Refining the house

Right now we're just cleaning and fine tuning the house as we realized that it takes a lot of time and patience to decide on what to do with remodeling process. So, right now we are just going to refine the house by cleaning up, free up its space (by taking down the wall between two rooms), and paint the prime white (we'll decide on the color later).

Our next project will be remodeling the kitchen (I don't like its ugly white 1960s cabinets!). Then perhaps remodel the bathroom sometimes this summer as I know it's impossible to redo everything at once! Yes, we were too eager to do everything at once but we need to focus one thing at a time.

Anyway... enjoy the before and after photos. :) (You can click on the photos to become bigger)
















See the "entrance" wall between the two living rooms?

I felt kinda claustrophobic too! We took the "entrance" wall down between the two living rooms... scroll below to see the difference















Our little fireplace - it's still there but we plan to take it down















It turns out that it was an OLD green/gold wallpaper behind the white painting, probably 1960s style















See the gold/green thingie?




















Steve & his dad, Jon, at hard work! (Jon was so sweet as he stayed at our house for a week to help us... bless him and we're lucky to have him. We love you, Dad/Jon!)




















More clear picture... I turned off the camera's light. (If you see the recent and next photo - there were a lot of dirt everywhere, probably from taking down the wall)















Naturally, it was a mess















Finally complete! Looks much better, isn't it? (We will take down the wall between the kitchen and living room later)















We're still deciding on the final paint color... maybe Beige? Tan? We'll see...















No more wall. Yay!

More before and after photos!

The "before" bathroom with ugly wood wallpaper. Ew! (The stuff isn't ours - it was a previous owner's. I took the picture the day we visited)




















Steve & his Dad took down everything but the wall had wood stain




















Finally complete! We painted it with prime white color for now. We will decide on the color later.




















Close-up of the bathroom




















I "died" when I saw the wallpaper! (The frame wasn't ours, it was previous owner's - I thought it was a cute picture but definitely not my type)




















Wall paper down! Again, the wood stain was "stuck" so we had to cover it.




















There! Looks much better, isn't it? What color should we pick to paint... hmm?




















God forbid the wallpaper in the kitchen... of course, it was a MUST to take it down! (Oh, just so you know that the stuff weren't ours - it was the previous owner's)















One of our awesome friends, Ben, who was willing to lend a hand for a while. Thanks, pal! ;)















I was a happy lady that day! (We plan to purchase the new appliances, probably stainless)

I will post later with the kitchen's new look - probably a few months from now. :)

WSBC/WSCC

Oregon School for the Deaf Rally Squad/Cheerleaders won 3rd place at the Western Basketball Cheerleading Classic (WSCC) tournament, which was hosted by Riverside School for the Deaf, a few weeks ago. (In case you didn't know - I was a Head Rally Coach during football & basketball season at OSD)

Although, I firmly think that we were CHAMPIONS in our hearts! ;)

Here's a picture of me & the girls...













Now that the basketball season's over, I miss working with them already. :'(

Also, the OSD boys' basketball team won 1st place for the Grey Division at Western Basketball Classic Tournament (WSBC)! The OSD girls' basketball team won 2nd place. You can view all of the information, results and pictures at:

http://www.csdr-cde.ca.gov/wsbc/




I couldn't resist posting a photo of me and Steve (he was one of the boys' basketball co-coaches) on the bus in Riverside. It's kinda blurry but I love this one of us.







My former classmates from Fremont - it was great seeing them again after graduating together 10 years ago!







Finally, I was also happy to see my sweet friend Sheila (former '97 CSDF graduate) with her cute dog. I haven't seen her for like 7, 8 years?!

EXCITING news - our FIRST home!

We PURCHASED our FIRST home in Oregon. Yay!
A bit preview of our new home:

The house is cute and cozy.

Big backyard! (The junk isn't ours, we told the seller to clear it before we move in!)

