10-12-11 Wednesday (The Lord Visits Walmart)

Yesterday I unpacked 2 huge boxes in the kitchen.   Jim and I call serving dishes, chaffing dishes, etc "serveware".   We've amassed quite a collection over the years.  We like to entertain. 

 

I unpacked the boxes and washed what I had room for knowing that today I'd be able to complete the rest. Success!  It was a big job.  I washed everything and then found a home for it all.  Here’s the stuff, keep in mind that some of it was put away before the photo was taken.  Oy:

 

The Artimino Crystal flatware got cleaned and put away too.  Here’s a photo and blog entry about it from December.  We’re still looking for another set since we only have service for 4.  If anyone sees it in a Dillard’s or somewhere, please let us know!

 

 

I went grocery shopping.  Well, actually first I returned a bunch of stuff.    Oh the joys of moving into a new place... returns.  It's all about buying stuff, taking it home, not liking it, not the right color, incorrect fit or whatever and then returning it.  In fact, we do this so much during the new home process that we keep returns with receipts in a Rubbermaid Tote to await it's return to the store.  Really. 

 

Returns... that brings me to a rant.  You'll only understand or perhaps even sympathize with me if you shop at Walmart.  When you walk in the door with a return, the greeter swoops in, has to scan each item, punch a few things into his scanner gun to get it to print a sticker.  Meanwhile, the tiny printer doesn't do anything and ya just have to wait.  Finally a sticker pops out of a tiny printer.  Inevitably, the greeter has difficulty peeling back the sticker from the wax paper.  This becomes a process.  He/she then points you into the direction of the service desk.  Are you with me so far?

 

So the other day I walk into Walmart with 7,878,857 little furniture protector cushions and shelf grip that Jim bought in OVER-preparation of the move.  With the protectors, some throw rugs, and other things I no longer wanted, it must have been about 20 different items.  Now referring to the paragraph above about the return process and combine that with my 20 item return equals me throwing a little attitude.  Just a smidgen.  I purposely went into the entrance closest to the service desk and when Mr. Greeter intercepted me I explained that I had too many items for him to scan and that I'd be going directly to the service desk that was 25 feet away.  He said OK, but he was annoyed, I could tell.  I then went to the service desk and she immediately asked where my stickers were.  I explained that I wouldn't let him sticker everything because I had so much.  She said... ready?  "Lord have mercy."  I couldn't believe she said that.  She might as well said, "oh boy, here we go."  Her name was Alice.  At least twice I reminded her that if she had a problem helping me then to call a manager.  Twice she went silent.  After our transaction, I did eventually complain to a manager.

So today, I made returns.  6 of them.  I let the door dude scan everything.  It took forever.  It's like punishment for making a return.  Scan, push some buttons, print a sticker, affix sticker, repeat.  Once it didn't print and he had to do it over but then it printed 2 stickers.  Ugh.  Alice was not my service desk worker this time.

 

The other evening while Jim and I were driving home, a fox trotted across the road.  Trotted.  Get it?  Anyway, it crossed the road ahead of us.  Jim has spotted one several months ago and I was bummed I didn't get to see it.  Now I'm happy... in case you wondered.

 

Above: Not the actual fox we saw.

 

Speaking of wild life, today while running errands I saw bulls.  With horns.  Big bulls.  Big horns.  Only a few miles away from the house!  I didn't get any photos but next time I'll be ready.

 

Thursday night, Jim removed the coat closet shelving and created a coat closet slash appliance storage:

 

Above: Jim mess of tools for the project.

 

 

Above: Coat half

Below: Appliance half

 

Jim double stacked the coat closet which, wait for it… doubles the hanging space.  The pantry has more room for things we don’t need or have.  In the end, we’ll have empty unused space but not to worry, all the while I’ll be thinking, “I have extra space and you don’t.” 

 

 

 

 

10-10-11 Monday ($20 Hath Septeber)

Some time Friday afternoon, Pete and T arrived from Michigan.  I happened to pull an earlier shift so I was able to join Jim and company for dinner. 

On Saturday while I was at work, Jim took them to Linville Falls and Little Switzerland.  I heard the views were wonderful, the falls great and the leaves started changing.  Unfortunately the restaurant Jim and I patronize often wasn't open due to some event going on.

On Sunday we had mimosa brunch at Mimi's. 

Above: T and Pete.

We attempted to go to the Renaissance Festival.  We tried.  The traffic barely moved and appeared as though no end was in sight.  After wasting a half hour we changed direction and headed for a home show.  While in route, we passed a mall and it was decided to switch gears and get some shopping done.  Jim and I shopped, Pete and T humored us.  We didn't stay there very long.  We went home and planned dinner.

While at the mall, I spotted this changeable Egyptian calendar:

Above: It’s $20.  Imagine the price if September were spelled correctly?

The leaves continue to change.  I think we’ll need another trip to Little Switzerland next weekend.

Jim and I didn’t work on the house this weekend; it was a nice break. 

10-7-11 Friday (A Short Tour)

OK, here’s the house so far:

Above: Utility room – The cat litter/food area on the left is temporary.  It keep the litter and food up and away from Dasher.

Above: “Twin Room” – It’s been dubbed thee because it will have a twin bed/trundle bed setup in it.  Right now it’s a catch all.

Above: “Queen Room”.  It’s not for Queens, just a queen sized bed in it.

Above: Guest bath.  We had no corners downstairs for the curio so it’s going to be in the upstairs hall.

Above: Master bath – The redneck hanging mirror has been replaced with full length cheapy mirrors as another temporary solution. 

Above: Master bedroom – We still need real window treatments throughout the house.  Cha-ching.

Above: The office/loft.  With our futon from our Florida home and our family room furniture, this unexpectedly became a sitting area.  I suppose if we ever decided a home gym was in order, we could ditch all that.  There’s still much to do in this room.  Any knik-knaks sitting around are only being displayed because they got unpacked along with other stuff.  Artwork, window treatments and knik-knaks will be dealt with last.

Above: Dinette/Kitchen:  That’s the Target table.  We’re still in need of chairs.  The light wood sideboard is there temporarily until we find something different and then we’ll recycle it to a guest room as a dresser.  My wants/desires for the kitchen is Tuscany.  I don’t want all the typical wine, espresso and chef themes.  I just want “a look”.

Above: Entry/Dining room: The entry rug didn’t stay.  We didn’t like it.  The stack of boxes on the right are all décor stuff.  This photo was taken a few steps up on the stairs.  I love this room. 

Above: Living room – Yes, the couches have “spikes” and “Tattle Tale Pet Alarms” on them to ward off evil cats and dogs.  Cat for fur, dog for scratching.  Yes, at the time of photo, the sofa has a price tag on it.  We didn’t remove it until we were sure we were going to keep it.

Later today, friends Pete and T will arrive for a four day weekend!

10-5-11 Wednesday (Builder Water Torture)

When we last left our calm annoyed blogger, Garret, he was expecting the plumber to come today… at 9:00am.  By 10:15, no plumber.  I had to call the Adams Homes Warranty Department.  They’d have to call me back after checking into it.  With a return call from them, the story is that there was a “mixup”.  Like what?  I don’t know and frankly didn’t care.  The plumbers showed up at 11:00am.  I pointed out the water stains, my suspicions and the like.  They ran the water in the tubs for a long time.  They stood downstairs staring up at the ceiling as if awaiting a message from God.  Psssst, God said fix the leaks.  I was standing upstairs and had better reception. 

Since the leak investigation process takes a while, why not check out a photography link from my friend and dentist, Dr. David Lesansky?  With his superhero, alter-ego, photographing self marketed as “Jack”, I present to you his gallery of amazing photography: Jack’s Darkroom.  He likes arches and doorways as well as industrial scenes.  I like old dilapidated barns and such.  Visit his darkroom, support him.  There’s no photos of teeth, you’ll be fine.

The plumbers are still investigating so I’ll remind you about 3 of my favorite photos that I took:

Fabulous, huh? The rest of my favorite are on the blogs left side-bar toward the top or you can see them here too.

