In the midst of the remodeling, we forgot to mention our new English Pastor Moa. He was born in India and he came here to study. He is married with 2 children, a boy and a girl. He is very nice and we hope that he will work out.
Sunday was an easy day. After service, we went to (again) wine tasting at Santa Clara University. It was a fundraiser for the alumni. There were a lot of people and a lot of food. We invited Gail and Jim to come along. Daddy had a great day. He got 6 bottles of Bell Cab from the silent auction and he had the wine maker signed a couple of bottles. Daddy will tell you more when he sees you. On the other hand, I did not get anything. But, that was a blessing. When we got home, Allen called and gave a progress report. He needed two gallons of paint before he will put up the cabinets and floor. So, off we went to OSH because there was still no tax. My goodness, do you know how many shades of paint you can get????? It was so hard to decide because I cannot really see the color. But, finally, we bite the bullot and got two gallons. I thought it was good.
Monday, the workers finalized the drywall seams and prepared the floor. Allen came by and took our cabinet receipt for pickup. On Tuesday they started to paint. Oh, by the way, we had dinner at L & L Monday and Round Table Pizza on Tuesday. On Wednesday, I had a doctor's appointment in the afternoon. So, we decided for me to take a couple more hours off to go to Oakland to pick out the granite. We got there around noon. Some guy showed us the batch of granite and told us to choose. We just looked at each other and smile because there was no way that we could see the differences. Somehow, we managed to pick out 7 of them. We prayed that they will be the same color. If not, c'est la vie. By this time, I was hungry. We went to eat at this small Chinese restaurent. Daddy had spare ribs with bitter melon with rice and I had cod with vegetable with rice. We had a lot of rice left so we boxed them up for dinner. After lunch, we went to my doctor's appointment. Everything is fine. But my white blood count was low. So my doctor told me not to be near any sick people and washed my hands frequently. We had a little time before my appointment. I asked Daddy if he would mind to the store which had the touch handle faucet. Daddy said okay to just look. So, we went. When we got to the store, the sales person was happy to show us the faucet which he had installed. It was nice looking and very handy. I liked it. I thought Daddy liked it, too, until he told us the price $525. Wow, it was a little expensive and that was that. After the appointment, we went to downtown Campbell because Daddy wanted to buy his comic books. Along the way, we checked out a couple of hardware store to look for our cabinets handles. I wished I could put pictures here. We found one that was really cool looking but again it was too expensive. It's okay. I don't really need expensive handles which will break eventually. Then we went to buy broccoli beef at Tsing Tao for dinner with the rice leftovers. When we got home, there were cabinets all over in the garage. That looked good. That night, Daddy was surfing the net and he found the FAUCET at Amazon.com and it costs $339 with free shipping and no tax. Guess what, we are now a proud owner of the Delta Touch 2O faucet. It will be here on Tuesday. My contractor, Allen was a little concerned. We'll see.
When I got home on Thursday, the cabinets were all up. Allen was there talking to the workers and was a little concerned on the spacing of the stove. Once again, I stressed out Allen with the new kind of stove with no backing. We hoped everything will be okay when the stove comes on 10/10. Please pray for the stove comes earlier. Then we went to dinner at Taco Bell. I was a little full so we decided to go to Home Depot to get the cabinet knobs. We decided to buy the regular round porcelain knobs in bisque color. They only cost $1.89 each. We loved them.
On Friday, Daddy went to pick up the range hood in the morning just in case that they wanted to put it up. They did not have time to do that because they laid the floor tiles. We were short so tomorrow we had to go get some more. They floor looked very nice. My goodness, the kitchen is coming together real fast. We are very excited to see the finished kitchen. But, we are looking forward to cook again......no more fast food. Tonight, we had pho............
Friday, September 18, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
It has been exciting!!!!