The house has two bedrooms and one bathroom. Its square feet is almost 1,100 and lot size is 7,800 sq feet (which is huge!). But... it needs a LOT of work. Why? It was built in 1950 and its style is now 1960's, which is definitely DATED. We plan to remodel the kitchen and bathroom. I hope that it will be complete before the summer's time... or before my 30th Birthday in mid-June! ;) The first thing before we move in is PAINT, take down the walls (to make it open space between the kitchen/dining room and living room) and wallpapers, and take out the old carpet/vinyl floors if needed. We are also thinking about expand the house by adding 3rd bedroom and 2nd bathroom to add its value by the time we resell. We will make sure its style is IN and MODERN, so that it will LOOK GOOD! ;)

Although the closing date for the offer to go through is this Tuesday, February 13th - yep, the day BEFORE the Valentine's Day, we will move in by the end of this month. I am very excited!

I'll post more later.

NYE 2007 photos!!

I went to a friend's houseparty in bay area @ Calif. for the New Years Eve. It was really wonderful seeing everyone again! (You can click on the pictures to become bigger)




Me & my honey








Me & my dear close friend, Emilie







Other one, too bad I blinked. It would've been a good shot!








My longtime sweet friends, Rush & Courtney








Rejoicing the moment of 2007! (Looks like Ian wasn't happy that 2006 ended? Hehee)







Oops, I wasn't ready...









Voila! Sam & me (I've known him since I was like 5 years old... it was great seeing him again!!)







Sam & his sweetie, Di








Steve & Hristo all smilin'







Courtney, me, Sam, & Barbie (We knew each other back in early 1980's...quite a longggg time!)








Our FINAL photo of 2006.... 2007, here we come!

Picture time!

I know it's been FOREVER since I last posted on here but I felt like sharing few personal photos of mine with you over the holidays. Steve and I went to California for a week during Christmas and we had a great time!

Our most family x-mas recent photo - it was so great seeing them again. I miss them already.


(You can click on it to become bigger)

I took Steve to the Exploratorium and I knew he'd enjoy it because he's into science, technology, hands-on and stuff like that... and after that, we walked down to beach, which had a gorgeous view of golden gate bridge as you can see on here.


Viewing at one of the exquisite fishes


Steve sitting on the chair that double the size of original one on the right


Now, my turn! We just found it hilarious.. ;)


I love this one of him... (behind GG bridge)


Smooching!

Pilates - just gotta love it

What a workout today -- I did cardio on elliptical for 40 minutes and then Pilates exercise for a hour at gym today. I absolutely LOVE Pilates! I first took it in college and fell in love with it. I lost 10 lbs in the last several weeks and took off few inches - yay me! (Keep in mind that I also do cardio exercises too to help shedding the fat)

I own Denise Austin's "Pilates for Everybody" and "Hit the Spot" DVDs and name to a few. The only reason I bought these is because these are CAPTIONED and help me keep motivated when I do it on my own at home. These are only like $10-13 depending on where you shop. It's really cheap. You can even get it at amazon.com. I plan to purchase Winsor Products as I recently found out that these are captioned as well.

In essence, Pilates exercise is NOT a cardiovascular workout and burning calories isn't its main focus. The Pilates method trains the whole body with a focus on strengthening the core muslces of the trunk (your middle). It simply helps sculpt and tone the body while building the lean muscles instead of being bulky. Not to mention, it helps you to have a proper posture and being more flexible! I'm not really too fond of doing weight-lifting so I decided to switch to Pilates. It's actually fun for me. So, you should try it if you want to tone up. ;)

My first posting... and other blogs

Okay, since Michie has her own blog on here so thought I'd create one for myself... yes, other one! LOL.

Let's see.. I have quite several blogs --

http://www.xanga.com/breezefromwest - my recent blog. I don't blog often now that I have so many crazy things going on in my life.

http://breezefromwest.livejournal.com - my old blog. You need to log in as a friend to be able to view my entries, though. They date back to July 2004 (two years to now... wow!).

http://www.myspace.com/zephyrdame - well, it's not really a blog but rather like ringo, friendster, tickle.com, etc... it's a great way to keep in touch with friends who live a far distance away from you.