Inspiration: Kitchen

More kitchen inspiration from Apartment Therapy: Jason Weinbeck's Mid Century Frugal Fix Up . This place is in Richfield, MN.

Our first big project at the new place is likely to be the kitchen, so I've been gathering up ideas and inspiration for the design.

Nice choice of materials (on a budget) in this cute little kitchen. The cabinets are from IKEA, we will definitely be considering them as a source in our design. The tile was cut down from standard 12 by 12 tiles to save money.

Inspiration: Kitchen & Dining Room

Some inspiration on the new place from Apartment Therapy: Midcentury Organic Remodel

The kitchen/dining room layout could be similiar to this (of course, we have a 1920s house and not a 1950s house).
I like the breakfast bar with seating. Not sure about having seating in front of the stove - seems dangerous and messy.

Love the dining table:

Why this house? Factor 1 - location

So, we had been looking at real estate for awhile. Years actually. It all started with an architect designed beauty that needed some work in west st paul. That was 2007. That was the first of a few houses that we lost out on because we were too slow, not sure, or undecided. It took us two years to get a little more decided on what we wanted in our next house. We had to look at a lot of houses and run through different scenarios. A bunch of factors went into our decision.

Factor 1 - Location

A big factor in buying the duplex was location. The age old truism in real estate. But location is about more than the value of your home, it's the place where you are going to spend a majority of your time. It's your start and end point. It's your neighbors and roads and parks and schools.

The only neighborhood we could both agree on was the one where we already lived - the longfellow area of Minneapolis. We knew we liked it. It's close to everything. We love being by the river and close to both downtowns. We didnt want to move to the suburbs. We love walking and riding our bikes.

But the choice was not without compromise.

Living in the city means a small lot. The new place is the same as our existing lot - about .12 acres, 50 ft by 120 or so. Not a lot of space to run a landscaping company. But it will work, because the alternative was the suburbs, and a long commute.

Also, the neighborhood is made up primarily of small homes, 1200 sq feet or so. The new place is 1900 sq feet. It is literally the biggest house on the block (but not by too much). We realize this is risky from a real estate perspective. However, there are a number of new homes going into the area, and lots of people fixing up their homes. The area is quiet, located in the heart of mpls and st paul, and is close to the river. We think its a great place to live, and we're doing this for us, so it's a risk we're willing to take.

Factor 2, to be continued: the budget.

I was at : 91 Silver Mountain Dr, Glenwood Springs, CO 81601,

Pictures of the new place - BEFORE

Well, it is happening. The old shitter is really ours. I suppose we need a new nickname now that it is almost ours (tomorrow). I think we are hurting the house's feelings with our negative talk. We need a new nickname with a little more encouragement. We need to boost up it's self esteem. Start to give it a little love.

There's a book from the 70s that posits that if you talk to plants, they grow better. We need to start applying this theory to this new house project of ours. No more negative talk. It's got a lot of "potential." It's gonna be beautiful - one day. It's like a pimply teenager. A little awkward, dressed up all funny, squeaky voice, bad manners.

So with that introduction, here are the pics. Squint your eyes a little and imagine something totally different, just the same shape on the outside. All grown up and beautiful.

Oh - and where is it? It's in the Longfellow neighborhood of Minneapolis, 5 blocks west of our current house.

Free money for energy efficient upgrades in Minnesota

Well, apparently there is a lot of free money out there for energy efficiency updates. Thank you Obama! We close on the new place on Monday, so we are starting to kick into high gear of planning. It appears that first on our list will be energy efficiency updates, since there is some pretty decent *free money* available to make this happen.

I found this really helpful overview of all the programs available in Minnesota: Minnesota Residential Energy Incentives PDF

Highlights include:

Heating, insulation, roofs, water heaters, windows and doors

Federal Tax Credit: 30% of cost up to $1,500 (for materials, not labor)
Expires: December 31, 2010

Energy Saver Rebate Program - 35% off, up to $10,000!!!!
We are definitely going to apply for this. It's a loan that refunds 35% of the cost of energy improvements, up to 10,000 back IN CASH. This is incredible. Funds are limited and will go fast.

DETAILS:
Rebates for 35% of eligible improvements, up to $10,000, as part of a home improvement loan. Eligible improvements include furnace, AC, windows, attic air sealing, attic & wall insulation, and water heaters.
Scheduled to begin in December, 2009.
Go to www.mnhousing.gov for more information.


Solar
With all the incentives out there, we are going to look into solar. Whoa. There is a TON to learn about here, we are just starting to dip our toes in the water.

Federal Tax Credit: 30% of cost with no upper limit
Expires: December 31, 2016
Use for: geothermal, solar, wind turbines

Minnesota State Solar Rebate Program
There seems to be a program that is specific to Minnesota, but that may have run out of funds. I need to check into this further.

One website i found said - "Minnesota's solar rebate program is funded by Xcel Energy. Homeowners can get a $2.00/watt rebate up to $20,000 with an additional $0.25/watt rebate for solar electric systems installed by NABCEP certified installers."

