Picture Post

I thought I would update with pictures.

Here is a pic of the ceiling storage Jeff installed. We love it and it keep sour garage so clean.


This is the alcove at the top of the stairs just before entering the main living area with the kitchen, dining and living room. Jeff finished painting the alcove this weekend. It is amazing what a little color can do. The table in the picture is the accent table I was referring to in my last post. I love it, and it fits perfect!

Oh and I forgot to mention in my previous post, another task we accomplished was getting the picture above the sofa re-matted because it had a green mat which looked horrible against the soft green wall.

I am anxious and excited about my girlfriends coming down this weekend. I'll post pictures of our fun "Girl Weekend" next blog.

The Past Month

Okay so it has been almost a month since I last posted, but it has been a hectic one. Here are some of the things we have been working on...

We finally picked a date for our housewarming party, and I made the invitations in Photo Shop. They turned out really nice, but I am afraid that our friends will mistake them for junk mail since I made them as post cards. Lets hope our invitations don’t get lost amongst the sea of junk mail. There has been a total of 58 invited, so far we have 17 confirmed attendees. Now we just need to get the food figured out which shouldn't be too hard. We have thought of having it catered by a sub shop so we don’t have to hassle with cooking anything.

Another major task we have been working on is shopping for a new car, one that will get us to the mountains safely. We had already test drove a 2004 Lexus RX and the 2005 VW Toureg and this weekend we looked at the 2008 Mazda CX7 and a 2009 Nissan Murano. Out of all of them I really liked the Murano, but it was a little pricey. The packages that include AWD or 4 wheel drive seem to hike up the price. The Mazda in my opinion is the most practical because we can afford a brand new, where as the Lexus we would have to buy used and you never know what kind of problems you are getting when you buy a used car. But after all is said and done we have decided to wait on buying a car because of other reasons due to Jeff's current work situation, which I don't want to get into. That is a whole another post or blog for that matter.

Jeff and I, well mostly Jeff, installed 4 ceiling hung storage shelves in the garage. The hardest part was finding a Lowes that carried 4 shelves. I guess ceiling storage is a hot thing around here. We tried 4 Loews locations and finally got the 3rd and 4th shelf. I can’t believe every other place was sold out. Incredible!

I finally bought an accent table to place in a niche at the top of our stairs, which really helps finish off the entry to the main living space. Now Jeff has to paint the niche the accent paint color, and I am still searching for the perfect side tables for the living room.

The month of April and May are not going to slow down any. We will have house guests for about two weeks. Then we have my nephew’s 1st birthday one weekend, and then the housewarming party in May. Our first house guests EVER will be my girlfriends, Jordana, Megan, Gina and Stephanie, from the bay area. They all get here a week from Friday and stay until Sunday. After they depart we have to get ready for our next houseguest, because Tuesday afternoon we have a much needed visitor from Ohio. We have been trying to get Trevor, Jeff’s friend, out here for over a year. Jeff finally booked him a plane ticket, and we are kidnapping him for the week. I'm taking a couple days off work, as is Jeff, so we can relax and spend time with Trevor. He will be in town until the following Monday so that gives us plenty of time to show him around. We plan to go to Six Flags, and maybe teach him how to snowboard in the local mountains.

I am certainly looking forward to the end of May beginning of June my best friend Tiffany, whom I have known since 5th grade, is finally moving back to California. Her husband has been stationed in Japan for the past 3 or so years and they are finally getting stationed back here in San Diego. She has two sons which are little beautiful angles from heaven, which I can’t wait to spend time with. I have met Christian her oldest son but I have not yet met her newest addition Luke, which I’m sure is a young man like his older brother Christian, by now. OHHH I cannot wait!!!

What a stinker!

Okay so the smoky oven wasn't just for pizza night. I didn't realize how much charred garlic butter smells after being consecutively cooked. Let me start from the beginning, so a few days after the garlic pizza incident I was preparing manicotti. I pre-heated the oven and noticed the burnt garlic pizza smell was back. That is right I forgot to clean the oven and the garlic butter was just roasting on the bottom of the oven. It was sizzling and smoking, and the smell was just as bad the second time as it was the first. I had already stuffed the manicotti so I felt obligated to follow through so I reluctantly put the dish in and kept the oven door closed until the manicotti was done cooking. When it was time to take out the manicotti the garlic butter had plenty of time to brew up a good smoke cloud, so we did the usual drill, of opening all the windows and lighting the candles. The manicotti was delicious if you could get past the eye watering smell of you guest it burnt garlic butter.

Here is a picture of my delicious manicotti.

















Fast forward a day or two and I still hadn't cleaned the oven and I was craving macaroni and cheese with breaded fish fillets, so since we didn't have any oven cleaner and I was determined to get that black garlic butter crustiness cleaned off of the bottom of the oven I reached for the 409. It is suppose to cut grease so why wouldn't it cut through crusty garlic butter? After I let it soak in and I gave it some elbow grease I didn't do much but make a black swampy mess, so I gave up. I cleaned up what I could and I put some tin foil down. I figured it might help keep the smoke down to a minimum. I'm not sure which was a worse, the 409 or the tin foil? Well we are still alive so the 409 didn't kill us after eating the fish + 409 vapors at 425 degrees. The tin foil probably helped heat the crusty black burnt garlic butter more than if I would have left it off. The smoke that creped out from under the tin foil was brown and smelt even worse then the first or second time.At this point I gave up and I decided I was absolutely not going to cook in the oven unless I bought real approved oven cleaner. :) So that is what I did. Boy that oven cleaner works wonders. How in the world does it lift that crusty black crap off from the bottom of the oven. I was amazed at how clean it go my oven.