Do you remember the story of the dentist, foot in mouth, orange walls… sound familiar?  It’s a classic story.  It’s usually a faux pas Jim would do.  Really.  Here’s the back story if you’re interested.  A reminder:

Back to the plumber.  He believes that water is getting behind the faceplate and he wants to caulk it or he can cut a hole in the ceiling to be sure.  I opt for a hole in the ceiling since caulking this just doesn’t seem right.  What did the manufacturer of the faucet suggest?  Why didn’t the plumber who installed it do that?  Why didn’t the builder catch that?  This plumber of the same company that plumbed the house said he’d always recommend caulking.  I decline… for now.

The cutting of the ceiling begins.  About now, I think I want to cry.

The drywall dust…  It sucks:

He says “there’s a river up there”, while gesturing toward the lovely hole.  They go upstairs to run the water some more and I climbed up the ladder for a peek:

They think it’s coming from the drain.  He needs to cut a hole in the master linen closet to inspect and repair.  I had to empty it’s contents of sweaters, sheets, and towels.  It almost pushed me toward the cry I so much wanted to have.  I feel like we’ve worked our asses off just to get the house the way it was only to undo it.  To run in reverse.

He finds the water valve leaking.

 

Above: Yep, looks wet.

Next he needs to cut a hole in the guest linen closet to investigate that leak.

He shows me some water laying on the floor.

 

I watch in the hole as the other plumber splashes water at the water controls.  Water leaks down as captured in the next photo.  I finally agree to caulking around the fixtures.

The plumbers finished up the repairs and did clean up the immediate vicinities.  I still had to dust and what not.

 

I hadn’t realized that he “sealed” up some of the holes.  We probably would have liked them to stay open to allow air to circulate up there.  We’re concerned about mold too.  I told the warranty department that we’d like to put off drywall repair for a couple of weeks.  We have company coming this weekend and we’d also like to be sure the leaks are completely gone.

By the way, this morning I captured this photo from the side of the house while walking Dasher.

For Thursday’s post, I’ll take photos of the house so far…  See ya then.

Moved

9-30-11 Friday:

The Time Warner saga continues.  Jim called Time Warner, spoke with a manager or two and got even more of a discount.  They waived the transfer fee and deducted 2 weeks off the bill.  Another guy came out very late and worked until about 10pm getting the cable issue resolved.  He had to run cables along the ground from other junction boxes up the block.  Most everyone in this neighborhood seems to have satellite.     The phone and internet are now functional.  The cable TV, nope!  Ugh.  I talk to the guy and he doesn’t know anything about cable boxes and such.  He just does exterior install type stuff.  Really?

Grandma was going to leave today but we asked her to stay a little longer for today’s task.  Earlier in the day, Grandma baby sat Stanley Steamer while they cleaned the rental carpets.  The lease requires that we have the carpets cleaned and provide a copy of the receipt to the rental management company.  Even though we have a carpet cleaner of our own, it was definitely worth having someone else clean them.  Aside from the work involved in doing it one reservoir at a time, it’s also the time in general.  There is still so much to do.  It’s not even been a week yet.

The other day I mentioned how the cable has no ends:

I emailed the salesperson about this and her reply:

“we do not install the connector.  never have, even with the previous builder i worked for. time warner has  their own cable connection they install & will cut off the connector.”

Wow.  I don’t even know what to say.  Sure I do.  Bullshit.  I reminder to all, you get what you pay for.

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10-1-11 Saturday:

Yeah, it’s been a week now since we’ve been in the house over night. 

Today Haverty’s came to deliver our furniture.  Well, more like a kit.  I answer the door and the guy is holding a protection kit (that we did indeed pay for) and no furniture.  I thought he was kidding.  He says that the rest is coming on such and such a date.  But excuse me, I have emails confirming delivery.  He had to check with a supervisor.  It turns out that an error caused the furniture to be routed to the rental house.  The furniture is on the truck but buried so they’ll come back later today. 