The state website says:
"This program has limited funds. Contact us to check the current status. If presently fully reserved, your name can be put on a waiting list. For more information: www.energy.mn.gov or Email: energy.info@state.mn.us"

Energy Star Appliances
Rebates (available through Minnesota retailers) for specific ENERGY STAR labeled appliances: refrigerators ($200); clothes washers ($200); dishwashers ($150); freezers ($100). Refrigerator rebates will require recycling of old refrigerator. Program is scheduled to begin in March, 2010.

Do's and Don'ts of Home Remodeling

In the last six years of remodeling our now almost perfect and hard to leave house, we've learned some lessons that we'll be able to apply to our next bigger & better project.

Here's the short list.

Do:

• Use grout the color of dirt for tiles. It never looks dirty.
• Install recessed lighting on dimmer switches. Simple, modern, moody or bright, makes stuff look good.
  
• Invest in good lighting. Brings a space to life and makes it much more usable.
• Invest in attic insulation. Easy, cheap, saves energy right away.
• Invest in a new furnace. This isn't cheap. But our furnace was from the 1940s. We got a huge boost in monthly savings from the new furnace, and it will make a difference for resale.
• Invest in gutters and regrading. We completely dried out our occasionally wet basement.
• Design smart storage solutions. Ikea has great inexpensive systems for storing just about everything.
  

Don't

• Get a glass shower door in the bathroom. Looks nice, but gets dirty so fast.
• Fix up 1920s windows. We spent a lot of time painting the interior and exterior of our old 1920s windows, and they still look old, and waste a lot of energy.
• Buy an LG over the range microwave with a vent hood. The microwave works fine, but the fan is really loud and weak.
  

Viva la house projects!

New House. No Kidding.

People, we're doing it.

We're buying a new house. I mean, new to us. It's old. 1920s old.

Seriously. We mean it. Ok, so we haven't closed yet, but we're gonna do it. We had the inspection and everything. There's no turning back without losing a pile of cash. I even turned off my automatic real estate searches. All 26 of them.

Here it is:


But don't get too excited. It's kind of in shambles. Not just kind of. Seriously. VERY.

You are going to think we're nuts. I think we're nuts. We're going to move from our lovely, nice, finished house to a smelly, ugly, catastrophe. (Seriously. Our nickname for it is "the old shitter." Chad said to me - "but I don't want to move into the old shitter", and it just stuck.)

But why, you ask?

Because it's got tons of POSSIBILITIES. Possibilities that we can actually afford to complete in the very near future.

We decided that we didn't want to wait until we were 40 to get the house we wanted. We wanted to find a way to make it happen now, while we are young, but on a budget. How could we do it? We went round and round. We almost bought tons of other houses. We stressed. We looked. It's not easy having champagne tastes on a PBR budget.

The option that finally made sense to us was to buy a run down house, for cheap, with good bones, good space, in a good neighborhood, that needs all new interior work, but no space additions. We found it. We bought it. Whew. All it took was a little over 2 years.

It's going to take some work. LOTS of work. TONS of work. But we get to make it our own. We get to make it 20 times better than the house we have now. Well, at least 4 x better, since it is twice as large, and since we now have some experience with this renovation stuff, hopeful we are twice as good at it. So that buys us four multipliers of improvement. We hope.

So, instead of going on a awesome tropical vacation, we get to go on a awesome home renovation adventure. Hmmm... wishing I could have both....

It's a duplex now, but we plan to convert to single family. Renters live in both floors, so we have some time until their lease is up to plan for the new adventure.

We're working with an architect friend to draft up the plans.. and also working through the logistics of being landlords.

Working to prepare for a new adventure ... but still dreaming of Thailand beaches. And winter hasn't even hit yet!

Floating House Of Brad Pitt

Cool house design - modern home floats in case of flood (New Orleans).


More images here

Writing Lesson of the Day: I and Me

So, I have to admit something. I got in a fight with my high school grammar teacher, and it's been haunting me ever since. I was sick with Mono, missed a lot of school, and then he wouldn't let me retake a big test. I went to the principal, and he told me I could drop the class, but that there were going to be difficult people in life that I would have to learn to deal with, and that I should start now by sticking to the class.

I dropped the class anyways.

Now, I'm constantly scouring the internet to make up for lessons I would have learned in that missed class. And, still working on that "dealing with difficult people" thing.

Grammar Lesson of the day: I and me
When you’re talking about yourself and someone else, be careful to use I and me correctly. Many people think it’s classier to always use I, and they end up getting it wrong half the time. The best way to know which one to use is to eliminate the other person from the sentence and see what you’ve got left.

Jenny and I went to the store. I went to the store. (That’s right.)

Grandma gave the cookies to Jenny and I. Grandma gave the cookies to I. (Nope.)

Grandma gave the cookies to me (that’s right).

Courtesy: Ten Common Writing Mistakes Your Spell Checker Won’t Find

Great Storytelling from Thai Commercial

on the lookout for inexpensive new modern home construction projects

We are on the lookout for examples of new, affordable and modern home construction, especially in the city.

