Vegas and Napa

Vegas and Napa, both cities serve alcohol, but that is their only similarity. Two weeks ago I went with my brothers and buddies to Vegas and the following week I took my wife to Napa with our close friends Jordan and Jenny. Surprisingly I only got sick in Napa, but that was not drink induced as I got the flu, though I'm sure the drinking didn't help.

For the Napa trip we purchased one of those "groupons" through www.livingsocial.com . It turned out to be a great deal. We stayed in downtown Napa at the Napa Valley Inn, got a free breakfast and $100 to eat at Food Network Iron Chef star Morimoto's restaurant. I'm not a wine guy, but we did a little tasting and it was fun. After dinner we were able to walk to a pool hall and play pool and darts and they had 50 beers on tap. Playing darts turned out to be really fun and we are planning on getting a dart board at the house now that we know how to play.

Vegas was a great time, though I do not recommend staying at the Rio. We only stayed there because of a deal we had, which didn't turn out to be a deal at all. Always pick a hotel on the strip and you can't go wrong with Bellagio or Mandalay Bay. I prefer the daytime activities at the pool over the night life and Mandalay has an awesome wave pool and lazy river.

Our excuse to go to Vegas was to watch March Madness NCAA basketball, but I'm not sure how many games we watched between all the pool time and craps we played. Even though the motto is "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas", I took a few pictures.

Pool-time at the Rio, we made the best of it....

Enjoying the night...

Putting the sink to good use...

Beer and Ribs

My 5 year old son Moses told me the other day "Dad we haven't barbecued in a long time". He was right, it had been raining so much I have not thought about bbq. I didn't end up barbecuing, but rather smoked some pork ribs for about 5 hours. I smoked a loaf of french bread wrapped in tin-foil as well and broiled some asparagus.

I had also recently finished brewing a batch of pale ale beer. It turned out really nice. The beer has a medium hop flavor and complimented the whole meal. When I have a beer with a meal I like to have something flavorful, like an ale or a bock. When I have a beer while watching a game or after working hard on a labor intensive project, I prefer something light like a pilsner. I might be over-thinking it, but there are different beers for different occasions. Though at the end of the day, if someone hands me a beer, I'm really not going to complain about what kind it is.

Coons

We have been battling with raccoons lately. They have won some and so have we...

We started setting some traps for the raccoons after they started to go after our chickens in the coop and eating all the cat food in the cat dish.

The other night my father-in-law Duane burst into the house to tell me there was a raccoon in the chicken coop. I had one of those, huh which weapon should I get moments, when my wife said "Take the hand gun, it is already loaded". Usually, my wife wouldn't be so forward about getting a gun out, but she raised this chickens. I grabbed the hang gun from the safe, which was loaded with hollow-point bullets for any intruders, and ran out there. Duane had startled the raccoon so it was up in the rafters above the chickens. Thankfully none of the chickens had been eaten yet. I practically shot off the raccoon's head when I shot it with the .40 hollow-point. Of course it fell down right on-top of the chickens, who frantically went running in all directions. Between all the splattered blood and feathers it looked like a voodoo ceremony just took place. One of those poor chickens wouldn't leave the corner of the coop, trembling and traumatised. I tried reassuring her, but she was going to have to sleep it off. Since this happened, we have been locking up the chickens earlier.

Here is a picture of me trying to get the dogs more interested in doing this dirty work, so I can get some sleep in the night.

The other encounter happened the following night when I heard noise on the back deck. I looked out and saw our cat in the trap finishing off a can of tuna, the raccoon bait. I let the stupid cat out and went back to bed. About a hour later I wake up to more noise on the deck. I look out and there is a raccoon eating the cat food right outside the door. I banged on the door and it looked at me like he didn't care I was there. I opened the door and he ran off, but I knew he would be back. I wasn't about the startle the whole family by shooting it in the middle of the night, so I went with plan B, Louisville Slugger. With the cat food just outside the door, I opened the sliding back door just enough to fit the bat out. I raised the bat like a hammer and waited. Within 5 minutes that raccoon came back up the deck to the cat food dish. I swung that bat straight down like I was trying to win the strong man competition at the fair, and knocked that raccoon right on the head. As soon as I hit the raccoon it flew in the air and went jumping and flopping all over the deck. I was laughing so hard because the idea worked so well, that I forgot to go out and finish the fight since I had only stunned it. The raccoon ran off and I went back to bed laughing myself back to sleep. I know one thing about raccoons, and that is, they will be back.

No Pics, But Worth Telling

A young lady (Rosemarie) who is in charge of community outreach at our church called me last month to tell me she met a woman (Gertrude) at the food shelter. Rosemarie said Gertrude was the sweetest old lady, and after talking for a while found out she could use a little help clearing out a large amount of garbage from her home in East Palo Alto. So, a few weeks later my dad, Rosemarie and myself worked for couple of hours filling up my dump trailer with all kinds of crap. Additionally, we cut down Gertrude's weeds, raked and cleaned off the walkway and patio. It was a solid two hours of productivity, turning the backyard from a dump to being useable, safe, and clean.

