Quick Day Trip to Seattle

I had a day trip to Seattle and had lunch with Rob, Julie, Jeff and my Mom. My dad met us back at the plane to say hello too. Mom says I was lucky to have visited on such a nice day since it has been cloudy most days up there. It was convenient to have the coporate jet so I could fly a few boxes back down now that I have storage space in my garage.

Little more work on the house

After a trip up to Calgary and Pittsburgh, I came home to put the baseboards and moldings in. A couple friends let me borrow a saw and nail gun to attempt this new project on my own. I am very happy with how it all turned out. I have also found a new roommate, her name is Liz and she works in Atlanta from Monday to Thursday. I'm probably going to take a break on the house project situation for a little bit, and start saving up to furnish the place since it is a little empty.

The floors are finished!

I have been working most of the month and have only had a few days to work on the house before moving in on Monday. The one thing that needed to get done before the move was the hardwood floors in all three bedrooms, the living room, hallway and entry. I started in on the floors near the beginning of the month by tearing up the old carpeting and pulling what seemed to be thousands of staples out of the wood. I then had a few trips throughout the month which gave me plenty of time to read up on how to tackle this job. I got a few great tips, but nothing quite prepared me for what I was in for. The floors looked shiny before I started which I thought was a good thing and uh, not really. The wood had many clear coats that needed to be sanded through. I rented a sander that was not overly aggressive which made for sanding a total of about 24 hours. I couldn't believe the machine could handle that much work. 5 hours the first night then 15 hours the next day followed by 4 more hours the next morning for final touch ups. Needless to say, the machine wasn't made to strip old hardwoods that had years of layers put on. I vacuumed the whole house and ran tack cloth over the floor which is a sticky damp cloth that picks up dust. It was time to lay down the finish. I initially wanted a darker floor so I was going to stain, but after all that sanding, my test spot showed some fine swirls left behind by the sander which most people wouldn't have been able to see but I would always know. I opted to go natural which is better to hide the carpeting and sanding blemishes. I coated the raw wood with a product called Varathane. It took about an hour to lay down a clear coat and then I had to wait two hours between each. I put down four coats and headed back to the apartment at about 3 a.m. All together I put about 34 hours of work and $600 into the floor in about two and a half days... Today I went back to see how the floor was setting up and snapped a couple pics with my phone. I also replaced many of the old outlets with updated ones and bought a leaf blower and cleaned up the yard. I think I'll sleep well tonight because tomorrow I need to pack up my apartment and have everything ready for the movers on Monday. Busy busy few days!

Got the Keys!!!

Well I'm officially a home owner! I have already done some painting and am working on refinishing the hardwoods before the end of the month in order to move in. I have had a few trips this month which is gonna make things close, but if I need to I'll just move everything into the garage so I'll have time not to rush through anything and make it all look perfect. Here are some pics; one of me getting the keys from my agent Steve, one of me painting on the second day, a pic from me sitting on the stairs looking across the street at the neighborhood and the hills, and where I had first pulled back some of the carpet to see what samples of baseboard and molding looked good with the floors. I'll post more pics soon. I went to the Nursery down the street to get some rose food for my bushes and it seemed the older ladies really liked helping a young confused guy out with that kind of stuff.. It was funny.

Latest trip

Jeff and I just returned from a trip to West Virginia, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, and ending in Yakutat, Alaska. We had a great time bouncing around. I tried to straighten up my golf game a little in Atlanta, in preparation for a professional course I'll be playing in Texas next month with the bosses. Our last four days in Alaska went pretty quickly. We drove to Portage glacier where we took an ice breaking boat out on the lake that the glacier spills into. Our last day was also exciting when a pilot flew us out to land on the beach which was cool on those big tundra tires.

Buying my first house!

I've been enjoying time down here in the bay area. I've met some great new people and am having a lot of fun flying with the guys at SP. I have a trip in a few days to Alaska which is cool since it is the only state I have not yet visited. I do have quite a bit of time on my hands lately, so I thought it would be a good idea to purchase a house and put some work into it. I found a small 3 bedroom 2 bath in the hills north of Oakland in a very homey, secluded neighborhood called May Valley. It is a one owner home and in very good condition, just a little dated. My closing date is at the end of May...I'll keep you posted!

My '66

Well I bought an airport car that I'm gonna start to restore. It's a 1966 Beetle, which is in very good condition for the price I paid. It will be fun to have a project car that I can also drive around. I plan on putting an aftermarket, replica sliding rag top on it which is probably a sin in the VW world but I wanna make it right for me. I'll post more pics when I do anything significant to it in the future.

Left Washington and headed back down to Cali

I left home a couple days after Christmas to relocate back to the bay area just in time to get ready for New Years. It only takes about fifteen minutes to take the train to the city from where I'm at in Alameda. I met up with some new friends Natalie and Heather for New Years Eve. New Years day, I had my first trip back with SP Aviation to Puerto Vallarta. After all the moving around, it was a nice relaxing break to hang out in MX for a few days.