Tile

Here's a couple photos of our finished tile - it turned out great!

Little Boy Names

Katie and I are struggling with what to name our son.  Family names are very important to us, and we're close to making a decision.  However, thus far we have decided not to name him any of the following:

My Liege - Katie couldn't imagine yelling at him when he was naughty "get your butt in here, My Liege"...

Riddick  or Blade - I think one of his grandmas has a crush on the main characters of these movies...

Buck Morris - Chuck Norris is copyrighted...

B. A. Baracus - This was actually his Dad's nickname briefly in elementary school...

Surely anyone who has kids can understand the challenge - I just thought I'd share part of our journey with all of you.

Dueling Banjos

I'm finally getting back to work on the house.  I picked up all the finish trim I'll need for upstairs.  The plan is to install the baseboard behind the vanity, get the vanity in place (and out of my way), install the wood floor, and then complete the finish carpentry and finish plumbing.  I debated about the best way to transport 16' to 17' pieces of MDF, and finally decided I should build a rack which allowed me to carry them over the top of the cab...  For some reason "Dueling Banjos" was playing through my head the entire ride home tonight.

It seemed to work really well, which is good because I noticed they gave me 3 pieces that were similar to what I purchased, but not quite right...  I'll have to truck them all the way back to Salt Lake this weekend and trade them for the right ones.  Yippee!

Kobe Beef Short Ribs and Little Boys

Katie and I found out that we're having a son!  Katie is in absolute shock as she was certain we were having a little girl.  I however don't have a clue what's coming, and am therefore feeling just fine.  I was so excited that I emailed all our immediate family from the exam room as soon as I knew.  Apparently emailing is not an acceptable method of informing family about this kind of news...  It made sense to me though - I wanted to tell everyone right away, but had to return to work immediately following our appointment, and basically worked 7am to 11pm daily, until this morning.  There will now be 3 little boys in our Utah family with Wiz & Brandon's new baby and of course my buddy Patrick.

I've continued to be way very busy with work.  We had a fam-trip at the hotel last Thursday through Sunday morning.  This is where we invite qualified meeting and event planners from our markets to come visit our hotel.  We fly them and a guest out, wine & dine them, take them skiing, give them tours of our hotels, tour them around the city, party at the Sundance Film Festival, etc.  It sounds like fun (and elements really are), but it's certainly work being "on" all the time.  I think the best part of this last weekend were the 10-hour braised Kobe beef shortribs prepared at the Grand America Hotel.  They were paired with a Turnbull cabernet from Napa, which is a terrific bottle of wine.

We elected a new pastor last week, and this morning he preached at Grace Baptist.  Apparently I screwed up the link on our church website so you can't listen to his sermon just yet, but it was a good, solid, biblically-based sermon on unity, that our church body really needed.  He's going to be great, and seems to be just what our church needed.  He, and the congregation have much work to do - please be praying for God's Kingdom and mission here in Bountiful, Utah.

Update

I haven't posted in a while because I've been so busy.  I've recently changed markets from the Midwest to the local Utah market and surrounding states.  I won't have to travel as much, and will be much, much busier.  I've been visiting most of our top clients with my colleague, who is leaving the local market and heading home to MN.  It's been nuts!  We've been spending about 3 hours per day visiting clients in and outside of the hotel, and trying to keep up with the pace of incoming requests for proposal in the office.

Brent finally finished our tile - it's gorgeous.  I've been working on lots of boring jobs on the house like sanding, priming, and painting.  I'll have to post a few photos this weekend.

Katie and I find out on Thursday whether we're having a boy or girl!

This weekend we have about 15 clients coming in from around the US to visit the hotels and Salt Lake, and hopefully book their huge programs.  I'll be working my old F&B hours Thursday through Sunday...

We hired a new Pastor, and I was voted in as a new Deacon for our church this weekend.  Please be praying for our little church - our new Pastor has a big job ahead of him, and so do we.

2nd Amendment!

Tonight my nephew Patrick received a lesson on his 2nd Amendment rights.  I was reminded recently that his Grandmother tried to trample his Constitutional rights, and felt we needed to correct the situation.  Here's Patrick posing with his quarry.

D - Luxe!

