bonnie & jason

Flowers or appliances?

Apparently, the traditional and contemporary fourth anniversary gifts are flowers and appliances respectively. I understand flowers. Who doesn’t like flowers? But appliances? Isn’t that kind of like giving your wife a vacuum cleaner for her birthday? So instead, I’m being uber-contemporary and giving my wife an HD-video for our anniversary. Actually, Bonnie did most of the work for the video by selecting the images. I just did the iMovie part of it and picked the sound track. So to celebrate, we’re actually just planning on going to dinner and a movie (by ourselves). Anyway, enjoy the movie. (The song is “Just You and Me” by Zee Avi.)

2009 07 30 anniversary video from Jason Wang on Vimeo.

Can I get a “Woot woot?!”

The roof is shingled!

Now I just have to finish the shelving inside, get the trim up, and paint the thing. For now, it basically just holds all the tools that I used to make the darn thing. And some leftover materials too. If anyone needs any roofing nails or roofing paper, let me know.

I’m sure you all are sick of my stupid shed by now. I promise, just one more post when it’s 100% done. To make up for it, here are some pics of the girls:

The Picture People

Bonnie found a coupon for the picture people so we decided to go get some family pictures done. Alissa was a little shy and cried for a bit but we ended up with some decent pictures.

The setup is kinda generic, but the formula is pretty tried and true. I personally prefer to do outdoor pictures with “real” backgrounds, but generic isn’t necessarily bad in this case. Also, it’s kinda hard for me to take my own family pictures so this will have to do for now. Maybe when the kids get a little older, I’ll try some on my own with a tripod.

From rags to riches

Rags… (shingled half of the shed Sunday… hopefully finish the whole thing this weekend.)

… to riches

We visited Jef, Xiao Yi, and Gavin this weekend at their beautiful new place in Burlingame. Xiao Yi made a fantastic dinner as always. Beef noodle soup and onion pancakes. Very Taiwanese. And very tasty. Afterwards, we went for a short walk.

Alissa is getting faster and faster.

And she likes to push rather than ride in her stroller.

(I had to make her walk in the grass because the road was too steep and she would certainly have face planted on the way down.)

Gavin is so much bigger than last time we saw him.

And finally, here’s a random pic of Amanda.

The shed has walls, a roof, and doors

Bonnie’s dad came over this afternoon to help with the shed. Definitely needed a second set of hands for almost everything that got done today.

First we put the roof rafters up. They were pretty close to identical. Had one sort of stick out just a hair. Then we put the back wall up. This was pretty straight forward. Just lots of nailing. From there, we put the roof decking on. This was kinda hairy since 4×8 plywood is pretty heavy and the roof is kinda steeply pitched. In retrospect, I would have altered the plans for a smaller pitch angle. Also, it was hard to reach the second half deck panel so I had to sort of hang from the roof to get that installed.

Ok, it wasn’t that bad.

Once I got up there, I was pretty comfortable. It was getting up there in the first place that was a little scary. Next step was to get the front wall and doors in. Not rocket science, but it did take a bit of cutting and nailing and measuring. For some reason, the front wall ended up slightly out of square compared to the back wall but you can’t really tell. After some bracing and extra reinforcement in some key areas, we ended up with this:

I then trimmed the walls to the roof and here’s where things sit now.

And with some stuff already in it.

This is what Ashley thinks of it.

Then I told her that this is where she will go for time out if she’s a bad girl.

Another funny story… when Alissa went down for a nap, the roof wasn’t up yet. When she woke up and saw the shed in it’s later stages, she exclaimed, “Look at the house! Who’s house is that?”

Next steps are to get the roofing felt, shingles and drip cap up. Then I have some trim pieces to install before priming and painting. Still a lot to do but today was a productive day.

Sisters don’t shake hands… sisters gotta h u g g g…

$1 to the person who gets the modified quote.

One day, two hammers, three saws, and lots of sore muscles

I took the day off today to start my shed. I’m using these plans I found for free on this wondrous thing called internet.

It’s going in the back corner. Originally it was going in the back center, but Bonnie preferred it in the corner. That meant I had to do some landscaping (trim the trees back) as well as move about a million bricks out of the way.

The build went pretty well. Lots of cutting and nailing. I got the floor (pressure treated 2×4 joists on 4×4 skids) and two of the walls done in addition to the roof trusses.

Had to stop there as I didn’t feel it was a good idea to try to get the roof trusses up by myself while holding a nail gun that can shoot 3.5″ nails through solid wood. Speaking of which, here are the two nail guns I used:

The little one is a finishing nailer that I just used for holding certain pieces in place. The big one is the work horse. There is something very gratifying about pneumatic tools… nail guns in particular.

More to come later this week assuming I’m not hobbled over in pain. I’m hoping to get the roof up Friday and perhaps get the back and front done. Then Saturday, shingle the roof and get the trim up. Then it’s time to paint and eventually move crap in!

What is that squeaking noise?

$1 to the first person who can tell me what that squeaking noise is!

Whatchoo lookin’ at?

Don’t cry, it’s ok.

Hey big sis!

Just a cute pic:

Amanda the bully

When we put Amanda and Ashley in the crib together, most of the time, they ignore each other. But occasionally, one of them will maneuver into position to get a better view of the other. Or sometimes their random arm flailings will result in anything from hand holding to hair pulling. Both accidentally, I think. Bonnie caught a new one a couple days ago with her iphone where Amanda somehow got a hold of Ashely’s nose.

Lots of estrogen around these parts…

I’m sure it’s just going to get worse from here on out, but I think I’m already compensating for having to live with four girls. I redid the closet in the bedroom this weekend. Also, I’m planning another small shelf project in order to prove my carpentry skills to Bonnie so she’ll let me tackle a bigger project in the breakfast nook. And of course, I’m spending lots of money on tools and spending lots of time at Home Depot. (Insert Tim the Tool Man Taylor grunt here.)

Here are some recent pictures and videos of those of the fairer sex.

Watching Wimbledon:

Alissa the big sister:

Tickling Amanda:

Amanda and Ashley both looking chubby: