JenLeoLIVE!

The house is almost finished (inside work anyway)

I've been on vacation for a week - Calistoga with my writers group, Tahoe with the Sean and Chris from BootsnAll, and at Susan Brady's family get together in a small old mining town called La Porte, CA. (I'll probably write some of this up for the L.A. Times Travel Blog - and link you up later.

Meanwhile, Jose Delgado has been busting his butt on the Carlsbad house. John went down there for some efficient last minute decision making and purchasing. Here are a few photos that were on my phone when I got back into cell phone range. I went 48 hours without cell or internet access. And believe it or not, it wasn't that hard. I did use a calling card to call John once, but except for some light Twitter withdrawal, I enjoyed the time to relax with Susan's family.

I think the inside of the house will be done, or mostly done by the end of this week. We might start the move next week. Of course, I'm starting it tomorrow with a major close out of a Redwood City storage unit I've had for more years that I'd want to count payments for.

Here's a cell pic of the hardwood floors going in. We got a good deal at Lowe's on special order hardwood on a Memorial Day sale and then saved  some more by having Jose put them in. This room is the kitchen. The worker is right where the sink will be.

Here is another angle of the kitchen. Now we're facing the sink where that bright light from the window is - and this is the start of the island going in. The counter will extended over the top of this island so that we can sit there. With the right chair, I'll be able to work from there. See that patch of dark blue in the upper right hand corner of the photo? That's the accent wall in John's Lair.

Here are the doors that John bought last week. They're already up and in, but still unfinished. They'll end up a nice Cherry color I think. Or Mahogany. Not sure when that is happening. Jose has a specialist coming in.

I think the carpet gets installed in the bedrooms this Wednesday or Thursday. But we don't know when the counter tops are going in. They get measured tomorrow or Tues. So, John and I meet up in Carlsbad on Thursday and we'll have some more buying to do - kitchen faucet, bathrooms sink and faucet, bathroom tile, ktichen back splash. Then we have to get the electricians back in for their last minute touches. I think we can move in before the back splash goes up, but that's currently under debate.

More later....

CURRENT: Redwood City, CA
NEXT: Los Angeles, CA (Tues-Wed)

Carlsbad house update - wall down, new walls, electricity, etc

I know, I know. I haven't posted in a while. Mostly because I blog most of the day for work, so it's kind of the last thing I want to do once I'm done working. You might be thinking, it hasn't stopped her before. Well, I'm telling you, now it does.

But, because I've received so many concerned emails — thank you for caring —here's a little update on the house. I'm fine. Just busy.

We can't wait to get the hell out of Vegas. Thankfully, we're just a few weeks away from moving into the new house. Jason scored a kick ass handyman who is refinishing almost the entire inside of our house. New walls, took out a wall, installed a couple new windows, new hardwood floors, new carpet, new kitchen and we got an electrician to bring the kitchen up to code, put in some canned lights in a few rooms and give us a grounded plug in each room. The walls I think will be the biggest deal. Snow off, new skin coat, some walls got patched and one wall has completely new drywall because believe it or not, there wasn't any before.

Do you remember the before pics? Yuck!

Uncle Jon took some pics on Monday and here you can see some of the progress:

The entry to our home. And the hero of our story - Jose Delgado.

The family room (imagine your back to the front door). We took the wall down between the family room and the kitchen.

Jason demo-ed the kitchen, Westrend brought the electrics up to code, and Jose fixed the exposed plumbing and redid the walls. Since this picture was taken, Jose added a new kitchen window. This is the left half of a kitchen where we will have a six-foot long island. It will have electricity and there is the capability for pendant lights in the ceiling now - should we want some after the kitchen is installed.

Pic of Jen & John in Vegas

Our friends Leigh and Brian got married last week. They had a fun pool party reception over the weekend and snapped this photo of us. Thought you might need a reminder of what we look like in case you haven't seen us in a while. FYI - John pretty much only makes these ridiculously silly faces when the camera is on him.

CURRENT: Las Vegas
NEXT: ??

Carlsbad house decisions, progress is relative

We made  a trip to San Diego to have a look at the house and try to make some decisions with flooring and paint. It's true that you see the house in a new light after you buy it. Maybe it was the morning light, but the place looked like much more of a dump when we showed up yesterday than the few trips we made before we bought it. My friend Heather said that you see the flaws once you own it, and ain't that the truth.

"What's the crack in the ceiling running the length of the dining room," I asked John. "Did the inspector say anything about that?"

"Oh, I don't think that's anything," John said.

I walked away from our post-purchase inspection with a two page list of what needed to be done, and feeling a bit freaked out that there was so much work to do - even if I'm not really doing any of it.

Still, we have a few months and moved into high powered decision making mode. The floor sample that we loved ended up not looking as gorgeous as the control sample. (Burmese Mahogany). So - hardwood floor chosen, done! Next we went to a carpet place (for the bedrooms) - the soft frisee that we liked was affordable - carpet chosen, done! Next?

