Delicious

When a living room that contains two kitties and a young dog goes silent, something isn't right. Before I started to survey the room for what might be going on the smell of a strangely potent cat poopy hit me. Strange, I thought, that smells mighty powerful. As I continued to turn around I started to hear an ever so subtle chewing noise. Soon enough my eyes met what the cats were both staring at with complete and understandable disgust. Mr. Jackson had drug out what he was considering an excellent treat, a fresh cat nugget. I think he understood my disgust when I said no because unlike his usual m.o. he dropped his morsel.

Next time you think its cute when a dog gives you a little kiss and happens to lick your lips, just think about what else those little doggy lips have been around. Yeck!

Buzz Killer

Besides salmonella and the nasty sensation you get when you bite down on a blob of unexpected gristle, I dare say orange seeds are the un-welcomed party crashers of the food world. When eating a pomegranate you should expect to work for your food, but three seeds in a wedge of orange that is half the size of my pinkie is down right rude.

Arf, arf

Check out our new furry addition, Jackson.

After careful consideration of our kitties and our budget we decided to rescue Jackson from a less than healthy home. His previous owners were told he is a purebred Jack Russell, but you can definintely see that he has a dash of Chihuahua to him. He is around 12 – 13 pounds which we’ll find out for sure when we take him to the vet for the dreaded neutering appointment. Welcome to the family, get comfortable, then SNIP! A little harsh for the second week, but it needs to be done, so why prolong the wait.

Toby is still a little unsure of Jackson and isn’t really happy with his existence, but he is steadily adjusting. Sydney on the other hand is either good about ignoring him, or potentially not too aware of his presence. Love her dearly but she isn’t always the brightest bulb in the box. I think she continues to hiss more at Toby than at Jackson. Both cats are back to hanging out with us in the living room and roaming about the house without fear, which is a great sign. At least once a night, perhaps during a bout of crankiness, Toby likes to challenge Jackson with a few swipes, which Jackson finds very entertaining. We truly believe that Jackson only wants to play and is not acting maliciously, but we’re not foolish enough to think this behavior is ok and leave them unsupervised. Its going to take time, but hopefully sooner rather than later, they’ll be content with some form of mutual avoidance.

Backyard Water Feature

“Sam, there’s water pouring out of your house…” Mom Caetano, December 27th (day of the family dinner for 10 being hosted at our house)

After I washed a few veggies my mom came in from the back door and informed me that a pipe below the kitchen window was pouring water. Bizarre. She returned outside to view the pipe but this time, when I turned on the water, unlike before, nothing happened. Thinking perhaps it was just a freak occurrence we returned to our prep work.

After peeling the sweet potatoes, to keep the sink clear of debris I ran the garbage disposal. Much to my displeasure I then heard the distinct sound of water and sweet potatoes grounds plopping onto the rocks about 3 feet below the kitchen window. I went outside to scope out the issue and was greeted by a lovely little pile of sweet potatoes skins and a nasty little puddle of water.

It turns out that nearly everything that was getting washed and/or ground up was shooting out of the pipe protruding about 2 inches from our house. Awesome. Enter the faint music of honky banjoes playing in the back of my mind. For a quick fix, since we really didn’t need a ton of water messing with our foundation, we slid a container beneath the hole, as seen here. Delicious, I know. And yes, sliding a plastic container under a food shooting pipe did make those white trash banjoes play a little louder.

A few days later Jonathan contacted our plumber, the amazing Larry Nicely. Larry explained that the pipe needed to be capped with a specific plumbing device and informed Jonathan on where to buy it and how to install it. Excellent. Food was no longer shooting out of the house; however, now our sink was refusing to drain. Fortunately, that very day, Larry was able to make it out to our house with his trusty plumbing snake and resolve the issue completely by removing 3 clogs of god knows what. Ah, the joys of home ownership.

