More pics and what not

Not gonna lie, the past 2 days were very relaxing without painter lady here. But, the flip side of that is the stuff isn't getting done.  She's back today with her hubby. Finally painting the door on our shop that was supposed to be done last summer. DH puts together little videos/pictures of each stage and picks out a song to go with (or sometimes he asks the sub what song he likes). Last night he says oh, geez, what song would I use for her? As I'm about to drift off to sleep last night I said "Painter Lady's song is Crazy Train by Ozzy Osbourne". HAHA.  My ideas this morning were Lunatic Fringe and Working 9 to 5 (because you know.....she doesn't....).

DH pretty much helped finisher guy with the tiling the last 2 days, which he kind of enjoyed. Learned to cut tile. They literally had one plank of tile left when he got done!

The last picture is the dog wash in the mud room. Today he is supposed to start grouting.

I actually woke up feeling rested this morning (probably what 2 days of less stress will do for ya!). Let's just hope it sticks now.

DH's dad not doing well again. DH has tried to call him past several days, but no answer and he called back yesterday and I answered (DH was out in house) and he said he's just really been having trouble breathing and will call DH when he can talk better :(  He said he's been having trouble since last Sunday....well last Sunday SIL and family had him go out to lunch at a super busy/noisy restaurant and probably half hour drive each way. I'm sure that probably really wore him out. And he's  probably stressing out over his house sale, as it didn't close because apparently the day before closing it was determined the buyer has a lien they have to resolve.

It is supposed to be a totally sunshiney day today. It's all cloudy and both the weather apps on my phone are still saying sun. I wanted sun today.

Package recovered

Whew! got the missing UPS box of checks crisis resolved. About 4:30 yesterday afternoon my old neighbor texted me that the guy that lives in our old house had rolled up his garage door, as he apparently does most afternoons. I hopped in my car and drove the 10 miles back to town and tried knocking on his door again. He was so happy to see me come get that package! LOL. He said he has called my side job company 4 times in the last week about it (hmmm..wonder if that is true) and they told him they had to send him a shipping label. He didn't know how to get a hold of me, either, so he had decided that tomorrow he was going to try to call the title company in town where we processed our house sale through and see if that lady knew how to get a hold of me. She would have (we are Facebook friends, haha) but she is on a trip to Europe right now.

He's a talker! I probably spent a half hour there chatting with him. He's disabled older guy. Very nice and says he just loves the house. He said he did have one problem with the crappy neighbor's little kids getting inside the shop somehow and he found them in there (with his 4 classic cars) pouring gas from one of his gas cans on the floor. He said he pretty much came unglued on them and the parents about it. I'm not sure if it was the girlfriends kids or he had his 2 kids visiting, but pretty sure it was his 2 kids. The girlfriends youngest was too young for that nonsense and his 2 kids would definitely do something like that.

He has a little miniature schnauzer. I was standing next to his dining table (he was sitting because he can't stand that length of time) and looked down to see the little dog sitting by my feet, so I bent down and pet him. The guy said he usually doesn't let strangers pet him. Then when I stopped he got on his hind legs and put his front paws up on my leg for more pets. The guy was like OMG, I've never seen him do that with someone before. Well, I love dogs, so I guess he knew :)

And now that I finally have the new checks, they are the wrong kind. LOL. They need to be 3 part checks to go in the printer, but they are 2 part with....get this....hole feeds on the side. Seriously, who even has a hole feed type printer anymore? I haven't seen one of those in decades, LOL. Stupid banker, just ordered for her without asking, I guess.  But, I need to pay myself for this months work, so I'm just going to handwrite the checks until I get ones that work.

We've been seeing lots of deer this week, so that is so neat. Seems to be 3 of them hanging around. They've been down in our back yard. Out front last night and right now they are out on the vacant lot next to us. They are finally finding some grass to eat.

I am so glad today is my half work day Friday.  Plus a phone conference meeting I was going to have that would go over when I was supposed to be off, got rescheduled in 2 weeks.

DD is on another business trip this week.  This time there were about 8 from her company who went. One was her bosses boss, who's hotel room was next to hers and when they were riding up in the elevator together the other evening after dinner she told DD that she is so happy to have her on their team and that she is doing awesome work and gave her a hug :)  She's a rockstar, that girl of mine!

More complaining

I'm so ready for this week to be over. Last week my side job UPS'd me some checks for their new checking account. Except they sent it to my old address (I had updated them when I moved of my new address). Apparently the guy who bought our house called the company to let them know it was wrong. The office girl from my side job emailed me for my address and said it was getting re-routed. But, it's never came. Now UPS is telling them it's lost. No one knows for sure if it was ever picked back up from the guy. I don't have his ph#, it's not listed. So, I drove over there. 2 cars in the driveway but no answer at the door. I rang.  knocked. rang again.  So, I went across the street and visited with my old neighbor about half an hour. When I left, I stopped and tried again. No luck. Neighbor said he usually (for some weird reason) opens us his big garage door and leaves it open almost all night. Maybe he sleeps days and is awake nights. I don't know. I told her if he opens his garage up this afternoon, let me know, and I'll come back over and try again.

I had DH give me a list of all what painter lady still needs to finish. There is still quite a bit of smallish jobs. We just do not at all understand her time management. Since her hubby started all the finish work 2 weeks ago, she comes with him every day now. He works a full day. She still works about half and she and her son sit the other half. DH tries to hint at the stuff still to do (without coming right out and saying well, can't you work on this or that?). But, she has an excuse or an argument for why she can't do something.

There is some caulking that needs to be done where the timber beams meet the siding. DH asked about that on Monday. She said she needs to get a different colored caulk to do that. Ok, well get it! If she had it she could have done it the last two afternoons she sat on her big butt doing nothing and saying she didn't have anything to do. When does she plan to do it?

The door to our SHOP (you know, the building they were supposed to have all finished last summer) still needs painting on both sides and needs trim around the door on the inside, which also needs painted. DH has mentioned this door several times. She'll have to take the door off. The last two excuses were well, she only has one set of saw horses and the entry way sidelight windows are on it drying.  esterday DH told her, just seal the doorway up with plastic sheeting while you have the door off. Then her argument was well, you guys need to get in and out of the shop all day. DH told her...there's a roll up door we can use, if we need to.