Our tile setter Brent Barney continues to exceed our expectations of quality.  A speed-demon he's not (nor is he exactly cheap), but he makes sure all the prep-work and planning is perfect before he sets one tile.

2nd bathroom - still needs to be grouted.  Unlike our first bathroom remodel with vintage hexagonal tile, these tiles are layed flawlessly.  The grout lines between tile mats are perfectly even wall to wall.  I should email this photo to our first contractor (on our Harvard house) so he can see what it SHOULD look like.

My new shower - also before grout.  They're hard to see, but the window sill, soap shelf, and shampoo cubby are finished with carrera marble.

Marble floor in the master.  The shower curb will be capped with 3 solid marble pieces.

Mario is very happy with his new bathroom floor too, but is apprehensive that he might be bathed in that new shower.  Surely I'll feel like I'm living in the Grand America Hotel - 5 Di - a - mond!

EGRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR........

As predicted by my clairvoyant buddy in Phoenix, we went a second round with the EGR valve tonight.  I'm guessing after the old one received propery vacuum pressure, it failed....  who knows.  Forunately it was a cinch to bolt a new one on, and that's done the trick.  Now my poor sister in law has a well-functioning car again.  Thus far she & Brandon have spent less than 1/3 of what they might have spent on car payments over the same time period for a newer one.

Brother-in-law Brandon with yet another culprit part.  The good news is that Ford parts are cheap and easy to come by, compared to our 1994 Volvo.

A Little Surgery & Some Oil

After a little more surgery, some Murphy's Oil Soap, and lots of furniture oil, our old table is ready for another 100 years!

Halfway through oiling the top - this poor table was really thirsty.

All set!  Now pray that Katie and I fill this table full of kids!

My Darling Wife

Katie is not Dutch, but you'd never know it - she's tighter with money than any Dutchman I've ever met.  However, she's also got a terrific eye (obvisouly). 

She found a 100+ year old, oak library table that we'll be using for our kitchen table, for a screamin' deal.  It just needs a little tune-up.  I'll finish this tomorrow and post a couple more photos of the process, and finished product.

Home Update

Well, the sheet rockers finally came and finished. For those of you living in Utah, I would likely not recommend JC Painting operated by Jeff Candia. They did a mediocre to crummy job, but at least they helped me save a little time. The walls are painted as you can see in the following photo, but the light spots are where I've gone back to patch blemishes they just painted over...

 

Conversely, Brent Barney is a terrific tile setter!  He's been doing contract tile work for Little America, and our Engineering Director recommended I contact him.  He does exactly what he says he'll do (i.e. work they days he promises to work), keeps a very neat/tidy work area, and is very experienced.  Working up to the job we discussed all sorts of issues and tricks for minimizing cuts and water-proofing.  For a job like this, there's no substitute for hiring a pro.

 

Happy New Year

Brandon & Wiz's car failed their safety/emissions test this week.  Their car needed a proper battery tie-down (apparently bungie cords are not okay), and their check engine light is on.  The trouble code for the engine light indicated a low EGR valve flow.  For those of you not in "the know", EGR stands for Exhaust Gas Recirculation.  Modern cars recycle a small amount of exhaust back through the engine to help lower emissions. 

Brandon & Wiz live on a very modest budget, so I try to help them with their automotive issues whenever they pop up.  So far we've repaired a crummy battery cable, a broken washer fluid line, a water pump (good story here), replaced brakes, repaired a major oil leak, and now repaired the EGR system.

I started last night by checking the vacuum line that actuates the valve - sure enough, it was broken and repaired with electrical tape, which we promptly replaced.  Next we removed the valve and cleaned it thoroughly, and replaced a missing gasket.  The valve held vacuum pressure, and the pintle operated, so we re-installed it.  I checked the vacuum solendoid which seemed to be working.  And finally today, I replaced the DPFE sensor, which controls the vacuum solendoid.  After removing the battery cable to reset the computer, the check engine light went off!

That's me in my classy work clothes, pointing at the culprit part.  At some point G.I. Joe came over to keep me company, and he decided to replace their broken radio antenna.

Of course, after dinner tonight, the check engine light came back on...  We'll have to pull the trouble code and see what's next!