THE HOUSE SAYS "CHEESE":

Today we had pictures of the house taken for our realtor's brochures and online listing. I wansn't able to get all the rooms fixed up, but I think I did alright. Good thing HieRan was able to help out a lot over the weekend before she took off for the Bay Area again. So after the kids went to bed, I took care of what I thought were a couple of "finishing touches"... that took me to about 4am to finish - just in time for Jacob waking up. =S

Anyway, here are some pics that I took of our place - ready to be shown to the buying public (c'mon public, don't let me down!!!).

Here's the kitchen that we had remodled back in '04 when we first moved in. I think most would admit that this is the home's centerpiece, and we're really pleased with how it all came together.




The next room is the main family room - open to the kitchen (after we knocked down a large part of the wall), and general gathering place for all to entertain. Oh, and the sofa in this room became quite intimate with my kid brother as he spent 6 days sleeping on it during one visit (he was only supposed to be over for the weekend)!


This is our "sitting" room in it's original conception (when we first moved in). It has since become the kids' media room where they were able to watch any number of pre-approved DVDs from their library. I moved the media equipment, toys, and various cushions out of the room to make the space less cluttered.


Next is the master bedroom - as I've heard people say, "... where all the magic happens". *haha - sorry babe, I know you're gonna tell me how I'm not much of a magician now, right?* =T Actually this was also doubling as our office for a time when my father was staying with us. I finally got around to moving everything back to the office which really opened up the space in the room.


Here's the master bathroom - now THIS is where all the REAL magic happens!! *haha - well, it's where all of my critical-life-changing-master-planning thoughts take place* Oddly, while this has both a shower and a tub, I can say that I've never used the tub in the two years we've been here! Don't worry, I've taken a couple showers in the two years since we've been here, so no smart-alec remarks! ;)

Like I said, I wasn't able to completely clean up all of the bedrooms, but they weren't going to be photographed anyway. I'll continue fixing up for Friday's open house. Now that I'm thinking about it, we're going to probably have buyers wanting to come and see our place over the weekend... over SUPERBOWL weekend!!! Noooooooo!!!! Maybe we won't have to vacate the premisis, and they can see the house in use to it's fullest capacity!! *party over here!!* Yeah, I can't see HieRan agreeing to this.

Well, that's what I've been doing for the past couple nights. It's pretty amazing how much you can get done in the wee hours of the night (and morning). The tough part is going to be keeping the house in order - especially since we still have to live here!

Oh, and the garage is full again.

G'nite all!

START PACKING:

On Friday we signed the documents with our listing agent at Whitehouse Properties. The next morning I go out to make a delivery to Goodwill and there's a "For Sale" sign on our lawn! Talk about fast! Hopefully we'll be able to sell our house just as fast - in this market, who knows? We're up against 3 other houses in our immediate area (we're talking a couple houses away), but I think we've got them beat on square footage, and the open floor plan that's very inviting... HieRan and I call it the "wow" factor. For those of you who have been here, when you step into our entryway, the first two things that grab your attention are 1) the remodeled kitchen, and 2) the fact that our house goes waaaaay back (2400 sq ft back) - something that is quite deceptive to the passer-by. We're hoping to get our listing price... otherwise we may end up living in a van, under a bridge, down by the RIVER!! *hahaha - to quote the late, great Chris Farley*

We began the packing process already - starting in last night after the kids went to sleep. The first order of business was to get the garage straightened up and ready to store our boxes of stuff from inside the house. (Note: when selling a house, it is suggested that you remove as many of the "personal" items as possible, "unclutter" your house, and put away the things that you'd rather not have broken or stolen.) The process of cleaning out the garage was more of a task than I imagined it would be. Who would've thought that a ONE-CAR GARAGE could hold soooo much stuff?!?!? Well, it didn't hold a CAR, but I guess that's besides the point. There was piles and piles of stuff that we just threw out - oh, and a bunch of stuff that we donated. Too bad my cousins and brothers weren't around to do some "shopping" in our garage like last time we moved. They all made out with new pens, highlighters, clipboards, refrigerator magnets, laser pointers, and much much more!! We finished (or quit, rather) around midnight.

This morning I started up again, clearing up the family room, packing up pictures, wall hangings, and dismantling some of the kids' furniture to store in the garage. It's a mess here, and it's going to get much worse before it gets better. Actually, it's got to get better much sooner than I want - we have a photographer coming on Tuesday to take pics of our house. So I'm under the gun a bit, and I really shouldn't be here blogging away!! *hahaha - hey, I'm on break, and typing like a mad man!!!*

Okay, okay, I better get back to it - geez, I'm starving!! Ooh, there's some cold coffee from this morning!! That's LUNCH!!!

HIS FIRST STEPS:

Well, it's official - Jacob is now walking on his own. Okay, he's not out of control (like his sister), but I can see that this is the start of a new chapter in his (and our) life. I think we're going to rename him, "COME HERE" - since that's what we'll be calling him as we (or probably just I) chase after him.