There are 4 doors in the garage. One that goes out front, one out back, one into the mud room and one that goes to the utilities closet. One still needs to be painted outside. She asked if they needed to be painted inside. The garage wall paint is white. The doors are an off white. DH told her, well, if you can clean up the door to the mud room that is now totally covered in dirt, grease, hand prints, etc, we're ok with the offwhite color, otherwise it (and the other 3 doors) need to be painted inside, white. She says well, I we don't usually do garages (because most people don't finish out their garages). DH said well, I don't know what to tell you. I contracted for a completely finished garage. She still hasn't tried to clean it or paint.

She harped at DH all week on when that top entry doorway window was going to get here. Now it's been here since yesterday morning. Her hubby is supposed to install them. She can't do anything else (so she says) until he does, because they are sitting on her saw horses (good grief!). Then, out of curiosity, before they left for the day yesterday, DH asked her if those entry door windows get caulked, too, once they are in? She says "I don't know - I'm just the painter!". Dh says well, you are also the caulker (she's done all the caulking on shop and house for everything) so I was just wondering.

She still has outside caulking and painting to do. Last week was beautiful sunny 60 degree weather. Did she do any of that then? Nope. Now it's raining. Plus the gable ends that still need caulking are WAY up high. They didn't do it when the lift truck was here during framing/siding. Now it's gone and they are trying to figure out what to do.

DH ended up building our master bathtub frame himself yesterday, with the finish guy working on the shower tiling and giving him instructions.

I am so exhausted, I wish I could get rested up. I work up at 4:15 am because DH got up to use bathroom and I never really did fall back asleep. I think he got up 3 times in like an hour and I know he wasn't sleeping either. Stress :(

Another busy day

Today is another hectic day. But, weirdly, as busy as this week is, it sure seems like it's dragging along. I literally crashed at 7:00 last night. Woke up at 10 and put my pajamas on and back to sleep.

I decided I had to pick out the shower tile grout in person. I called the flooring place where we got the tile and she at first acted like they really didn't have very much to choose from in browns that would go with our tile (they have a sample of the tile in their showroom). So, I was going to just go to Home Depot then. Then she called back and said they do have lots of choices, if I wanted to come in and look at them. Plus, we are still trying to get our missing top window piece to our front entry door here....so it's frame can get stained. I call the building supply guy again. Finally, they have it and he said he could bring it out later this afternoon. I said I had to come in to town anyway, so I'll just pick it up and save him a trip.

As he's loading it in my car, I'm busy asking him other questions, so not really paying much attention to the window piece. I needed to ask him about our patio and exterior doors from our laundry room and garage. The painter lady says the trim part around the windows cannot be painted, but the doors themselves are paintable, which we wanted them painted, not white! I wanted outside painted a dark brown like our garage doors. So, she did, but swears she cannot paint the trim around the windows. So, they now look ridiculous with this white trim around the windows!

anyhow, I asked the building supply guy if they can be painted, because our painter lady is saying no. He says they most definitely are paintable! He said, yes, the paint doesn't hold as good to the trim as it does the door panel, but it's fine. He said the only reason it's coming off on the doors he has on his house, is because his dogs put their feet up to look out the door window and scratch the paint off. He said tell her she needs to paint the trim! Honestly, we are so so sick of her, I think we're just going to do them ourselves. He knows exactly how she is, so he knew what I was talking about when I said "we just need her gone".

I drive away, heading to the flooring place, and look back at the window while I'm at a stop light and realize there's no wood around it. I call DH and tell him. All this time we thought we were waiting to get rid of her until she can stain this top window trim and there's no wood trim! DH had me double check with the guy to make sure it wasn't supposed to have wood around it, like the side light windows did and he said no, it's not.

I think Painter Lady should be just about done now!!! There might still be some caulking she has to do outside on the siding, (because they were too busy to do it when it got put on and the lift was here to get up high) but that is it.

My employer is starting a new program for "employee of the month" to be voted on each month by everyone. The prize is a $500 gift card. Pretty nice!  I voted for one of our inside sales people, because she just has amazing customer service skills and is so organized.

A super busy day

What a busy day I've had. I'm exhausted. I had a dr appointment for my annual physical at 10:15. I got out of there just before 11am. Stopped at the HVAC place to pick up a billing from them, so we can get that in the next draw. Then I had to go to Wells Fargo to get set up as a signer on my side job's new checking account. Then across the street to Home Depot.

I talked to a guy about how to order the refrigerator, since I can't order online, because they won't ship to my neck of the woods and to find out if they can have it delivered to their store and then deliver to me. Yes, they can. For like $40 or so. He said if I don't need it right away, to wait until Thursday because they are having a big appliance sale starting and it might be cheaper. After it's ordered takes about 10 days to get it.

Then I looked at tile for backsplash. Turned out the one I liked best was actually half the price as all the rest of the stuff I was looking at, so that was good. $5 a sheet of tile, vs $10 (or more). But I also wanted to see what Lowe's had and made that my next stop. They didn't have anything I liked as much as the one at HD, plus their's was all $10 or more.

Then I went to Target for laundry detergent and toilet paper. I grabbed a small bottle of orange juice, because I forgot to bring a water with me. That tasted good. I haven't had room for juice in my teeny fridge! Then I went to the grocery store and did our 2 week shopping, except I couldn't get as much soda and water, since I didn't have DH with me to use the extra shopping cart. But, we have enough to get by until the next trip. I forgot how heavy a cart is to push around with 2 cases of water and 4 12 packs of soda.

Then it was back to Home Depot. I texted DH a picture of the backsplash tile to show our finisher guy to make sure it will work. He said perfect. I got grout too, for him. And while I was trying to get that stuff, DH was texting me to pick up more door stops, if they have the same as we got and then texted for some more tile stuff the guy needed. So, back over to the tile aisle. You'd think our building supplier, who supplied the doors and door stops would know we needed same amount of stops as doors.....

Speaking of the building supply guy. When he came out way back when to measure for all the trim boards needed, DH said he wanted to order extra trim so he can do baseboard (himself) in the shop, once it gets emptied out of all our house stuff). Supply guy said, and I quote "oh, you don't need to order that, there will be enough extra from the house. I always order about 15% more than you need." Ok....so Friday the finishing guy tells DH he's short trim and brings 150 more feet yesterday, that he got from a different building supply company. While I'm on the phone this morning with our regular supply guy (trying to find out where in the heck the top window pane for our entry door, that we've had for 2 months now, is at) ...I say "I don't know what happened with the trim baseboard measurements, but our finish guy was short and bought more some place else" He says, ya, he called me last week that he was short 60 feet but it would take me a week to get it, so he got it someplace else. (well, 150 ft and 60 ft short is quite a difference). So, then I said "plus you had told us there'd be plenty extra for our shop and not to order it" He said "I would never had said that" I said well, I was right there when you did! Good grief.

