Done Deal

MEL’S DINER
We go down to San Clemente for breakfast. We have a view of the ocean and pier. There is an elderly man sitting at one of the outside tables in front of us. David announces to our family that he will be that man one day. He will sit outside this restaurant and talk to every passerby. In fact, he will come here each day because he will own this place. “People will call me Mel and they will call you Flo...” He gets more excited by the forkful. By the end of our meal, and it’s a good one, David is set on moving our family to San Clemente. We take a walk over to the pier — breathe in the ocean smells, watch the surfers, and it’s a done deal for David. He’s looking for realtors. Our next anniversary will be spent in the cute little hotel around the corner. We can shop, and go to all the restaurants here. Our oldest son is afraid he’ll never see his friends again. We're not even half way done with our kitchen. What is he thinking? We see a condo with an open house sign. It’s a 3-bedroom, beautifully decorated condo with an amazing view of the pier and ocean — and a price tag to match. The high price helps the boys and me. “Okay, maybe not so close to the ocean”, says David.
Rats!

ALL IN THE FAMILY
We hired the plumber’s brother-in-law for electrical. He was the most detailed and helpful of the three electricians we talked to. He turned out to be the most reliable vendor we’ve ever used. He comes over at 8 am sharp or calls when he can’t (which is rare) and comes soon after. The plumber is more likely to promise 8 am and not show up for two days. True, there are a lot more plumbing emergencies than electrical, but we’ve been put off so many times, it’s not funny. One time the plumber’s office said they completely cleared out Keith’s schedule and told everyone not to divert him to any emergency. I know this is true because our electrician came in one morning and told me he saw the schedule board at the plumber’s. It said Keith is at our house all day Wed. We both laughed. The electrician told me about a new code that requires a certain amount of florescent or LED lighting in your kitchen. We got these requirements faxed to us from City Planning so we can request more money from our insurance. We did the same for smoke detectors. Those are now required in each bedroom.

NEXT POST
Check back next Monday for more restaurant stories and our kitchen remodel progression! Scroll down for the photos.

The Framework

ENGINEER WE GO
I have all intentions of going to the gym for a workout trying to lose this weight from eating out at restaurants for every meal. I am at the gym filling up my water bottle. I look down at my feet and notice my flip flops are where my gym shoes should be. I contemplate doing a little exercise with flip flops, but decide push ups won’t work and leave disgusted with myself. I decide to do something else productive. I drive the engineer’s plans to his office so he can give me the updated version. David and I had noticed the vent was in the way of one of the new joists, so the engineer had to recalculate. He explained to me it was like two hands holding up a table, but just moving your hands to a different position. I could tell he loved his job by the way he talked. I was still thinking about our choice of granite and asked about this piece of furniture in his office with marble. He started talking about the marble that he and his wife have in their kitchen. They chose white even though they knew it would stain or chip. She thought it was part of the character of a home. Then he went on to tell me about her delicious food she cooks him from their garden and her career as a florist and the flowers she grows from her own garden. It was almost like listening to a soap opera. I was waiting for the commercial… Anyway, this engineer did make another mistake we found out after City Planning approved the first plans! He thought a plumbing pipe was an old joist and put the new joist in the wrong place. Our project manager discovered this after the water was turned off in our Master bathroom and we were down to one bathroom with out-of-town guests for a week! To our engineer’s credit, if not for his optimism and creativity, we never would have gone ahead and took out the retaining wall in the first place; the first engineer we consulted with said “NO, it can’t be done”. Well, it’s done.

CHUG IT
We decide to go to our favorite sushi bar at the time, Riptides. The place is large and contemporary. They have a full bar, Tappan grill and dining tables. We always sit at the latter. David loves his “Sexy Mutha roll” and the boys get tuna rolls, shrimp tempura, miso soup and edamame. I’ve been trying to be experimental so I try the “Emperor Roll” It has Beluga caviar, tuna and crabmeat – the fanciest roll I’ve ever tried. When it comes to the table, it looks beautiful and comes with a shot glass. The server asks me if the waiter told me what the whiskey in the shot glass was mixed with. I didn’t even know it came with a shot. David and the boys get excited and cheer me on to drink the shot really fast. “Chug it! Chug it!” they chant as I drink. It tastes more like soy sauce, garlic and oil than alcohol, but it was a sushi place, so it makes sense. Yet doubts start creeping up when I explain the shot to my family. David asks the waiter about the shot as I hide the empty glass from his view. “Just drizzle the sauce on your roll a little at a time,” he warned. “The truffle oil is pretty strong.” After he leaves, we laugh so hard my stomach hurts. Or was that the sauce?

NEXT POST
Check back next Monday for more restaurant stories and our kitchen remodel progression! Scroll down for the photos.

