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2019-2024 Update

It’s been a long time since my last post. Obviously, life got busy with the addition of a third child. Three kids is a lot but definitely fun. I will try to briefly recount the last five years. 2020, COVID came to town. I was fortunate because I was sent home to work, which gave our family tons of time together. We took advantage of it by doing lots of bike riding. It culminated in a 26 mile-day long ride in Orange County. It was epic! May 2021, after ten years of working in hospice, I got a new job as a palliative care chaplain. It’s great work with a great team.  As a transition, our family went on a five week road trip through the Pacific Northwest. We had a wonderful seeing many family and friends, tubing through Bend, OR and becoming lovers of Tillamook ice cream and experiencing the magnificent redwoods. 2023, I helped Elise and her Girl Scout troop complete the Bronze Award. Zachary joined a Cub Scout pack and I’ve now been acclimated to tent camping. Gabrielle started TK. A...
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Recent posts

Welcome Gabrielle K. Lo!

On January 21, 2019, we were blessed to have Gabrielle K. Lo come and join our family! Allison labored through the early hours and then around 7:30 am, she told me it was time to go to the hospital because the baby was on the way. We got to labor & delivery around 8:30 am and seven minutes later, Gaby was born! Allison did not even have time to push. We are so happy to have her in our lives!
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Kitchen cabinets damaged and reconstruction

Dear readers (all two of you), my apologies for such a sustained silence since my last posting. In early September, we experienced a kitchen waste water back up and flooding into our kitchen, which resulted in the demolition of approximately 80% of the lower kitchen cabinets. What ensued was a very stressful and frustrating process but it is all working out. Thankfully, we are not bearing all of the costs of the reconstruction of the cabinets and other affected areas. Below are the pictures of the cleared out and cleaned up kitchen area.
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Bunk Bed Completed!

We finished painting the bunk bed and we think it looks great! The paint went on really well and it feels nice and smooth. The bunk is held together by 4 inch lag bolts and I was not looking forward to having to wrench down each one of them by hand. So I asked good 'ole trusty Google if some sort of impact driver socket adapter existed. Lo and behold, yes! I found a cheap  adapter at Harbor Freight for $3 and it worked out quite well. I'd recommend getting a nicer one if you're going to be installing as part of your profession but if it's going to be a one off thing then this a great bet. It took about an hour for the four of us to assemble it (yes, I put the kids to work).
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Bunk Bed Painting

The time has come for bunk beds for the kids. E is close to outgrowing her toddler bed so we set out on finding a bunk bed for her and Z. We started shopping around for used beds and  Letgo  led us to someone who was selling a solid wood bunk bed for $50! We checked it out and it turned out to be a good deal. It was 15 years old but made out of solid wood versus the cheaply made, less durable stuff you find elsewhere. We'll take it! We decided to sand it and paint it Marshmallow (Sherwin Williams, white). Now we're in the middle of painting it with the paint sprayer. We're debating whether or not we should bother with putting a clear coat on it. It'll definitely make it look nicer and stand up to more abuse that way. However, it'll tack on a few more weeks before it'll be done. Any thoughts on clear coats? Please post in the comments section.
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Completed interior doors, cabinet doors fixed

Allison and I finished painting the doors! It took some time because we had to fix some blemishes but we got it done and they look great! We also fixed our cabinet door problems. We think we installed the corner cabinets upside down, which put the doors on the wrong sides. Allison and I dry fitted the door on the right side and they appeared to work with the other doors. Also, we discovered the new side had predrilled holes for the cabinet hinges so all I had to do unscrew them from the left side and screw them into the right side. We made the switch and reinstalled the doors and voila! It all worked! Praise the Lord! I took the pull that was now upside down and on the wrong side and reinstalled it in the proper position. I patched the holes with spackle and so far, you can't tell there were holes there. We also dry fitted the vanity in the bathroom. Next up, I need to paint a used bunk bed we bought for the kids, buy a vanity top for the vanity, figure out how ...
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Big Weekend: Master Bathroom & Bedroom, Cabinets, Doors

Clement and Mr. Gee came down again for a weekend to help me with the condo. God bless those guys! We got a lot done in the four days we worked together. We began with the master bath remodel and got so far as to paint it, reinstall the toilet, cut some baseboard and install the flooring. Allison and I continued on the doors. We also painted the master bedroom. Sorry, no pics yet. Mr. Gee and I also installed a lot of the pulls in the cabinets. This was a nerve wracking experience but after we practiced on scrap wood and got going, it wasn't so bad after all. If you ever decide to do this yourself, take your time and practice on some scrap pieces before you starting drilling into your cabinets. That way, you'll have a hang of it and make all of your mistakes on material that doesn't matter. We also put the doors back on the cabinets and everything was going just fine until we got to the upper corner cabinets. We discovered they were too...
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