BOTTOM LINE: Use real approved oven cleaner and don't cook garlic butter crust pizza without at pan. PLEASE! Or least in my oven!

Burning down the house!

I was really hungry when i got home from work, and I don't usually have the time to put a huge elaborate dinner together, so I decided to put in a delightful frozen pizza. We got a new kind of Digiorno pizza with garlic crust, so I was excited to try it out. I always cook the pizza directly on the rack so the crust cooks crispy. As the pizza was cooking I had to take a peak, as I opened the oven door there was a waft of smoke that poured out of the oven. The pizza wasn't on fire, but there were drippings coming off the pizza that were burning on the bottom of the oven. The contents on the bottom of the oven seamed greasy which makes me think it was the garlic butter or what ever garlic flavor they put on the crust . The pizza wasn't done cooking so I left it in the smoky oven to finish cooking. Once the timer went off and the pizza was ready to come out the smoke had gotten thicker and soon filled the kitchen with a cloud of eye burning thick smoke. I couldn't believe all this smoke was coming from a few drops of burning garlic butter. We opened all the windows in the kitchen and the living room and of course the air outside was at a stand still so the smoke wasn't going anywhere. I was really surprised none of the smoke detectors weren't going off. Since we live in a condo community our building has a sprinkler system and I was praying they wouldn't go off, but Jeff assured me they were heat censored not smoke censored. After the smoked settled we enjoyed our garlic crust pizza, and it wasn't half bad. If you cook one I would suggest laying a piece of tin foil down on the bottom of the oven for easy clean up.

-I’m off to buy some oven cleaner.


FUN FACT: This fact is totally un-related to cooking pizza, but I thought it was interesting so I had to share.
Did you know that bananas aren't part of the fruit family they are actually considered an herb! That is right you read that correctly I said bananas are an herb. I guess since the stem of a banana plant (commonly referred to as a banana tree) does not contain true woody tissue it is considered an herbaceous plant. CRAZY FUN FACT FOR THE DAY!

Our table arrived!

I didn't get this posted before we left for the weekend, but our table arrived on Thursday night. The chairs were a lot lighter than I remember the sample swatch being, but I think it still looks good. It is a step up from the plastic one we were using for a while.


It is hard to tell from this picture but the sofa pillows have the same sea foam green as a accent color.
Since we were out of town this weekend we haven't had a chance to eat a meal at the new table yet, but it sure is helping to complete the living/dining room. Now we have to save up the money for the entertainment center.

Reaching your goals...

Jeff and I have recently become home-owners which has been a long term goal for me ever since I can remember. It feels so good to finally have reached something I have strived towards for so many years. As a little girl I always dreamed of having my own place. I have probably dreamed of having my own place more than I have ever dreamed of my own wedding. Finally I have a place to call "home" and "my own".

Jeff and I started searching for a place in Orange County almost a year ago, and we were pretty disappointed with what we were finding. We couldn't find a condo that would accommodate the 60" TV. I know that sounds funny but it's true. Every floor plan we looked at new or old had a very small media niche, about large enough for a 30" TV. Don't get me wrong we aren't huge TV watchers, but come on everyone has their needs.

I work for an architectural firm that is a trade partner with Shea Homes, and there were some new Shea Homes going in at the golf course in Aliso Viejo. Jeff and I walked into the Plan 5 model and fell in love. We looked at each other and said "This is it! Our TV will fit!" It was a 3 bedroom 3.5 bath with three floors. We new Sabian and Sasha would love the stairs since they hadn’t really ever seen any. We lived in a one bedroom apt at the time.

It took almost a year to go through the process of picking out our lot, having them build our unit, and the escrow process before we were in our new home. The first thing we did was paint, and the second thing I did was spill the paint all over the new carpet, and the third was let Jeff do all the painting. It all worked out in the end and the walls look great and probably because I didn't paint them.
It has been a month since we have moved in and I can’t say I have loved every minute of being a home-owner. First we had major problems with our water heater, which was easily fixed by unclogging the exhaust pipe, TWICE. But the whole process of searching for the problem took about 2 weeks, so we were without hot water the whole time. This has reminded me of all the new responsibilities we have just endured by purchasing a home. Are we ready for this?

This picture to the left shows the front entrance to our unit. On the first floor we have our laundry and an office with a full bathroom. The second floor you can see the large patio off the living room. Third floor windows you can see in this picture are the Master Bedroom. There is also a guest room on the third floor.















The picture to the right is of our kitchen. This was a major selling point for us because of the size. We call it our grand kitchen and I think it has inspired me to learn how to cook, or at least I'm trying. Jeff and I had enjoyed hand picking out the granite slabs at the stone yard. What a treat!

The two pictures above are from the living room. I had to show off our huge comfortable sofa and of course the large media niche, which our tv has no problem fitting. We hope to soon get something built in with a place for the TV and DVDs.

I didn't show a picture of the dining room because we don't have our new table. We bought it last weekend and it is schedule to be delivered sometime this week. I'll update with a new photo when it arrives.