Here is one example -- an 800 square foot house, built including land for $200/square foot --let us know if you know of more!

An Urban Pioneer
David Sarti is showing us that good things can come in small boxes

Happy 5th birthday frontyard: A pictoral history

2004


2005


2006


2007


2009


Here is a photo set that includes more photos from the history of our yard.

SE Asia trip: Photo highlights

For those of you who have short attention spans (and who doesn't?), here is a collection of my 18 favorite photos from our trip to Thailand, Cambodia and Laos this past winter.

Dream home slips through our fingers. Sad. :(

So, we decided we don't want to live in the suburbs.... which is why we missed out on this super awesome house at a super awesome price. Chad happened to drive by it, and by the time we checked on it.. the sale was pending. Sold in foreclosure for $315,000!!! INCREDIBLE! Now, we are sad. :(


Mid-Century Modern "Alcoa" Home For Sale in St. Louis Park, MN
Bedrooms: 3
Bathrooms: 3
Year Built: 1958
Area: 3600 square ft.

Mid-Century Contemporary Marvel! Post beam construction, combines decorative structural aluminum w/beautiful woods. Fantastic double lot, 3 bedroom, 3 Bathroom, open floor plan, vaulted ceilings, basement with 2 egress windows ready for finishing. Designed by Charles M. Goodman and constructed in 1958 as a project for the Alcoa Aluminum Company to showcase the wonders of Aluminum. Home needs restoration to bring back to original splendor.

Ira glass gives hope to those of us creating crappy content

Guess why: More married women work in Minneapolis than in NYC

New study shows: Commuting = wasted time.

From The Harris School at the University of Chicago

In Minneapolis, 79 percent of married women are employed, while only 49 percent are in New York.

Why, you ask?

"Black examined a variety of factors—local housing prices, child care costs, and local unemployment rates—but one stood out: commute times in metropolitan areas."

"The authors predicted, and confirmed, that cities with longer commutes are associated with fewer married women who work."

"A one-minute increase in a daily commute is coupled with a 0.66 percent decrease in the likelihood of employment. "

Smart women know -- commuting = wasted time!

Boys trip: fishing opener in the BWCA

Chad took some lovely photos in the BWCA for fishing opener this year. These are my favorites.

















Video: Collin dives in the cold water!



Brett & Collin both dive in!



Here is the full set of photos:

What Do Other Countries Eat For School Lunch

If you are what you eat, that means that U.S. kids are cheap processed crap and Italian kids are full of culture and traditions.

Read: What Do Other Countries Eat For School Lunch

Chad, will you build this for me?

patio set 1, originally uploaded by livegreenstlouis.

Cool patio set made of reclaimed flooring material.

homemade granola

Have you ever made homemade granola? It's easy, delicious, and nutritious! You can keep the ingredients on hand and make it when you run out of other breakfast stuff. You can eat it with yogurt, or with milk or soy milk. You can change up any of the nuts, seeds or dried fruit depending on what you have on hand. Some of my favorites are coconut, pecans, almonds, dried blueberries, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds. You can put more honey in if you want it sweeter. Since you make it yourself, you know that it's all good stuff - whole grains, nuts, and dried fruits without a lot of sugar. Who knows what is in the stuff in the grocery store?

Here is a recipe i use, from Rio Caliente Hot Springs Health Spa

Ingredients

2 lbs. rolled oats (not the quick-cooking or instant variety)

3/4 cup pecans, chopped or broken

3/4 cup pumpkin seeds, whole

3/4 cup hulled sesame seeds, toasted or raw

1/2 cup powdered low fat milk

2 T. sesame oil

1/4 cup honey

How to Prepare

Combine the first 4 ingredients in a large bowl and mix.

Add the powdered milk and mix again. Add the oil and honey and mix thoroughly, using your hands to turn the mixture over and over. Place into baking pans and bake in a slow (250F) oven for 45 minutes to an hour until golden brown.

Stir every 10 to 15 minutes. Let cool completely before storing in an air-tight container.

Note: If you add wheat germ, the granola must be refrigerated.

Additional ingredients: Powdered soy milk or flakes, peanuts, wheat germ, bran, oat, rye, wheat or soy flakes, soy nuts, raisins, currants or other dried fruits, almonds or other nuts, dried coconut.

Note: If you add soy flakes, be sure to include them at the very end of baking as they tend to burn.

The Decemberists - The Rake's Song

The Current is playing this song a lot. I had listened to it many times, enjoying the song, before i actually *listened* to the lyrics. It's the song of a family's massacre, and here i was, passively enjoying and absorbing it, while three children were being murdered! How many other things like this happen everyday, while we don't pay attention?

It's kind of fascinating (but still disturbing). Have a listen.



