This is seriously back dated...so I don't even remember half the things that went on. But overall...it's been 10 days since we got the keys to our new home. Let's try to walk backwards in time.
Day 1: May 13, 2005It was Friday the 13th of all days. We had everything set up to where the fumigation was to be lifted at 9AM so we can go in and leave by 10AM. I even set up my handyman to come out to look at my waterheater. Needless to say, luck wasn't on our side. The fumigators actually left us off their schedule! Those dogs! And to make matters worse, our realtor wanted to get in there early so she jammed a key into one of the locks; not knowing the fumigators prevent this by placing a pin inside the keyhole. Normally, a piece of magnet can remove the pin, but it was now STUCK!! They offered to replace the lock for free...but it still meant another 45 mintues of waiting around. ARGH!!! Our handyman looked at the waterheater and said to lift it off the ground would take a few days worth of work, including ripping out the wall and replacing it. He'll call me back. Friday night, we went shopping for paint, rollers, primer, spackle, everything you can think of. Didn't get to do much that night other than realize the fact that we're now homeowners. With a lot of work ahead of them...
Day 2: May 14, 2005The day started out with walking around and assessing all the damage in the house. They were mostly holes here and there. A few cracks, but nothing too big. To our surprise, the master bedroom had a thick layer of wall paper that was unexpected. That HAD to come off. Joycie spent the morning filling in holes. I spent the morning cleaning the rooms and hallway with TSP (Tri-Sodium Phosphate). The carpet guy came later that morning and quoted us for new carpets. We also asked him to pay for removing the nails from our hardwood floors. Price wasn't too bad....and it saved us a lot of work. All we had to do was restain the floor and wax it for a nice finish. Work was progressing too slow. Painting is not the hard part, it's the prep work that's tough. Joycie's parents called us in the afternoon and asked if we needed help. Didn't want to say NO, cuz we know they were curious in seeing the house for the first time. So we politely asked for help. Double-edged sword. I didn't really want to listen to other people's comments, for better or worse. And I'm not in line to tell them to shutup and just work! But if it wasn't for them, I don't think I woulda had the time to remove all the shelves and cabinets in the closets. Now the hard part is putting them back in order. Phew!! Joycie continued to fill in holes. I started taping the edges of the walls and trims and continued TSP-ing (invented a new word) the rest of the house. We took Joycie' folks out to dinner that night just so we can kick them out and send them home. After dinner, we went over to Fry's to buy our fridge. $1700!!! What kind of fridge is that?? That night, we were in a rush to get things done. The carpet guy was coming in next week..so we had to have everything painted by then. I ended up priming the guest room and hall way. Joycie started removing the wall paper in the Master Bedroom. To our surprise, not only were there several layers of wall paper, but they used liquid cement or something to glue the wallpaper on!! We decided to do as much as we could, then we surrendered and called Melissa and Chris to borrow their steamer. Hopefully that can make our lives easier. We didn't get home till 4AM that morning.
Day 3: May 15, 2005Overslept church but made it for Sunday school. After Sunday school, we headed over to the Francisco's to borrow their steamer. Took it back home and continued with wall paper removing. Removing wall paper is not a skill...it's an art. You need to have the patience and the right mindset, otherwise it'll drive you nuts. Our wall paper was, unfortunately, done by professionals. They knew what they were doing and did a great job at making sure the wall paper was NOT to come off. You first have to remove the paper part of the wall paper. Kinda like ripping off the price tag on something you buy from a store. The gooey stickey part remains. Then you have to steam the glue and start scraping gooey stickey part of the wall paper. Now, you've either uncovered a second set of wallpaper, or if you're lucky, uncovered the liquid cement. With the second layer of wallpaper, you have to repeat the aforementioned steps. With the liquid cement, you have to steam and/or use DILF - a wallpaper removing solution. Neither one worked too well...it was simply a lot of soaking, scrubbing and washing. The bucket of water to clean changed from water to glue within minutes. But we wouldn't dare empty out the glue-water into our drains. Who knows what will happen to our drain once the glue dries again. We were forced to carry our buckets all the way back home and pour it into the garbage can. It's quite fun trying to drive around town with a bucket full of water that you don't want to spill. Makes you think twice about coming to a screeching halt.
Earlier in the day, we spilled a bucket of TSP on the living room carpet. The water soaked through the carpet and onto the hardwood floor underneath. As we tried to rescue the hardwood floor, we realized there was a lot of damage to it. So we decided to, perhaps, have the hardwood floor professionally redone. Cha-Ching!! More money. Again, we worked till 2-3AM in the morning.
