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.

Remodeling - Day Twenty-Nine

Today I got up early and continued to stain the mantel. We wanted it a little darker so I put another coat on. Harry worked on doors and door frames again.

While all that was going on our contractor, Danny, had finished dismantling the entire Guest Bathroom and started putting concrete board on the floor. After Danny was done with the concrete board he started putting up the lights for the hallway and entrance. He finished the entrance and turned it on and called me over to show me a crack running down the glass dome. You couldn't see it when it wasn't lite up because the crack was between the glass. So we had him take it down and will exchange it at a later date. He did manage to put the light up in the hallway but we didn't have a bulb so it's up but not currently working.

After staining I tackled another big project. The French doors in the living room, they were green and we wanted to paint them the accent color, blue. We were afraid of removing them because once you do it's always tough to get the door to hang just right again. But we wanted a good paint job and I also wanted to paint the trim and this was the only way. So I removed the two doors and got to work. It was a long process.. lot's of taping off. And to make matters worse I was working outside and it was extremely windy. I finished one door and laid it upright against the side of the house. A gust of wind came and pushed the door over nearly crushing Daisy who was sunbathing. Luckily it missed her by a few inches and no glass broke. I worked on the second door and put is aside to dry and purposely angled it so no wind would be able to push it over... I we get really strong gusts of wind and sure enough it knocked it over and this time we weren't so lucky. A portion of the door started to separate from the rest. I managed to knock it back in place and everything seemed over.. other then a minor separation that Danny would be able to fix. After I finished the door Harry and I rehung them and of course the door that was damage pulled apart again just enough to make it so we couldn't lock the door. We manage to get both doors to shut and would be talking to our contractor in the morning to see if this was fixable.

Only manage to tackle two thing but man that took the entire day. By the end of the day I was exhausted and just rested in front of the TV.

And for some non-house news... I am starting my BTS piece for The Guild Season Three. I am in the middle of converting some video files for my piece.. hope to starting editing it in the coming days.

An Unexpected Surprise

When our contractor Danny started he had brought this tiny computer with him to check his email and such and since the mini's came out I have wanted one. I don't have a smart phone and don't plan on getting one so I wanted something to check my email when I'm away from home. I mentioned this in passing and today Fedex showed up with a package. Of course when I saw the box I knew what it was. Harry had told me that my birthday present would be a little late this year and the package was addressed to Harry so I knew this was my Birthday gift. Harry got me a Dell Inspiron mini. It runs on Windows XP which I love and he upgraded a few of the features. I can't wait to use it.

Remodeling - Day Twenty-Eight

Today I started to stain the fireplace mantle. I wasn't sure how many layers I would be doing but the first one I did was very light and I couldn't figure out why until my brush accidentally fell to the bottom of the can and when I went to put the stain on the wood it was super dark. It seems that I didn't mix the stain up and all the darkness went to the bottom. So I did another coat in the darker color and then had to wait for it to dry. While I was doing this Harry started taking down the door of the Master Bedroom. He didn’t have to paint this door since our contractor had already done that a couple of days earlier. So He just took off the hinges, spray painted them and the screws in a metallic silver color. While the paint was drying he exchanged the door knobs.

Around 10 am or so our contractor Danny showed up and started dismantling the Guest Bathroom and a few cabinets in the kitchen over the island. While that was going on Harry finished with the door to the Master Bedroom and put that door back in place. The next door he tackled was the door to the Master Bathroom. He took that door down, removed the hinges and spray painted them in a metallic silver color. Once that was done he put 2 coats of white on each side of the door. Once both sides were dry he replaced the doorknob and put the bathroom door back into place. While he did this I put a third coat of stain on the mantel as both Harry and I wanted it to be darker then the floors.

