home Depot we drove back home to pick up Daisy and tie down the flooring with the cargo net that Harry had recently bought. After that we headed to the new house. All in all the hardwood floor cost us, so far, 3.500 dollars. If you add what we’re going to pay our contractor to install the hardwood floor, the entire thing will come to about 5 Grand. Luckily we don’t redo 1000 square feet every day !!!

Once we got to the house we had to unload all 50 boxes of laminate flooring, We put them in the garage for the time being until the carpet is pulled up in the living/dining and TV rooms.

After we were done with that we had to paint again. Surprise, surprise !! First we put up a second coat of paint in the Entrance. We then had to put a second coat of paint on the pillars of the Kitchen. While Harry was busy with the second coat of paint on the pillars in the kitchen, I started taping the trim in the Hallway to the guest room, bathroom and office. Once the majority of the trim had been taped off, Harry started painting the majority of the walls, while I painted the trim. We didn't have a lot of time but got quite a bit done. We're getting closer to finishing and that's good.

Video Blog - The Remodel So Far

Figured out that I can take video with my still camera and can upload to my blog.. so this is the first video on the remodel.

I take you on a tour of our remodel Day 11.

Focus goes in and out.. but what can you expect from a still camera.

Remodeling - Day Eleven

Today we got a early start as well. We packed up the truck and headed out. We got to the house around 10 am. We checked the paint job we did yesterday and we did a fairly good job. But we knew that we had to put a second coat on, since here and there the white still was coming through.

First we finished the two small spots in kitchen that we couldn’t finish yesterday. After that was done we started with the second coat of paint in the living room. I painted the majority of the walls and the upper trim, while Harry did the lower trim and then moved over to the kitchen walls that are exposed to the living/dining room. Around noon we were pretty much done with the second coat of paint in the living and dining room, took us about eight hours to do the first coat yesterday and only two hours to do the same thing today. Shows you how much time taping off trim and ceiling takes.. After lunch I started taping off the entrance way, while Harry finished painting the wall leading to the laundry and did some additional touch up work in the TV-Room as well.

When I was finished taping the trim/ceiling in the entrance way, Harry started painted the majority of the walls. We then turned our attention to the last 2 pillars in the kitchen. While I taped off the trim ( btw I was hating life, taping off trim is not my cup of tea) Harry started painting the pillars. We were done around 5 pm and decided to call in the night, since we both were quite tired. Who knew painting was so physically and emotionally exhausting !!

Tomorrow we will put a second coat on everything we painted the second half of today. Then we have the living and dining room painted as far as we can, since our contractor still has to finish one of the walls first, before we can paint it.

I will keep you guys posted on the progress !!

KOTG Microcast #7 Quest for Blizzcon

Last Month Jenni and I were lucky enough to volunteer for The Guild booth at Blizzcon. We were also lucky enough to record some audio from our days at the con.

• We start with my intro as I head to Blizzcon.
• I find Jenni and we hear what she did the previous night with the Guild cast, crew and fans.

• We then go behind the stage as the Guild cast wait to go on stage for their panel, both Jenni and I interview cast members.
• Then there are some Q & A from the Panel
• After that we hold a raffle, we gave away 4 Zunes

• And finally we are done and head back to our cars.

The audio is okay, we were using our portable recorder.

Hopefully we brought a little Blizzcon to those who could not make it and for those who did, hopefully we brought back some fun memories.

Thanks, 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
• 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

Podcast Promoted in this cast.

• Tuning Into Scifi TV
• Turning Left at Albuquerque
• Upsidedown Happyland

Remodeling - Day Ten

Today we got a fairly early start. We got up at 8.30 am and started packing up Harry's truck. We then headed out to our new house and got there around 10 am. We unpacked the truck and put all the stuff in the garage. First things we did was some touch up work in the TV Room. Our contractor Danny fixed the drywall so we could finish the walls. All we have left in there are the window frames and baseboard.

After the TV Room we put a second coat of paint on the accent walls in the living / dining room. And we have been lucky enough to only have to do two coats on most of the walls, so the accent walls should be good to go.

After we were done with the accent walls, we went to grab a bite to eat at Taco Bell. Then we were off to our new favorite store… Lowes. First we checked out some vanities/sinks, since we are looking for a new one for the Guest Bathroom. We found one or two that we both liked. Guess we’ll have to go back and look at both of them more closely when we are ready to buy. After that we went over to the Hardwood Floors. We went through all the samples they had. The ones that were nice looking and that we really liked were way too expensive and out of our price range. The Laminate Hardwood Floors that were in our price range looked way too fake for our taste. Guess we will be getting the Laminate Hardwood Floor from Home Depot that we picked out a few days ago, which cool with me since I liked it from the first moment I saw it. Not entirely sure when we will be picking up the hardwood floor, but it has to be before Wednesday as our contractor might be bringing a floor guy along.

After Lowe’s Harry and I went back to the house and I started taping some of the walls in the living room while Harry started painting. We both really like the color that we picked as main color. By 6 pm we had painted the walls in the hallway, the wall of the fire place, underneath the breakfast bar and 2 walls in the dining room. We were very happy with the progress. But we decided to keep on painting. So we painted the wall that leads to the pantry as well. Then we hit a snag. Since the kitchen will be painted in a different color than the living / dining room we weren’t quit sure were to make the transition between the colors without making it look funky. We discussed several scenarios and then came up with a solution that we think should be working best. All the pillar, that are visible from the living / dining room, will be painted in the main color of the living / dining room. The ledge on the other hand will be painted with the color that we have chosen for the kitchen. By 8.30 pm we had painted as much as we could for the day.

It was a great day of painting and I feel like we are getting closer to being done.