The remodeling work on our house (the interior at least) is almost complete! Just a bit more work on one of the bathrooms, one of the guest rooms and some random things....which will probably take a few more months knowing how slow we and the contractors work around here. But here are some pictures of the new kitchen: Kitchen1, Kitchen 2. We love the new kitchen except for the window which will be fixed tomorrow. The countertop is granite tile (in absolute black) and the floors are procelain tile that looks like stone. Charlie wants to point out that he picked out the beautiful sink and faucet and put up the track lighting :) We tore down a wall where the 'penninsula' is right now. You can see a right above on the ceiling. We added that to tie in the 2 ceilings because the dining room and kitchen ceiling height were slightly different. It's much nicer and more open now! Just so you could REALLY appreciate the work we did to the place, here are some before pcitures! Before: Kitchen 1, Before: Kitchen 2.

Here are a few of our living room: This is the archway between the dining and living room, and Before. Here are a couple of the living room: Living Room 1, Living Room 2 ...Before - ah! green paint!

And here is one of the downstairs/guest bathroom which we are using as our bathroom for now untill the upstairs one is completed. We only did a partial remodel for this bathroom. It has new floor tiles, we replaced the vanity with a pedestal sink, new toilet and a mirror instead of the old ulgy medicine cabinet. Some before pictures: before 1, and before 2.

Much thanks to Charlie's dad, Peter for helping us with a lot of the seemingly small things which really were big things!! And tools we borrowed from our friend Justin of course! More pictures to come when we clean up some and when we finish the upstairs bathroom and move out of the guest room!

I meant to post one after my trip to Hong Kong a month or so ago but never got around to it. And then it seemed too late to write a posting because Charlie and I will be off to Hong Kong and Shanghai again in a week's time! But then I came across this article, which basically summarized all that I wanted to write about! The author is American but lived in Hong Kong for 15 years and sounded like he was in Hong Kong around the same time I was in late October/early November! It's a very good and true article, it even made me feel a bit homesick!

Charlie complained about the lack of postings so I thought I would post one. We are working on a new website to better document our travels, wedding details and life in Reno. Hope to get that up and running relatively soon!

We had a fantastic thanksgiving weekend in Santa Fe with all the Oppenheimers, including Charlie's nephews, little Fritz (with daddy and baby bro) and Baby Max (in the cute outfit we got him). Lots of turkey and ham, Mom's great cooking and sumptous meals at some very fine New Mexican eateries including the best Red Chili I've had at Rancho de Chimayo !! Yum! We also visited Charlie's buddy Prairie and his adorable baby girl, Ella! All in all a great visit! lots of food, lots of babies and doggies to play with! And it's always nice to spend time in Santa Fe.