It was after the kids' bath, and we were just hanging out in the family room watching the Australian Open. Mia was jumping to and from the couch to the ottoman, and Jacob was watching and laughing. He must've been inspired by Mia's agility and decided to get up on his own. He tried several times... standing then plopping down on his bottom. Then he stood up, took a step, and sat back down. We started clapping, so he got up and took a couple more steps before sitting back down (I can tell he's going to be the one who likes to "ease" into things). I was able to snap a picture of him making his way to the couch. I really think he was motivated by his sister's jumping around - it looked like fun to him, I'm sure.

Oh, then Mia tripped and bonked her head on an un-cushioned part of the couch, so play time was over (way to go there, Mia). ;0P

Don't worry, she's fine... still a little clumsy, but fine otherwise.

WHAT LUCK!!!

So I'm flipping through the channels - got the kids to bed, already. And I'm trying to find something worthwhile to view. Let's see...

the Lakers vs. the Spurs... nah...

the Australian Open... only the 2nd round...

the Clippers vs. the Warriors... *yawn*...

American Idol... Seattle... hmmmm... not much talent there...

... oh... wha... hey - SIDEOUT (on one of the HD channels, no less)... I've struck GOLD!!!!!!!! Whoo-hooo (doing the happy dance)... it's my birthday... party over here... haaayyy!!!

*ahem - sorry about that*

This volleyball epic (1990) stars C. Thomas Howell, and Peter Horton, as the infamous "dead-beat", Zach Barnes. It also has appearances by Courtney Thorne Smith, a cameo by supermodel, Kathy Ireland, and a host of professional volleyball players - including Sinjin Smith & Randy Stoklos as the Kings of the Beach. In this film (which strangely didn't do as well as I thought it would at the box offices... just like the plethora of Van Damme movies I rather enjoyed... hmmmm, I think I just outed myself on the quality of movies I like... *heh*) - anyway, we find our hero Monroe (Howell) taking up the game of volleyball one summer and manages to find fulfillment both on the court... and off. In a short time (really, we're talking only ONE summer) Monroe acquires the skills necessary to take on Hermosa Beach's best volleyball players with the washed-up "former" King of the Beach, Zach Barnes. Barnes has his own demons to battle - a gambling problem, and serious lack of motivation to do anything more with his life. Still, he takes on the young Monroe, and together they overcome all obstacles vanquishing their archenemies (Smith & Stoklos) and capture beach volleyball's most prestigious title, Kings of the Beach.

This film (which must've been shot over a weekend) teaches us that volleyball players (professional ones, anyway) shouldn't quit their day jobs and start an acting career. Of course, the converse is also true - that actors should not (and tend to be ill-equiped) to take on a career as a professional volleyball player. Yeah, there were a bunch of missteps in this movie - but it sure was fun watching some of volleyball's elite on the bigscreen. I especially liked the low camera angles, and close-ups used (oh, and the low net) to make Howell and Horton appear to jump 42 inches! The professionals were viewed at a wide angle, so you can see them playing on a regulation net...

How could this NOT be an award-winner!?!?!?!?

Okay, all kidding aside, this story line is as far from believable as you can get. Any seasoned player can see that both Howell and Horton were the WRONG picks for this film (unfortunately I was unavailable when shooting began). Not only was the acting bad (oh my gawd, it stunk like 4-year-old cheese), but there's no WAY some kid off the street (in this case a farm boy from Wisconsin) could pick up the game and beat the best players in professional volleyball - C'MON!! The final shot of the final game was made when Monroe did a 180-degree turn in the air, set the ball (illegally, mind you) to a waiting Barnes who crushed the ball to take the championship.

Yeah...

... it could happen. =S (And I'm going to win American Idol, too!!) *hahaha*

Geez... I can't believe I just finished watching the whole movie...

... again.

MY KIDS DON'T GET ME:

I got clowned by my daughter this morning during breakfast. As she was eating her new Kellogg's Barbie cereal, I noticed the back panel had a number of characters on them. One of the characters was named "Dizzle", which I thought was kind of funny. After all, who knew that Snoop Dog was involved in naming Barbie characters, right?!? Mia asked me what the name was, and I told her "Dizzle" adding, "... fo shizzle ma nizzle". *hahaha* She looked at me as if I just asked her to explain the pythagorean theorem. =T Meanwhile, Jacob got a hold of his sister's water spray bottle and proceeded to "spritz" himself (yeah, he's a DeGuzman). See what I mean here.

WEEKEND RECAP:

Saturday:

We met with the realtor who helped us find our home here in Woodland Hills today - Leslie Parker, of White House Properties. It was nice to see her again, and reminisce about the days when we were looking for a home. True story, our home was never on Leslie's list of homes to show us. In fact, the first couple days that we went house-hunting, we were very discouraged. Home prices were starting to rise, and the neighborhood that we were looking in contained very old houses. It happened that we were looking at a property about a block away, and the seller's agent (who was also the agent of our current house) told us to take a look at this property. At the time it was waaaay out of our price range - which is why Leslie never thought to show it to us. But because it was a "distressed" property with highly motivated sellers (they were a divorced couple ordered by the courts to liquidate all of their assets). As it turned out, and with the help of our agent, we came to an agreement on the price and found ourselves a home.