I had entered into a marriage
In the summer of my twenty-first year
And the bells rang for our wedding
Only now do I remember it clear
Alright, alright, alright

No more a rake and no more a bachelor
I was wedded and it whetted my thirst
Until her womb started spilling out babies
Only then did I reckon my curse
Alright, alright, alright
Alright, alright, alright

First came Isaiah with his crinkled little fingers
Then came Charlotte and that wretched girl Dawn
Ugly Myfanwy died on delivery
Mercifully taking her mother along
Alright, alright, alright

What can one do when one is a widower
Shamefully saddled with three little pests?
All that I wanted was the freedom of a new life
So my burden I began to divest
Alright, alright, alright
Alright, alright, alright

Charlotte I buried after feeding her foxglove
Dawn was easy, she was drowned in the bath
Isaiah fought but was easily bested
Burned his body for incurring my wrath
Alright, alright, alright

And that's how I came your humble narrator
To be living so easy and free
Expect that you think that I should be haunted
But it never really bothers me
Alright, alright, alright
Alright, alright, alright

Houses we *almost* bought

I admit it, I am addicted to house hunting. For your entertainment today, the story of three houses that we almost bought. These are houses that caused heartache, houses that we lost sleep over, houses that we very much wanted at the time. But i like to think we are in house buying training, and that something even better has got to come about. Above all, we have learned through this process about our likes and dislikes along with must haves for our next house.

1. West St. Paul House
July, 2007
I was browsing the MLS for homes over .5 acres, not looking to buy anything, just seeing if it was possible. There was one picture listed of this place, and it looked pretty run down. In foreclosure, listed for $256, in West St Paul, close to Mendota Heights, in an area of 400k+ houses. We were planning a wedding, not thinking about moving. One week later, we were in the area, and drove by. After walking around the house and the .75 acre lot, we were in awe. We called our realtor immediately. We made an offer a few days later, but those days of thinking cost us the house. There were already 4 offers on the house and they were not taking more.

Front of the house -- 50s architect designed, brick construction. Needs some landscaping help!
Nice living room with large windows looking out to the backyard. OMG, we loved this place.

The house from the backyard. Awesome deck out the back. Walk out basement. S-W-E-E-T!
Upstairs living room, walk out deck.

Back view of the basement walk out and upstairs deck.
Here is a picture of the house in better days -- before the foreclosure.

Downsides = 2 bedrooms 2 bath, but room for more bedrooms by converting tuck under garage.
Neighborhood was awesome, but suburban. The basement ceiling height was somewhat low.

Upsides = architect designed, solid construction, sweet spaces and flow, could move in with out too much updating, tons of land.

This was a SWEET house.

2. Golden Valley House
Feb 2008

So, we got married instead of buying that West St. Paul House. But we were hot on the trail of a sweet house, and determined not to miss out on a sweet deal again because of hemming and hawwing. We wanted to be ready for action.


This place in Golden Valley hit the market, and we went and saw it the same day, and made an offer that very day. Another house in foreclosure. The only problem was that we saw the house at night, and the power was turned off, so we couldn't see everything. But, we proceeded with the offer anyway, knowing that we would likely lose the house if we waited to see it again. We knew that others were interested in the house, too, because people were pulling up while we were looking, AND our realtor happened upon another couple making an offer. We had to act quick!

Our full price offer was accepted, but after careful consideration and inspection, we decided not to buy. The lot was too steep, and would have required 1000s of dollars in landscaping, and would never have resulted in useful spaces. The house design was OK, but not fabulous. One wing of the house was poorly heated. The neighborhood was good, close to the city and still close to 500k+ houses, but we were still not totally comfortable. All in all, we didn't feel right about it.

Making an offer was the only way we had a chance to even think about it.


The useable space in the backyard was small, because of the slope of the site. The lot was actually huge, about .75 acres, but mostly unusable.

3. House Near River Road, Minneapolis
November 2008
The only picture i have, from google street view. 1960s architect designed, tuck under garage, overgrown landscaping.

The house that got us away, literally, on our 3 month tour through SE Asia. This house hit the market one week before we bought our plane tickets to Thailand. THe location was stellar, one block off of west river road, in a neighborhood developed in the 60s in longfellow. I love this area, and walk through it often. It's about 4 blocks from our current house, but a world away from the 1920s bungalows. This was another foreclosure, the former home of an inventor. I wish i had more pictures. There was a complete mother-in-law apartment in the basement that we could have rented out to help offset the $300k asking price.

We saw the house the 2nd day it was on the market, and made an offer than day. We knew that if we got the house, our trip would be off. We also knew that there was another offer on the house, but we did not feel comfortable offering more than the asking price, which in retrospect we should have done to seal the deal. (Proving that hindsight is 20/20). We waited a week to hear back from the bank..... and we didn't get it. Promptly thereafter, we took that good faith check and purchased two tickets to Bangkok.

This was really a heartbreaker for us, because we loved loved loved the neighborhood, and we loved the house. The spaces were open and large, and the house was huge, with a rentable apartment. But we knew we couldn't swing the house and our trip. So, the universe picked an adventure trip for us, instead of slaving away restoring a foreclosed house.