Back to my errands. Last stop was another building supply place for some super expensive roll of tape! $42! Holy cow.

I get home and putting away groceries and flooring girl calls and says "yep, your order was screwed up, we've got the right stuff coming, at no charge, of course" I said, well, it's already been laid in mortar now. Our finisher guy was in such a rush yesterday that he's got to get this done, plus when I found out we couldn't return it (before I realize it was wrong stuff) because he'd already opened all the boxes we basically decided we had to go with it and use it. It was after he got started on it and I kept looking into it more, I realized there was "river rock" and "river pebbles".

Then the owners wife called me. She had just found out what is going on. She said do you hate it? I said well, I don't love it, but it's not really a huge difference from what I was supposed to get. I don't know. She said they will do whatever they need to do to make it right, even if that means re-doing it. I said, let me go look at it now that the wood look tile is getting put on the walls. I'm sure that changes how it looks, rather than looking at dark green walls (what they use to seal it) next to it all. Well, finisher guy has ram board covering it, while he's in there putting the tile on the walls, so I can't really see. I told her to wait until I can get a good look at it and then we'll see how we like it.  Finisher guy says it will be a huge mess and headache to have to get all that mortar off the floor. They will have to grind it.

The wood tile in the shower I am loving.

You can see a little bit of the "ivory" pebbles on the edge. I mean they don't look so bad up against the wood as they do up against that ugly green color. And the "correct" rocks are going to be same shape/style, but just a little bit of color in them.


I need a nap really bad, LOL.

Pebbles heartburn

What a headache today has been. All because of shower floor tiles! OMG. I had asked the flooring guy if they sold the stuff that looks like pebbles. It comes in sheets of 12x12 with mesh backing. Should be an easy install, right?! Apparently, not. The sheets did not really "fit" together, leaving big gaps. Our finishing guy, who is also doing our shower, was stressing out. He opened every box and tried to lay them all out. What do do with these big gaps?

I looked at the link the flooring guy's assistant had sent me, to see what they were supposed to look like finished. I could only find a finished example in a really dark color, but it looked like there were lots of grout areas, where there was gaps and more grout between some pebbles. But, then in looking at the link she sent me, what we had didn't really quite look the same. The link she sent showed squares that looked to be designed for interlocking layout. Plus, the link she had sent the stones were a bit more elongated and a bit more color to them. Hmmm..

I called her up (owner is out of town until mid week) to see what she knew. She had me take a picture of it and also the box label. But, apparently her supplier/mfg couldn't give us an answer until tomorrow if we even got the right stuff. Well, our guy is trying to tile it today!  Then I called back and asked her if there was anyone at her office or at the mfg that was familiar with laying it and could give our tile guy some tips. I talked to a guy who said, basically it has to be laid pebble by pebble! Then what is the point of having these on mesh backings?  I then called back again and asked if I could just return these and we'd get something quicker/easier to install. Our budget doesn't include days of laying out individual pebbles. She said yes, but with a 25% restocking free, plus freight back.

Then finisher and I looked online at Lowes and Home Depot for an alternative, maybe I could pick up tomorrow. They both had several of the pebble style, but they were mesh with interlocking. I watched a few YouTube videos of people laying the pebbles with the mesh backing. They just zippy went down and basically fit right next to the next sheet, no big gaps. The sheets were patterned to fit together. But, neither store had enough in stock. Then flooring lady called me back and gave me the total cost to return and said the boxes can't be opened. Well - our finishing guy opened up all 5 boxes! So,  now he's just going to have to figure out how to lay them. So, now I'm sure I'm going to get a bigger bill for the tile work than planned on. Geez. I figured these square mesh tiles would be quicker and easier for someone to lay down than individual tile squares. DH was no help either, he was freaking out about it, which probably wasn't helping the finishing guy figure it out.

I'm kind of like trying to again, show them the picture, where there is lots of grout between some area more than others. I'm ok with that. Would save some time not trying to pull of pebbles from sheets and fit them in every little gap. But, no one seemed to be listening to me.

What we got:

what they are supposed to look more like:

See how these are notched, so they could interlock with the next sheet? Others I saw online of different brands were kind of S-shaped on the sides and fit together. Supposedly what I got is supposed to be the same thing as the one on the left. I don't even thinK the pebble shapes or colors look the same.

Well, so I was looking at the website of the link the flooring gal originally sent me, going through all their pebble tile options. So, they did send and/or order me the wrong stuff. They have "river rock" and "river pebbles". They look almost the same, both in ivory. The top one, that I received is pebbles. the pictures on bottom left is "river rock".  On their website for each of these they also have a drawing what the squares look like. Rock has those interlocking sides. Pebbles is drawn square, just like I received above.

I called this company to ask if the "river rock" is indeed interlocking. But I tell her I got "river pebbles" and it doesn't appear to be interlocking. She said it was all supposed to interlock, either kind and then she said their owner walked by behind her and said the same thing. Well, what we got sure doesn't meet up and interlock.

Then I called our flooring girl back. She said from their experience with this river pebbles/rock tile, none of it fits together, it has to be bascially layed piece by piece. I told her regardless, I didn't get what I ordered.  Too late now, they are making it work because they have a schedule to keep (and we thought at the time it was the right kind) but I am going to complain to the flooring owner about it, when he gets back. Why does it take until tomorrow to find out how we got the wrong stuff! Either our flooring guy ordered "pebbles" instead of "rock" or he ordered "rock" and they sent "pebbles" in error. How about our flooring girl look at their order sheet and see if they even ordered it right! There's your answer right there.

Friend update and more pics of doors

While we were chatting with our friend on Saturday, I wasn't there the whole visit (I had gone back in the shop for some water and soda) but when I came back he was talking about his wife. It will not surprise me if they end up divorcing in a few years. Their daughter graduates high school this year and their son in 3 more years. Friend said that he's thinking of moving to a different part of the state after son graduates, whether his wife wants to or not. He also mentioned their separate money is still an issue, mostly because he has no idea how much debt she has and she has never had very good credit. He said he was in her car the other day and there was some mail in it. One of mail was from one of those credit repair companies (he said she always gets mail like that, he, who has good credit, doesn't get that kind of mail addressed to him). It said something like "we estimate you total debt to be $35,000, you may benefit from our services" or something to that effect. He said he looked at it and said to her "you have $35,000 in debt?!". She denies it, but he has no idea.  Geez...what does a spouse do in that kind of circumstance?

