Off To The LoneStar State

I am off to San Antonio to attend the wedding of Elson and Desirae.
I have been up since 345AM prepping for the flight. I have 3 new movies to watch on the plane, Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, The Sentinel, and Voltron: Season 1. You all know Voltron!!! I also picked up the new Janet Jackson and Snow Patrol and loaded it on my iPod.

Here are some photos from their Engagement Session that we did while Desirae was here from Texas.

I am going to try and get some of that famous Texas BBQ. My brother might also drive down from Shreveport, La. That should be fun, I haven't seen him in a while.

You all have a great weekend!!!

More Issues With The Dirt!!!

Hey All!!!

As you know I have been watching my house being built watching for discrepancies.

Well!!! I found more!!!

Along with the wrong garage door that was installed (I have not mentioned it to them yet!!!), they installed the wrong tile for my main bathroom and master bathroom. Sorry I have no pictures at this time. I didn't have my camera with me. I ordered and PAID FOR tile with the color Patina Green for the flooring. It has this beautiful light green hues. The bathroom countertops are a tan version of the same tile. Well the tile that was installed was grey with tan/brown accents.

When did GREY become GREEN!!!! The masterbathroom also has a backsplash that are 3x13 inch tiles that alternate. They are supposed to alternate with PATINA GREEN tiles as well. The instead used that GREY tile.

It has all been installed and grouted. I am going to see if they catch this MISTAKE!!!

I feel like I have been the primary superintendent of the project.

When one buys a home and spends 3+ hours in a flooring and countertops selection meeting meticulously choosing certain materials and colors to accent the home, get it listed in an invoice, signed off and payments made, shouldn't that be the materials placed in the home?

I will be going to San Antonio for the weekend for the wedding of Elson and Desirae. You can view their engagement photos on my main website http://www.marvintolentino.com under engagement sessions.

Trevor and Nga's Veeeeerryyyyyyy long Wedding!!!

On September 9th, I had the please of photographic Trevor and Ngas wedding. The wedding was a little long, it turned out to be almost 15 hours.

Their wedding ceremony was a mix of traditional and contemporary ceremonies.
First stop was in Lynnwood.
We started out at Trevors house as they were getting ready and preparing the gifts for the brides family. My understanding of how things work, is that the groom and his family must present gifts to the family of the bride for permission to marry the girl. Nga's family lived in West Seattle.
Once accepted, the heads of the families present gifts to the couple in red envelopes. The heads of the families then have a small breakfast.


From there, they head to the church for a traditional Catholic wedding. This church was located further into Seattle.

Keep in mind, it was very difficult to follow the ceremonies as the whole day was spoken by all in vietnamese.

The final ceremony has the families all return to the grooms families home for another ceremony and further blessings from the families and acenstors. So we are bacck in Lynnwood.

Then finally to China Harbor to PARTY!!!!

CAKE!!!!


I must say, this has been one of the most eye opening, interesting, colorful, friendly, hospitable wedding with cute brides maids.

More Pics From My Sunday House Visit

Ok actually two more pics...

Here is a picture of the jetted tub. Don't mind the green water, I guess they were just testing the piping. This will be the second tub that they installed. I'm not sure why, but I think they broke the first one. I also upgraded the windows as you can see from a clear to a frosted glass window. Last thing I need is for my neighbors to see my grand nakedness!!!

Below you see a photo of my new garage door. Guess what!!! It's the wrong one!!! I upgraded the door to be insulated and also not have windows. Do you guys see something wrong with this picture then?

I will be watching the builders for the next 1-2 weeks to see if they catch this mistake. I have pointed out all the errors that have been happening to the house up to this point. They tout a great quality check system that they have in place. Lets see if it actually works.

TIP: If any of you guys ever have a house built from the ground up. Watch the builders carefully. They use subcontractors. They make mistakes and cut corners.

I have pointed out things from electrical upgrade ommissions, placement of things in the wrong place, to using thinner insulation when thicker ones were called for, etc...

Puyallup Fair

So on Thursday, Maida and I went to the Puyallup Fair, the largest fair in Western Washington. The day started cloudy, then rain and then dried up a bit towards the end of the night.

Our main goal for going to the fair was eating food, but we also played a few games.
I won this little red bulldog for Maida playing the game where you take a wiffle ball, toss it in a basket and keep it from bouncing out. You can see it in the picture.

Here you see this years largest pumpkin weighing in at 1004 lbs. It was grown by Joel Holland. He has been competing in the pumpkin contest since 1996 and I believe won 6 or 7 times.

Imagine how many pies you can make out of that!!!

I also played Piggly Downs. You race against others by rolling balls in to holes at the end that determine your pigs speed. I loved these games when I was a kid. This go around, I played against 9 other people.

I won this pink pig on the first try!!! It was the biggest one they had.
Out of everything we went for, we only actually ate one thing that was on the list. We ate elephant ears.

What we didn't get a chance to eat were the Monster Burgers, scones and funnel cake. A little disappointing, but we had an awesome time.

Ok I'm having a little difficulty uploading more pics, but you can see a couple more here if your interested...

Click Here For Me and Maida

Click Here For A Texas Long Horn

Otherwise... have a good night!!!

Dirt Growing Up!!!

Welcome to my CRIB!!!!

I have been stopping by my new home site everyweek at least twice a week.

At this point, the house has its siding, interior plumbing is in place, but most fixtures are not, insulation is in place (they messed up on this), drywall is up, interior paint is up, electrical is up and in place. I am particularly proud of the lighting in this home, as I added a tremendous amount of lighting in this home. I will be adding more after the house closes.

On to the pictures!!!

The Kitchen was upgraded from 30 inch standard height to 42 inch height cabinets. The countertops will be installed later. They will be a beautiful black granite slab with hints of tan pieces to match the rouge colored cabinetry. It will look awesome.

The kitchen comes standard with 4 recessed lights and one over the kitchen sink. I decided to add another recessed light in the center of the main four. There will be great light in the kitchen.

When the house is complete and closing finalized, I am going to add some undermount lights to the cabinets and then some lights that will rest ontop of the cabinets to give a nice glow from the top.

The double door entry way into the master bedroom

This will be my office. I added two can lights on the far side. That area will be where my desk area will be.

The fire place is getting its mantle placed. It also looks like someone punched a hole in the wall. The fireplace will be surrounded by awesome smoky grey slate tile.

The chandelier over the dining area. I upgraded that beautiful chrome light source. It also has a nifty dimmer function.

More tomorrow

PLUS

Me at the Puyallup Fair!!!!

Tommy and Nora

A little behind in editing. But here are images from Tommy and Nora's Wedding from August 16th.

It was an awesome time. A beautiful bride and a handsome groom. The wedding was at the Embassy Suites Lynnwood. They have a beautiful indoor garden complete with waterfalls.

Nora wore an exquisite gown.

The Beautiful Nora

Tommy catching a peak at his beautiful bride!!!
Those precious few moments after the ceremony...