What's Next?
There you have it. The story of three houses that got away, for better or worse. What's next for us? Time will tell. We've definitely learned a lot about where we want to live, what we want in a house, and what we are willing to do to make it happen. We have also learned that we really, really like the house that we have now, and that our next house has to be super stellar to make us make a move. But with rates this low, and so many distressed properties out there, i can't help but see what's listed on the MLS....

Some of my favorite house hunting tools:
Themlsonline.com -- has a google map feature to search home listings in Minneapolis/St. Paul, along with a great saved search feature
Zillow -- predicts expected value of home as well as neighboring homes
Google Street View -- type in an address, see a picture of the home and the neighbors. Wow!
County websites -- look up the property value, taxes, last sale date, lot size

some inspiration

Finish each day and be done with it.

You have done what you could;

some blunders and absurdities have crept in;

forget them as soon as you can.

Tomorrow is a new day;

you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

----------------------------------


The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

-Eleanor Roosevelt

Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, on Creative Genius.

I like this talk. Elizabeth Gilbert talks about the creative process, the historical perspective of "creative genius", and the anxiety and fear that creativity can cause. She makes the case that we should go back to the Greek/Roman thinking about creativity: that great work and great creativity is outside of our control, a muse and we are it's vehicle. Instead of worrying about our product, we should continue to keep showing up and hope that the muse makes an appearance.

Chad and Shane's Special Day

This concept photo documentary got me in a bit of trouble with Chad and Shane. But, I swear, all of the photos are real! What a date!

Our fancy digs in Bangkok

We had the good fortune to stay with our friend Shane in his fancy digs in Bangkok. Thanks Shane!

Hello, U.S.A.

After three days of traveling, we made it back to the U.S.A! It was very nice to finally be able to walk through the "local" line at the airport and not the foreigner line. Ahh, it is good to be home, where we can drink the tap water and everyone knows not to stand on the toilet.

We had a harrowing journey home as we flew right into the middle of chaos at the Tokyo Narita airport, where hours earlier a fed ex cargo plane crashed killing two people. Utter, utter and complete chaos. The airport was officially closed for 24 hours, but somehow, our flight from bangkok was still sent to tokyo, where we were stranded for hours with no plan and no information. Staff were obviously not prepared for an emergency. They finally bussed us to a five star luxury hotel ($600 plus a night) with no information about when our flight would leave, when or if they would pick us up again, or even who was paying the bill.

When our flight finally left 24 hours after it was scheduled, it was only 60% full even though it was one of the first flights out, and even though there were obviously many people who should have been on the flight who were still waiting in lines at the terminal. The situation was very poorly handled. We were sent to tokyo after they knew about the "incident", and even though the major runway was closed. Our plane coming in had to use a smaller landing strip to get in, but our larger plane to MSP could not get out. Why Northwest routed us to tokyo even though the airport was closed and then proceeded to put us in a luxury hotel with a steak dinner and 5* buffet breakfast is totally beyond me. This must have cost them a bundle, and could have been prevented by *not* flying us into the closed airport. Hello? Is this crazy or what?

Needless to say, we are happy to be home and also delirious from lack of sleep, but trying to stay awake a few more hours so we are not *totally* screwed up.

Escaping the party in Vang Vieng, Laos

Vang Vieng was really a very beautiful location, however, all the obnoxious partying and drug abuse by backpackers had, in my opinion, basically ruined the town. Who wants to see a 6 foot tall skinny white girl in a bikini limping/pacing back and forth like a zombie, with a hurt foot/ankle that she does not even notice, eyes wide, dark, red and swollen, moaning and repeating to herself, f*ck, f*ck, f*ck, because she is too messed up to know what is going on? It was in some ways astonishing to watch, I admit. I tried to say something to her but her eyes would not focus on me, she was in her own world. Eventually we did see that she hooked up with another bunch of girls who helped her, thank goodness.

Video: Crazy party scene in Vang Vieng, Laos

Instructions:

1. Head to one of the poorest, most conservative, rural countries on earth where the women wear long sleeves in 100F heat.

2. Put on your bikini!

3. Wait in line at the tubing station and pay a few bucks to get your own tube.

4. Hop on the bus to the river.

5. Head to the river bar and buy some $2 mojitos. Dance to the music!

6. Draw some stuff all over your body. Example: Free Hugs!

7. Climb up the bamboo ladder and swing 50 feet into the river.

8. Tube about 50 feet to the next bar.

9. Repeat.

Video: Chad loves rope swings

Video: Traditional laos dance & music

Video: Chad crosses a bamboo bridge via vespa

Vientiane, Laos Itinerary & Photos

-A visit to the very strange Buddha park with crude concrete sculptures and lots of school kids running around.

-Scooting on a vintage 1950s red vespa all over the countryside, waving to the kids and stopping for some noodle soup and beer lao with locals who knew no english but had lots of smiles and laughs. Our old police moto helmets gave them pause.

-Delicious dining on fine french cuisine & chilled bourdeaux.

-Crossing a rickity bamboo bridge by scooter! Two 9 years olds passed us on a moto and had no fear.

