Friday, December 31, 2010

2010 Fingerhut Wrap-Up

During the holidays this year, I had an intense sense of gratitude that I have not had in quite some time. The last year brought quite a bit of struggle, and the difference between where my family and I are now and where we were a year ago makes me shake my head. In the fall of 2009, we bought our first house. Not everyone who saw it would necessarily call it a fixer-upper, but at this point, after everything we did, there’s really no getting around that phrase. I had my heart and mind set on doing the work of getting our new home in good shape by myself, but had to attack this project knowing that I was not, and had never been, handy. The goal was not to simply write a check, but to participate to the fullest extent possible, and gain some knowledge in the process. As nearly every single homeowner I know has told me, you never realize what you are getting into.

Fortunately, the list of people that helped us over the last 14 months is long, and full of experience, skill, and best of all, generosity. Before this new year gets into full swing, I could not properly begin looking forward without laying out what we have gone through to get here, and acknowledging everyone that was a part of it. So I have a few posts of before, during, and after photos, and I hope I can give adequate recognition to everyone who was involved.

While our living situation occupied most of our focus in 2010, my family had a ton of other great experiences. Hiroki turned two in February, and spent the year amazing us with his development, constantly learning new words, finding new things to jump off of and crash into, and growing into and out of clothes. He was excited to learn in August that he would be a big brother!

We put off a major trip to Japan in 2010 to focus on growing our family, and right after we took a short trip to Door County, Michigan, in August, our doctor confirmed that Michiyo is due in April, 2011. Getting through the first trimester was a hard-fought, team effort, made so much easier by the helping hands (as always) of family and friends. By the time the holidays rolled around, our house was shaping up nicely along with Michiyo’s belly, and her sister Masae came over for three weeks around Thanksgiving to be our first guest. Masae loved her third trip to St. Louis, and returned home just before our ultrasound in December, which revealed our April baby will be a girl!

My parents are excited at the prospect of a fourth grandchild, and their first granddaughter. For the last two years in March, and in the fold for 2011, we have enjoyed an entire-family getaway to a cabin in the woods of Carbondale, Illinois. Last year, one big cabin was occupied by Papa Joe and Julie Mama, my sister Lynn, her husband Rob, and their 0-year old son Henry (now 16 months), my brother Mark, who jumped off a houseboat into the backyard pond (Hiroki: “Uncle Mark, jump, SPLASH!), my sister Katie, and her husband Mike. In March of this year, we will share two cabins, and be joined my Katie and Mike’s new boy, Seamus, with Michiyo hopefully hitting the last month of pregnancy in good shape.

Finally, even with house chaos and Daddy duties over the last year, I found the time to fully engage in another year of entertainment. Both Abra-Kid-Abra and Complete Music kept me busy, especially in the summer and fall months. In June and July, for several weeks, I would perform 10-15 shows during the week, then DJ two and sometimes three events on the weekends. When all was said and done, at the end of the year, I received a trophy for being the #1 requested DJ in St. Louis for 2010. I am very lucky to have so many people that want me for their wedding receptions, bar mitzvahs, and other parties; after being #1 for 2008, I finished a close second in 2009, so it was good to take back the title this year.

I get asked a lot about my job and how I make a living. The answers always involve expressing how much I love what I do, being in front of people, helping them to laugh, enjoy an occasion, and make meaningful memories. In 2011, I am excited about new developments with career opportunities, and I look forward to keeping everyone up to date.

I know that Fingerhut updates have been non-existent besides word-of-mouth in 2010; I am not making any promises, but hope to be better about posting and being online in 2011 (maybe even Facebook, who knows?). Regardless, thank you for reading and being a part of our life. I hope YOU have a great 2011! Love Joe, Michiyo, and Hiroki

P.S. Please do not leave without reading the "Thank You" post, found on the right or clicking here: Thank you!

San Pedro

Quick Review: We bought a house near Rockwood Summit High School in Fenton, Missouri. My parents live about 10 minutes away, and we are very lucky to be in a beautiful neighborhood, with a lot of great neighbors, and a sweet backyard. Our house is a split level; upstairs has two bedrooms, a full bath, kitchen, and dining room plus living room area. Downstairs has a half bathroom, laundry room, a bedroom (office), and a big open area which we sectioned off part of for a storage closet. Instead of walking through a slow, mind-numbing, chronological story of the evolution of our house, I am going to keep it simple and interesting, displaying a few concise photos of the condition of several areas before, during and after.

Rehab Summary: The status of this house when we bought it was "Immediate Occupancy available." That should have been, "Immediate Occupancy available if owners want to live with two-level stench of urine in the carpets." My friend Larry and I began by removing all the carpets on both floors, and getting the stench out. First we took apart and rebuilt the upstairs bathroom, including floor, sink, toilet, and painted the walls. Downstairs, we took off some wood paneling and molded dry wall to reveal some water cracks, thinly constructed walls, and no insulation. So we took the walls and ceilings down (Demolition was FUN!), hired someone to seal the cracks, rebuilt the walls and ceiling, painted, and then Home Depot came in and carpeted. Upstairs, we painted, then laid down laminate flooring, then the trim. We rounded things out with a different stove and microwave in the kitchen, new water heater, and moved in. These three or four sentences cannot begin to describe the physical and mental struggle involved in this project. This photo might.