He said he puts more into retirement, she puts very little (though she makes more money than he does). Friend said he thinks she has the debt and is not saving much for their retirement because her mom is well off and some day she'll get an inheritance, so she's not worrying about it. I think her mom is in her 70's. With the way she is about money I can't imagine her "sharing" any inheritance with her hubby. It's just so weird to me to be married and have separate money.  My DD has a good friend who has been married a couple of years and they keep their money separate and split the house payment and bills. She said they are constantly fighting about money.

And pretty much turns out, friend came over because he wants to borrow DH's pressure washer in about a month or so. LOL. Umm sure....it's underneath 10 feet of all our other stuff until the house is done and DH can even get to it.

The finishing guy worked all day by himself yesterday. Well, DH helped him with stuff, like he put the door handles and lock sets on and also the door stops. This guy does work hard, unlike most of the rest of them. I like him, he's pretty opposite his wife's personality. The building supply guy apparently didn't send enough trim. He did get the Dutch door between kitchen and laundry room put up and we are really liking that door, too.

He picked up the shower tile on the way here this morning and get started on that. With needing more trim boards, painter lady will just have more to stain and lacquer, again. Sigh.....

Tomorrow I have most of the day off work, as I have to go into the city for my annual physical and do a bunch of other errands.

Sunday for a few more hours

I wish the weekends didn't seem to go so fast. Both the finish work guy and his wife/painter came and worked all day yesterday. He's here again today, but she was worn out and stayed home.

Here is a picture of our entryway. I think it looks amazing and it isn't even finished, LOL. The side and top windows for the door aren't in yet. The floor is still covered in paper. There's wiring for the thermostat sticking out the wall.

DH's buddy (the one we didn't see for a long time) came over again yesterday morning for a few hours. It was good for DH to get a break just to visit and talk.

Originally we were going to do grocery shopping yesterday but DH wanted to go do it Sunday, since his friend was coming over and the subs were here working. But, I told him I have to go into the city on Tuesday morning for my annual physical, so I can just do the grocery shopping by myself, after I get done with my appointment. He was happy with that. I did run into town yesterday afternoon to pick up a few things from the grocery store, to tide us over through Tuesday. Milk and break. They finally had some of the yogurt I like. And I picked up some fried chicken for dinner. I was ready to eat something that doesn't come out of the microwave, for a change.

It was 60 degrees by yesterday afternoon. Seemed strange to be 60 out and still so much snow on the ground. 

I'm just going to try to relax the rest of today. I'm still working my way through Doctor Who episodes. I'm up to season 5, though I'm not sure I'm liking the new cast yet in this season. I've also got a book to finish, before my borrowing time runs out. It's just a Danielle Steele book - so an easy light read. I used to read all her books years and years ago, but got tired of them, as they are basically all the same format. But, when I was desperate for stuff to read the past couple of months, I added a couple of her books to my wait list.

People and wildlife (you can guess which I prefer!)

Well, we don't get a break today (Saturday) from painter lady. Ugh. When other subs are working here all day and take their lunch break? They go sit in their vehicles. She plops her butt down on our fireplace hearth or the staircase steps and eats her lunch. The stone on the fireplace and heart isn't sealed yet, so don't stick your pop can on it. Just shaking my head. I can guarantee you she would be using the new microwave in the house if DH hadn't said no. Both she and her dh made comments like "hey, we can heat our lunch up now". DH just said "no one is using my wife's brand new appliances before she gets to use them".

Then we had a big upset time with her and her hubby. Our front entry door has 2 sidelight windows and a top window. Only the two sidelights have been delivered, the top one is apparently lost at the building supplier. BOTH dh and I asked her on Monday if she needed those sidelights with the door,as she was starting to stain it. Nope. Yesterday she kept asking DH about them, in a round about way, and he said, well they are being stored in my shop so they don't get broken, you said you didn't need them? So he comes in and unwraps them. Turns out they are surrounded by wood that needs to be stained. She thought she was all done staining and lacquering! Plus, something to do with our contractor submitted a draw for ALL the painting work last week, paid in full. (We even questioned him and he said well, then just approve how much you think is done. Mostly we questioned because you pay someone before it's done and then it never seems to get finished, just like there is still work she needs to do on our shop!). There is still lots of work left for her to do (especially caulking on the outside that they didn't get done before it was too cold).

According to painter and her hubby she hasn't been paid anything yet, for the house painting, by our contractor (but then they both said they don't bill him until the job is completely done). He took a partial draw of $2500 on it a couple months ago and the rest last week. I don't know, but she sure was upset (not at us) and her hubby's face was all red. I walked in in the middle of their and Dh's conversation about it all and I'm like what's going on?!  Well, she had sitting on her butt, literally, all afternoon doing absolutely nothing, while her hubby does trim work, trying to talk him into leaving early because she didn't have anything to do. So, guess now she has something to do, eh?

I decided to get some cabinet pulls for all the cabinets doors and drawers. I looked at Lowe's last Friday. They were like $3 to $4 each. I need 66. Then I found some in bigger packages on Amazon and much cheaper. Pulls were .98 ea and the handles were $1.30 each. But I couldn't come to a decision on which ones to order. Just a bit difference in styles to chose from. I'd look and not decide. Look and not decide. I'm kind of glad I kept waiting and looking, because finally I think I figured out what I wasn't liking. I looked through cabinet pictures on Pinterest and realized I didn't like the look of using knobs on the doors and handles on the drawers. I liked the look where they were all handles used. Whew!. So I ordered 7 boxes that hold 10 each and saved some money at $1.30 each compared to Lowe's. 

The guy who did our rockery work on the property last spring stopped by. He and Dh got to be pretty good friends. He hadn't seen DH in quite awhile and the first thing he said was "you've lost a lot of weight". Yep, 40 pounds in the last year, since this build began.  While we were showing him the house, we were in my office room and this is what we saw outside :)

Friday pictures

The oven/microwave these workers need to keep their hands off! LOL

The door to my office......it has a lock ;)  hehehee

And lastly - this is one of my favorite pictures. The upstairs hallway to the bonus room above the garage. I am in love with these doors (we will have same doors on DH's den downstairs).

The door to the left is the upstairs bathroom.  I'm thinking some bookshelves along that hallway wall.

Enjoy your weekend :)

Delivery central

More deliveries today.  First one was at 5 freaking 30 am!! WTH?! The bathtub was being delivered. Who delivers at that time of morning? Woke neighbor dogs up, woke us up. Oh well,  haha.