After our contractor had left for today, Harry and I went shopping at Lowe’s. We were shopping for sconces for the Entrance and Hallway. We also picked up a new light for the guest bathroom as well as a vanity (sink, facet and cabinet) for the Guest Bathroom. The vanity we had in mind was one with glass vessel sink. Although that vanity looks great… the huge price tag of about 500 bucks was a little downer. We then looked at a number of different vanities. In the end we had to choose between the glass vessel vanity and a vanity that cost about half as much but still looked cool. The price wasn’t the only decision factor, as the glass vessel vanity just didn’t go together with the rest of the house, since it is a little too modern for us. So we went with the other vanity. We also picked up some tile flooring for the guest bathroom.. we looked a few options but finally went with the same tile we did in the master bath. We just really like that tile and it feels great on the bare feet.

Shopping is so much fun but man it adds up quickly.

Remodeling - Day Twenty-Seven

Today I brought the Desks in from the Garage and started to assemble the first one. Harry got up by the time I started the second one and joined me. Once that was done we discussed several options on how to place the desks in the room. Most of these options just didn’t work, since we bought two fairly large desks. Funny thing is that the desk looked so much smaller at Staples or maybe we thought that our office was way larger than it actually is.

To make a long story short we finally figured out a configuration for the desks that works fairly well in the room. Now it looks like we are working in cubicles. But for the most part it works.

After we had decided configuration of the desks we brought all the boxes with our electronic and computer stuff in and started setting up the office. Harry's iMac was setup in no time at all. Then we went on the search for several cables and power cords. Once we were done with that we setup the Router and in no time at all we could go online. While I was checking my emails Harry used the time to give his Mac a good cleaning as that computer was pretty dirty.

The Internet we get up here is free, since the Internet Tower is on our property and we pay for the electricity to run it. That said… the Internet isn’t quite that what we are used to. As long as you only intend to read emails and surf the web, you’re fine. If you want to watch streaming videos, your best bet is to let the entire video load and watch it after it has loaded, otherwise you’re really getting frustrated. We checked the speed of the internet… and it starts out with a decent speed but isn’t able to maintain that speed. Depending on how much money that tower takes in electricity it might be worth a consideration getting a decent satellite Internet solution. Guess we will have to look into that in more detail.

KOTG Microcast 9 Quest for Cosplay

KOTG Microcast #9 Quest for Cosplay

We have a very special Microcast this week. A few weeks back during Dragon Con a photo was floating around cyberspace showing fans dressed up as The Guild character Avatar outfits. I thought it would be fun to chat with them and see how they pulled this off so quickly, among other things. So Jenni and I sat down with them over skype and had a fun conversation.

We would like to Thank David (Bladezz far left), CJ (Vork), James (Zaboo), Lisa (Codex), Daniella (Dancer), Rogue (Bladezz far right), and Caitlin (Bladezz Groupie) for taking the time and chatting with Knights of the Guild. Also pictured above are Sidley (Clara), Beth (Tink) who couldn’t make the chat but we Thank them too for being awesome.

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

Podcast Promo’s played during the show this week:

• Tuning into Sci fi TV
• Anomaly
• Take Him With You
• Upsidedown Happyland

Remodeling - Day Twenty-Six

Today started off with me cleaning and setting up the kitchen while Harry was painting the door of the Coat Closet and the the Door Jam. Once he was done with that he replaced the lock of the door and put new silver colored door knobs on. Then it was time to spray paint the hinges in a silver color as well.

Once all that was accomplished, we headed out to the Rental to pick up the stuff that we wanted to give to recycling and a few more bags that would be going to Charity (Out of the Closet). So we got there and found our landlord and his wife busy cleaning the Rental. We put the remaining bags into my pickup truck and then gave the keys back to our landlord. We then ended up chatting with Bill and his wife for quite some time. They are very nice people and we’ll be inviting them to our house warming party.

After that we dropped off the stuff for Charity and then headed back to our house. On the way we stopped in Santa Clarita to go shopping at Stater Bros. I haven't shopped at a Stater Bros since I lived in Corona as they don't have them in the LA area.. it was nice to be back to one, it was always my favorite grocery store. We bought a lot, we planned on stocking up a bit since it's a 20 minute drive to here. We wound up spending just under $500, which I expected but Harry thought we were be way over. We did have two shopping carts both full to the top. After that we headed home and unloaded the food and stored it in our new kitchen. After that we had dinner and watched some TV.