Day 4: May 16, 2005Joycie took a day off from work to remove wallpaper. She spent the entire day cleaning one wall of the master bedroom. Just one wall. The rest of the walls were, luckily painted with an ugly green instead of wallpapered with an ugly green. After work, I headed over to start helping her out. We ended up spending the entire night working on that ONE wall. Joycie left early since she had been working the entire day. I stayed till about 2-3 to get to our next milestone. Unfortunately for me, I wasn't much of a scholar. I used a spackle knife to dig into the walls. Sometimes getting the glue and wallpaper out, other times, digging holes into the dry wall. Ah....whatever. We can always spackle it back up. Called up our carpet guy and he says doing hardwood isn't too much more expensive. So we went ahead with the plan. That changes our entire plan though. Initally, we'd wanted to restain the floor ourselves AFTER we were done painting the living room and den. But now that it's being done professinally, they recommend us NOT painting the walls yet cuz sanding it makes a whole lot of dust. By not painting the walls, we couldn't move any furniture into the living room and den. At that point, we knew that at least half of our furniture will be stored in the garage.
Day 5: May 17, 2005I found out I need to fly to LA the next day. So I ended up staying late afterwork to prep for me meeting. By the time I got down there, Joycie's folks came down already. Uncle finished painting the room and hallway. Mommy and Joycie were cleaning up the glue from the wall paper I removed the night before. I promptly got onto the ladder and removed the rest of the wallpaper. We had to get the wallpaper off by tonight. So once again, I stayed late till about 2-3AM to finish up the one wall...and to remove all the wallpaper on the ceiling trimmings. Luckily, the ceiling trimmings weren't stuck on with industrial strength cement. I merely made two or three divets but was able to get to a point where we can start priming. We had our first meal at Leung Residence. Mommy made some pasta and brought it down with her. We had no chairs, tables, plates, utensiles. So it was a picnic on my living room floor.
Day 6: May 18, 2005Our hardwood guys came that morning and showed us there more termite damages. So even if we wanted to do the floors ourselves, we wouldn't have been able to. Money well spent I guess. I flew down to LA after class and came back around 7 in the evening. Joycie had spent the afternoon cleaning the remaining glue from ceiling and wall. It was a most perfect time to quit...knowing we can start priming the next day. FOUR DAYS!! It took four whole days to remove one wall's worth of wallpaper!! Who the heck was it to come up with such a bright idea?!? As we were about to leave for Star Wars up in San Mateo, Joycie couldn't find her carkeys!! We looked all over the place in the house. After about an hour's search, we gave up. It was getting late and our friends were waiting in line already - for almost 11 hours!!! We packed up early that night to go watch Episode 3. Both of us have been toiling for 18 hour days the past week...how were we going to stay up for a 12:01 showing?! Of course, we both fell asleep at certain parts of the movie. :) Didn't miss the important stuff though. But we didn't get to bed till 3-4AM AGAIN!!!!
Day 7: May 19, 2005We were running out of time. The carpet guy is coming Saturday and we haven't primed our bedroom yet!! We decided to skip tutoring that night to primer the entire master bedroom. Joycie's folks came down again, this time to remove wallpaperf from the dining room. They didn't have to come, really. But they sounded eager...and I was eager for some free dinner. Second meal at home. This time, they brought real food with a rice cooker. First night of eating with chopstick and bowls. Wonderful. Her folks were able to remove all the wall paper from the dining room. Quite unlike the wallpaper in the bedroom though. We think it's cuz the dining room was redone after the 80's. So glue was made to stick...but able to be removed much easier. Joycie and I spent the rest of the night primering like heck to get master bedroom ready for painting. Another late nighter...another 18 hour day.
Day 8: May 20, 2005Giants/A's game that night. Took a day off of work to wait for PG&E guy and delivery of fridge. Needed to get the master bedroom painted (in one day) in time for the carpet guy to come Saturday morning. I kept calling our carpet guy and he keeps telling us the carpet hasn't arrived yet. So we weren't motivated enough to start painting our master bedroom. Prolonged the start of our paint job. It would've been great to have everything done on time, so we can move everything straight into the bedrooms. Not so...not even close. Decided to call off the paint job since it was too late anyways..so we just painted the ceiling of master bedroom..and just went home to do more packing. Phoned up the carpet dude and told him to come on Monday. Saturday, we'll just move everything into the garage and pray that it fits.