-The beautiful Lao textile museum, set in a lush facility with gardens and teak buildings.

-Hanging out at another concrete monstrosity, the victory arch, a project constructed out of concrete that was supposed to be made into an airport runway.

-Watching cute laos dancers at a cultural show.

Incredible story of landmine remover in Siem Reap, Cambodia

Aki Ra was a child soldier who marched in front of the older soldiers laying land mines in his native Cambodia. Now, his life's work is removing land mines from his country. He began this incredible musuem just by collecting remains from land mines that he had removed. Tourists started to stop by, eventually his house became the land mine museum. The museum has since moved to a dedicated facility that also provides housing and a school for kids impacted by the landmines. Meanwhile, Aki continues his work removing the dangerous and devastating landmines, which are designed to maim rather than kill victims (the war theory being that an injured soldier is more expensive to the enemy than a dead soldier). A truly inspirational place and story of how one person can really make a difference in their own community and in the world.

Video: Chad Eats Two Silkworms

Silk Weaving in Siem Reap, Cambodia

When we were in Cambodia, we visited a silk farm operated by Artisans D'Angor. It's a project to sell local handicrafts and provide fair market jobs to the local people. The free tour was very informative -- of course they bank on visitors making some purchases in the gift shop, which we did (an amazing grey silk dress for me!)

Angor Wat, Cambodia

Apologies -- lots of temple pictures here. Angor Wat was truly spectacular, the level of craftsmanship, detail and scale is difficult to comprehend, even today, but completed 700 years ago? Astonishing.

Emily walking to the temples in angor wat, cambodia

Angor Wat, Cambodia video

The Road to Cambodia

Chad recovered, and we made it to Chang Mai, Thailand, where the internet connection is much better than Laos. In other news, here are some pictures from the drive into Cambodia from Thailand.

Struck by bacteria.

Well, it has finally happened. Chad is down and out in the hotel with a bad case of food poisoning, or some kind of nasty bacterial invasion. Somehow, i managed to escape. We ate exactly the same thing yesterday, so I must be very lucky indeed.

It's strange. A few days ago, we shared the same lunch and the same dinner with a couple here after our kayaking trip, and we ran into them a few days later, they were both sick and throwing up all the day before. Chad and I totally escaped that one, even though we had exactly the same dishes as they did. My theory was that our stomachs were more accustomed to the bacteria here, since we had been here for 2 months and they were only here for two weeks. I don't know why the bacteria gods chose to infect chad and not me, but I am fine.

We had booked an air ticket to Chang Mai for today, but luckily i was able to change it to tomorrow. Hopefully chad will be feeling better by then, or we may need to change it again. It's much better to be recovering in a comfortable, familiar hotel than have to catch a plane and then carry our packs all over looking for a new place to stay. We are in no hurry to get to Chang Mai, other than our time here in SE Asia is soon coming to a close and we will be meeting up again with Shane on Friday. We should have no problem getting there by then.

Last day in Louang Prabang, Laos

Chad and I have been in Louang Prabang, Laos for over a week now, as we have really enjoyed the culture, scenery and people here in this little sleepy town.

A highlight of our time here was a kayaking trip down the Nam Ohn, about a one hour drive out of the city. On the way to the river we stopped at two local villages and "exchanged information" (as our tour guide put it) with the locals in the village. One of the villages was a Hmong village that had been relocated from the mountains further south down the hill. Our guide was also from a Hmong village and so he spoke the local dialect of the people there. Our guide was from a hmong family, and his parents had previously been opium farmers. He said that in 2000 Opium was outlawed, leaving many of the hmong without jobs and without a way of life.

We saw them going about their daily jobs such as the blacksmith mending an ax, knife sharpening, paper making, and weaving baskets and bamboo roofing materials. We were invited into the home of the village shaman, who played us a toon on his bamboo instrument. He asked our guide if he would come back to the village and teach the local kids, as they had no school and no education system in place. There is a widespread belief here that education is really the path to a better future, but it's hard to come by in a little village with no teachers and no school supplies. Learning english seems to be the path to a good job in the tourism industry, which is really pumping much needed cash into the economy. The kids in the village followed us around with huge smiles.

After the village visits, we spent the day kaying on some class 2 white water.

Along the way, we heard the sounds of what we thought to be generators along the river. We asked our guide was was going on, and he said that the people were panning for gold. We stopped at one of the operations to get a good look. About every 50 meters, about 25 people sat along the river banks. Wooden boats held 2-3 air compressors that had clear plastic tubing attached, going out into the river. At the other end of the tubes, at the bottom of the river, the plastic tubes were giving air to men who were collecting the dirt on the river bottom. The plastic tube was stuffed into a diving mask so that the men could breathe for 20 minutes or so on the river bottom. They took a simple bag and the mask and air tube, and then used their hands to collect the river rocks. There were several men walking on the bottom of the river at a time collecting the dirt. They would bring it to the surface, and the women used big wooden bowls to swirl the dirt in the river to sort out the big rocks, and eventually find little teeny specks of gold in the bottom. We watched a women doing the panning, and in about 10 minutes she had maybe 20 teeny teeny specks of gold. Amazing! People all along the river were using these home made scuba diving contraptions to collect tiny specks of gold. Considering the alternate forms of employment available (paper making, weaving, farming) the gold operation seems very lucrative indeed. Our guide even joked that he should find a wife in this village, as only the local villagers had rights to pan the river for gold.