Second delivery was the wall oven/microwave.  Third delivery was the stove cooktop.  DH managed to install the wall oven/microwave basically by himself, while the electricians are here today, they were able to hook it up. It look really nice in the built in cabinets.  I'm just relieved it fits, LOL.

I've also got some UPS I'm expecting from my offices. Both are needing to send me checks. Side job, because of their checking account being stolen. But, apparently they mailed them to my old address, so now waiting on the re-routing. My regular boss is mailing me a bunch of signed checks, as she's going to be out for a couple of weeks on medical leave, so we are just trying to cover all the bases, in case an emergency check needs to go out and one of the owners aren't around to sign one. I"m sure there will be at least one salesperson who won't heed her warning to get their expense report in by 4/1, or they will have to wait a couple weeks for their checks and then they will be begging for a check.  I told her today I may have to forge her name on a credit card payment authorization while she is out. Wouldn't be the first time, but it's been a long time since I had to, LOL.

The neighbor guy down at the end of our street who is building a house...he stopped by last night - turns out he now has mold in his attic space. Dang! He wanted to get the name of the company we used to get rid of ours in our crawlspace. We told him we almost had mold in the attic, too. DH noticed it was wet up there, but no mold yet. We ended up having to use fans and due to the structure of our roof system, (because our attic space is mostly all living space) we had to end up spray foam insulating the parts they had previously done with spray in regular insulation. Just another big bill we didn't need. He's pretty sick about it. Attic space is harder to fix than crawlspace. The HVAC guy was out to finish getting our furnace installed in the crawlspace. He said all the houses he's doing now have mold. What is going on?! It sounds like it's the osb board now being used causing it. The compressed wood and glue they use has mold in it that will activate in the right conditions and everyone seems to be having the right conditions, it appears. I'll bet someday there'll be a big class action lawsuit over this. Like there was with defective Hardy siding several years back.

We've been letting painter lady come in the shop to use our microwave to heat up lunch she has brought for them. No biggie. But, as soon as that microwave/oven combo got installed and turned on, sure enough they say "oh hey, we can just heat our lunch up in that!" NO! you are not using my brand new stuff before I even get to use it! This is my brand new house.  You want to use our shower or soaking tub, too? Give me a break.

Well, time for lunch. I've been craving a tuna fish sandwich (with some relish mixed in).

On to a better life

DH talked to one of our friends from drugville, last night.  He and his wife lived in the next neighborhood over and that is how we met them - trying to fight the drug problem. Though they lasted longer with dealing with it than we did, they finally got worn out and have given up, too. They just put their house up for sale and accepted an offer yesterday for a bit more than their asking price. Soon they will be more than halfway across the county, looking for a place with some acreage for their horses and some much needed peace and quiet. His wife has a really good job (he is on disability) that she is going to be able to keep and work remotely, like I do. So happy for them.

Same friend had sent us this link to watch. https://komonews.com/news/local/komo-news-special-seattle-is-dying

It's an hour long, but worth the watch. It is the first ever report I have seen showing the truth of it all. This is exactly what we were dealing with - even in the smaller suburb town in the county we lived in. So much of what was reported is what DH learned, years ago. He would go through the county sheriff jail roster. Repeated name after name arrested, released, repeat over and over. In our suburb area he had figured out that there were about 30 or so that were arrested time and time again causing most of the drug dealing and theft problems. The deputies arrest and the next day they are out. The comment "we aren't going to arrest our way out of this". DH and I both snorted at the same time. If we had a dollar for every time we heard that from the head sheriff, the prosecutors, etc...

I continue to follow a Facebook page from our old town - the group running the page documents all the homeless camps, arrests, etc in the town of about 40,000. It's just getting worse and worse. The police blotter shows the 2 grocery stores in town are daily dealing with issues (people being accosted in the parking lots) and shoplifting. Same with the Walmart. The parks and trails in town are taken over now. They have had this Facebook page going for a few years. It has inspired one of the contributors (a local business owner) to now run for city council, whereas before he never had any interest in becoming a politician. Last year another trying to fight it ran in his district and won. But, until they vote those allowing it to happen out of that city council, it's just going to get worse. The city police dept's hands are tied, just as is the county sheriff deputies. They are told not to enforce the laws of no loitering, no camping, etc.  There was tent encampment on some railroad property. Finally, last week, with enough citizen complaining (and the police doing nothing) the RR took it into their own hands and literally covered the ground in big rocks, rather than a nice grassy area. They just moved their tents across the street. Still breaking the law and still nothing done to them. The town is now basically being "run" by an attorney who profits from a homeless resource center. Anytime the city gov't tries to do anything they get sued by him or other organizations he has under his belt.

That documentary could be the title for just about any city around there, at this point. The politicians want to call it a homeless problem. It is not. It is an addiction problem that then creates a homeless problem. It is an enabling problem because none of these people are held responsible for their actions and choices. It is why the company I work for moved to a safer location. It is most likely why, a year later, that nice office space is still vacant. Who wants to put their business where homeless live in rv's all along the street the building is on? While the city police say there is nothing they can do about it.

The small (pop. 20,000) suburb town my dd lives in is trying a completely opposite approach (literally, the only town in that area that I think is doing this) And guess what?! It's working. The addicts are offered help. Told to either accept it and get off the streets or they will put them in jail for breaking the law. They have enforced the no loitering and no camping laws.  For DD's sake, I hope their town continues to stay tough.  The answer isn't just taxing the hardworking people more and throwing more money at letting them keep doing it. Taxpayer dollars already funded the laws that are in place and taxpayer dollars already fund the departments to enforce those laws. She actually went to college with and was friends with a young man who is on her county council. So refreshing to see a young conservative and that he won, at his young age.

I am so glad to be away from there and all the failed policies that just keep becoming the norm. We have another couple we are friends with (though they didn't live in our neighborhood, are still living in all that crap) who are in the process of leaving, too. A couple months ago they went and scouted out the area in the state they want to move to. I see on Facebook they are selling off excess stuff, so they don't have to move it. I'm sure they are just waiting for school to get out for the year, as they have 2 young kids. I look forward to seeing them share (on Facebook and phone calls) their new life, back to how living and raising a family should be.

Brain fog

As I start to get overwhelmed and overloaded with all the stuff I need to take care of (besides work) I start getting forgetful. I received an email notification from PayPal that my debit card linked to my account expired at the end of February. It's a debit card to a checking account I rarely use anymore. Oh, I don't think I got a replacement card in the past month! That is something I'd surely remember, isn't it?! I was about to call the bank about it, but then I decided to go through this stack of papers that got shoved over into another stack and see, if by chance, an envelope from the bank with a debit card was amongst it. Sure enough, it was. I don't even recall getting it.  I'm losing my mind, for sure.