We were pumped getting back into my truck, excited about how well it went and how happy Gertrude was to have her yard cleaned up. Then things went downhill. Rosemarie asked if she brought her purse and I told her that I saw it on the floor in the back seat of my truck. When she couldn't find it, I immediately looked for my wallet in the door of my truck, and it was gone as well. I knew they had been stolen, and I was surprised because I made a point to lock the truck since the neighborhood was really sketchy. Rosemarie had her car keys (no spare), a new makeup bag (which I've been told from multiple women is very expensive), cell phone and a wallet in her purse. In my wallet, in addition to my credit cards, I kept a card of paper with my bank account numbers on it (dumb!).

Rosemarie went in to tell Gertrude what had happened, and her grandchildren said it was probably the teenagers across the street as "they are always stealing". Well, there wasn't much that could be done, so we left. I was surprised by how well I was dealing with the theft. I've had other things stolen in the past and it always infuriated me. This time, the only thing I was mad about was the amount of time I would spend at the DMV waiting in line trying to get a new license. I started to ponder why I wasn't so furious and the following thoughts came to my mind...

I was in a bad neighborhood and I left my truck unlocked: stupid. Even though I was being a "Good Christian" by helping someone less fortunate, that didn't make me immune to my surroundings. In fact it makes me a bigger target as I'm not as aware or prepared in a foreign setting. My wife and I support some missionaries in Africa. I can think of two accounts they have shared where a group of thugs have attacked their community specifically targeting them and have almost beaten to death innocent people. If they wanted to stay out of harm's way they wouldn't be missionaries in Africa. It is easy to prevent these types of situations by avoiding dangerous areas, but when one feels compelled to help others, safety becomes a lessor priority. The same can be said for those who serve in the military, Red Cross, etc.

It has been a couple weeks since my wallet was stolen. It was a hassle to go to the DMV, cancel credit cards, and monitor accounts, but I'm glad I went to help Gertrude. She was very appreciative and I know it made life easier for her and her grandchildren. Next time I'll make sure to lock my doors!

Remodeling Pros and Cons

Old front of house

Old kitchen.

Six years ago we wanted to get into the hot San Francisco Bay Area housing market. Unfortunately this was one of the few houses that was in our price range. It is crazy that we paid close to $500K for this dilapidated house. I knew the only way for us to afford a home was to put sweat equity into something someone else didn't want. We kept getting outbid for other homes that only required minor remodeling, but there was hardly any competition on this house. I didn't anticipate putting so much work into the house, but after pulling down some walls I quickly realized the house was crap. I gutted it down to the studs and removed the shoddy addition in the back. I had some plans drafted to remodel the house and add 500 square feet off the back of the house. The city of San Jose had a policy that if you did not add more than 500 square feet to your house one would qualify for Express Check, which included having plans approved over the counter and only having to pay $1500 for permits. Turns out that, due to the fact that we were remodeling the existing house, they added the entire home's square footage to the 500 square foot addition. The result was the plans went to planning for 3 months and the permits increased to $8,500! I should have taken this as a warning sign not to embark on such a major project without the right amount of time and money to complete it.

Since I did about 80% of the work myself, it took a good year to complete the project. It looks great after everything is said and done, but I learned a lot of lessons for any future projects I might do. You might be able to learn from my mistakes.

1. Do not pull a permit unless it increases the square footage. Looking back, I wish I remodeled the house first, then applied for a permit for the addition. This could have saved $7k in permit fees. Cities gouge residents for permits which is why so many people avoid them. If cities made the fees more reasonable, more people would use them and more revenue would come in.

2. Compare and calculate the cost of doing the work yourself (saves money but increases time) vs. subcontracting and having work completed more quickly. If subcontracting can complete the project in 3 months instead of 12, you can save 9 months of mortgage payments if you plan to sell the house, or it could be 9 months of rental revenue if you planned to rent it out.

3. Consider a room-by-room addition over time so you don't have to leave the house and you don't financially burden yourself if you go over budget. Going over budget for the bathroom is small compared to going over budget on the entire house.

In the end, I'm proud of the work, but I couldn't have timed things any worse. As soon as I completed the house, the housing market tanked. The house is now on the market, but there is no way we will see a return on our investment. Looking on the positive side of things, we didn't lose our house and this has been a good learning lesson for our next project.

New front of house.

New kitchen.

New living/dinning room.

Flagstone Patio

We just finished a flagstone overlay for a previous client of mine. We put in the concrete about six months ago and now came back to lay (mortar) flagstone onto the concrete. I think it turned out really nice. I'll give most of the credit to brothers Tim and Dave who spent almost two weeks working hard in the heat.

If you ever thought about putting in your own flagstone patio or walkway, all you need is money, time, strength, and energy. There are a few different ways to laying flagstone, some more expensive and time consuming then others.

