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We had our housewarming party this weekend but it was disguised as Aileen's Birthday. Let me begin with the week prior.

I really wanted to buy a mirror to place above the fireplace so after work, I went to Crate & Barrel and Pottery Barn to see what they had. I was looking for something simple; no fancy border around the mirror, just a flat piece of wood. There were a couple I liked online at Crate And Barrel but they were too expensive... around $300. Then I saw a mirror at Pottery Barn in Stonestown which was displayed in a maple finish. The card attached to it stated it came in Black as well so I asked to purchase that one. It came out to about $175 which was pricey but a lot less than C&B. I didnt realize how big it was: 30" X 42"; it barely fit in my car. I knew mounting this thing was going to be a chore just from the sheer weight. That evening, I proceeded with the mounting. I drilled two holes, inserted the screws, and mounted the mirror. It wasn't as level as we had hoped so I drilled 2 more holes right above the first set. It was level but there was one problem. The mantle above our fireplace is about 4 feet off the ground. The mirror was mounted about 5 inches above the mantle. The mirror has a frame with a width of about 4 inches. Once the mirror was mounted, Aileen (due to her vertically challenged proportions) wasn't able to see herself. It was useless for her. We decided to mount the mirror on the back wall right above the IKEA shelf. It was perfect there but that left us 4 holes above our fireplace. Eventually, we decided on using frames to cover up the holes.

That weekend and the following Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, Ai and I were in the mountains Snowboarding. But we knew once we got back, it was all business since the party was approaching. On Thursday, Ai worked on the photo album that chronicled how our condo evolved. I cleaned up the place a bit making sure everything was sparkling, especially the bathrooms. Later that evening, we went to IKEA and purchased some presentation platters and six 9"x9" frames to hang over the fireplace. When we got home, I mounted the picture-less frames and Ai continued to work on the phot album. On Friday, we visited a bunch of craft stores to purchase fake flowers, marbles and rocks. We also stopped by a lighting store and purchased a new pendant light that would replace the ugly 80's style chandelier that was hanging in our dining room. That evening, I installed the lighting and Ai prepared some of the food. I ordered chicken from a Chinese restaurant and picked it up before it closed. We then started to work on the fireplace project. Initially, I had hoped to have our faces in the frames, each one posing differently or looking at another frame.. kinda like Brady Bunch style. After we mounted them, it was obvious to see, that it looked horrible. We were stumped and tired so we went to bed trying to think of what to put in the frames.

Saturday.... judgement day. Ai woke up around 7AM and started working with the frames again. She had some left over art paper she used for a book-arts class. The colors went well with the rest of our furniture so we decided to place them inside the frames. It was hot that morning. The sun was out and all the windows were open but no breeze was coming in. We vaccuumed the carpet and swiffer'd the kitchen floor. We started to prepare the food and then Marlene called us up. She asked if she could come early so she could help and we accepted her offer. We then showered and ran more errands. Ai had to pick up the Lumpias and I had to go to Home Depot to buy bulbs for our new pendant lights. By the time I got back, Marlene was at our doorstep; it was about 1:30PM. Shortly after she arrived, Scott, Dina, Micaela and Jordan showed up. The party was in full swing. People slowly trickled through the door. We placed the food on the dining table and watched the horde of hungry friends grab their dishes.

We think the party was a success.. for the most part. It was a big surprise how many people we were able to fit in such a small space. Close to 40 people showed up. We had purchased folding chairs from Bed Bath & Beyond just for this event and I don't think I ever saw all the chairs being used at once. And Ai thought we should've had more.. like 20!! 10 was more than enough since people used our carpet as seating. A lot of people just stood. We were scared parking was going to be a problem but everyone appeared to find a spot.. no matter how near or far it was. At about 11:30PM, the last of the guests vacated our premises and we commenced with Operation Sleep. We appreciated all the positive comments we received about our home cuz for a while, Ai and I were butting heads in regards to the look of the place. The comment we seem to be getting a lot is... "You have a beautiful home" It feels good to hear stuff like that. Now begins phase 2... more redecorating and remodeling. You'll find me at home watching more HGTV and Queer Eye...

It's been a long time.. I should've left you... without a dope beat to step too.

Furniture wise, we haven't purchased anything major. We're trying to dress up our walls with some artwork but not sure what kind of artwork we'd agree on. We definitely want a mirror above the fireplace but the search for mirrors hasn't been very intense. We finished a very artistic puzzle depicting characters from The Simpsons but we have yet to frame it. I purchased some block shelving from West Elm which I setup in the dining room. It's about 5 feet from the ground just so we can possibly put a buffet underneath in the future. We're in the watch for accessories nowadays.. vases, candles, flowers, etc.