Jim spotted a water mark/stain on the ceiling by the back.  Above that sits the master shower.  Oh boy.  Just great.  We’ll cease using that shower and contact the warranty department.

I called Time Warner about the cable TV.  She resets the guest bedroom cable box remotely but says since the TiVo uses a Tuning Adapter and CableCARD that a separate department which is closed will need to be contacted and I’ll have to call back.  I ask that she have them call us.  She puts me on hold, comes back and claims to have left a voicemail for the department.

Off to work I go.

After the furniture guys deliver the furniture, Jim suggests returning the over-sized chair for another sofa.  It looks like two sofas will fit nicely.  He found out that our new set has already been discontinued and the only other sofa in the area (without waiting a long time for delivery) is a floor model located at the Pineville Haverty’s.  Grandma and Jim go check out the floor model, and purchase said piece.  I left work a little early, joined Jim and Grandma, returned to Haverty’s with the mini van, picked up the sofa, ate dinner at Tony Roma’s and then returned home.  Busy, busy, busy.

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10-2-11 Sunday:

We managed to talk Grandma into staying yet another day.  Good thing because we needed to get the over-sized chair back to Haverty’s.  Since they didn’t open until noon today we killed some time by stopping by a Big Lots to see their media/fireplace.  We think we might like the one over at Lowe’s or BJ’s better. 

After seeing Grandma off on her next adventure, Jim and I ate lunch and then went shopping.  Big time shopping.

We went to Target for a new dinette table:

Then we went to Lowe’s.  We saw a great fireplace/media cabinet.  I was VERY leery about a fake fireplace.  The flames look fake (because they are) but if I distance myself from it, looks fine.  What I do like about a fake fireplace is that we can use it without heat. 

While at Lowe’s we spotted a nice gas grill on sale for $129.  Score.

With only having the Jeep, we had to make a few trips to pick up all this stuff.

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10-3-11 Monday:

Today I returned the keys to Henderson Properties.   Cindy, who happens to be the same skank that was there when we applied for the rental, was once again her condescending self.  I must tell you that we were given 2 keys and after a problem with a door lock, the maintenance man (idiot) gave us a 3rd key.  Anyway, I hand Cindy the keys, garage door openers, and carpet cleaning receipt.  She says, “Which key is for which lock?”  Well, we don’t use the keys we use the garage door opener so I said, “I don’t know.”  She says, “So, you don’t know what key fits what lock.”  “NO”.  Her tone and condescending tone almost caused me to say, “I already answered that question, perhaps I can speak with someone who understands English?”  But… I didn’t.  I hate her.

I emailed the Adams Homes Warranty Department at about noon today.  They require warranty requests to be in writing.

1- The floor in front of the master bath tub creeks very loudly.
2- Water is leaking onto our dinette ceiling.  Knowing the master shower is above that, we have ceased using that shower.  The drywall is puffy, damp and stained.
3- Since the water has been leaking, the floor hasn't been creaking as badly... possibly 1 & 2 are related?

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10-4-11 Tuesday:

I got a response from Adams Homes via email at 9:30am saying someone would contact me as soon as possible.  Nearly 24 hours since my email and that’s the best they can do for a new buyer who’s only been in their home a week?  At 12:30 I emailed them:

Please be advised we have discovered another wet spot circling the recessed lighting in the kitchen.  This could be a result of the other shower. 
As of the time of this message it has been over 24 hours since the initial problem was reported.  For a new owner with a water leak, this is very disappointing.
In advance, I'd like you to know that wood floors lie underneath these leaks.  I'd also like to request that my NEW home be left spotless, as it was found prior to repair work.  This should include drywall dust, elimination of water marks, replacement of potential moldy insulation and the like.

Yes, another wet spot.  This email was just to get it in writing, so after sending it I immediately called.  I was told someone would call me.  I was late to work, they called at about 1pm.  They scheduled a plumber to come out tomorrow.

Stay tuned…

Oh, so for some humor, Jim was tired of using a hand mirror since we still need to buy mirrors.  Here’s his solution:

Rednecks be proud…