I've lost track of what all I've ordered and through who the past couple of weeks. Stuff just keeps arriving via UPS or FedEx and I'm like "oh ya". Today's deliveries were 2 bathroom faucets and 6 corbels, for under the kitchen island bar countertop.  Our plan is to try to use some of the slabs of wood cut from our trees to make the countertop. I ordered some Alder corbel's from Lowes. They weren't super expensive (though some sure were) at only about $20 each. Originally the granite place had thought the bar countertop was to be granite and they included corbels/support braces as as separate line item in the quote.....$450 just for the supports! No thanks! We'll just do our own for $120.

Speaking of minds - oooh boy, my mom sure has her days. I did her tax return for her, again. In past years she got a refund, so I did the online filing and direct deposit method. This year she owes some and I told her she can either have it taken directly out of her account or mail in the return with a check. She wanted to do the mail return & check (that's what I would have done), so I mailed her the completed return. It's just 3 pages. First page is 2/3 instructions and the bottom is the payment voucher. The next 2 pages are her return. She could not figure out what she is supposed to mail in! I think it was that she hasn't actually seen a return in years. She thinks they are supposed to look like way back when you'd get the forms packet mailed to you or pick up extras at the library or post office...and hand fill them in. She's like, well what you sent me looks like copies. Plus, the 2 pages of the return are short pages. The first page is about half a page of return and blank on bottom, the second page is about 2/3. She was very confused by that and if she should cut off the blank areas. And, of course she's not mailing it in for awhile since she owes, so by the time she decides to mail it in in a couple of weeks, she's totally going to forget what to do, so I'm going to have to have this same conversation all over again. I actually did not do her tax return last year. She had some neighbor she barely knows do it (and then though it was wrong and I had to look at it anyway). She doesn't even remember now that she had this lady do it last year. I told her, no I didn't do your return last year and she's like "oh, well who did I have do it?" I had to remind her and then remind her that I don't mind at all doing it, it doesn't take me very long, but if she wants someone else to do it for her, I'd really like her to use a CPA or someone licensed/bonded to do taxes, rather than giving her social security and bank and investment account info to some woman she barely knows!

Our HVAC guy lives out near DH's buddy (who our contractor built the house for a few years ago). He just built a big house (he was his own contractor) and shop. I'd say they've probably been in it 6 months. He told DH today that he told his wife he wants to sell it, because the housing market is so hot, they'd make a bunch of money on it. He was told it would probably be worth 1.5 million. He said he and his wife got in a fight, LOL. She just went through a year of living in a shop, haha, finally has  her house, and now he wants to sell it. DH laughed and said he said the same thing to me the other day. We should sell it and make money and just go buy something else, haha. I wasn't having any of that either. LOL. DH wasn't really serious, anyway. He has no desire to move ever again, either. Or at least not for a very long time.

The painter lady and hubby/finish guy brought separate vehicles today. Maybe that means she's not working a full day, LOL. Finish guy does actually work a full 8 hour day here, so she's been having to stay until like 5:30, until he's ready to leave. But, at least she's been getting more done, being here all day. I don't mind her hubby at all. He's very laid back and easy to be around.

DD's future MIL is doing ancestry.com, so I guess she's having DD do a DNA test. That will sure be interesting to see her results! I told her I'd guess German, Scottish and Danish for the most part, but I'll bet we'll be surprised, haha. She asked if I still had my ancestry.com account and can she link her results to me? I said, technically I still have an account, I would just have to pay the monthly fee to reactivate it, which I'd love to do again someday. I have no idea if her DNA results can link to my account or not.

and Monday rolls around again

FIL was doing a lot better yesterday. It sounds like he wasn't using his oxygen enough. They had him use it all night while he was sleeping. DH talked to him twice yesterday and last night they talked for probably a good 20 minutes. Apparently he goes back to SIL's today and then once his house closes (very soon) I'm not sure where he's going. I'm sure it must be hard to keep getting moved around. The sale of the house (knock on wood) sounds like it is going smoothly. FIL had been worried they might ask for concessions after the inspection. DH had told him not to worry about that at all. With 10 offers and them offering 43k over asking price, they'd have been dumb to ask for money back! And they didn't, so it's all moving forward on schedule.

For those that think I am being unfair to my SIL. I totally get that she has done so much for him (and MIL when she was alive). We (nor do his brothers) do not live in the same state as FIL. SIL lives in the same town as FIL. Bottom line is she's either just going to have to take on the responsibility or not  - and have him live in a care home. And if she's going to take on the responsibility, then I think she needs to understand that her life is going to be different during these months she's caring for him. She's not going to have time for the extensive social life she had before. Sure, DH could go visit him for a few days, but living in a different state doesn't allow for DH to participate in any daily care solution. Of course, a daily (or sometimes 2x) phone call isn't the same as caring for him on a regular basis. I'm certainly not saying "Look at all dh does for him". DH and his brother basically do squat. But, also in the same vein, as she chose have him move in with her and take care of him, we would expect her to be there for him and not leaving him to figure out himself who to call to have pizza delivered because she is mad at him. And not to blame Dh and his brother (I'm leaving the older brother out of any of this as he is an alcoholic and his life revolves around that) because she is ticked off she is giving up all her events (her words).  FIL has said to DH a couple of times, once the house is sold he's moving into a care home. I'm still assuming that's what he will do. I'm sure he will be happier overall and obviously so will SIL. Due to his health problems, we all know his time is limited and we all know all's he really wants is to go be with MIL. He tells DH that regularly. It seems to DH maybe he's just really been holding on these past 3 months, since she passed, to see getting his house sold. If, by some chance, he does want to come and live with us, once our house is done, we have no hesitation in doing that for him. We both are under no illusions that it would be easy.

Our hvac is getting installed today (all the duct work had been done quite awhile back). I think the plumbers are coming back today to install toilets. Friday the two sets of french doors that will go on DH's den (just off the entry way) and into the bonus room upstairs were delivered and painter lady stained them Saturday. I love those kind of doors inside and the stained wood is so pretty with the windows.

It's really warming up during the day (still 20 at night) but still a whole bunch of snow that needs to melt. And then of course it will be a muddy mess, haha. The river was still floating some ice chunks by the other day.

