Votes for our 3rd Annual Naughty or Nice Poll are still being tallied.
Please check back soon for the results.....
Saturday, January 2, 2010
We're Back!
Monday, March 16, 2009
A Congratulations to Morgan!
My nephew Morgan had another great performance at the MD/VA State Wrestling tournament. Won all his matches save the last and finished 2nd in his class. He's a wiley little guy and one day soon he'll get that top spot on a regular basis.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Josie Olivia - More Photos of our Critter
A couple more sets for your viewing pleasure. A few special events to note as well:
- She loves her baths especially when Grandpa washes her hair
- We celebrated her 1st month birthday on March 9th with a ceremonial haircut
- She's a Daddy's girl, because 9 out of 10 times when she has an accident, it's when Mommy's changing the diaper :)
- Only a few field trips so far; to the Doctors, the mall and the Safeway.
- She doesn't like her vitamin drops
- She can always fall asleep on Daddy
- She loves it when Mommy gives her sniffs
- She leans toward pink
- Loves to stare out the window
- And is the BEST BABY EVER!!!!
OC Condo - Completed
Okay, so finally some photos of the completed product. I've still got a few paint touchups and some more caulking to do, but that's it.
OC Condo Completed
OC Condo Completed
Monday, February 16, 2009
She's Here! and the Name the Baby Winner Is...?
Josie Olivia Laohaphan Way weighed in at 8lbs 9oz, 20 1/4 inches, full head of hair and eyes wide open.
Bonus: She stole Jeff's February 9th birthday just as he tipped over the cliff at 40. It looks like future birthdays for Jeff are going to be excessively Pink and a lot more girlie.
Momma did great and Dad managed to stay on his feet. See a few first photos at:
Josie Olivia Photos
Bonus: She stole Jeff's February 9th birthday just as he tipped over the cliff at 40. It looks like future birthdays for Jeff are going to be excessively Pink and a lot more girlie.
Momma did great and Dad managed to stay on his feet. See a few first photos at:
Josie Olivia Photos
Saturday, January 17, 2009
2008 Naughty or Nice Poll Results
So i'm a bit late on this post, but I've been understandably upset...
I think there's a little bias out there in friends and family land. It seems that to a great extent this poll is being misinterpreted. This poll is supposed to measure the Naughtiness or Niceness of Mark and Natalie INDEPENDENTLY of one another. Just because the voters opinion of Natalie is that she is Nice does not automatically mean Mark is Naughty, or vice versa.
Mark & Natalie should be independently scored, not weighted on the same scale at the same time. After all we are both individuals with our own qualities and traits that define us as unique and special. While some may consider Natalie's charm, smile, fashion sense, compassion, calm intelligence and exceptional grace as "Nice", it does not preclude you from also interpreting Mark's charm, smile, fashion sense, compassion, calm intelligence and cool swagger as also "Nice".
Regardless here are the results (53 of 80 votes were cast)
Natalie - Nice...........................66%
Natalie - Naughty...................34%
Mark - Nice.............................42%
Mark - Naughty.....................58%
Are all my friend Traitors? Can you honestly call Josie Olivia's Daddy Naughty?
I think there's a little bias out there in friends and family land. It seems that to a great extent this poll is being misinterpreted. This poll is supposed to measure the Naughtiness or Niceness of Mark and Natalie INDEPENDENTLY of one another. Just because the voters opinion of Natalie is that she is Nice does not automatically mean Mark is Naughty, or vice versa.
Mark & Natalie should be independently scored, not weighted on the same scale at the same time. After all we are both individuals with our own qualities and traits that define us as unique and special. While some may consider Natalie's charm, smile, fashion sense, compassion, calm intelligence and exceptional grace as "Nice", it does not preclude you from also interpreting Mark's charm, smile, fashion sense, compassion, calm intelligence and cool swagger as also "Nice".
Regardless here are the results (53 of 80 votes were cast)
Natalie - Nice...........................66%
Natalie - Naughty...................34%
Mark - Nice.............................42%
Mark - Naughty.....................58%
Are all my friend Traitors? Can you honestly call Josie Olivia's Daddy Naughty?
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
OC Condo - Getting There
OC Condo Photos
Baby steps toward the finish line. At least we can finally starting getting some of this stuff outta here.
