[quote author="bkshopr" date=1242811830]Mr Delroy is not Asian at all. His handle in a dead give away. The Simpsons has the least Asian market audience. Mr. Delroy is Caucasian and more than likely will display a flag in the front of his home Memorial Day. Another clue is that Chinese children rarely wreck the interior of the home because parents only allowed passive activities such as piano practice, reading, video games, and doing home works and never to be allowed to throw a ball or other sport activities inside the house.</blockquote>
Correct, Mr. Delroy is not Asian. (Although as your stats should have shown, being an older guy I'm not a simpsons fan... my son is the Simpsons fan. I got the name because when I created my account, he had a Cletus toy on my desk next to my monitor)
[quote author="bkshopr" date=1242811830]Ms. Delroy has been a homemaker for a long time and possibly since both older son and daughter were born. Her role was to nurture them while Mr. Delroy was the bread winner the last several decades. Ms Delroy has complained about her kitchen for years such as lacking an island, linoleum floor, ceramic tile countertop with stained grout that is hard to clean. Mr. Delroy has always used the kids as an excuse for not doing the remodel. </blockquote>
The reason my wife wasn't "working" was because she was doing work for a non profit on a volunteer basis once my job allowed me to not require us both to work for pay. My wife has not complained about her kitchen, because quite honestly, its not been a priority for us (more below)... when our kids went off to college my wife had more free time and started watching Food Network and became interested in cooking as a hobby. I'm an amateur gardener (something I shared with my daughter growing up, and was a way for us to spend time together) so she decided she needed to start coming up with some recipes for what I grew, and it kind of blossomed from there.
[quote author="bkshopr" date=1242811830]Their home is likely not in Irvine but in Santiago Hills. Mrs. Delroy at this point of her life is looking forward to their grown children getting married and her home would be the gathering place for the future son and daughter in-laws. Her goal of starting the kitchen remodel first is the reason why Mr. Delroy needs a large sum of cash because it is the most expensive remodel for the home. She wanted the kitchen island where she can finally adequately prepares and displays her food and family could gather around the future island transformed from her isolated peninsula servant like kitchen. She also has a goal of transforming her home into the grand-ma?s house where children and grand children want to be during the holidays. She wanted her kitchen and the entertaining area to be warm and inviting. She is also concerned her existing brick floor would not be good for her future grand children due to the bricks sharp edges. </blockquote>
Actually, we're assuming our grand kids will never see this home. If you reread my post, our plan is to move in maybe 5 years. Right now our kids are planning on getting settled professionally, they will probably both be 5 years before they marry, and maybe another 2-3 before they have kids. The reason we want the kitchen redone is because my wife has gotten into cooking and wants room to experiment. She wants a more open workspace rather than the cramped quarters of a 30 year old house, and some countertops which are easier to clean and more sanitary. The floors... well, it would look wrong to have linoleum and brick in a house with a modern kitchen.
[quote author="bkshopr" date=1242811830]She could not let go her sentimental memories of this home where the children were raised and this was the reason why Mr. Delroy could not have sold it and made money during the frenzy RE era. They also knew that as empty nesters they would not need the current footage size but they want to set aside the extra bedrooms for the future expanded families when they come and visit and it would be a good hospitality.
Certainly they do not want the future married couples to sleep in the same room where the kids grew up so the remodel includes a makeover of the kids? room into a more sophisticated resort like room with a nice sense of hospitality
</blockquote>
Actually, we like our neighbors, and our local church. That's why we haven't moved, although we are still considering that. The reason we didn't sell in the past few years was our kids were still in college and came home alot, and had friends in the neighborhood. There was no reason for us to sell, we liked our home, and moving never crossed our mind until recently when we discussed some remodeling. Ya, we don't "need" the extra square footage, but do plan to convert one bedroom into an office for my wife as she heads back to work, the other we will keep as a guest bedroom.
[quote author="bkshopr" date=1242811830]Mr. Delroy sent his son to UCLA for an engineering degree and also sent his daughter to USC. Their decision of USC for their daughter is a better opportunities to meet a future husband that come from a wealthy and good family background. USC is known as a school for wealthy kids.</blockquote>
Hah hah... some day I'll have to buy you a beer and introduce you to my daughter and remind you of that comment.
