We got it!

August 19th
GardenWalk Phase 12 Release:
When the names were called, we were not called first. We sat with heart-beating trepidation as we watched a man and his two teenage daughters walk up to the board.... and picked Lot 2! Whew!

Next up... was us! We eagerly jumped up, signed our names next to our favorite, Lot 10, grabbed our bottle of champagne, and waited outside to meet our new neighbors as they came out one by one. We met some very nice couples (one of which both work at BD Biosciences... yay, connections!) as we waited to hand over our big ol' deposit check. We found out that they were all dissuaded from even considering our lot since they had no chance of getting it. :) hee...

Dave and I then spent about 2-3 hours finalizing the loan application with our lender (looks good!), picking our options with the tech expert (surround sound, baby! By the way, have you ever heard of a central vacuum?? For $2-3K, you can install a massive cannister in your garage, a 30' portable hose, and outlets scattered throughout your house connected to that cannister with a strong vacuum. Interesting, huh? But we didn't get it.), and signing our massive contract with Chrissy, one of nicest agents we've ever met. GardenWalk was smart in picking their sales agents. Both were highly knowledgeable, friendly, and just made everyone feel welcome. We seriously believe that's why this is one of the few communities still doing well in the housing slump... Most of the other neighborhoods we visited have nasty old ladies who give you that look (remember in Pretty Woman when Julia Roberts tries to go shopping the first time? THAT look.)....

Anyways, Dave and I signed our contract in record time (I felt like we were racing to see who could initial the documents faster)... Grabbed a couple photos of the house before running over to CTI, who was in charge of flooring and countertops. We found out during the contract that the deadlines to choose these were in early-mid September, a bad time for me and Dave as I won't be back in San Diego in time, and Dave has a horrible ICU rotation coming up. We asked Chrissy if she could arrange for us to complete it all this weekend, and she managed to fit an appointment for us right after the contract signing....

Us, house, and champagne!


So we rushed over to CTI (without eating a proper lunch) and spent the next 3 hours designing our house. Oh, the exhaustion! It felt like 10 hours... All I can remember is that we got granite countertops for the kitchen (Ouch, expensive!), a medallion for the foyer (I love it! You gotta visit to see!!), upgraded to tile in all the bathrooms (default was vinyl. ugh!), cool tiles with some accents in all the bathrooms (too tired to describe them all, except that we got some sea turtles in the future kids' bathroom. hee.)... You know, describing really does nothing. You're just going to have to come and see when the house is done. Heck, I can't even imagine in MY head... I just hope it turns out great. Keep your fingers crossed!

August 20th
We went back to GardenWalk to take more pictures of our future house,
10481 Red Rose Lane (aka Lot 10, Plan 2C):


Isn't it amazing how quickly the framing goes up? 2 weeks ago, it was only 1 story! Look at it now!!
Front view with front door

Front view with driveway and garage


In one of my previous posts, I took a bunch of pictures of the house from back to front. Here's the same with 2nd floor...
Back yard, back of garage, Master Bath on top

Dining Room and Kitchen, with one of upstair's bedrooms

Living Room with part of the 2nd upstair's bedroom and bath

Front door with the "tower" window of 2nd upstair's bedroom

Downstairs bedroom with loft and balcony on top

Me upstairs in the loft, on the balcony

View from the balcony


Master bedroom on top of garage with a small deck

View from the deck

Dave looking out of the "tower"

Views from the upstairs bedrooms



We also walked around the park across the street from the house and took some pictures (our house is the 2nd wooden roof from the right you see when zoomed in).

Putting green in the park (you can still see our roof!)
Buildings with red roofs belong to the new elementary school opening this fall.

Ultimate Wedding Shots

So I had forgotten to mention, that at Irene's wedding, Dave and I were playing around with the discs they gave out. Tony, the photographer, walked past and commented "I've never seen a bridesmaid do THAT!" and proceeded to take a few shots. Here they are! A rare opportunity to get action shots.... in a dress!

Ultimate in the shadow of Sinai

As many of you know, I'm pretty obsessed with Ultimate Frisbee. You see, I was obsessed with volleyball in college. I mean, I played a lot. I'd play 5 hours straight, 3 days in a row during the weekend. It was pretty crazy. During that time, I also played lots of intramural sports. Almost everything (including 4 different vb teams, field hockey, soccer, touch football, innertube waterpolo, ping-pong, squash, billiards (i suck), softball (ugh, my least favorite)) ! I also picked up ultimate frisbee during that time. I played with Yale Ramona during my sophomore year ('95-'96) which was a great learning experience, and a great bunch of girls. We went to Nationals (My one and only time in Minnesota. Did you know Blaine, MN, has beautiful grassy fields??) and traveled quite a bit. However, I didn't stay with it afterwards as I was an IM secretary and put intramurals as my priority. So ultimate was put on hold, as I focused all my extracurricular time in college on intramurals and volleyball (did i tell you i used to compete in 2 on 2 grass tournaments? even won twice. sigh. back in the day....).

However, after college, I realized my shoulder was shot. I had problems with my rotator cuff that even now bothers me if I attempt to hit/serve a volleyball. :( So I picked up Ultimate again. It's now my obsession (although I've determined my rotator cuff will never let me master a hammer).... I've played in the Philly PADA league one summer, in every possible WAFC league in DC for the year I was there (That was nuts, as I would be playing games 5 days a week. My brother complained that I wouldn't let him do any DC activities. Heh.). When I moved to New York, I found a local pick-up game walking Coco on my first full day in the City. Talk about fate... I've been playing in the Dustbowl ever since (6 years!)....