Hi, I have not blog for a few days. There are a lot of things happened. On Saturday morning, we went to Orchard Supply Hardware to buy our stove and dishwasher because we didn't have to pay sales tax and we got 20% off....not bad huh?! The only glitch is that we won't get them until October 10. It is because of the bisque color that I want. That means we will have to eat out for the next 4 weeks. After that, we went straight to KZ Cabinets to pay off the balance so that our contractor, Allen, can pick them up. Then, we drove up to Oakland to buy our granite. The color that we picked out was Ice Blue. When we placed the order, we found out that they were out of stock....so SAD. Now we had to pick out another color. Do you know how hard it is to pick among 20 some odd choices???? Finally, we picked their newest addition "New Blue". After paying, we had to go to the warehouse to choose 7 slabs to be sure they matched. Before that, we went to Pacific store to buy our self cleaning, powerful, bisque color range hood. Apparently, this week they had a promotion.......a box of moon cake, an electric thermos and a $38 gift certificate. I was in heaven. I quickly used the gift certificate for a leather traveling mug with a tea leave strainer insert. It looked awesome. While we were buying, there were 2 more persons waiting to purchase. You know how we attract people in the store. Now, we went to pick our granite. But we were a little time restrained. We needed to pick up some home tour tickets for Jaime and deliver them to Jaime in SF. In short, we did not pick the granite yet and we needed to come back. So, off we went to the printing store, the person could not find the box. While we were waiting, daddy noticed that there were some flyers advertising George Lopez show. It was taking too long. So, we helped look for the box. The funny thing was that I found it and it was on top of the George Lopez boxes. No time to waste, we drove across the Bay Bridge. It was traffic before the toll booths. There was a SUV which would not allow daddy to merge into their lane. I got a little upset and pointed at the woman on the passenger side to see if she would let us it. No, she pointed to the front also. And I found out that that was a funeral procession.....sorry. Okay, we got to Jaime's place and mission accomplished. Before we went back to Oakland, Mimi wanted to look for a clothe steamer which was on sale at Macy's from 9 to 1. I told I would try. Since were near downtown, we rushed to Macy's. Daddy found a white zone parking right in front of Macy's. I told Daddy, "give me 10 minutes and i will be right back." So, I ran downstairs, found the steamer, ran back upstairs and paid at the cosmetic register. Downstaris was a mad house. I made the time......I was proud of myself.
Take a deep breath. Oakland here we come. By the time we got back to the warehouse, it was raining. The sales person told us not to choose the granite because the color would change when they were wet. So, with such disappointment, we decided to come back another time. As we walked back to our car, a meter maid was giving a ticket to the car parked behind us on the street. We looked up and saw a sign that said no parking, street cleaning between 12:30 and 3:30p.m. Wow, what luck, we would have gotten a ticket if we were choosing our granite. So, that was a good thing, I guess. Then, we went to Restoration Hardware at Valley Fair. I found some knobs that I like for our cabinets but daddy thinks they were too expensive. So, we left and look for some more. We then went to Home Depot and saw their hardware. I think there were no comparison. I agreed that we should looked for some more. I was too tired and so we went home. Jaime called and told us that there is a new kitchen faucet which you can just touch it and water will come out and stop when you touch it again. Jaime thought it was neat and we thought it would be expensive. But, we said that we would check it out.....not today........ I will let you know more about that later. Stay tuned. There are more to come.
Take a deep breath. Oakland here we come. By the time we got back to the warehouse, it was raining. The sales person told us not to choose the granite because the color would change when they were wet. So, with such disappointment, we decided to come back another time. As we walked back to our car, a meter maid was giving a ticket to the car parked behind us on the street. We looked up and saw a sign that said no parking, street cleaning between 12:30 and 3:30p.m. Wow, what luck, we would have gotten a ticket if we were choosing our granite. So, that was a good thing, I guess. Then, we went to Restoration Hardware at Valley Fair. I found some knobs that I like for our cabinets but daddy thinks they were too expensive. So, we left and look for some more. We then went to Home Depot and saw their hardware. I think there were no comparison. I agreed that we should looked for some more. I was too tired and so we went home. Jaime called and told us that there is a new kitchen faucet which you can just touch it and water will come out and stop when you touch it again. Jaime thought it was neat and we thought it would be expensive. But, we said that we would check it out.....not today........ I will let you know more about that later. Stay tuned. There are more to come.