After such an ordeal, we are more than happy to give the listing to Leslie - we think she and her company will do a great job for us.

Sunday:

Wow, what a tough night. Jacob couldn't sleep... and so I couldn't, either. He was up 3 times (I think), and since he's been able to stand on his own, he's starting to hang onto the side of the crib - crying and screaming until someone (which would be I) come and get him. So this morning was a very "lazy" one for me. HieRan was kind enough to get up and watch the kids in the morning - I just couldn't get up, for some reason. Maybe it had something to do with the 2 hours of sleep that I was able to get (20 minutes at a time). =( But once the coffee started flowing, I was up... sorta like the Folgers Coffee commercial!!

We decided to take the kids to Chuck E. Cheese's for lunch. Still as windy as ever outside, we bundled up the kids and headed out. It's been a while since we've been there, so seeing the remodeled pizza place was pretty refreshing... however, the food was still the same - ehhhhh. =T

But we had fun playing the games with the kids. Jacob rode the rides while Mia racked up the tickets to buy herself some prizes before we came home.

Oooh, "The Apprentice - Los Angeles" is starting!! Gotta go...

SO IT BEGINS:

Today we met with a couple realtors competing for our listing. One presentation was clearly better than the other, but we have one more appointment tomorrow. I have to admit that I'm surprised to see how much the price of comparable homes in the area have dropped off in the past 6 months. We're not likely to make a million dollar sale this time around... *rats*.

Both realtors said they liked the floor plan of our house, especially the remodeled kitchen (thank you very much). Back when we first decided to remodel the kitchen, we did so in hopes that it would pay us back when it came time to sell the house - hopefully (in this declining real estate market) that will still hold true.

The tricky part will be pricing our home so that we're competitive (not short-changing ourselves), but not too high that we fall off the radar of some potential buyers. I think our kitchen is one of the stronger selling points - that plus a nice neighborhood, excellent schools, great shopping (the Westfield - Topanga is gi-normous!!), 20 minutes to the beach, an hour to Disneyland (the happiest place on earth... well, next to the bathroom, anyway... ahh yes). There's so much more than just a house here in Woodland Hills. We're going to miss this home and all the friends we made in the 2 years since we arrived. :*)

The next step will be to start looking for a place to call "home" up in the Bay Area. We should be heading up to go house shopping later this month. Wish us a happy and successful hunt!!

LESSON LEARNED:

So there is one part of our adventure that I didn't mention in the last post. While we were in Newark, NJ waiting to board out already late flight back to Los Angeles, it came to our attention that our seating assignments were no longer valid on the incoming flight. The agent at the desk did her best to get out seats reassigned when HieRan spoke with her. She came back and told me that we would be separated on this flight (not the best situation when flying with two kids). I wasn't clear how this could've happened, so I took a turn up at the desk and politely asked the agent for a little more clarification with the cancellation of our original seating assignment. The agent was very thorough and explained how all of this (including our 3 hour delay) came about. Satisfied with the explanation, I thanked her and said that if there was a chance we could be re-assigned, we would be grateful. I could see that she was swamped with boarding passes, getting people shifted here and there, and also having to manage the "stand-by" passangers. I felt bad for her and assured her that we'll be happy just to get back home.

This situation with the cancelled seating assignments didn't affect just us - the next passenger came up and pretty much lost it when he discovered his party of 6 was going to be separated on the flight. First of all, he was travelling with his wife and 4 teenage kids - it's not as though his kids wouldn't enjoy some time away from him! Second, when he came up and started shouting at the agent, I thought "... what a jerk! Give her a break!". But the agent was more than capable of handling him - nicely telling him to back off and be glad that they have seats on the flight to begin with! *ha!* He left and sent his wife up to go a couple rounds with the agent - but she was turned away pretty quickly too.

As it turns out, before we boarded, I heard the agent call for the "DeGuzman party of 5" to come up to the desk. The same agent who had spoken to HieRan and me handed me 5 new boarding passes - all of our seats were together!! I was shocked! And really thankful for her efforts. She told me that there was another family who had reassigned seats, but she didn't care for their tone with her and decided to give us a block of 6 seats (one extra so that our kids could stretch out on this flight). She specifically told me that my wife and I were very nice to her regarding all of the problems that came up, and she wanted to do everything she could to keep us together. Needless to say, I thanked her and we enjoyed our flight home... touchdown 11:45pm... brought in a HAPPY NEW YEAR in baggage claim. =)

The lesson learned: when life hands you lemons - squeeze the juice onto someone's eyes, steal their wallet, and buy yourself a soda! *haha - j/k* No, I think the "Golden Rule" is appropriate here, right?

*By the way, I don't normally do this, but I felt it was necessary to write American Airlines with our story and how the agent did everything to help us out - I hope she's recognized somehow...*