Option 1: Lay flagstone on dirt. This is a good option for garden pathways or a rustic patio. All you need is to level the dirt and use sand to level each piece of stone to one another using a level or a straight board. Instead of mortaring the joints between the flagstone pieces, one could fill with dirt and plant herbs, moss, or some other type of ground cover. Please note that not having the joints filled with a hard material will not make it easy for patio chairs as the legs fall into the joints.

Option 2: Lay flagstone on a compacted base-rock footing. Compacted base-rock, which consists of a mixture of angular rock, gravel, and sand, creates a solid surface when compacted. 3" of compacted base-rock with 1" of sand over the top for final leveling is a great alternative to a concrete base. Installing compacted base-rock can save you more than half the cost of concrete. One can find really great deals on recycled base-rock from landfills that grind up old concrete, rock and asphalt. To fill the joints, decomposed granite rock or polymeric sand can be used to provide a solid surface. Polymeric sand is so easy to install; just sweep into the joints, brush any remaining material off flagstone and lightly moisten with water. It creates a solid, yet flexible surface and bond.

Option 3: Lay flagstone on concrete. Concrete is a hard and solid surface and is the only one of these applications where the flagstone can be mortared to the sub-surface. This is the most expensive application due to the cost of concrete and mortar, and the amount of labor required to mortar and lay all the flagstone pieces. The joints can be filled with mortar or polymeric sand.

No matter which option one chooses, it can take a lot of money, labor, and time to put in flagstone. Usually a sales associate at a rockery can help homeowners figure out quantities by square footage for all the materials needed. With almost anything I'm doing for the first time, I research by reading and talking with others, then I try to have a positive attitude and not give up!

Making It Work

Sometimes I need to go deep with my posts and this one is no exception. Bear with me...

So my wife and I have been sleeping on this sofa-bed for over two years now. This might sound depressing, which it was at first, but my attitude has totally changed. It all started when we bought a fixer-upper to "flip", which I ended up tearing down to the studs and completely rebuilding over a two year period. By the time I finished the house, the market tanked, my wife gave birth to our first son, and we used up all our money. I was hoping to take the proceeds from the house to put more money down on one of these overpriced expensive homes in the SF Bay Area. Since the housing prices went way down, we decided to rent out the house and wait for the market to come back. And wait, wait, and wait...

Fast forward 3 years and now our family of four is still living in the same one bedroom cottage on my father-in-law's property. When I talked my wife into giving up our bedroom for our son to have a bedroom/playroom, she asked where we were going to sleep. I told her we would find the best sofa-bed on the market for her (I'm such a romantic). She graciously went along with my plans, but it was not easy for us, especially me. For the first year as I removed the sofa pillows before unfolding the bed, I spent about every night thinking to myself, "loser, loser, loser, loser". I was so disappointed in my lack of providing a larger house for my family. I would say to myself, "Why did you quit high-tech sales and start a freaking landscaping business? Why didn't you sell most of your company stock when it was at $70 a share and now is at $1 a share? Why didn't you get the house completed 2 years earlier when the market was hot?" It is never healthy, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually to look back on past mistakes that can not be changed. Now my mindset has changed and it is amazing what a few years of character building can do.

Now after sleeping on the sofa-bed for three years, I don't beat myself up anymore. I'll tell you what keeps my head up. First of all, I try to keep in my mind the trips I took in high school with YoungLife to build homes for impoverished families in Mexico. I remember building a 200 square foot home for a family of 7 people. This is about the size of a master bedroom in most homes. These families we built the houses for were so grateful for their new homes. They had been living in makeshift shacks built out of pallets and garbage. I still remember the excitement on their children's faces and the tears from the parent's eyes. There is so many people in the world living in shacks with no water, electricity or a bathroom. If we gave a needy family in any third world country our house, they would think it was a mini-mansion. I've realized I need to be more grateful for a roof over our heads, electricity, running water, and a bathroom. Our essentials are luxuries in many other parts of the world.

Second is I focus on the many wonderful things in my life. I love my family so much. God has blessed me with a great wife and kids. Once I keep this in my mindset, who cares about the size of our house and sleeping on a sofa-bed. Knowing they are safe, healthy and happy are my number one priorities. Plus, I'm so busy enjoying my family, the material surroundings do not become as important.

Lastly, I know we are going to be more appreciative to whatever house we do move into whenever that time comes. I used think a 2 bedroom and 1 bath house would be too small for my family to ever move into, but now I realize that would be doubling the amount of bedrooms we currently have!

Life is an ongoing experience of challenges and problems. We can either respond by feeling like a loser, inadaquate, and regretful over our current state of affairs or we can decide to make the best of our situations. We could focus on the positives (shelter, food, health, access to healthcare, opportunity, democracy, family, friends, faith, or whatever other blessing this country provides). With the right outlook and attitude, life's challenges make oneself a better and stronger person more capable to overcome each new problem that comes ones way.