Day 9: May 21, 2005The day of the big move. The morning started out kinda crappy. Overslept a little. I'd wanted to get the move going a little early. Then I got to UHaul and there was a big long line. Typical Saturday I guess. Uhaul had called me the night before asking if I can upgrade from a 17' to a 24'. I wasn't too sure about driving such a long truck to begin with...but now the truck just increased by another 7 feet!!! What the heck...if a Class C license can drive it...then I'm their man! The truck was intimidating to begin with, but pretty soon, I got use to it. Made life easier when I realized that the smaller cars needed to evade me! And I'd bought the $28 insurance to cover all accidents. So I didn't really care! HA!!!
I told everyone to get to Joyce's house at 11AM and for the most part, they all found the house without a problem. Ended up having a total of 8 guys help me at the first stop. The toughest part of the move, in my mind, was moving the piano from one house to the next. All those horror stories of people chasing after pianos, or pianos tipping over ramps kept flashing through my head. 8 guys. It took all 8 of us to do the job two people usually do. AMAZING!!!
We finished the first phase in record time, and started heading down to Sunnyvale for Phase 2. Between Phase 1 and Phase 2, we lost Rooz, but gained a Melissa and a Chris. They boys worked so fast and hard that I couldn't catch up with them with the packing. I ended up telling them to just throw stuff in boxes that are empty and shift it out. Dangerous thing to do...cuz you end up losing track of what goes where. Phase 2 ended with a bang. I think I heard popping of champagne corks when I pulled up the street with the big UHaul. =) My neighbors must be ecstatic. Finally ridding themselves of the vermin.
We headed down to San Jose for Phase 3...the phase where we unloaded everything, not into the house, but into the dirty musty garage. Again, the guys did everything in record time. It was barely 3 when they all finished. Some had to go...which was fine. The excellent part is of course moving the piano from the truck, down the ramp, into the house. I orignially imagined us using furniture dollies to do this move. At the very least, it elevates the piano so we don't have too many steps to lift. But of course, UHaul reservations never work. We had 6 guys left...and that's all it took to lift the two ton piano from the garage floor, up two steps, into the kitchen! It wasn't easy...it wasn't pretty either. But it worked.
I wish I had my camera that day for the three phases. It was most memorable - especially since these are all my closest friends. I even had to turn people away cuz there were too many people who volunteered to help. But no worries...those who vouched to help, will get to help. =) Soon enough.
The night ended with a bang. We had some fun at Chris's house with poker and Triopoly after dinner at Rock Bottom. Too bad not everyone could stay...but it was better for my wallet. I didn't have to pay for everyone's dinner. hahahahaha
Day 10: May 22, 2005Woke up the next day...and got ready for church. After church we headed over to the house and started to paint the master bedroom. Today was the drop dead date. Needed to get it done before the carpet guy came in on Monday. We got done with the bedroom, much faster than we anticipated, and decided to put a second layer on the ceiling. We had too many spots here and there. And between covering the spots and redoing it, we thought we might as well do it RIGHT. Not like we'll get a second chance anytime soon. By the end of the night, we had the three rooms that required carpet changed, painted. The night wasn't young either. It was 1-2AM again!!! And it's never just finishing up and go. It's packing up, then going home and cleaning all the tools. That takes another good half hour. If you let your tools, rollers, brushes sit for a day, you might as well buy new ones.
Day 11: May 23, 2005 Joycie called early in the morning and said, "We need to redo the bedroom walls. The green bled through." I was peeved. Why didn't the primer work!? Primer is suppose to block out the underlying layer of paint! Plus our carpet guy was laying out the new carpet that day. GEEZ!!!! That night...ended up facing our worst fear - painting with new carpets. Didn't do TOO bad. We bought a couple of table cloths from a Dollar Store and used that as our drop cloth. And luckily we did too...cuz we had about half a dozen drops here and there. Nothing big when you consider how many gallons we used to paint. But for new carpet, all you need is one drop to ruin everything.
And that's where we are. We still have to touch-up the ceiling in the bedroom. We need to clean/prime/paint the living room. Clean/prime/paint the den. And clean/prime/paint the dining room. After that, we need to fix our outlets to make sure they're all three-prongs. Then change the switches to our lights. We need to reinstall the cabinets that were removed from the closets. We have to clean the bathrooms, kitchen and cupboards. And lastly, we have to get out of Sunnyvale by the end of the month!!!
Where as the time gone!?!