[quote author="bkshopr" date=1242811830]Their home built in the early 80?s has many dated design, texture, and windows. They are hoping to update the plan and promote a better flow of the kitchen to the rest of the family spaces. They are however somewhat stuck the formal living dining room that seldom get used and the idea of entertaining with future in-laws and grandchildren revitalized the seldomly use space. </blockquote>
Correct on the kitchen, wrong on the dining room. I actually currently use our dining room as my office. Prior to that, our kids used it as their study room (back when computers were expensive and we could only afford a single computer for our house and the kids had to timeshare it) Never felt a need for a dining room, if we have guests over, we typically go out back and grill. With the weather out here, no need to eat indoors.
[quote author="bkshopr" date=1242811830]After assessing the need of moving their current home is still the best fit for their future entertaining needs and Mr. Delroy is really nervous to embark on the nightmare of remodeling so he came to IHB to seek suggestions and validation. </blockquote>
Actually, I'm cool with people coming in and tearing apart our house and dealing with contractors, my wife will be the one who can't stand the intrusion. I came to IHB because as I mentioned we plan to move in 5 years, so curious to read up on the market in general. When I realized there were some finance guys on here and alot of talk on HELOCs, I thought I would post about that... since I don't have much experience on how people finance construction. Growing up, it was always "you took out a home equity loan", but that was before people became sophisitcated and used HELOCs for other stuff
So I figured I would post to hear what others had done, to get ideas on where to start looking. I'm not looking for someone to answer my questions, I'm looking for opinions echod by numerous people, and ideas I might not have thought on my own.
[quote author="bkshopr" date=1242811830]Mrs. Delroy does not really care about the financial logistic she just wanted her home makeovers now the kids are grown and out of the house. She spent her entire marriage life as a stay home mom taking care of her family this is her reward. Mr. Delroy is cornered.</blockquote>
Mr. Delroy handles the long term investments, Mrs. Delroy keeps the monthly budget.
[quote author="bkshopr" date=1242811830]Mr. Delroy is not familiar with the Irvine Asian crowd and has no close Asian friends. His knowledge of Asian culture is through the TV news and driving up to USC passing by the black ghettos with Korean immigrant shop owners. He also is familiar with the Korea town in Garden Grove and Little Saigon after living in OC all these years but he really has no idea of the real Asian hub in OC such as Diamond and Culver Plaza. </blockquote>
Mr. Delroy's wife is first generation Korean American. Mr. Delroy makes a mean kimchee (which he learned from his mother in law) and one of the reasons he started gardening was to provide fresh vegetables for his wife back when there wasn't an Asian market on every street corner in Irvine. Mr. Delroy is aware of numerous Asian markets... we typically hit Fresia or Zion (both Korean markets), but will hit up 99 Ranch to get some durian when its in season (Mr. Delroy loves durian). As you are probably aware most Koreans don't use ovens very often, which is why our kitchen hasn't been a priority. We do alot of table top grilling, sashimi, tempura and soups. Before kids, my wife made our banchan, now we buy them at the market. The Delroys also enjoy grilling out. There is a good pastry store we hit on Culver all the time. There's a mochi place on Culver Mr. Delroy enjoys. Diamond Center, the market makes Mrs. Delroy claustrophobic so we avoid it. The Korean place is mediocre.
His friends are all over the place... Caucasian, Japanese, Indian, Phillipino, Korean, Taiwanese, Hispanic... you name it, we've grilled a burger together. (Well except my Indian buddies, who typically aren't into burgers
)
[quote author="bkshopr" date=1242811830]Mr. Delroy is an older guy and he is not aware of the Asian generation 40 and younger. He is from the old school with some acquaintances of the first generation Asian immigrants from 1970?s.</blockquote>
Given our kids are hapas, we definitely have alot of contact with younger Asians. Given I'm over 50, obviously I'm a generation removed from the younger crowd... most parents "dont get" their kids
Delro