Same 'ol Same 'ol

How many of you tend to eat dinner out at the same few places? Whether the reason is because they’re convenient, or you just like them… you just do. We did this basically twice a week. Fratello’s or Outback, Soup Plantation and I Hop. We’re a family with young kids. With the insurance, I was ready for a change. My husband, David is your “meat & potato / chicken parmesan and lasagna guy”. Since April, if we got in the car and I didn’t have another restaurant on my lips that he liked (not Mexican or Chinese), he would say “I’m pulling over, and if you can’t think of a restaurant in the next 2 minutes, better than Fratello’s, we’re going to Fratello’s. His favorite saying is “Stick with what you know.” I’m total opposite when it comes to food. Pretty soon I learned my lesson and started researching different places to go. We started venturing out and found some really great places. David had to eat “crow” a few times. Especially when I found Tabu Grill. His favorite “fancy place ever”. If you know of any great places, please add them to the comment box. We still have more to try out, but so far, here’s my Favorites List:

DINNER
Sorrento Grille — Laguna Beach
Tabu Grill – Laguna Beach
Bistro K – Laguna Niguel
Houston’s - Irvine
Jizaki sushi – Laguna Niguel
Nick’s – San Clemente
Five Crowns - Corona Del Mar
Bistango - Irvine
St. Regis Resort – Monarch Beach
Riptide – Mission Viejo
Benihana - Irvine
P.F. Chang’s – Mission Viejo
Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. - Longbeach
Bronx Pizza – San Diego
Opah Restaurant & Bar – Laguna Hills
Avalon Grille – Avalon
Cedar Creek Inn – Laguna Hills
Thai Kitchen - Irvine
King’s Fish House– Laguna Hills
Sammy’s – San Diego
Mr. B’s Pizza Kitchen – San Juan
The Derby – Mission Viejo
Avila’s El Ranchito – Laguna Niguel & San Clemente
D.Z. Akins Restaurant – San Diego
The Lumberyard – Laguna Beach
The Vintage Steak House – San Juan

LUNCH & COFFEE
Fitt Meals To Go
Chipotle
Jersey Mike’s Subs
Surfin’ Souvlaki
Corner Bakery Café
The Neighborhood Cup
Sundried Tomato
Bruegger’s Bagels
Starbucks Coffee


ENGINEER PLANS
I’ll talk about the engineer revision next week since this restaurant review is kind of long.

NEXT POST
Check back next Monday for more restaurant stories and our kitchen remodel progression! Scroll down for the photos.

The Story Continues

You may be curious why our kitchen remodel is taking so long. We’ve asked ourselves that question. So has our insurance company by now. The answer is this:

Part 1: The first three months were spent waiting for our insurance co. to finalize the number they were going to pay for the damages. We went back and forth with Robert (all names are changed), the restoration guy, acting on our behalf, with the adjustor our insurance agent sent. Robert had plans to do the entire job, but we discovered he wasn’t a licensed contractor (he was just planning to hire one). We also found out from Robert’s bill to our insurance, that he not only acquired the profit he got from each of his vendors that he hired, he added 10% profit and 10% overhead on top of the bill. All this while complaining constantly he wasn’t making anything! I can see making profit on one end, but not on both ends. That just sounds wrong. Needless to say, that is the reason we found a contractor to do the entire job once we had the insurance settlement. My advice, restoration and contractor should be two separate companies.
Part 2: Okay, now we’re still 6 months in and cement kitchen. What’s up with that? I’m going to chalk it up to a bottleneck at the 1st stage of our design planning with our contractor. The Owner is the one to work on design until he gives the job to a Project Manager. He told us it takes 3 weeks for design. We thought that seemed long. Ha! 3 weeks dragged into over 2 months. Good for him that he’s too busy, but bad for us! He was difficult to make meetings with; each time we had a cabinet drawing done or any cabinet changes, it took days or a week in between. The project just dragged on from weeks to months.
Part 3: We also had a retaining beam and post to deal with. While the design was still going on, we had to get an engineer to design plans, get the owner permit, and hire the plumber and our contractor to frame our ceiling for strength. Now the cabinets are finally in the building stage with a project manager. Our electrician asked me the other day why I am still “happy” when he found out we’ve been without a kitchen since April. There have been problems along the way (see upcoming posts) but I have confidence that we will have a beautiful kitchen when the project is finished. That’s why I still have a good attitude.

BAGEL VS. BAGEL
Before home remodel we rarely went out for breakfast, and never for bagels. Now we’re searching for new breakfast places all the time. We discovered people love bagel places. Lines out the door! We went to the closest one – I Love Bagels. It was alright. Then they closed for about a month until they relocated. We were forced to find a new bagel place. We found Bruegger’s Bagels. It was much farther, but the bagels were soooo much better! Even when I Love Bagels opened again, we gave it another shot. That day was a disaster… I was waiting in line at I Love Bagels, and our dog, Powder, was in the car with my family. They had just gotten the Starbucks drinks. Powder got excited when our neighbor and his niece pulled up to say hi. Powder's nails went through our Starbucks coffees while they were in the cup holders. David saw in slow motion, the coffee squirt up like it was Mount St. Helena. The lids flew up and coffee squirted into every electronic crevice in our car. We rushed to get wet towels to clean it up, but I don’t think it will ever be the same! After all that, the bagels were just too hard on the outside. They tasted day-old in comparison. Bruegger’s, in Aliso Viejo is worth the drive! Plus, you can watch them make the bagels.

