why hello new door(s)

when we first viewed this home, dp and i knew immediately that the security door and front door had to go. just by looking at the below pics you can tell why. notice the beautiful "no no no solicitors" sign! haha... the funny thing is that we rarely have solicitors!


look at the beautiful artwork



see the sign?!



black security door

 now check out our new doors. ideally dp and i wanted a dutch door so that we didn't have to get a security door, but the $ wasn't there, and we are content with the outcome.

you wouldn't believe it, but within 24 hours someone came by and picked up our old doors.

dp is a plumb-er

who would've known that owning a home brings out skills and abilities that you never knew you had... especially when repairs cost way too much. when we first moved in we realized that the bathtub had a major clog that a snake or Drano couldn't fix. so after 2 estimates from plumbers, dp decided to become a plumb-er himself and fix the problemo. after $45 spent at home depot for a new pipe set and odds and ends, and 2 days of working under the house (in the crawl space), we believe that the problem has been solved! go dp!!!! we have yet to regularly use the shower to see if it has successfully worked. these pictures are of the corroded pips that dp had to replace.

that's the crawl space!

my first diy project!

i had been planning for over 6 months to spray paint our wrought iron bistro set. we purchased this over a year ago when we lived in our apt for an amazingly low price (which btw was my first negotiation). anyways, so i bought the spray paint soon after and was waiting for the right time and space to do this diy project. so... a few saturdays ago, i devoted several hours, arm/finger muscles, and 1 trip to home depot for a second can of spray paint, to this wonderful outcome. go rp! that evening i must say that my arms throbbed of pain bc i had to hold down the spray function for hours.

see the rust... many areas of the set had this

after a coat of Rustoleum rust-free paint

our beautiful new looking bistro set

family is everything

dp and i would like to send a shout-out to our lovely families. we are so blessed to have loving parents (and supplemental parents), siblings, and in-laws who support us through our out-of-the-box life endeavors (like reuniting from long distance and moving to san diego, our unique wedding plans, etc.). as we journey through life, we are thankful for their presence and contributions (in all forms) to our lives.

hospitality

dp and i love to have our friends over; typically it is 1 couple and we like to cook for them although most of the time we are scrambling to finish cooking when they first get here. this past weekend we had guests come over fri and sat. it was so fun and a joy to finally be hospitable to our first guests and cook them dinner. dp and i love the fact that we have more room to share with others, but the funny thing is that regardless of the size of your house, the one dominant place that people crowd around is the kitchen and kitchen table! so... this helped me begin my case for a new, larger, (wood), dining table ;)

congrats to sj and nm!

it's congrats post time to all of our friends who are experiencing the upside of life at this moment... this past weekend was all about congratulating loved ones. following are sj and nm; we went to celebrate the pending arrival of their baby girl!

congrats to js and cs!

they just bought their first home! it was nice to go through this journey with friends who were experiencing a similar trajectory.

congrats to mg!

dp's mentee graduated a few weeks ago. congrats to mg- a young man who we admire immensely for his perserverence and drive to make things happen for himself vs play victim to life's road blocks.

bye bye wood panels and blue and tan paint!

dp and i worked hard this past sat to continue our painting endeavor. we finished painting some more of our dining room, and the other 2 bedrooms. the pics below depict the transformation in one of the bedrooms. this room was the least attractive with partial wood paneling, GLUE under it when dp pulled it off, and blue paint! dp and i are quite happy with the outcome. kudos to dp for his endless hours of scraping the glue off the wall by hand.