Tomorrow, we fly to Chang Mai to meet up again with Shane for the weekend.

Lovely Luang Prabang, Laos

Luang Prabang, Laos is probably the loveliest place that we have traveled to so far. It's a small city of around 26,000 but big on culture, personality, and in a gorgeous natural setting between two rivers and the mountains. It was the former capital of Laos, and is filled with temples, varied architecture influenced in the styles of Laos, Thai, Vietnam and France, and cultural activities like the Royal Museum, National Theatre, lots of art galleries, cafes, and the biggest night craft market in all of Laos.

The people in Laos are very gentle and kind, unlike the Cambodians who were more aggressive in their selling techniques, and the Thai who are also very friendly and accommodating, but less caring and gentle. 80% of people live outside the city, making their living mostly with rice farming, making textiles, paper, or whisky.

Today we biked to a weaving village 4km outside of the city. The bikes we rented were pretty crappy, and it turns out i really don't like mountain biking, but it was nice to get out of town and get a peak at village life. Everyone in the village we visited makes their living weaving textiles. Each home had a loom sitting outside where the women were at work, weaving intricite silk and cotton textiles. The mothers teach their daughter how to weave each piece. We stopped at one house that had a large display outside, and got to watch the mother working on a very detailed piece, while the daughter worked on a less intricite, but still beautiful and patterned piece. The son was making a fishing net. We bought some textiles and biked our way on, stopping at a few other places including a silversmith house and then to a roadside shop for lunch. We had purchased some baguette sandwiches in town to bring along for the ride. For $1.25 we got a huge baguette filled with chicken and vegetables.

Another great thing about Laos, because of the French influence there are baguettes everywhere. Unlike Thailand, where they do serve bread to the tourists for breakfast, but it is basically wonder bread that sucks. The lao have adopted the baguette as their own, and fill it with pates and fillings of their own making. Lots of bakeries and cafes line the streets, and you can get a huge fruit shake and a beer lao almost anywhere for $1 each. Also, they have decent wine here, including imported french wine, and a local wine made here. They also sell bottles of lao snake whisky -- with cobras and scorpions along with the whisky. We haven't tried this yet.

Tomorrow, we head to some class 3 rapids on kayaks up river.

Ko Chang, Thailand Photos

We met up with our elusive friend Steve Q. and his girl in Ko Chang, Thailand -- here are the pictures to prove it.

Erawan waterfall video, Thailand

Photos from Kanchanaburi, Thailand

We spent a long weekend in Kanchanaburi, Thailand, with our friend Shane. It was a good escape from Bangkok. We visited the largest waterfall in Thailand (Erawan) and also saw and learned about the bridge over the River Kwai.

99 degrees in Vang Vieng, Laos!

Hot damn, it's hot in the shade. Emily and I are still in Vang Vieng, Laos and we have moved out of town a few miles to a quiet bungalow on the river. I am not sure if tourism is down, or it is just a quiet time, but we have the entire place to ourselves. A small family lives on site and runs the entire place. They are also our chefs when we are around, and I love them for this.... However, last night Emily was super tired and left me at the table by myself with an entire fish, two orders of rice, and a good size dish of green curry/chicken. I did my best but later realized that I couldn't fall asleep the entire night due to my binge eating. I had a whole table of local men drinking beer across from me and looking at me like I had ordered it all.

Our first night in this party town, we witnessed two men stumbling and being helped into a back of a Tuk tuk (taxi), on with the back of his head bleeding out, and off they went. second, we noticed many people started to seem very strange and the later and darker that it got the crazier everything seemed. One group of tubers dropped off back in town all were a mess. One man fell straight to his backside, and the other tore off into a nearby restraunt, and the girl was walking downt the street like frankenstein. We know that there is a huge party scene here and that everything is available to poison yourself, but seems like many went over the edge. Emily and I just sat and watched the mayhem for a while and couldn't believe it was real.

The town is also know for their TV bars, yes, TV bars. They run episodes of Friends, Family Guy, Simpson's, and Seinfeld while you order your choice of marijuana, opium, or any mushroom blended treat you can imagine. There are dozens of these places and they were packed every day and night. Yikes....

Yesterday we thought we'd check out how an entire town can be packed with travellers just here to tube and party. We started around noon, being dropped off up river at a loud bumping bar with a deck over the river. I noticed a bunch of cables and strange ladders leading up to this tree/deck area 40 ft off the ground. IT was here that a man hands you a trapieze handle to send you swinging 40-50 ft over the viewing deck and at your decision, you can fly down to the moving river. It was incredible. I did not have enough courage in me to have a go at this, especially after watching a few unpleasant water entries. Some travellers boasted great style with laid out back flips and the occasional double. We moved down river to the junior body slinger, still sending you flying around 30ft. Good times. I am going to work on some plans to build one at the cabin. Ron said that he would help.