Then we looked at kitchen cabinets and suddenly our gorgeous hardwood floor didn't go with the cabinets. Uh oh - now what? We had to decide what was more important the kitchen cabinets or the flooring. We weren't really sure but opted for cabinets. Now we're back to square one with the flooring.

I hear this goes on and on and one...

So, what did we accomplish?

- got an idea of what flooring will cost for our taste/budget bracket
- found gorgeous affordable hardwood that we may or may not use
- found a house in the neighborhood that we'd like to copy for exterior paint (eventually)
- found some carpet we like and can afford!
- decided we're doing the kitchen sooner rather than later and narrowed it to two styles (sadly less modern and funky than I would've liked)
- oh yeah - found appliances we could be happy with and got store to discount them
- made list of priorities for Jason to tackle.
- looked at color palette and now only have one more color to choose for interior rooms
- and John got a haircut

All in all - very productive and I feel like even though we added more projects to the front burner, we did give our brains a life raft for the sea of unknown options they were swimming in.

CURRENT: San Diego
NEXT: Las Vegas by the afternoon.

It's a good day to be in San Diego...or is it? Earthquake coming?

We left Las Vegas yesterday as early as we could. John joined me since Vegas was going to be 107F and the World Series of Poker is ten days out which means he won't be able to leave for seven weeks. We've got just a couple days to nail down paint and flooring for the new house.

This morning a text came into my phone at 8:11 a.m. from the Las Vegas Review Journal. It said:

108 IN THE SHADE

The weather in San Diego is scheduled for a a non-too-surprising high of 72F.  It's overcast - but that will melt off.

Other interesting So Cal stuff: Last night I was listening to CoasttoCoastam and Geologist Jim Berkland was talking about the strange frogs in Bakersfield. China had a similar frog migration just seven days before their 7.9 earthquake. Berkland talked about the rising curve of lost animals in L.A. and said that at least a 4.0 earthquake  could be coming to Southern California. I was falling asleep, but I'm pretty sure he said within 140 miles of L.A. in the next few days.

CURRENT: San Diego, CA
NEXT: Las Vegas, NV

House Update: Thrilled homeowners now... (with pics)

On March 27 I blogged that we put an offer on a house. Believe it or not, we just closed yesterday, 48 days later. It was a roller coaster of a ride and we're more than happy it's over with.

Today I called to tell my friend Leigh about it and she asked if I was excited. I am excited, but my head is also overwhelmed with what to do with it that I'm not jumping up and down. I am so happy that we got it and I can't wait to start nesting, but it's practically all I think about. The house basically needs to be stripped and redone. I wouldn't say gutted, but walls will be patched and painted, wallpaper and snow down, needs new flooring, maybe take  a wall down, new windows eventually, of course a new kitchen and bathrooms (but not right away), we also need furniture, and I'm stuck on paint colors. This doesn't include landscaping, painting the outside of the house, a deck and someday a cabana with rooftop deck. Pool? Who knows, we have the ocean in our front yard.

I know full well that we don't have to do it all at once. I get that. But I am so excited that I can't put one foot in front of me. All I can think about is paint color. And budget. I know we won't do all that's needed to be done before we move in (July 21 after the WSOP) but I want to have a plan. And I won't be able to budget everything else until I get a grasp on flooring. So, I'm going to head down to SD next week.

Luckily, my brother Jason and been more than amped to be our coordinator and head fix it/remodeler guy. He loves working with his hands and will consider our house a part time job getting it ready for us. Hopefully we can have an architect come over next week to talk about taking down a wall and an ugly roofing thing (hold tight for pics) - and then Jason and I can go price out hard wood floors and tile. We are really really lucky to have Jason, and that we can do stuff like paint and floors before we have to move in.

Now, here are the before pics of our Carlsbad fixer:

Carlsbad House (Flickr set) 

CURRENT: LAS VEGAS, NV
NEXT: SAN DIEGO, CA ? (Mon - Thurs?)

Mother's Day in Charleston, SC

It's been a lovely weekend here in Charleston - pictures, pictures - I know.

Yesterday we crashed in on two families for Mother's Day. The first was brunch at John's friends' Michelle and Sid's out in Park West. They have two kids and spread a quichetastic meal for us. The entire weekend I've been wondering if we made a mistake in deciding to move back to Southern California. I know it's the right decision family-wise, but it's hard. Charleston ranks right up there with Bay Area in terms of how many good friends we have in this town. Sid and Michelle gave us a look at what our life might be like. They are laid back Californians and although they live at least 30-40 minutes from downtown Charleston, we still got a glimpse of some difficulties we might face here. Sid wears a t-shirt and shorts to work, a business he owns. This sometimes gets strange looks from the suits that he sees around his building or at lunch. They also told us about being somewhat ostracized because they don't go to church. It was an interesting perspective considering we usually hang out with locals that don't have these issues (that we know of). Artsy alternative locals, but locals still the same.

I try to keep in mind that this is vacation. But every restaurant, every wine bar, every gorgeous historic house that we see nags at me. Did we make a mistake? Would we be happier here? We eventually let it go and dream talk about a future in which we can be bi-coastal. Or tri-coastal. Some of our friends here are encouraging us to buy some beach front property with them in Panama. John is super keen to find out more info. I'd like to see pictures and hear more about the three hour drive from the nearest city first.

