It's a girl!

Dog, that is. Her name is Sofie. She's a border collie mix and is pretty much the best dog ever. See?

Kitchen Remodel

In November of 2008, we took on our biggest remodel project to date: the kitchen. Our old kitchen featured an odd, inefficient layout, cabinet doors that wouldn't open, a washer/dryer, and tile countertops that couldn't be cleaned. Our mission was to rip out and replace everything... and do most of the work ourselves. More pictures of the house's original condition.

We started by sketching out ideas for what our new kitchen might look like. The big challenges in the design phase were finding a way to remove the washer and dryer from the kitchen and moving the other appliances around for optimal cooking efficiency. Below is our old floor plan followed by a floor plan that closely resembles the one we chose to build (except for the location of the W/D and fridge will later be switched).

Demolition started in early November with the removal of portions of the tile. I tried to keep as much of the kitchen in tact for as long as possible. Eventually, the countertops had to be removed, followed by the cabinets.

After demo, I got to work building our two biggest enhancements (outside of new cabinets, countertops, etc): the bar, and the wall that separates the W/D from the kitchen. The picture to the left shows both. You can also see the original color of the kitchen (pinkish?).

Building the bar was an interesting learning experience. It involved far more than just framing a knee wall. I installed 3 new electrical outlets, and moved the gas line to run through there (our new kitchen design has the oven against the peninsula). Another related project was installing the vent shaft and venting fan for the new downdraft oven. We had a brick guy come and punch a hole in the wall and install the outside vent. I ran the remainder of the duct to the location of the fan and hooked it all up.

After that, it was time to put in the tile. Not at all my favorite part of the remodel, but I think it turned out alright. There's a few uneven spots I'm not happy with, but no one else seems to notice.

Cabinet installation was next! Turns out it's not impossible or unreasonable to install cabinets yourself. Not sure I'd call it easy, though. By the way, we went with a chocolate stained Cherry wood for our cabinets. Installation was relatively smooth. I only ripped them out and put them back again about 4 times before I was happy with how level it was. Things are a little bit more difficult to make square and level in our 100 year old house.

We had the counter top company install our granite counter for us. That's a little much for me. And after that, I got to put back the appliances and we had a working kitchen! I still had a lot of finishing up to do, but eventually I got it done. We had a kitchen warming get-together in mid-February. Only took 3 months!

For those interested, we started with a crazy, unrealistic budget of 10K for everything (cabinets, counter, floor, installation, and oven [we already had a new dishwasher and fridge]). When we went to see our cabinet people, I could tell the saleswoman tried not to laugh. But, after some negotiations and doing most of the work ourselves, we got it close. Still haven't tallied the final numbers, but it looks like our total cost was right around 14K. Finished product:

Our new home

View Larger Map We bought a house! We've moved from the U Street neighborhood in Washington, DC up the street to Columbia Heights. Our "new" address is 3121 11th St NW, 20010. We have many exciting, upcoming renovation projects that I hope to share with you. Update: See pictures below from before we moved in. Warning: might be a little scary looking.

Wedding Photos!

A full debrief of wedding activities will be posted shortly (hopefully before the end of the year :) ). Until then, enjoy these wedding photos and links...



Drew Raines' photography (same as above) | Katie Barger's photography | Tim Pierson's photography pt. 1 | Tim Pierson's photography pt. 2

Enjoy! And thank you all for all the love you've shown us. It has meant a lot and made the experience of getting married that much better.

Quick Update

Hello family and friends! We're a little ashamed that it's been about 4 months since our last blog update. Please forgive us. We've been incredibly busy starting new jobs, moving, avoiding the DC summer heat, etc. Here's a quick update:

• I finally finished painting the bedroom. I procrastinated as long as I could, but then Tim threatened to take his ladder back so I had to get it done. It looks great. See photo.
• Annie and her mother moved to DC about 2 weeks ago. We found her mother a beautiful studio just a few blocks from here on 16th St. The move itself was quite an experience. The movers showed up 5 hours after their scheduled time. They also got into a little verbal dispute with the doorman at Annie's mother's place. The good news is that it's over and they successfully got Annie's piano into our apartment. yay!
• We've been buying the necessities to make our apartment feel like a home. We found some nice bookshelves and a tv stand for our new tv. We've also been investigating the possibility of getting a Wii. But who has time for that?
• It looks like I never posted pictures of the finished bathroom. We went with a color scheme straight out of the latest issue of the crate and barrel catalog. We have tiffany blue tile covering the lower third of the walls, and then a nice chocolate brown paint for the rest. For decorations and what not we went with very bright oranges, purples and greens. See photos. The painting on the left was done by Rene Trujillo.
• We also took in two of Annie's great-grandfather's paintings to get framed. We'll put up pictures when we get them back.
• Annie started her teaching job this week! (The most important stuff comes last) She's been doing faculty meetings and classroom organization preparing for her students' arrival on Monday. She's crazy excited. I'll make her write more about her experiences sometime.

There's also this wedding thing we're planning for. We haven't gone crazy yet, but we're not far from it. Seriously, it's been a lot of fun, but I cannot wait for it to actually happen. We sent out most of the invitations this past weekend... just a few stragglers left to get addresses for. In the past month or two we've also finalized our menu and flower arrangements. We think you'll like them. We can't wait to see you all in a month and a half-ish. If you have any questions about travel arrangements or anything, feel free to ask.

Apartment 103

We recently bought a co-op in the U Street area of DC, famous for Ben's Chili Bowl, the African American Civil War Memorial, and general good times. Joe's been painting every wall he can get his hands on. We've got working appliances, quiet neighbors, and big windows. What more could one ask for? We're also steps away from some really cool stores and restaurants, and Meridian Hill Park, arguably the coolest park in DC, is right across the street. We have room for visitors, so start planning for your visit to DC!

The STDs have been transmitted!

That is, the Save-the-Dates have been mailed. Wedding lingo. You understand. We're still hunting around for some addresses, but soon, all of your refrigerators should look something like this: For hotel information, take a quick peek at the column to the right, which has information about two hotels. We've blocked off rooms at both hotels for the Yang-Dickerson wedding, so you can inquire about that if you so desire. Both hotels are within walking distance of the ceremony/reception sites and the rehearsal dinner. Please let us know if you have any questions at all (email Annie at yayang@sas.upenn.edu or Joe at dickerson.joseph@gmail.com). We can't wait to see you all on October 6th!