To do list:
-tile the master bathroom floor
-change curtains in bedroom
-change curtains in living and dining room (Ai's project)
-change flooring in kitchen
-change microwave in kitchen
-change kitchen countertop

I've had DirecTV with Tivo for over a week now and let me tell you.. I haven't watched this much television since college. It's not really the amount of TV that I watch that worries me. It's the shows and channels I watch. Take for example HGTV and DIYnet. Everytime I see a room or home being remodeled, I look at what can be done to my place. Those channels are going to make me broke. I love how this one show remodels a room for a mere $1000 or less. But $1000 is still a lot to me. Tivo is a nice add-on as well. No tapes to worry about and the ability to pause live TV is a bonus.

I really think I should put tiles in my bathroom. I'm starting to worry that any moisture getting on the carpet will create mold that I don't want to stink up my room. Buying the parts shouldn't be a problem. Finding a good cheap contractor will be. hmmm

DirecTV will be installed today after work. I can't wait. A whole new world awaits. I've been reading up on websites about hacking the access cards to give you all the channels. Sounds very interesting. I love the terminology used too. They say, you can TEST all the channels for free. Sure, whatever you say buddy.

Last night, hosted dinner with my parents and my brother and his girlfriend. My brother's visit was a last minute thing that came as a shock to me. Here's how he was able to come here on such short notice. His current girlfriend is a flight attendant so she receives a MAD discount on air fares. Michael had the week off so on Monday, he asked Tammie if she could get him a ticket for SF. When she asked when, he replied "Tomorrow". Well, he landed himself a round-trip ticket from Cincinatti for $150. He's only staying till Friday but it was nice to see him again. Anyway, we had pizza last night which my parent brought from my favorite pizzeria. My dad also cooked some pasta. I gave Michael and Tammie a brief tour of the place which they thought looked really nice. They just couldnt believe the price.

I added another montly expense to our household yesterday. I've been sick of hearing all the static from Aileen watching TV with a crappy antenna. I don't understand how she can put up with all that noise. Anyway, 2 days ago I started researching sites on where to purchase my DirecTV setup. I had a couple questions so fortunately, there was a site that had a Live Chat service. I asked for the differences between the regular elliptical dishes as opposed to the oval ones. The oval ones can support HD. That's all I need to know to decide on purchasing one of those. Although, I don't have HDTV right now, I'm sure it'll fit into my budget waaaaaaaaay down the line. I decided to call up a company called ValueElectronics.com I spoke to a very friendly and knowledgable person by the name of graham who told me more about the setup I need. Basically, I wanted DirecTV with Tivo plus the HD capable dish. I was contemplating setting up DirecTV in all the rooms but when I found out there was a 4.99/month charge PER receiver, I voted against that idea. We don't have any TV's in the bedrooms but I was thinking of having them DirecTV ready just in case. After all was said and done, the total cost with shipping came out to 79.99. I saved about $20 if I was to go through DirecTV's own website PLUS, I'm getting the HDTV dish; I'm not sure DirecTV's site would've forked that one over without an extra fee. The whole process has been smooth so far. The guy at ValueElectronics has kept me up to date on the status and just today, I received the tracking number and the phone number of the installer. Hopefully by Wednesday of next week, we'll have static free television PLUS Tivo. Say goodbye to my VCR.

I'm still trying to find that sweet spot setting for our new space heater. It works really well but too well. I just hope the usage is going to lower our PG&E bill.

On Tuesday, we went to Lowes to pick up a space heater. It cost us $34 for a Delonghi oil filler radiant heater with 3 settings and a cheap thermostat. The heater does a great job since we now wake up and take a shower in a nice warm temperature. Of course, the minute we walk out of the room, we're greeted with a freezing living room and kitchen.

I received some energy saving bulbs in the mail yesterday. These bulbs replaced all the 60W bulbs in our living room lamps. So now, instead of using up 240W with all the lights on, we're only using 36W. That should lower our electric bill quite nicely.

The PG&E bill came this weekend. It was a great welcome home treat after a fun day of snowboarding. This was our first full month of service from PG&E and I didn't know what to expect. Well, here are the numbers. $26 for electricity and $46 for Natural Gas. It appears gas is more expensive these days contrary to popular belief. The only appliances that use gas in our home are the water heater and our furnace. Our stove is electric and after seeing the gas prices, I'm somewhat thankful it is. I'm a bit surprised our electricity bill is so low since we cook a lot, we use the dryer about 3 times a week and I haven't switched all the bulbs to energy star ones. Anyway, seeing how gas is more expensive, I started searching for ways to keep the bill down. I've been looking into a space heater for our room since all we really care about is how warm it is when we wake up in the morning. I've also searched for water heaters that operate more efficiently. Replacing the water heater could run me upwards of $400 so I'm not sure if the initial cost will pay itself out in the long run.

We haven't received our water bill yet but Rita said that comes every 2 months. Not sure if I mentioned this in a previous post but I'm thinking of switching out the toilets to ones that use less water per flush. I've had an interesting habit of looking at the numbers on public toilets as of late. 1.6gpf seems to be the standard for most bathrooms. =)