Ok, back to bed for a nap. After all, it's only 5am PST.

CURRENT: Charleston, SC
NEXT: Las Vegas, NV

Getting some soul food in Charleston, SC - $20 trick works here too

We made it to Charleston, SC last night. It's really great to be traveling with John for pleasure as opposed to work. Stress? What stress? Never heard of it.

Except for a few minutes at our hotel...upon arrival. Travel Tip #1 - remember who booked the trip. John books 98% of our travel arrangements. But for some reason which we now know is not only Mother's Day but also the local college graduation - hotels were pretty booked up downtown. So, I spent some extra time online surfing for the best deal + location. Only, I forgot. And when we arrived at the King Charles Best Western on Meeting Street and asked for Caldwell - the hostess told us she didn't have us booked.

"We probably booked it under Expedia," John said.
" Or Hotels.com," I added. We only book through Expedia or Hotels.com. Or directly I thought - but then they would've had us.
"We booked this months ago..." I said, fulling losing faith in online travel booking procedures. John wondered where we'd end up since the whole town was full up.
"Might you have reserved this under a different name?" Molly suggested.
"Jennifer Leo?" I questioned hopefully.
"Yep, we have your room," said Molly. "And you booked through Orbitz."

I started chatting to her about the reasons I chose this hotel. And asked her about the recent renovations. Apparently they only had 30 rooms redone so far.

"And if I slip you a $20 can we get one of those new rooms Molly?" I smiled. "Worth a shot, John - hurry," I dictated pointing to his wallet - "it works in Vegas."

Molly didn't mind. We'll get moved to one of the new rooms on Saturday for the last two nights of our trip. That was her first availability.

So - SOUL FOOD.
The best way to give your soul exactly what it needs is to go home. There are some people in this world that  make me feel like I've come home the minute I'm in their presence. That's how we felt last night.  We had dinner at Johnny and Hayne's and couldn't have started the trip any better. They just had twin boys, 2 months old, and when we arrived Johnny had one in a sling and one over his shoulder making parenting look easy as pie.

Our friends  might have the only mid-century modern house in Charleston and I walked around the house drooling, mentally taking notes at what we might be able to copy from their expert design efforts.

Classic music was playing, steaks were on the grill, and veggies from their CSA delivery were all prepped.  So, you see, this isn't the kind of soul food you were thinking of - this is good loving, hanging out with great friends, an occasion that doesn't happen often enough.

And right now I'm starved again - so I better go find something to eat.

CURRENT: Charleston, SC
NEXT: Las Vegas, NV (May 12)

Considering playing the Ladies WSOP Circuit event at Caesars

The ladies event in the 2008 WSOP Circuit Event at Caesars Palace is on today at 11 a.m. John told Tiffany yesterday that I wouldn't be playing it. It's true, I hate playing women. But I had a good show this weekend and was playing well so I started to reconsider.

For some reason my husband knows me pretty well and articulated why I hate playing them better than I could've explained it. "You don't like playing women-only poker because you hate losing to women. You don't mind losing to men, but you hate losing to women. Every year you play a women's tourney and every year you swear you'll never do it again."

And then he said he'd stake me for half. Actually, he might've said that before his accurate spiel. So, I'm considering it.

I'm remembering the good run I had on Saturday. I'm remembering that the first time I ever played a poker tourney was at a LIPS tourney at Bay101 and I made it to #14 out of 150 or more. And I didn't even know how to play then. Maybe if I wear the same out fit I wore on Saturday when I won - especially my new lucky hat - maybe just maybe I won't go out first at my table like fucking last year. And that was just a weekly women's tourney.

Besides, if John is paying half....

BUT - maybe I only won on Saturday because I was playing with my own money. Which I said when I cashed out.

Oy, the dilemna. Either way - I'd have to get some work done and be showered and dressed and down there by 11am. That, I don't know if I can do.

Wrangler Hockey! Clap, clap - clap clap clap!

The Las Vegas Wranglers are in the playoffs and I'm totally into it. We went to two games this weekend - one Friday night and another with LB minus C last night. Friday night was awesome. Not just because we shut out the Alaska Aces 8-0, but because there were so many fights. I love the fights. Brian says I have blood lust, and John just laughs. At the beginning of the Friday night game the giant screened showed off that the Aces goalie hadn't lost a game in ten games. So, #35 must've been having an off night because we got 8 past him. #16 Czuy is my favorite because he hustles and hits, but it was #81 Miller's game on Friday night.  Saturday night we won too, 3-0 but there was a lot less fighting.

Now they head up to Alaska for three games. If they win two of them, the series is over with for now and the Wranglers move on. But if they lose won, we'll get to watch them again here in Vegas to finish off the series.

That's all I have to say right now.

Re House: We find out first week of May
Re poker: I took 2nd in the TI 2pm for $588 yesterday. That was fun :-)

CURRENT: Las Vegas
NEXT: Charleston, SC May 8-12 (I think those are the dates)