Note to all who paint

And no, I don't mean those who do so artistically. This message is for those who either saw it done on HGTV and thought "I could do that", or those who are "simply" painting a room for a change in appearance. Do not, under any circumstances paint before you've had a cup of coffee, or red bull, or whatever it is you drink/eat to start your day.

Following 9 hours of sleep I thought I was in good enough shape to tackle the first item on my to-do list before I had my cup of joe. It was simple, all I had to do was slap a coat of paint on the three sided sink base in the guest bath. The grey that had been painted on the day before just didn't look right so a reapplication of "cotton whisper" was in order. With a bit too much haste I slapped on what I thought would be the first and only coat. Things were not going very well, which should have been my indicator, but instead I forged forward and like a fool just kept thicking he coat. Mistake two, I walked away.

My scolding coffee was continuing to cool to a drinkable temperature, so I decided it was a good time to check on my work. To my chagrin I returned to a paint job that was damn near oozing off. I had applied the paint so thick that it was forming ridges within the layer where the still wet paint was starting to run over the base layer that was starting to adhere to the gray. Its a bit hard to explain, and by no means was I going to take a picture of this colossal failure, but it looked horrible. Still not in the right frame of mind I thought it would be a good idea to ever so lightly run the brush across the job and "smooth it out a little". Again, I knew better and knew I should have stopped right then and there, but no, this quick task wasn't going to get the better of me, I could fix this, you'd see.

Whats that you say, bad idea number three? After my crap attempt at fixing the issue the paint looked even worse. No worries, I thought, the required second coat will undoubtidly cover up my egregious errors.

At this point the cup of cooling coffee was mocking my denial of its addiction. After a few sips I returned to the scene of the crime and like an ass applied the second coat. Mind you the first is still not fully dry and already looks like I applied it with my left hand with only one eye opened. Talk about bad to worse. Not only was my paint not applying well, but it was pulling up the old paint and excentuating the platus and valleys I was foolishly thinking I could hide.

I may have been foolish, but I'm no fool. It was time to throw in the towel and start anew. Thanks to the clever person who invented the paint scraper I was able to scrape off all three layers with ease which returned me to the proper starting point of the primer layer. Despite the fact that my 8 minute task had become an hour long process it was oddly refreshing to remove my errors and be able to start fresh.

After taking the time to gather the right tools for going about the painting process in an acceptable manor, I ran out of paint after only the first coat. Such is life. If you're a "do it yourselfer" please learn from my experience and, for the sake of your sanity, feed the monkey on your back before you start a project.

Almost there...

Its been a challenging two months, but at last we’re in the final stretches of our kitchen remodel. Construction tasks that remain include the application of the toe kick around the bottom of the base cabinets, the attachment of a particularly tricky pantry door, the reattachment of floor molding, and the eventual installation of our oven hood once it bothers to arrive on our porch.

Thanks to a much enjoyed surprise visit from my mom we were able to complete the painting of the kitchen walls as well as make great progress toward completing some much needed cleaning, painting, and repair work in the guest bathroom. Without her generosity and hard work in the kitchen, and the guest bathroom we surely would not have been prepared for our Christmas visitors and evening at Northview dinner party guests.

In addition, thanks to some much appreciated generosity, and cooperative hard work by the Hupps and Hares, Jonathan, his dad and his uncle managed to install our new kitchen floor in about a day and a half. Due to the cement floors reluctance to clean up as well as we were hoping we decided to go with an IKEA flooring option. Not only does it look great, but its kinder on the legs and feet than cement, and provides a perfect finishing touch for our kitchen.

With a few touch ups I’m hoping to have a fully completed kitchen remodel by the end of the first day of the new year (sans oven hood). Farewell painters tape on windows and door frames, hasta la vista plastic sheets lining countertops and floors, hello completed Caetano-Hupp kitchen!

Billboard Brilliance

A play on a classy slogan + an excellent use of ninja-esque germs flying towards an innocent victim, genius. For the love of pandemic’s, heed the sign people!

