Finally.....

I can't wait... we are leaving tomorrow afternoon for Alaska. This last week has been really hard. Especially for Chris who is already asleep right next to me. He has had 7 consecutive days of 12 hours labor filled days. We were trying to finish all the dry wall before we left... and I am happy to say we did it. Well mostly Chris... but hey I did do my share... until 8 each night...
Anyway... dry wall done. We got couple more screws to screw in... and off we go. We sure deserve this Alaska vacation. I would say it will be nice to relax but hey I do know how we operate... so there will be lots of hiking, kayaking... and probably not much relaxing. But anything is better than being in our super messy house.
The cabinets have arrived yesterday... so when we get back- once the mudding and taping guy is done... - we paint, have the hardwood put in... the cabinets... granite... and ahhh.... done done done.
It will be nice. Now I just hope we like the final outcome :o)
Stay tuned we will try to post from Alaska.

Countdown to Alaska

Oh my... you wouldn't believe how much we are both looking forward to our upcoming trip to Alaska. It could not come soon enough. Even two days, that's all that's left before we depart, seems like a long time. Not only are we looking forward to all the adventures that await us... but it will be great to get away from our never ending daunting project of remodeling our kitchen. I believe we just entered week 6 of our remodel and we are definitely not done. But at least things are coming back together and better yet we will escape it to magnificent Alaska and pretend it is not waiting for us to do once we get back :o). Stay tune... I will post some updated pictures before we leave and once in Alaska we will try to keep this blog up whenever possible.

Chaos & Destruction

I believe we are approaching week 4 of our house destruction and so far... it is only getting worse. We started by taking out all the kitchen cabinets, all the sheet rock had to come off and then the floor followed. We kept our sink as long was we could because we quickly realized how essential it really was. Once all the walls were down Andi, the contractor, came in. He did all the structural stuff - building new walls, new supports, moving the existing walls and other fun things like that. He was surprisingly fast and once he was done we just had to wait for Rollo and Jose - the electricians - to come in. While we waited we continue to scout surrounding areas for our granite and floors. I must say that almost broke me... how can people build a house from ground up and make all the lil decisions that go into it... and I can't even remodel our kitchen? Nuts. Luckily we found what we both liked. The floor we liked we found in Petaluma - hand scraped hardwood Shaw floor and we end up ordering it from El Sobrante - much cheaper. The granite.. we got an estimate in the city and end up finding it in Emeryville for half the price. It does pay to shop around. We started with Venitian Gold and end up with Owen Gold... not really sure what the difference is.
Jose and Rollo have been working for over a week now... and they are doing a great job. The only problem that everybody warns you about is.... where do you stop. We only wanted to do the kitchen... but now we have moved into the living room too. I guess black melted aluminum wiring was a reason enough to redo all the other wiring in the house. Fun fun. I feel like yesterday we finally reached a turning point when we got our new windows in. We both love them and can't wait to have all the sheet rock back up to see the full effect.
Once the electricty is done we can finally put the sheet rock up and then mud it. But the rest will have to wait until after we come back from Alaska. If you want to see more pics go to: http://monikachris.shutterfly.com/action/

Wine Tasting on 6th of July

It was supposed to be a super hot day so what a better way to escape the heat then to go wine tasting around Russian River. Yeah, not sure how that makes any sense, cause it is not really all that much cooler up there (hotter may be the case)... but hey, that was our reasoning and it worked for all of us :o)
We always stay around Sonoma so we decided to try something new. We already found Hook & Ladder up there (our new favorite winery) so why not to explore the surrounding areas. I think we have established our personal record - 6 wineries in one day!! Not bad huh?
We started at Kendall Jackson, Martinelli, Pellegrini, Hook&Ladder, Harvest Moon, and Taft Street Winery. My favorites.... still H&L and Pellegrini. Both of these are small wineries with a very nice feel to them, none of that big corporation feel like KJ. I am already looking forward to our next outing. I want to cross all the wineries off my list :o) What a mighty quest.