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Labels: cameraphone, condo

Whoa! Another DWR warehouse sale is this weekend. I just happened to check the DWR website tonight to see an announcement about it. Usually, they send out an email well in advance and even runs ads in the local paper. G and I will probably make it down to check things out. This time though, we don't have any particular piece that we're looking for. At the last sale they had (in November) we snagged a TV stand and a few other items. I guess it's wide open for us this time. It's going to be damn cold waiting in line!

Okay, I guess there are a few things I would love to snag if they're at the sale and priced right:

1) badass wall clock
2) Cherner Side Chair
3) Min Media Castors for our media stand
4) A rug
5) More FLOR tiles
6) In my dreams
7) Eames Plywood Lounge Chair

Labels: condo, DWR

Well, here's another blog post about the end of 2006 or beginning of 2007 to add to the blog world. Cool.

It was a good holiday around our house. We all got lots of treats for Christmas and had a few days off to chill out, see our family and friends and get some things done around the condo.

Most notable of the items accomplished around the house is my "Wall of Rock." It's quite done yet, as I have a few more posters to frame, but it's started and that's a big deal. I think I looks great. Here's a photo:



All the posters are hand silk screened works of art that I have collected over the past few years. I have plenty more that will never find their way behind glass, but this is a start.

Here is the layout of the prints on the floor. I went through about a dozen different arrangements. Also in this are the prints that will be framed next - to see how it will all layout.



Here where I laid out the prints on the wall using newspaper cut to the size of the print. This was just to make sure the arrangement looked good on the wall and the spacing was good. Since I am going to floor to ceiling with this, I have some outlets to contend with. This helped me know where those would be in the overall layout.



On the wall now are these prints:

2003 Pearl Jam Brisbane - Ames Bros
2003 Pearl Jam Cincinnati - Ames Bros
2004 Pearl Jam Seattle (Showbox) - Brad Klausen
2004 Pearl Jam Toledo - Brad Klausen
2005 Cake - Newport, Ky - Small Print Stuidos
2006 Fiery Furnaces - Denver - Michael Michael Motorcycle
2006 Pearl Jam - Cincinnati - Brad Klausen

That's all for now. All I can say is there are some pretty cool things coming up in 2007. Can't wait.

Labels: condo, pearl jam, posters

I took a bunch of photos of the condo building last night. I should get a gallery up sometime tonight. I will need to make another gallery with daytime shots as well. The atrium looks totally different during the daytime.

Some of the photo I took were from the 10th (top) floor. I have to admit, I get a little jittery when when I am walking up there. I think if you live on the top floor, you get used to it, but since I am only up there everyone in a while, it gives me a gut-check.

Anyways, hope you are all having a rockin' President's Day. G is at home as her agency takes the day off. Poop on that!

Labels: condo

Damn, do I hate Time Warner Cable. I won't go through the whole story, because it's just too damn long. But, after a couple days of dealing with them I got pretty much what I wanted. I think I dealt with about 9 different people just trying to get set up with service. Insane.

Still getting our place set up. Since G and I last moved, we've acquired a lot of stuff, not to mention all the wedding gifts we got. Getting all this stuff in our condo has been a challenge. It's not a big space, so we are learning what we need to have and what can go into storage. Or, what will make it's way to good will. I could probably eBay a few things too. But, until Time Warner gets my internet up and running, I'm logging onto eBay from home anytime soon.

Isn't it funny how 'eBay' can be easily used as a verb?

So, my biggest challenge has been finding a TV stand/entertainment center that I like. I've been looking for months, but have not found it. I'm pretty damn picky about, I'll admit. But, all the things we have looked at either too big, too contemporary, not enough storage, too much storage, ugly, too cheap, too expensive or disproportionate to the space that it will go in.

Did I say I hated Time Warner Cable?

Labels: condo

G and I are all moved in now, but what a weekend.

We started off with a bang when there was a big hiccup in our closing process. Once the bank straightened out their end, we were good to go, but it took a while.

On Saturday while we where moving, our refrigerator came from Sears. I never did get to see it, but I heard it was pretty damaged. The short of it goes like this: the delivery guy wanted a signature from one of us and we were not there. "Our lawyer" spoke with him and he ended up leaving pretty pissed from what I understand. So, the damaged fridge was sent back. It ends up that we are unable to get a replacement for that until 12/17. Ack! So, we had to make a few phone calls, but Sears sent us a "loaner" this morning to tide us over until this weekend. What an ordeal. I'm glad I didn't see the damaged one actually. I probably would have been pretty pissed if I did. But, nothing we could really do about it, so we rolled with it.