I haven't ordered from Walmart online in quite awhile, but DH needed some blue shop paper towels and that's usually where I get them at best price. But, I needed to order $35 to have the free shipping. Boy, it sure is hard now to just find "regular" stuff on line with them. You just can't order normal sizes/amounts that you would buy in the store. It has to be large packs. And a lot of the stuff I would buy in the store just aren't available for sale online anymore.  It took me awhile to find $35 worth of stuff! I couldn't even buy a stick of deodorant he uses.  And it seems a majority of the items they sell now aren't shipped/sold through Walmart. They are using lots of 3rd parties and you have to weed through them and all their (usually higher) prices.  I used to really like Walmart online shopping. It was the same sizes and prices they sold in the store and was easy to shop online. Target and Amazon seem to be the best online shopping options these days.

My cooktop, ordered through Lowe's, was supposed to be delivered yesterday (thought that was kind of weird on a Sunday). It didn't show up and this morning I received an email that it's been rescheduled to Thursday. Not sure how it goes from Sunday to Thursday, LOL.  

Keeping busy

Ever since FIL went into the nursing home a few days ago, he's going downhill fast. I had hoped he might actually feel a little better staying there, as he'd have more care and help, rather than being alone at SIL's home so much.  He only talked to dh on the phone like 2 minutes last evening. He called him again later this morning and again it was only a couple of minutes call again and he seemed confused. DH was trying to tell him that our DD was going to visit him today and he had to repeat it a couple of times. DH is a bit miffed at his sister for her attitude and I think he kind of feels like it's her fault that he's suddenly gone so downhill the past few days, after being put in that nursing home. I told him he can be upset with her for how she's acting, but it's not her fault he is dying. He's 80 years old and has heart and lung disease as a result of smoking for 60+ years. That part is not her fault.

DH is guessing her sudden change in attitude towards FIL and DH and his brother, is a few weeks ago, when FIL told DH about accepting the offer on the house, he said he wants to split whatever money is left from the house between the 4 kids (there is another older brother). DH has a feeling she is mad about that, hence the change in attitude toward FIL and DH and his younger brother. Most problems are really usually about money, right?

Surprise - the mason guy, the finish guy and the painter are here working on a Saturday.  The mason guy should be finished up with the island/bar stonework today. He finished the fireplace stone yesterday. When the weather is warm enough, he will come back to do the outside stonework to finish the shop and house. It's 50 degrees today! Spring is finally starting to come and hopefully all this snow will melt soon.

I finally got my hair cut and layered . It's so much nicer. All one length just doesn't look that good on me. I like it to the top of my shoulders, but not all one length.  I just went into Great Clips. I put the app on my phone to see the wait time and so I could check in when I got into the city and if there was going to be a wait I'd go run one of my other errands first. But, there was zero wait time, so I got right in and out. I did feel quite old, though...when the girl was processing my payment and says "do you qualify for senior citizens discount?" I asked what age and she said 65..........enough said (beings I'm 55)

It sure was nice to just get out and do something on my own for a change. While there is still lots of snow covering the ground, the roads are all clear and bare now. I stopped at the granite place and took a look at the whole slab, that they will be using for my kitchen and master bath countertops. Then I decided I'd get us some Subway sandwiches to take home for dinner. Use up a giftcard I have. The only two Subways I knew of were one inside Walmart and one back where I'd get on the freeway to go home, but it was on the other side of the street and would be pretty much impossible to get back across. I googled to see if there might be another one near the granite place. LOL. It was literally around the corner, so I went to that one.

Next stop was a quick stop at the grocery store for some milk. That is something we always run out of in between our 2 week shopping trips. I decided to get gas, too, at the gas station there. It was packed, but I got pulled in one spot left. My credit card wouldn't work. So, then I used my debit card and it wouldn't work. Said see cashier. Grrrr.. I wasn't in the mood and still had over a half a tank, so decided to forget it. Then I went to the bank and deposited a check. Then across the parking lot to Lowe's to look at drawer pulls and pick up a few things.  On  my way back to the freeway, I stopped at another gas station, where my card, of course, worked fine and filled up the tank.

I spent this morning cleaning "house" in the shop. Vacuumed our carpet/rug areas, washed dishes, did a load of laundry, and cleaned the bathroom. I was trying to take a little nap earlier. DH was out in the house and texted me that the painter lady and hubby were going to come in the shop and borrow the  microwave to heat up their lunch. Oh well, so much for a nap, haha.

Friday thoughts and pictures

So, DH calls his dad (his dad has a cell phone) just about every single evening. Calls him up last night and FIL tells him he's staying at a nursing home/care place. DH is like what? why? Well, SIL  needed a break. He said it was better (though I'm sure he was just saying that) because now he doesn't have to make his own breakfast and lunches and make his own bed.  His house is supposed to close in 9 more days. I'm not sure if this will be the place he's staying in, after that, or not. He told DH he has a roommate, which I'm sure must be hard. DH said the guy had the tv on so loud in the background, that it was hard for FIL and DH to talk/hear each other.  You'd think, these places/homes where they have to share rooms, they could have the people use headphones. That way, each person could have their own tv and watch what they want to watch and not have to listen to a tv on full blast. My dad always had to have the tv so loud, so mom got him those tv ears, so he could watch tv and she didn't have to have it on loud.

SIL never even messaged DH yesterday that this change was happening.  Like my DD said, she just can't imagine Grandpa is that hard to deal with. He's very quiet and doesn't like to make waves or conflict at all.

I follow a couple of dog rescue Facebook pages. Peoples comments and ideas just amaze me sometimes. One of the rescues (who has a lot of followers) posted a cute little video of her own pack and her rescues going out for a quick midnight potty break (captured on her surveillance cam). There was literally like 8 flakes of snow on the ground and it was probably at freezing temps.  Based on a whole bunch of idiotic comments you'd think she was engaging in animal abuse! It's too cold for the dogs to be outside, etc. Good grief. These people either don't have dogs or they don't live in cold climates, LOL. If I  never let my dogs outside because of the snow and the cold temps they wouldn't have been outside since last November! Our neighbors dogs have a dog door that they can go outside whenever they please. They spend  more time outdoors than indoors and will sit outside in 20 degrees without a care. Like some people replied - what is she (or any dog owner in a cold climate) supposed to do? just let their dogs pee and poop in the house? It sounds like someone on some other page, who doesn't like her, posted about the video, with misleading info, and got all their followers to bombard her with rude comments. People!

