It was a pretty boring day. I dragged Jim grocery shopping at BJs and then on to Walmart. We came home, unloaded the Jeep and then decided to go for a late brunch to Queen City Diner. We had a Groupon, shocking, I know. When I think of a diner, the NY in me takes over and I think of hot open roast beef sandwiches, meatloaf, reubens, turkey dinners, etc. The menu choices here were disappointing. Breakfast, burgers, sandwiches, chicken fingers, wings, and not much more than that. Aside from the breakfast menu, this is all they had:
The server seemed new. For us to be the only customers, service could have been much better. I ordered the club. The menu description was bland so I asked if it had cheese. She said they could add it. I said American or Cheddar was fine. I asked if it had mayo. She said she’d put it on there. I wasn’t real sure if it came with it, didn’t come with it or what. I know they had American cheese available because their sandwich list shows an item with it specifically listed. I ordered the sandwich on white. It came. I think the bread was toasted with butter. I didn’t enjoy that mix of flavor. The bread didn’t appear white. The cheese? It was shredded. Who puts shredded cheese on a cold sandwich? The turkey slid out and plopped on the plate. Upon closer inspection it looked like that shit that’s been regurgitated and then reconstituted. It was oval shaped. The roast beef? Stringy, fatty, ewwww. The tater tots seemed like the oil was due for a change. Jim had eggs benedict and remarked it was “remarkably unremarkable”. The food took a long time to come out. I thought maybe since we were the only ones there that they had to get the grill and deep fryer hot? Jim said that doesn’t take long. They sure missed the mark.
Yet another place I wanted to like. A local business. Oh well.
We then went Goodwill clothes shopping. Yay… for Jim. Me, I thumb through the stuff too but never volunteer to go there. We did end up with some good stuff but we didn’t get any shorts like we needed. We’re fat. There, I said it. If that’s offensive then we’ll go with “very out of shape”.
While at Goodwill, some guy was there with his (assumed) wife and child. The kid was screaming at the top of his lungs while mommy and daddy played, “ignore him and he’ll stop”. Folks, if you practice this method in public places, then you suck. It was annoying and everyone kept looking. I eventually said, “take him outside”. The Spanish thug father then said with an accent, “what did you say bitch, we can take this outside.” I walked away. Nervously. Well, it was a risk but someone had to do it. I’m sure the onlookers that kept staring while the kid screamed wanted into the action… I was hoping for cheers, or balloons or perhaps a small gift but there was nothing.
Jim had planned for us to go see a movie but we decided to stay on our current shopping path. Before we knew it, it was getting late and time to head home. We stopped at the house. Disappointing. The painters had recently been there to correct some issues. The first thing was the columns at the front door.
Many of the moldings have a terrible fit/finish. Paint boogers all over. An interior with many paint drips. In many spots on the ceiling and walls are rough areas that need sanding. I’m not sure if it’s where the taped joints are or what caused it. There’s a gap at bottom of the stairs where the wood floor meets, maybe it’s just where a molding will go? They painted the interior doors while they hung so paint pooled up at the hinges. Who did this builder hire? Ugh. Jim will be on the rampage and I’ll need to be the calm one. We’re not expecting perfection but rather quality. There’s more but I didn’t take pictures.
Aside from not knowing if this home will ever be ours, this lack of quality has really got me down. I will say that the builder superintendent and sales person caught and corrected numerous issues before we said anything about them. We spotted the issues but decided to let them go for the time being. We were pleased to see them taken care of.
We came home and got lunches ready for the week:
Lettuce mix, artichokes, chick peas, corn, black beans, broccoli, chicken, feta = yum. We’ve been doing salads for lunch lately because I’ve gotten burned out on sandwiches. It’s healthier too. I used a balsamic vinaigrette dressing that doesn’t have any oil in it and is delish. I’ve blogged about it here.
Here’s another “This Day In OUR History”:
 | 2009: RV toilet issues and replacement. MISadventure. 2010: Working at the hell hole that is AAA in Rock Hill, SC. Couch damages. News of friends migrating to Charlotte. |
Paint boogers! Hahahahaha!
ReplyDeleteI think that unless you buy a custom built home (you know, only the kind Ivana Trump and Candy Spelling can afford) you have to expect some paint boogers. It's a shame really. Our house has plenty of places where after ten years we've noticed something that was glossed over by the drywall sander or painter (there's a patch on the 10ft ceiling near the corner in my shower that is unpainted - it drives me nuts!), but we live with it. The problem is... if you put some of those small issues on a punchlist, they either look at you like you just escaped from happytown or just ignore them altogether.
Thanks for keeping us in the loop throughout the process of your home being built. Sure hope you get to keep it. In this economy and housing market, theyd' be fools to make trouble at the 11th hour.
I say, move in anyway - and squat.
That diner is a microcosm of the problem with Charlotte's restaurant scene. People just settle for such mediocrity and decide because it says New York, or it's got a cool theme, that the food must be good. Bleah. What a boring menu; you could go to Applebees and get more interesting stuff. Good job trying to support a local business, though.
ReplyDeleteI doubt I will ever have a house built, but if I do maybe I should have you as a walkthrough consultant. I don't think I would have noticed the paint on the lock, but yeah...that's so unprofessional. Oh well, at least they got the banister right. Maybe it can distract you from the boogers and the huge, giant galaxy-sized hole at the bottom of the stairs.