Monday, September 14, 2009
things cc, dust, and i have in common
our cars: mazda protege
our phones: eV2/3
our jr. high backpacks: eddie bauer lifetime warranty (this is my model... but you know your model)
our parents: mom and dad
happy belated anniversary! :)
our phones: eV2/3
our jr. high backpacks: eddie bauer lifetime warranty (this is my model... but you know your model)
our parents: mom and dad
happy belated anniversary! :)
Thursday, September 10, 2009
The Destruction Begins
Hi, Family!
This morning promptly at 8am, two dimiinutive Chinese men appeared at my front door. They were to take away all the old kitchen cabinets, strip off the tiles from the floor, and remove all the built-in appliances. One was Tony. He was the foreman and spoke English very haltingly. I took them over to the kitchen and told them all I wanted to keep was the light fixture over the dining table and the garbage disposal. Everything else is fair game. They proceeded to work and work they did. I stayed only for a few minutes before I left for work. I gave Joey my work phone number just in case there was a problem. I did not receive any calls. I guess "No news is good news." Arriving at home after work, I expected a dumpster filled with the old stuff from our kitchen. Instead I saw Tony's Honda sedan parked in our driveway. No big hunking American truck. Just a regular sedan. Going into the house the two men were still working to strip the old wallpaper from the dining area walls. The kitchen was already stripped bare. They had piled the debris neatly in the back yard in front of my brick barbeque grill. They were basically done. I couldn't believe it.
I knew going in that the floor under the dishwasher and kitchen sink needs major work. The dishwaher was broken and had leaked. The garbage disposal that I had installed to replace the original one had also leaked. My fears were realized. Five planks need to be replaced. Tony wasn't too worried about it. He said that they will order the wood and hopefully get the planks replaced before putting on the floors tiles. He was more interested in the overhead lighting. He asked if I had done the lighting in the kitchen. I said that the previous owner had put them in. Tony just shook his head and said that it was not good. The previous owner had cut through the 2X4's to mount the lighting fixture panel. Now he has to replace all those 2X4's in the ceiling. Hopefully he will be able to do that tomorrow.
These two Chinese workers reminded me of the industrious workers that laid the railroad tracks for the Union Pacific Railroad back in the 1850's. They even had to tunnel through the mountains to make way for these tracks. Their Americans counterparts doubted that these tiny Chinese cannot do the task. They will fail. But they proved them wrong. Sometimes we need to be reminded how our tireless and hardworking pioneers pathed the way for us. And it was because of them that we enjoy the life that we have now.
Until tomorrow,
Dad
p.s. our first dinner without the kitchen is Mimi's Cafe...buy one get one free.
This morning promptly at 8am, two dimiinutive Chinese men appeared at my front door. They were to take away all the old kitchen cabinets, strip off the tiles from the floor, and remove all the built-in appliances. One was Tony. He was the foreman and spoke English very haltingly. I took them over to the kitchen and told them all I wanted to keep was the light fixture over the dining table and the garbage disposal. Everything else is fair game. They proceeded to work and work they did. I stayed only for a few minutes before I left for work. I gave Joey my work phone number just in case there was a problem. I did not receive any calls. I guess "No news is good news." Arriving at home after work, I expected a dumpster filled with the old stuff from our kitchen. Instead I saw Tony's Honda sedan parked in our driveway. No big hunking American truck. Just a regular sedan. Going into the house the two men were still working to strip the old wallpaper from the dining area walls. The kitchen was already stripped bare. They had piled the debris neatly in the back yard in front of my brick barbeque grill. They were basically done. I couldn't believe it.
I knew going in that the floor under the dishwasher and kitchen sink needs major work. The dishwaher was broken and had leaked. The garbage disposal that I had installed to replace the original one had also leaked. My fears were realized. Five planks need to be replaced. Tony wasn't too worried about it. He said that they will order the wood and hopefully get the planks replaced before putting on the floors tiles. He was more interested in the overhead lighting. He asked if I had done the lighting in the kitchen. I said that the previous owner had put them in. Tony just shook his head and said that it was not good. The previous owner had cut through the 2X4's to mount the lighting fixture panel. Now he has to replace all those 2X4's in the ceiling. Hopefully he will be able to do that tomorrow.