NEXT POST
Check back next Monday for more restaurant stories and our kitchen remodel progression! Scroll down for the photos.

Restaurants - Here We Come!

DRINK UP!
When it comes to restaurants, we are not normally big alcohol drinkers. Frankly, it’s expensive to get drinks. And we’d rather use the extra calories on dessert anyway. So, before insurance gave us the go-ahead, we were a: Share an ice tea between the adults, and the kids get water, family. My, how things have changed! Now, we’re a: Everybody gets your own non-alcoholic drink and why not some wine or a strawberry margarita here and there for the adults, family.

GETTING USED TO MAGIC!
For the first batch of receipts we sent to our insurance, we were a bit scared. They said eat whatever you normally eat. Okay, but did we really cook like this at home? Heck no! Our agent questioned a couple things in the beginning; I answered her honestly and she was fine. In May, it was my first Mother’s Day I couldn’t have in bed, but we made up for it at brunch at The Marriott in Dana Point. We were freaking out a little until we got the big insurance check back. We were freaking out until we got a couple more checks too. You should have seen the Father’s Day brunch receipt from the St. Regis! By the way, some of the best Eggs Benedict I’ve had, and some of the worst pancakes. The “pancake chef” could not make a decent pancake for the life of him! He had all these amazing fixins’ but kept burning the pancakes. We’ll just blame the portable grill. ☺ Everything else was excellent. Best part — We got to sit right next to Magic Johnson and his wife! He was cool to give our boys a high-five after the photo he posed with them. That was a memorable Father’s Day.

THIS CHEF HAS SOME NERVE
At The Peppercorn Grille in Big Bear, David just ordered a pizza, but since it looked like a very classy restaurant, the boys and I decided to get fillet mignons. We order them medium rare. When the steaks arrive and we cut into them, they are all medium well, so we sent them back. About 5 minutes later, the waiter brings all 3 plates back out to us with a message from the chef. “The chef wants to know if you’ve cut all the way to the center and to make sure you want to send them back.” We are astonished, and yes, we are sure! The waiter says he is only the middleman and he agrees with us, “These are not medium rare.” When he returns, the waiter says, "The chef said he will take these back for you.” Really? Like he was doing us a favor for cooking our food improperly! To top it off, the new fillets came back raw in the middle. I didn’t want to deal with the chef again so I just ate the outsides and will never return.

NEXT POST
More restaurant stories and our kitchen remodel progression to come. Stay tuned! Scroll down for the photos.

Over 300 Restaurants in 5 Months

LAST MEAL AT HOME
The story starts with our Holiday dinner. All the relatives... My husband, David, looked down and saw our darkened wood floor and called me. He knew the signs of water damage and it didn’t look pretty. Some quick detection work led us to the kitchen where water was actually dripping out of the ceiling soffet. The drywall squished in with my finger. All this, right in the middle of making Baked Alaska! We had just had a slab leak, so we called the same plumber. He came, happy to get a piece of cake, and cut a hole in our ceiling to fix the pinhole in the copper pipe that was spraying water out. I was still trying to get over the other 15 holes in our house from the slab leak, but deep down, I knew this was worse.

 RESTORATION & MOLD
The plumber gave me the name of a restoration guy and said to call him before we called our insurance. We followed his advice and Robert was signed up the next day. He discovered all the places the water damage had actually traveled. It was like playing hide and seek. The water went down both directions of our soffet, down the walls, and back up again. It soaked under our travertine floor, the cabinets, the wall and the wood floors on the other side of the drywall encased post. Inside the soffet, mold had grown as fast as Robert and crew was able to knock down the walls. David and I were happy we had contacted Robert; he knew he had to “act” responsibly to avoid any more damage, take photos, and call the Hazmat people for mold testing. The kitchen had over 100,000 mold spores! Full containment was needed — the space suits, showers in and out of the house, scraping of wood, removal of all floors etc… Our young sons could not use the family room (i.e. T.V.) for about 3 days. This spelled disaster. The furniture got moved to a PODS on our driveway.

 THE GOOD NEWS
Robert told us we have “Loss of Use” through our insurance. This means we can eat out, through our insurance, for the time that we can’t use our kitchen. Our insurance agent, Allison, confirmed.  April 2010; I don’t think I will ever forget her words. “You can get appetizers, desserts and even a glass of wine.” This was too good to be true! I adore going to restaurants. This meant no shopping, no cooking, or cleaning… Now, don’t get me wrong, I love to cook. Well, I did before my kids got so picky. My husband’s not too easy to cook for either. So lately, all the fun of cooking’s been slowly drained out of me. I was due for a break. Hey, this way I can order what my kids call ‘fancy stuff’. We set up a breakfast nook for when the boys’ were at school. For the rest of our meals, it was restaurants all the way!

 5 MONTHS LATER
It is now September. This has taken far longer than we had ever thought it would. We are just getting started with the construction. We’ve gained weight, but have a lot of fun stories eating at so many restaurants. That’s over 300 restaurants! We also have good tips and stories for our construction. Please follow us on our journey...