7 Weeks Later

Following a full day of scrubbing and waxing our kitchen’s cement floor, and enjoying a tasty Chinese food dinner, at 9:45 PM we started assembling our kitchen cabinets. For the sake of marital bliss we each started constructing one cabinet a piece. The first box took the longest because although we are both fluent in the sparse language that is IKEA, it usually takes about one build to get warmed up.

Sans breaks it took us 7 hours to construct three 36” base cabinets, two 15” base cabinets, one 30” base cabinet and six 24” horizontal wall cabinets. If you did your math right that means we were up until 4:45. This might not have been too rough if we could sleep in; however, with our amazing contractor (AKA superhero) arriving at 7AM to help us with our cabinet installation, this so called "sleeping in" was not a viable option.

After about two hours of sleep and feeling like reheated leftovers, we managed to peel ourselves out of bed and start our day with Tim. I’d like to take a second here and give a shout out to Tim. Tim, who owns his own contracting company called TJK Remodeling, is the very man, with the assistance of his sons, who built our sweet pocket door. Not only was Tim upbeat, positive and willing to teach us every step of the process but he provided his expertise, supplies and hard work free of charge. We are thankful beyond words for his time and effort this past Saturday. Honestly, if you are in AZ and ever need remodeling work, Tim is the guy to call!

While Jonathan and Tim installed the cabinets I worked on constructing the drawers for the various units as well as the gigantotron pantry unit. By 3ish they had the entire kitchen mounted and looking fabulous! We are still working on getting the handles on doors and drawers as well as mounting the doors on both floor and wall units. Once we have all of these items in place I'll finally get to unpack all of my precious kitchen items, some of which have not seen the light of day since before our wedding, back in May 2008.

As of Monday our days of living out of a cooler and purchasing bags of ice are over. Our refrigerator has arrived and is as cute as a button! On Wednesday our stove and dishwasher will arrive, and then, to top it all off (no pun intended) Saturday we’ll have our countertop and sink installed. After nearly 7 weeks of eating out for nearly every meal and having a kitchen that consisted of 4 walls and a floor, a completed kitchen is a dream come true.

Sneeze rule 101

Open mouth sneezing is only acceptable in an outdoor space with no one around, like your backyard, or a wide open meadow miles away from civilization. Last time I checked office cubicles do not fit this standard and therefore should not be used as an area appropriate for an open mouth, germ spreading, snot and spit propelling, sneeze. For the love of wellness, have some courtesy and cover your stinkin mouth!

Inappropriate

I woke up this morning to NPR informing me it was 38 degrees in Phoenix. I'm pretty sure I didn't move to Arizona to experience 38 degrees unless I was driving to Flagstaff to go skiing. Very inappropriate indeed.

Max and Maggie

Last weekend we had the pleasure of house/dog sitting. Not only did we enjoy the comfort of a heated home, cable television and a kitchen to cook in, but we got to hang out with some great canines. Max and Maggie are terrific. I don't think I've ever been as entertained when walking dogs as when I walked these two. On the leash they're like a pair of considerate sled dogs. They walk side by side, at an even pace with just the slightest bit of tension on the leash and respond to the gentlest guide for right or left.



Mr. Max tends to walk like he is on a mission, with his ears back and his nose to the wind. He's having fun but fun with attitude. On the other hand, or should I say leash, Maggie while keeping up with Max's pace is a little more laid back. Her leash always tends to have a little more slack and her ears flop about and blow in the occasional wind.

Even after carrying out their doggie business these two dogs maintain the utmost civility. There is no kicking of grass or dirt, or at times a little more than just earth, or yanking of the leash as they take off in satisfaction. Instead, both Max and Maggie are content to wait out your considerate clean up and disposal.


Don't get me wrong, I love our cats, but I can't say their on the leash behavior is half as enjoyable as that of Mr. Max and Ms. Maggie.