Well it's getting there. Someday maybe this place will actually get done. I was lucky to have one of Jeff's crew, Jason, come down to do the tile work in the BAs for 3 days. Would have taken me 10 days. I did have the joy of doing the tile work in the kitchen, DR, utility room and hallways after Jason gave me a few more hints and we laid out a starting grid in the DR.
My cleaning lady :)
Hall bath
I really hate painting
The light works!
Master Bath
Baby steps toward the finish line. At least we can finally starting getting some of this stuff outta here.
Well it's getting there. Someday maybe this place will actually get done. I was lucky to have one of Jeff's crew, Jason, come down to do the tile work in the BAs for 3 days. Would have taken me 10 days. I did have the joy of doing the tile work in the kitchen, DR, utility room and hallways after Jason gave me a few more hints and we laid out a starting grid in the DR.
My cleaning lady :)
Hall bath
I really hate painting
The light works!
Master Bath
Saturday, May 31, 2008
OC Condo Framing it back up
OC Condo Photos
Not even half way there. So the Kitchen and baths plus adjoining hallways have all been gutted to the studs and reframed. Most of the electrical had to be replaced and I added finished ceilings to replace the drop ceilings. The worst part were the bathrooms where i had to integrate new framing in with the old. I think i spent more time staring at the structure plotting and replotting what i could do than actually building things out.
Did i mention i tend to over engineer everything as well. Considering this is a 5 story cinderblock structure, all this framing is really non-structural. But who knows what the code really is in OC. In the end my city inspector was very helpful and freely offered his advice. I wasn't doing anything grandiose, just replacing what was already there with very minor modifications.
Learning a lot as I go though. Thankfully I also had Jeff to call for advice as well. Though i'm sure i'll pay for it with sarcastic remarks and family get togethers later on.
Main hall looking towards the entry door, kitchen's on the right and baths to the left
The kitchen with it's new ceiling structure.
Opportunity knocked. There was so much mold in the walls in the hallway i had to rip down the drywall to clean it out. So i decided to switch what was once an owners closet around and make it a pantry since it was right next to the kitchen. To compensate i stole some useless room in the back of one of the bedroom closets to use for a much smaller and more appropriate owners closet.
ie; the new owners closet. Big enough for a vacuum, cleaning supplies and other misc.
Common Bath. The tub has been removed (what a nightmare) and worse was the crappy subfloor they had put in to raise the floor up to accomodate the plumbing for the toilet waste pipe (see the linked photo album). They original plumbing had been set more than 1 inch higher then the slab floor. Therefore even with a 1/2 or 3/4 inch tile floor, the toilet would not be seated on the floor. Pinheads! So they poored a 1 inch concrete subfloor over the slab which i had to break up with the sledge and pneumatic chisel. Even with my respirator, i still coughed up concrete dust for 2 or 3 weeks after.
First bath. Through the studs in the back is the other bath.
Not even half way there. So the Kitchen and baths plus adjoining hallways have all been gutted to the studs and reframed. Most of the electrical had to be replaced and I added finished ceilings to replace the drop ceilings. The worst part were the bathrooms where i had to integrate new framing in with the old. I think i spent more time staring at the structure plotting and replotting what i could do than actually building things out.
Did i mention i tend to over engineer everything as well. Considering this is a 5 story cinderblock structure, all this framing is really non-structural. But who knows what the code really is in OC. In the end my city inspector was very helpful and freely offered his advice. I wasn't doing anything grandiose, just replacing what was already there with very minor modifications.
Learning a lot as I go though. Thankfully I also had Jeff to call for advice as well. Though i'm sure i'll pay for it with sarcastic remarks and family get togethers later on.
Main hall looking towards the entry door, kitchen's on the right and baths to the left
The kitchen with it's new ceiling structure.
Opportunity knocked. There was so much mold in the walls in the hallway i had to rip down the drywall to clean it out. So i decided to switch what was once an owners closet around and make it a pantry since it was right next to the kitchen. To compensate i stole some useless room in the back of one of the bedroom closets to use for a much smaller and more appropriate owners closet.
ie; the new owners closet. Big enough for a vacuum, cleaning supplies and other misc.
Common Bath. The tub has been removed (what a nightmare) and worse was the crappy subfloor they had put in to raise the floor up to accomodate the plumbing for the toilet waste pipe (see the linked photo album). They original plumbing had been set more than 1 inch higher then the slab floor. Therefore even with a 1/2 or 3/4 inch tile floor, the toilet would not be seated on the floor. Pinheads! So they poored a 1 inch concrete subfloor over the slab which i had to break up with the sledge and pneumatic chisel. Even with my respirator, i still coughed up concrete dust for 2 or 3 weeks after.