These two Chinese workers reminded me of the industrious workers that laid the railroad tracks for the Union Pacific Railroad back in the 1850's. They even had to tunnel through the mountains to make way for these tracks. Their Americans counterparts doubted that these tiny Chinese cannot do the task. They will fail. But they proved them wrong. Sometimes we need to be reminded how our tireless and hardworking pioneers pathed the way for us. And it was because of them that we enjoy the life that we have now.
Until tomorrow,
Dad
p.s. our first dinner without the kitchen is Mimi's Cafe...buy one get one free.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
What a bummer!
Hi Family,
last night we worked really hard to put all the stuff from the kitchen into ten plastic 66 qts containers thinking that Allen will start today. No, he did not make it. His foreman, Tony, will do the demolition tomorrow morning at 8a.m. So, tonight we will have our last supper in our old kitchen with paper plates and plastic forks.
It was not easy to do the packing. I cannot imagine if we have to move and pack the whole house. But, yesterday, if I have my way (mommy talking), I will throw away most of the stuff. But, it is not just me. I have found your baby plates, cups and thermos (carebears, gobots and ballerina). They still look fairy new and they don't smell. I wish I know how to put the pictures in this blog so that I can show them to you. All and all, it was a fun night but very tiring. I started out singing while we worked and then turned into grumpy. Joey was a big help to move the table to the TV room, the big butcher table to the garage and chairs to Jaime's room.
Util tomorrow, have a great evening.............love, mom & dad
last night we worked really hard to put all the stuff from the kitchen into ten plastic 66 qts containers thinking that Allen will start today. No, he did not make it. His foreman, Tony, will do the demolition tomorrow morning at 8a.m. So, tonight we will have our last supper in our old kitchen with paper plates and plastic forks.
It was not easy to do the packing. I cannot imagine if we have to move and pack the whole house. But, yesterday, if I have my way (mommy talking), I will throw away most of the stuff. But, it is not just me. I have found your baby plates, cups and thermos (carebears, gobots and ballerina). They still look fairy new and they don't smell. I wish I know how to put the pictures in this blog so that I can show them to you. All and all, it was a fun night but very tiring. I started out singing while we worked and then turned into grumpy. Joey was a big help to move the table to the TV room, the big butcher table to the garage and chairs to Jaime's room.
Util tomorrow, have a great evening.............love, mom & dad
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
New adventure for Mom and Dad - Part 2
Hi, I am back...... Where was I? Oh, yes, after granite, we went to look for the hood over the stove. I wanted a strongest fan that they had. We found one which is 750 cubic feet per minute. They told me it is the strongest and the best feature is.....it is self cleaning. We will show you when you come home later. By this time, I am very hungry. We got some water and a ham and egg bow and off we went to Airport Home Applicance in Hayward. We did not like what we saw so we are skipping this place. The next thing we had to shop was the kitchen floor. We wanted to go with tiles. So, with Allen's recommendation, we went to Uni-tiles in Hayward. We were overwhelmed. There were a lot of people and lots of tiles. We did not know where to start so I asked the sales lady. She told us to look along the side of the wharehouse. We looked and looked and looked and we could not decided. Finally, a man came over and asked if we needed help. We must have looked pathetic. With his help, we found what we needed. So, we went over to the front and wait for our tiles. When the crate came, I almost felt down. It was a full pallet. How are we going to put all these tiles in our little Corolla? The man laughed at me and said, "they are not all for you." I said, "thank goodness!" It was only 9 little boxes....oh well. By this time, I am tired and hungry (did not finish the bow) and I want to go home. But, we have to go back to KZ Cabinets to put a deposit on the order so that they could give us a plan to give to Allen. We have 1/2 hour to go back to Milpitas. We made it and our salesman Wei told us that he could give us another 5% discount......not bad huh. To finish the day, Daddy took me to dinner at Left Bank Steak House in Santana Row which used to be Tanglewood.