We are off back on our mini-moto back to the village. We miss everyone... home sickness is kicking in.

Chad and Emily

Quick update on Laos

We're in Vang Vieng, Laos, surrounded by lovely limestone cliffs, a beautiful river, and lots of other tourists who are here mostly to party. They say this is the adventure capital of laos, but it seems to us like the party capital. We quickly realized this and headed out of town to a very quiet location.

Today -- we tube the river.

Tomorrow -- we go kayaking and river rafting.

We are both missing home but definitely enjoying the adventure.

Soon, we are off to Louang Prabang, Laos.

Off to Laos

Tomorrow we fly to Vientienne, Laos. We enjoyed Cambodia, but we are anxious to head to Laos for a more relaxed pace.

The main attraction in Siem Reap, and in all of Cambodia, and also the reason we came here, is Angkor Wat, ruins of the ancient Khmer city of one million plus which represented the height of culture, art and architecture of the 11th century.



The scale and intricicy of the temples was truly astonishing; it is one of the wonders of the world. However, the town is completely filled with tourists from all over the world clamoring to see the temples -- mostly japanese tour groups and adventure retiree tour groups.

The Cambodian people (and foreign interests) have quickly capitalized on tourism to the temples. Only 30 years after 1/5 of the population was killed by the Khmer Rouge genocide, there now exists a variety of western-style luxury resorts, restaurants, ATMs and performances.

Reminders of the genocide 30 years ago and the widespread povery are not too far from the luxury resorts, however. Small children stand outside of each temple trying to sell bracelets and postcards, (10 for $1 mister, you buy something, maybe later? I remember you! buy from me!) Tuk-tuk drivers desperately try to get riders whenever a tourist walks by. The main tourist area is lined with boutiques selling handicrafts funded by NGOs to help the people get back on their feet. The first international tribunal trials for the genocide opened in the capital this week. Blind and disfigured landmine victims walk into restaurants asking politely for money. The landmine museum was founded by a 30 year old former child soldier who now spends his time de-mining the landfields of cambodia. And the children at the orphanage perform free dance shows to bring in people to donate $$.

The plight of the people here is hard to ignore, but also disturbingly easy to ignore while sipping on a beer laos.

We made it to Siem Reap, Cambodia

Well, we made it to Cambodia! We left at 7am on Saturday, and arrived in Siem Reap by 7pm on Saturday.

The trip was exhausting. The road from Thailand to Cambodia was paved only in parts, and was filled with cows, bicyles, various home made machines, and motorbikes. We rode in the upgraded "taxi"option to Siem Reap, which cost $15 a person (a lot) but saved us 3 hours of transit. And, all the times they say are wrong, so it probably saved us 5 hours. Apparently this road is much better than it was in the past, as they were working on paving it (while we were driving on it). Every 10 minutes or so we would have to avoid a new part of the paving process by swerving out of the way of the machines and workers. The driver kept his hand on the horn, honking at every single bicylist and moto that we passed. This meant literally that he honked the entire drive.

We got through immigration with no problems. Since we already taken passport photos, we did not have to pay the $2 required to bribe the officials not to worry about the fact that you don't have photos. We also paid $1 to "expedite" the processing of our visa, which i was more than happy to pay.

In Cambodia, everything is priced in US dollars, but when you pay, you get anything less than $1 back in their local currency, which is Riel. The ATMs dispense Riels. It seems to me like the local people pay in riel, and the foreigners pay in dollars. Today we went to a restaurant where there were no other foreigners, and the guy accidentily told us the price in reil, but then switched to dollars. The dollar price was about 1/3 more. However, in some places it is more.

We went to the temples of Angor Wat today and basically we were forced to eat lunch there. This is the #1 tourist attraction for hte whole country and basically the reason that everyone is here. So, the lunch menus were really pricey, all run by local people, for example, noodle soup = $4. I kept saying, too much, too much, and then they immediatlely dropped the price. Ok, special price for you lady, i give you discount. We got about a 50% discount on their menu prices, but it was still overpriced. You can't blame them, the people here are very poor and the surge of tourists represents something very far out of reach.

One more thing for now, it is HOT HOT HOT HOT here. I am not sure about the real temperature, but it feels about 100 at noon. I was seriously not built for this weather. I realize that I have traded one extreme for another. There is tons of dust in the air because of the dry season, and also lots of smoke because of the cooking methods, and the slash and burn agriculture. All the people on the road wear bandito masks over their noses and mouths to avoid the dust, chad and i have starting doing this as well. But, i am not going to let it bother me. I swear.

Kho Lak video

Video tour of our bungalow in Ko Sok national park

Border run to Myanmar to renew visa

Ko Lak and Similian Islands, Thailand

Jungle Hiking, Cave Exploring, and Boat Trip in Ko Sak, Thailand