(The Dustbowl is actually the big round dirt patch next to the marker. The big building to the right is one of the buildings of Mount Sinai called Annenberg. I work in the building on the NE corner of Madison and 98th Street and live across the street. This pick-up game was meant for me. My commute is 1 minute!)

I've been very involved in the AL-NYCPUL summer league since it's inception. Out of 4 years so far, I've managed to be on winning teams 3 times! Sweet!

2002 NYCPUL Champs!(Nomads)

front row: caroline, kit, me, megan, tc
back row: rich, evin, steve, rocky, john, josh, scott, doug, jacques

2003 NYCPUL Champs! (Team Black)

front row: patrick, nnenna, me, kit, jason, josh
back row: josh, brant, billy, shah, LT, hunt, dutch

(No picture from my 2004 team, Iris. We didn't win, but we were great at heckling and eating!)

Last year was a blast, as I got to co-captain with one of my favorite players, Hunt, and we had drafted a ridiculously stacked team. It was beautiful watching this team flow. Here's a team pic after winning the whole thing:
2005 AL-NYCPUL Champs! (Team White)

front row: brendan, paul, malcolm, bob, denis
back row: fitz, lev, josh, me, megan, perry, casey, mark, amos
and we're missing hunt!!!

Nedra, Eric, Hunt, and Me-- When I grow up, I want to be like Hunt. He's in his 40s with 2 teenage kids, but still one of the hardest playing, most skilled players out on the field... and still fast!


This year, I am co-captaining with Nnenna, my most favorite piano-playing ultimate player! (see below) Our team looks very strong. Playoffs are 2 weeks away so we will find out then if it's a repeat!!!

Here are some pictures from this year so far. I hope to get some better ones during playoffs.

Icy Pops!
Me, Aru, and Brant enjoying some icy pops during our bye in the shadow of Annenberg... this was a ritual. Icy pops if there was a bye between games. Yum!


Me and Nnenna = co-captains of Team Grey for NYCPUL 2006
Nnenna is just too cool. She's a professional pianist!


Team gathering on August 19th. Notice, Ben being Ben.



Me + Dai + sparkly skirts!
Dai is 19 years old. 19!!! And already an awesome frisbee player... I do have to say, it makes me, the old lady, feel good when she tells me she wants to grow up and be like me. :) hee
I'm old and lazy, but it's nice that people still think I'm good (I used to be MUCH better, faster with better throws. Oh well.).


Catching a disc! (Uh, that girl in pink is 20 years old)

...and sometimes kitty loves me, too.

Welcome to our future home... we hope!

We have been shopping for a home in San Diego for the past 2 years, but more seriously, during this year....

We think we may have found our perfect house! And here is a drawing of it:
And here is Dave standing in the doorframe, inviting you to our *hopefully* future humble abode:
Our home is part of a neighborhood, Garden Walk, which is part of a new community 4S Ranch out in Rancho Bernardo (northeast of San Diego). Here is a map of the Garden Walk area:


Our favorite lot is #10. I think the address is ---------------. Aw, how pretty, eh? The location is perfect--at the end of a dead end, flanked by only 1 house, and facing a park. Also, the house faces NE (i think?) and we figured out the house and yard would get plenty of sunshine (especially since there is no other house to block the sun on one side). Unfortunately, the exterior is not my favorite (you'll see below), but besides all the other pros listed earlier, it is also my most favorite floorplan, called Zinnia, as shown below:

We plan on having a bedroom on the first floor and a loft on the second.

Our house will look a little like this one, a Zinnia with a different exterior, but located in the same spot on a parallel street (probably White or Yellow Rose Lane):

Our exterior will look more like this (house with the balcony. Yeah, I know, it looks like a farmhouse. I actually HATED it the first time I saw it, but it's starting to grow on me. Besides, how cool will it be to have the second floor balcony?! I also think it looks a lot better when there are lots of plants on the front lawn.):

But with this color scheme:

Here are pictures of the house taken over this past weekend:

From back to front--

The teeny tiny backyard (which Dave dreams to put a Swim Spa in someday, which will probably take up the entire yard):

The kitchen/dining room area:

The living room:

The front door with future stairway:

Front bedroom:

Views from the front door:

To explain the process of buying a home in the neigborhood, I need to let you know that this house isn't ours...yet. The houses in this neighborhood get released in phases, usually around 6-10 per month. People gather, their names get called, and they say which house they want to buy. There is a waitlist and the longer you've been on the list, the higher priority you get. Also, if you show up to other releases (even if you're not buying), it will boost you up on the priority list. Hopefully, Dave and I are pretty high up, so keep your fingers crossed! We will get the chance to purchase our dream house in 2 weeks. TWO WEEKS!! Ah, so scary!!

IF we do buy the house, we will get the chance to choose floorings, countertops, cabinetry, and all sorts of stuff. Scary to think of how many decisions we'll be making...

All we know so far is that we would like the cabinets and countertops in the kitchen to look like this:



The builders are shooting for a November/December move-in date, so once I get out there, Friends, come visit! Just warning you, the house will be very sparse with furniture for a long long time, so sleeping bags may be a necessity...