The Stink of Success

I wont lie and say the smell of drying plaster is heavenly, but its results are darn near close.

Our dry wall guy has been hard at work since December 1st and his dedication and skill is really starting to show. As of yesterday the beast that was our blue paint was laid to rest. Finally we have smooth, white walls!! The house is brighter, and as strange as it sounds, is looking a lot more like ours, instead of just something we have to deal with. Below are a few before and after pictures.

Here are some pictures of the Living Room: Before and After (but still not done)

(strangely enough the "After" picture above makes the room look Alice-in-Wonderland small...)

Our plan is to finish the floors in the living room and kitchen on Thurs/Fri , then install the kitchen cabinets on Sunday. On Monday we'll receive 1/2 of our kitchen appliances, the remainder of which will be delivered on Wed. The thought of having a useable kitchen by Thursday almost brings tears to my eyes.

Below are a few kitchen series pictures: Before and After (but still not done)

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This project has been a wicked cocktail of hard work, short tempers, creative genius, patience and exploration. As far as the kitchen and living room are concerned, the light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter. (for now at least)

Eventual Laundry Room

Check out the sweet pocket door. One of these days there will actually be a washer/dryer set up hidden behind this sneaky little door.

Hooray for visitors!

Yes, it’s a little delayed, but such is life.

A few weeks back we had our first official out-of-state visitor stay at our house. Tyler was in Tucson for a work event and found time to come up to Phoenix to hang out with us. Not only did Tyler experience our sneaky cats, who have to be everywhere they’re not allowed, but he assisted in our renovation by trimming some tree branches in the back yard, and redistributing some dirt and rocks to cover the freshly dug plumbing trench in the front yard. Tyler took it upon himself to up the authenticity of his home repair experience by acquiring a slight injury thanks to the slightly unwieldy hand saw. A band aid worthy injury at that.

To enhance Tyler's short lived desert experience, we drove over to Piestewa Peak for a short hike before he departed for the Golden State. We enjoyed having company other than our felines and encourage others to visit. Hopefully, by next year we’ll actually have a working guest bathroom as well as a real bed to sleep on.

And remember, with every visit comes a free appearance on Huppdates! Just look how happy they are!!

Next Project

Old main panel

New Awesome Breaker Box

Now that our electrical work has been completed and we have more than triple the amount of power available to us than we used to, we've moved onto our next project, the closet flip. Why on earth would you flip a closet you ask?

Due to the layout of our house our laundry options were a little limited. We could either have a washer on one side of the kitchen, and a dryer on the other, or pay way too much money to move gas and water lines into the existing closet. Strangely enough, it was cheaper to flip the closets than to re-route all of the necessary pipes.

The flip consists of this: What is now a closet in the hall will become a flat wall, and the space to the right of the old closet doors, which is currently a wall, will become a closet complete with a sneaky pocket door. The 3rd bedroom, which is behind this wall will have basically the same procedure. What is now the closet will become a wall, which will serve as the back to the new closet, and what was wall will become a closet door for the 3rd bedroom.

Here are some mid-construction pictures.

Looking from the living room down the hall. Space on right used to be a wall, space on left used to be a closet.

Looking from the back of the house forward. The empty closet on left is the old one, which will now have a door in the room instead of the hallway, and the wall on the right is the new wall for the new laundry closet.

Washer dryer hookup in the new closet.

So far, it looks terrific. The only holdup now is that our pocket door frame has yet to arrive as expected. Its putting a bit of a delay on our construction, but to no fault of our awesome contractor.

Once the project is finished the house will have a designated laundry area that had never existed. What's that little house, you're trying to improve our investment already? Thanks buddy.

PS. Below is a picture of our beautified mesquite tree.