However, the best part of idiocy came when my plumber and I took a realy good look at the waste pipe and found it used an old school lead flange. Which in the end simply required heating it up with a blow torch and slowly torqueing the flange with a crowbar until the lead softened enough and the flange simple lifted right off. Took about 30 minutes for toilet. Why couldn't they make that adjustment back in 1976?
First bath. Through the studs in the back is the other bath.
Another photo of the kitchen before i got the ceiling hung.
Natalie and Lisa came by with a helping hand a few weekends.
Natalie and Lisa came by with a helping hand a few weekends.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
OC Condo Demolition
OC Condo Photos
Good times performing destruction. But behind every wall there's a new discovery. Mold everywhere causes scope creep. So what started out as replacement of fixtures and floors in the Kitchen and BAs turned into an almost complete renovation of both BAs and, Kitchen, Halls and Utility Room.
What have I gotten myself into?
Mold pretty behind most of the cabinets in the kitchen. But the worst was actually in the wall across the hall (not shown). Ended up replacing everything in the kitchen, cabinets, appliances, walls and even put up a drywall ceiling with recessed lights.
Good times performing destruction. But behind every wall there's a new discovery. Mold everywhere causes scope creep. So what started out as replacement of fixtures and floors in the Kitchen and BAs turned into an almost complete renovation of both BAs and, Kitchen, Halls and Utility Room.
What have I gotten myself into?
Mold pretty behind most of the cabinets in the kitchen. But the worst was actually in the wall across the hall (not shown). Ended up replacing everything in the kitchen, cabinets, appliances, walls and even put up a drywall ceiling with recessed lights.
I don't think there were any building codes back in the 70s when this place was built. We completely gutted both BAs, which are back to back so you can see both in the photo on the left.
Had to supplement all the framing on these interior walls. A decent challenge since the original stuff was non-standard construction and had to reroute a lot of the wiring and upgrade some plumbing.
Oh, and see those two tubs in the photo on the left, they had to go. But the challenge was that they were both Wrought Iron which requires basing the crap out of them with a 12 lb. sledge spitting shards of porcelain into the air and finally breaking into big chunks. I broke a brand new sledge hammer about 6 swings into demolishing the 2nd tub. It was fun explaining to Home Depot that their product was defective based on what i was trying to accomplish...
All dressed up and a little victory cheer for Mark. And Natalie seems to be a bit leery of the ceiling falling on her head.
Lisa and Natalie gave the tile scraper a go. Thank goodness because at this point of i was about dead and we only had about 5 feet of hallway and the utility room to go.
At this point the place is about 80% gutted. I had to remove do a bit more destruction here and there to make rebuild a bit easier.
And this is just load number one for the dump. Mostly appliances and cabinets. Picture this 10 foot trailer being hauled by my Jeep Wrangler all the way back to Rockville. (I'd looked into using the local OC dump but it was going to require permits and administrative headaches plus $ per ton. Not to mention they would only accept about 2/3rds of the trash. Just easier to take it back to the Shady Grove Transfer Station Rockville.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
New Project - Ocean City Condo
OC Condo Photos
Apparently I've got nothing better to do. So Natalie has volunteered to overhaul the Laohaphan's condo on the boardwalk in Ocean City, MD. At this time there's no actual plan, but here's what we'll be dealing with.
Apparently I've got nothing better to do. So Natalie has volunteered to overhaul the Laohaphan's condo on the boardwalk in Ocean City, MD. At this time there's no actual plan, but here's what we'll be dealing with.
The unit has been a rental for the last 20 years so it's very much in need of some work. It's in a great location, 1st floor with direct access to the boardwalk at 18th street right down the hall. Everything is more or less original to 1978 or subsequently touched up sometime during the 80s and 90s.
The most ominous fact about this little project is that Mark will be going it alone. I'm looking forward to finding out just how wrong those home improvement shows really are.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
House Flip Photos
It's all done except for the close. Jeff and his crew, Jason and Paul, did an awesome job. It took just over 150 man days to complete the renovation (everything inside was torn out and replaced) plus contracting for plumbing, paint and carpets. We started on December 3rd and finished up last Tuesday, February 26th. Here are a few photos after completion. You can see the pre-renovation photos at the old posting. Dec-2007 Posting
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