Sunday was an easy going day. It is always good to slow down and focus on worshipping God. It was Sunday School promotion day. Our new Associate Pastor, Moa, started his first day with us. So, that was good. Even though the Bay Bridge was closed, Maria and Raymond came over and treated us to a great lunch with Jaime and Reiko.
Monday was the CUMC softball playoff: Team Orange (old guys) vs. Team Nathan (young guys). we did not not go because we went shopping for stove and dishwasher and other things. We went to orchard Supply, Sears, and Best Buy. We found a drop in range with a smooth cook top and a convection oven at Orchard Supply. The salesperson told us to come back on Saturday because there will be no sales tax.....YAY. Then we went to Restoration Hardward to find knobs. They are beautiful. They are a little expensive but I think I am going with them later. The last place we went was Home Depot where we bought the sink and faucet. Another full day, we needed to go home because Allen was coming to see the plan. Allen looked at the plan and requested a few remodifications namely order more stuff. Then, he said that everything looked good and asked when we would like to start. I said, "when can you start? And he said, "how about this Wednesday 9/9?" And we said, "OKAY!" So, now we are going to pack everything and see what happens tomorrow............ part 3 will be coming soon!!!!!!
Sunday was an easy going day. It is always good to slow down and focus on worshipping God. It was Sunday School promotion day. Our new Associate Pastor, Moa, started his first day with us. So, that was good. Even though the Bay Bridge was closed, Maria and Raymond came over and treated us to a great lunch with Jaime and Reiko.
Monday was the CUMC softball playoff: Team Orange (old guys) vs. Team Nathan (young guys). we did not not go because we went shopping for stove and dishwasher and other things. We went to orchard Supply, Sears, and Best Buy. We found a drop in range with a smooth cook top and a convection oven at Orchard Supply. The salesperson told us to come back on Saturday because there will be no sales tax.....YAY. Then we went to Restoration Hardward to find knobs. They are beautiful. They are a little expensive but I think I am going with them later. The last place we went was Home Depot where we bought the sink and faucet. Another full day, we needed to go home because Allen was coming to see the plan. Allen looked at the plan and requested a few remodifications namely order more stuff. Then, he said that everything looked good and asked when we would like to start. I said, "when can you start? And he said, "how about this Wednesday 9/9?" And we said, "OKAY!" So, now we are going to pack everything and see what happens tomorrow............ part 3 will be coming soon!!!!!!
New adventure for Mom and Dad
It is funny that I was thinking of all your first days of school when I was talking to my co-workers who have young kids in the beginning of this school year. I don't remember the actual day but I have the pictures in my mind of all your first days to kindergarten. You all were so cute dressed in your new clothes carrying your new lunch boxes. All of you looked so eager to go to school or I was proud to see you going to school. But, anyway, CC, I know you will be great help to your anxious students.
Okay, We were going to surprise you all except Jaime because she knew what is happening in our house. Did she tell you? If not, here it goes. We are remodeling our kitchen. On 8/26, I finally calledthe contractor, Allen Shao, from a mutual friend. He came two days later and did some measurements and gave us an estimate on that Sunday 8/30. We liked the figures and accepted the quote. He came by last Friday, 9/4, and gave us 3 stores and told us to go shopping on Labor Day weekend. And so we did. Daddy had a hair appointment on Sat morning. We had a late start. The first stop is KZ Cabinet in Milpitas. Allen told us that they have good quality cabinets in very reasonable prices. They are from China. The guy told us to look around and let him know which one we liked. They all looked very nice and beautiful. Finally, we found one style we liked. It is Canadian Maple, light color. So, he sat down put our meansurements into the computer, pushed a key here and there, and he have our new kitchen on the screen. It looked pretty good. We had a lazy susan in the corner bottom cabinet and a spice rack right next to the stove. we are going to take away the oven and buy a drop in range so that we have more counter space. When he gave us the quote, we almost had a heart attack because the quote was $3100 including the tax. It was 1/2 what I expected. But, this is our first store so we took the quote and head on to the other store named Sincere Hardware in Oakland. It looked bigger, busier and had more stuff. The cabinets did not really catch our eyes but we waited for a quote anyway. We picked the cabinets came from back East and the quote was $8800. We could not believe the big difference. They also had cabinets from China but we did not them. Allen did tell us to get granite from this store and we did. They were less than $1000. Daddy said it is time to eat............. I will continue after dinner. Bye.