P.S. Please do not leave without reading the "Thank You" post, found on the right or clicking here: Thank you!

Bathroom



P.S. Please do not leave without reading the "Thank You" post, found on the right or clicking here: Thank you!

Kitchen

Most Credit goes to Larry for helping to lift these monsters to the kitchen, and cousin Davey for making them fit and bringing them to life. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

P.S. Please do not leave without reading the "Thank You" post, found on the right or clicking here: Thank you!

Living Room

This is the before photo. Looks fine, but the smell was putrid, and we wanted a different color. So we went to work.


Larry and cousin Davey got me started on laying the floor, and my brother Mark helped. But, for the record, on the entire upper floor, I humbly and proudly inform you that I laid 80-90% of the floor all by myself. Long nights, but good times.


P.S. Please do not leave without reading the "Thank You" post, found on the right or clicking here: Thank you!


Hallway

This hallway leads to . . .
Hiro's Room!

P.S. Please do not leave without reading the "Thank You" post, found on the right or clicking here: Thank you!

Master Closet

Ugh.

Nice.
Larry enlightened me about the benefits of adjustable closet racks. He showed me how to mount the shelves in the pantry, then I tackled the closets in the bathroom, Hiro's bedroom, and our master bedroom closet (pictured here). The beauty of these is that if you want to re-arrange the shelves, the only wall attachments are at the very top, so it's easy to change things around.

P.S. Please do not leave without reading the "Thank You" post, found on the right or clicking here: Thank you!

Doors

These doors came with the house. Besides being old, nothing really was wrong with them.
So I posted them on Craigslist for free, and within hours, they had a new home.
An old Jennings friend, Brian, with Knapp Contracting, came in and installed six beautiful door frames. I then painted six doors, ordered these nice levers (ahem, doorknobs) online, in addition to matching hinges and doorstops.

P.S. Please do not leave without reading the "Thank You" post, found on the right or clicking here: Thank you!

Dining Area

Getting this floor up was really my first individual demolition job, fun, difficult and very rewarding, all rolled into one.

Besides the floor, credit for anything that looks good in this photo goes to Michiyo.

P.S. Please do not leave without reading the "Thank You" post, found on the right or clicking here: Thank you!

Laundry Room




P.S. Please do not leave without reading the "Thank You" post, found on the right or clicking here: Thank you!

Downstairs Demolition


This picture gives a sense of what the downstairs area looked like. The wood panels were on three of the four walls, and only the beam in the picture stood in the center of a big open area. With no lights, the whole room was very dark. So after we removed the smelly carpet, took down the wood, and discovered some mold in the dry wall, we came upon a big crack.


Along with the crack, we discovered that the framing for the walls was thin, and there was no insulation. So we could make simple repairs and live with a cold lower level, or we could tear down everything, start over, and go for the gusto. We chose to have some fun with demolition!


Larry loves him some power tools, and taught me how to use them.


We rented an apartment five minutes away, and stayed there for a few months while the house rehab went on. Michiyo would stop by often while we were working, but her and Hiro had to stay away during the major tasks. I love that smile--she was so supportive the entire time.


To remove all the debris, we had to sort it into dry wall and wood. Thankfully, my neighbor Marty and others were always in need of some firewood, and we built quite a pile. His wife took one look at my tower and correctly stated, "You played with Legos when you were a kid." Still do.
The dry wall mess was broken down and fit neatly into 32 heavy duty bags. My sister Katie and her husband Mike assisted with the removal of all these, involving a wheelbarrow and an old door serving as a ramp up the steps. My new neighbors assisted with the, uh, disposal.

P.S. Please do not leave without reading the "Thank You" post, found on the right or clicking here: Thank you!

Downstairs Framing

Larry and Hiroki went to work building the walls.



Then we added insulation everywhere, and this task was shared by my family. One Saturday, my parents came over, then my sister Katie and her husband Mike, my brother Mark, and others helped complete the job.
Next, we moved dry wall sheets downstairs.
My brother Mark, and friend since high school Dave contributed to putting up the ceilings. Another high school friend Mike, came over very often and helped out Larry and me, but I somehow did not get any suitable pictures of him in action.


P.S. Please do not leave without reading the "Thank You" post, found on the right or clicking here: Thank you!


Walls, Paint, Finished

These pictures are the condensed version of MONTHS of torture. I am glad we took on this process ourselves, but if I could go back, I probably would have chosen to hire someone to tape and mud. If you don't know what "tape and mud" means, I hope you never have to experience it. Hire someone, seriously.
We had a bunch of good times thrown in with the frustrating moments. Let's enjoy one "union break" with Mike, my friend since high school:

Then again, the end result did come out pretty well, and it's very satisfying to have done it yourself.
I thought this day would never come. I took these finished pictures just before Thanksgiving 2010, nearly 13 months after we began.




P.S. Please do not leave without reading the "Thank You" post, found on the right or clicking here: Thank you!