We got some big help this weekend from G's family, my brother and my homeboyz, Nate and Paul. Thanks guys!!

No photos yet. I missed my shot at photos of an emptly place before we moved in. Oh well. We'll get settled in and take some then.

And another thing. Time Warner Cable sucks balls. Gawd, I hate them.

Labels: condo

G and I are closing on the condo this afternoon. 1:00. I'll post some photos of the place soon. It looks great, we are happy to finally be getting in. But, we'll pretty much be living in a construction zone. Well, not pretty much, we will be. I wonder if we will have to wear a hard hat to go get our mail or take out the trash. I kid, but I'm serious too. The building is a few months away from being done. I confirmed yesterday that we are the first owners to be moving in. Aren't we special? Another owner is moving in later on Saturday afternoon after we get in. So, we won't be lonely for long.

So, there has been a lot of Pittsburgh for me this year. Dave and I went to PNC Park over the summer to catch a Pirates game while on another ballpark tour. Gretchen and I went there for the Rolling Stones/Pearl Jam concert in September. The Bengals beat Pittsburgh last weekend to all but tie up the AFC North. Now, earlier this week, the Reds traded one of my all-time favorite Reds, Sean Casey. I'm bummed about him leaving. He is too.

Labels: condo

Our condo inspection is on Monday. Hopefully there will not be much more work for them to do before our closing next Friday. Can't wait to see the place in a "finished" state. I've heard the building still looks like it has a ways to go (common areas and such) but, they are working night and day to get it completed. I'll post new photos when I have some. For now, here are all the photos of the place up until now.

While time is winding down to closing, we have been shopping around for furniture, and a fridge. There are way too many damn refrigerators at Sears. Yeah, I guess have a choice is nice, but there are http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifso many models that are nearly indistinguishable from one another. It's very confusing. It could be worse, for sure.

For furniture, we have been looking at stuff from this cool little store in Covington called Abode. They have a lot of items that fit our style, decent prices and the people there have been pretty nice.

PHiL's wedding was great. We had a great time and it was great to be apart of such a wonderful couple's celebration. PHiL asked me to stand up and give a toast during the reception and I think everything came out well.

A few other fun things are going on too. Chad is letting a few of us read a draft of his book. Very cool. Been doing some fun logo work, have a book cover to work on, website stuff here and there. Been busy. Rob's wedding is this weekend. The list goes on. All good stuff though, really.

Oh, and how about those Bengals? It's great to see this city alive this time of year. Football season was always so dismal with the Bengals sucking it up year in and year out. G and I are heading to the Buffalo game on the 12/24. Maybe they will clinch a playoff spot that day?

Labels: condo

Gretchen and I scheduled our closing date for the condo on December 9. It's a long time coming - we've had our down payment in before they started the rehab on the building in July '04. So, we are closing on the 9th, and moving in the next day. I wonder if we will be the first to move in? The first round of closings start on the 9th, so we are getting in pretty quick.

A few other things going on too.

I'm finished with my Summerfair poster entry. Every year, Summerfair (more info) has a call for entries from local artists and designers for that upcoming year's poster. I had originally designed this one for last year, but missed the deadline. I re-worked it for submission this year. We'll see what happens. The design did win a student Addy award - maybe it has good luck.



Also got PHiL's wedding table numbers done. They turned out kinda cool - PHiL had a great idea of using jersey numbers of famous Chicago Cubs players. I'm sure they will be a hit at their wedding this coming weekend.

Labels: condo

Yesterday was kinda a small bummer. When we signed the contract and put our money down on the condo, we set our closing date as October 31, 2005. We knew months ago that this date wouldn't be met, but still a little disapointing. We are looking at the middle of December right now, but still have no firm date. Hopefully we will be in before Christmas. Regardless, it's going to be crazy with all the holiday things going on and trying to move and set up house. But, what a Christmas gift, huh?

Here are the photos we have taken as the condo has been built out.

Labels: condo

Our kitchen
Originally uploaded by twentyfive.

Another shot of Gretchen in the kitchen. I'm really just posting this to see how the blog upload from flickr works.

Labels: condo

G and I went down to the condo yesterday to pick out a new type of granite for our bathroom. The piece that was orginally meant for our bathroom was cut wrong and unusable. So, we got to go up and see the progress on our place while we were there.

Most everything is done. I few things remain, such as blinds, closet cabinets and bathroom granite. It looks fantastic and we can't wait to get in. We hear that they are hoping to start moving people in December 10th, but we don't have a date just yet.

Here is a photo of G in our kitchen.



UPDTATE: I've posted a photo gallery here.

Labels: condo