Greeting Cards by Egotrip

I'm proud to say in recent years I've participated in running events. My furthest has been 10 miles and my goal is to make that 13 in 2010. A majority, if not all, of the events I've attended include professional photographers scattered about the course to capture you for better or for worse. Some find my "appreciation" of these race photos entertaining, but I'm willing to guess no one would find them an acceptable option for a Christmas card. Why is it that race photo companies think my friends and family want to see Merry Christmas accompanied by a sweaty, struggling runner surrounded by other sweaty tired runners? Honestly people. Poor marketing decision.

Silly Quaker

While deciding whether or not to eat my oatmeal I noticed a question and answer segment typed on the package . “Does Quaker Oatmeal eaten uncooked provide the same benefits as when its eaten cooked?” What the heck kind of a question is this? I’d like to know who goes around opening instant oatmeal packets and tossing them back like a bag of M&Ms.

I thought about granola bars and considered perhaps this is what they mean by “uncooked oats”, but I wasn’t eating a granola bar, I was considering eating instant oatmeal. Last time I checked there were cooking instructions on the instant package, hence, not intended for raw consumption.

I’m sure the anticipation is killing you, so the answer to the question is “Yes”. For all those out there eating oatmeal out of the packet or tube sans any cooking, be reassured that you’re helping your health; however, unless you’re eating in a closet where no one sees you, you’re certainly not helping your social image. I'm not judging or anything, but honestly, raw oats?

Mesquite

We bought our house knowing we had 6 trees in the backyard. Two of which are way dead, one is a bit too close to the house for comfort, and the largest of the 6 is a massive mesquite tree that appeared to be growing at an unnatural 60 degree angle from the ground. Needless to say the mesquite tree was, no pun intended, our largest concern.

At some point this massive tree had fallen, or been knocked over and was resting on the power line for who knows how long. The massive roots that stick out of the ground look like a hand diving into the sand, seeking a buried treasure below. Out of concern of our slanted tree, its exposed roots and our future home we had an arborist stop by for a review of the situation. His professional opinion was that it would have to be removed. I wasn’t the biggest fan of his “professional opinion”.

Here is a picture of the tree. It took up about a quarter of the back yard and created a secret cove with its plethora of dead branches that had made their way to the ground but were still somehow intertwined with the live branches on the tree.

This Friday I returned home from work to discover Jonathan had been quite busy. Our tree was now rid of a majority of its dead undergrowth and was back to its former glory. Needless to say our backyard looked like it had lost some sort of tree battle and was now covered by massive tree branches, as seen below. (darn that one dead tree for being in the way of my photo!)




After a little over than two days of solid work on the tree, its really coming around. Despite its crazy growth pattern its quite strong, as proven when our “230” pound electrician lifted himself off the ground by hanging off of its trunk without any protest from the tree. Two trips to the dump later we are still hip deep in branches in our backyard. However, on a positive note, our tree is looking much healthier, we discovered a citrus tree somehow surviving sans sun beneath all of the mesquite’s over growth and we now have a ton of mesquite wood for future grilling.

In very small ways our little house has been steadily paying us back for its purchase. It started out with loose change during the cleaning process, and now has progressed to wood for grilling, and perhaps next year it will supply us with fresh citrus. Keep up the hard work little house.

Updates to Huppdates

New look, same Hupptastic content. Thanks for reading!

Finally here

If you glance to the left of this text you'll see a whole new Huppdates slide show. That's right, you may now witness the glory of buying an "As is" house that went into foreclosure and had been vacant since February. Some of you may find yourselves having to push your jaw closed because its fallen open in awe, and not the good awe. No worries, its a natural reaction. A bonus to keep in mind... what you are seeing is what the sellers considered "cleaned". From what neighbors tell us it used to be way worse. Yech!

In a little over a weeks time we've removed a ton of nastiness from the house and are making solid progress on putting the house back together, exactly the way we want it. Sooner rather than later I'll start loading up before-and-after pictures as rooms get completed. Stay tuned, and stay classy.