Okay, We were going to surprise you all except Jaime because she knew what is happening in our house. Did she tell you? If not, here it goes. We are remodeling our kitchen. On 8/26, I finally calledthe contractor, Allen Shao, from a mutual friend. He came two days later and did some measurements and gave us an estimate on that Sunday 8/30. We liked the figures and accepted the quote. He came by last Friday, 9/4, and gave us 3 stores and told us to go shopping on Labor Day weekend. And so we did. Daddy had a hair appointment on Sat morning. We had a late start. The first stop is KZ Cabinet in Milpitas. Allen told us that they have good quality cabinets in very reasonable prices. They are from China. The guy told us to look around and let him know which one we liked. They all looked very nice and beautiful. Finally, we found one style we liked. It is Canadian Maple, light color. So, he sat down put our meansurements into the computer, pushed a key here and there, and he have our new kitchen on the screen. It looked pretty good. We had a lazy susan in the corner bottom cabinet and a spice rack right next to the stove. we are going to take away the oven and buy a drop in range so that we have more counter space. When he gave us the quote, we almost had a heart attack because the quote was $3100 including the tax. It was 1/2 what I expected. But, this is our first store so we took the quote and head on to the other store named Sincere Hardware in Oakland. It looked bigger, busier and had more stuff. The cabinets did not really catch our eyes but we waited for a quote anyway. We picked the cabinets came from back East and the quote was $8800. We could not believe the big difference. They also had cabinets from China but we did not them. Allen did tell us to get granite from this store and we did. They were less than $1000. Daddy said it is time to eat............. I will continue after dinner. Bye.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
First day of school
Good morning, family,
It is the first day of school for Garrett and I. It is both exciting and also stressful all at the same time.
I remember how much I did not like the first day of school. I love staying home during the summer. I was and am such a home-body. I do not have any specific memories about the first day of school but I do remember the feelings that would start to grow in me. I did not know what to expect, so I was nervous for the classroom expectations. I was nervous in meeting new classmates and not knowing who would be a new friend.
Looking back at the memories and the feelings of anticipation, I still feel that way when it is the first day of school. I hope and pray that I can help those students who feel the same way that I did when I was younger, but also to encourage the excitement as well.
This year will be different. I am looping with my kids from last year, so I know about 20 of the families. I also lost some kids so I have new kids on my class roster, all boys. I am at sixteen boys and eight girls and I think there will be a new boy added to my roster this morning. I will truly need to understand the mind of a boy quickly if I am able to survive the chaos. =)
I will post again after the first few days of school. Take care, love, cc
It is the first day of school for Garrett and I. It is both exciting and also stressful all at the same time.
I remember how much I did not like the first day of school. I love staying home during the summer. I was and am such a home-body. I do not have any specific memories about the first day of school but I do remember the feelings that would start to grow in me. I did not know what to expect, so I was nervous for the classroom expectations. I was nervous in meeting new classmates and not knowing who would be a new friend.
Looking back at the memories and the feelings of anticipation, I still feel that way when it is the first day of school. I hope and pray that I can help those students who feel the same way that I did when I was younger, but also to encourage the excitement as well.
This year will be different. I am looping with my kids from last year, so I know about 20 of the families. I also lost some kids so I have new kids on my class roster, all boys. I am at sixteen boys and eight girls and I think there will be a new boy added to my roster this morning. I will truly need to understand the mind of a boy quickly if I am able to survive the chaos. =)
I will post again after the first few days of school. Take care, love, cc
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