And the painter lady put another hole in our drywall! It was her fault and DH says she was yelling at her son and hubby like it was their fault. They needed to move the scaffolding in the great room and DH told them that wasn't going to work, that they needed to take off the top row....and she was pushing it over, while her son was yelling at her to stop and she punched a hole in the ceiling. Just another thing for the taper guy to fix. I guess he's supposed to come next week to do the repairs.

She asked me a long time ago what colors I wanted to paint the inside and outside of the patio doors and the doors from garage and laundry to outside. Inside was the wall color, outside was to be dark brown to match the garage doors. She asked me awhile back what color stain I wanted for inside and outside on the front entry door. I told her both sides the same as the stain being used on all the inside doors and trim. Yesterday she tells DH she needs to know what stain I want on the entry door.  Today, DH comes in the shop and says, she's pulling off the patio doors to paint, you might want to go out there and check with her because I'm getting the impression she is going to paint them the light outside trim color. So, I went out there and yes, she was going to paint the light trim color. She doesn't even remember she already asked me what I wanted to do months ago. If she's not ready for that part, or going to remember when the time comes, then why even ask. LOL. Or take notes, so you have them when the time comes, instead of just assuming.

I'm only working a half day today, so have decided to go into the city by myself this afternoon and do a few errands. #1 - get my hair cut! I can't stand it all one length anymore. I need some layers. #2 - stop in the granite place and look at the whole slab. The lady said she had her husband move it out from behind all the slabs so I could stop in some time and look at the whole thing. #3 - stop at Lowe's and look at drawer pulls and knobs. We think we want them on all the cabinets. The cabinet guys said they would install them when they come back out to finish in a couple of weeks. (because they had to re-order a couple of the cabinets, it will be a couple of weeks).

I took a few kitchen pics last night:

They didn't hang the upper cabinets because one of them was the wrong size. At the corner, where the 2 upper cabinets will meet will be a shelf unit, in between the two upper cabinets.  For knicknacks, etc.  I didn't even realize the garbage can drawer actually comes with garbage cans, LOL. I think I'm really going to like those lower pull out drawers, for like mixing bowls and pots and pans.

There are birds in the trees outside chirping like crazy. Spring must finally be here!

Cabinets going in

Here are some cabinet pictures.  I guess I don't have any of the kitchen that don't have a guy working on them in the picture, LOL.

 Master bathroom.

Mud/laundry room. I've always dreamed of having a "finished" looking laundry room.  And there is so much storage with the cabinets.

Two more cabinet issues came up. I'm not sure who messed up on this one, but it wasn't me. I told the cabinet lady it was a wall oven/microwave combo and gave her the exact measurements of the whole unit, per the spec sheet. The cabinet was built as if the oven and microwave were separate units. I did not give her separate measurements, so where the cabinet company got info for what they built, I have no idea. The guy doing the installing even had my email to the cabinet lady (she orders them from a mfg) where it said it was a combo and had the measurements.  They think they are going to be able to make it work. They can remove the shelf separating them and adjust the trim in front, I guess.  And apparently the plug in the wall wasn't put up high enough. The other issue is one of the upper cabinets was the wrong size, so that will have to be re-ordered too. Oh well, not much I can do about it.

Now the painter lady is annoyed because other subs are inside and she chooses today to start working on the inside doors for all the patio doors. She had many days, where she was the only one here, she only worked 2 hours, and said she didn't have anything else she could work on, because she needed the trim she stained out in the garage to dry. Well, she totally could  have done this work any of those days....and had the house to herself. She just didn't want to work, so just pushed it off to do down the road.

The painter and finish guy called the tape and texture guy themselves to have him come out and fix the hole in the wall, so that is good. Not sure when, but at least they took the initiative for getting it fixed.

They stayed until around 5:30 yesterday. That's like a first for them.  The cabinet guys left about 4:00, but they were here first thing this morning. And they cleaned up behind them, rather than leaving it for someone else to do.

We've known, from what a couple of the contractor's workers have told us, that our contractor pays them as sub contract labor with a 1099, so they have to pay their own taxes, etc. He pays them a flat rate per day. (no wonder she only wants to work half days). Found out today that his young guy that does the concrete foundations (who is painter and finisher's son) is leaving him to go work for someone who pays him by the hour and on a w-2.  And one of the contractor's own sons, who works with one of the other sons, framing, is leaving to go into a different line of work, altogether. I'm not too surprised. He was my favorite of his 4 boys that work for him.

The mason guy is also here and should have the fireplace stone added by the end of today. That will be neat to see, too. They figured out the hearth, by taking it apart and cutting it down the 1/2 inch he needed to get the hearth stone on there, below the bottom of the fireplace.

I woke up with a pounding headache and felt like I was going to throw up. I almost emailed my boss I wasn't working this morning, but once I got up, the headache subsided for the most part and now that it's now pounding I don't feel sick.

Busy day

It's hopping around the house today. 4 subs are here working. Painter, finish guy, mason and cabinets.

I am LOVING the cabinets!! They are just what I wanted. A bit rustic and beautiful.  There is one issue that came up with an overhead corner cabinet. Apparently they didn't do the angle right on the edge of it, so that one piece will probably have to be re-ordered.  And then DH just came in and said one of the lower cabinets is broken, so she's going to have to re-order that, too. The cabinet people are super professional. There are about 5 guys here, plus the cabinet lady. The first thing the head guy said to his guys, was "lay some cardboard down over this front outside concrete (under the front porch) so we don't track all over it". The painter lady and crew should take notes!

I will post cabinets pic when I can take one without all the workers in the picture, haha.

Speaking of the painter lady. She's working on the front entry door today for staining. The flooring is covered partially in ram board and there are rectangles of wood covering all the heating vent openings. Apparently she wasn't paying attention, pushed the board out of the way, put her little 2ft ladder where the hole is, stepped on it, it tipped over and put a hole in the wall. Sigh.....

She is literally making DH sick to his stomach. I cannot wait for her to be done and gone - forever. 

Six weeks ago was when I picked out the appliances I wanted, online with Lowes. Three of them they no longer carry, already. Good grief. I ordered a different, but same size and price, cooktop about a week ago from Lowes. Today I ended up ordering the wall oven/microwave combo from Amazon. It was same price as Lowe's, but no 10% off I would have gotten with Lowe's. Home Depot had it, but would only deliver to the store, so we'd have to go get it and it was $270 more. So, I went with Amazon. It's supposed to be here sometime next week. We are hoping it gets here before the electricians come next and they can get it wired up.

I don't know how people build a house who aren't on site, like we are.  So many questions. How do these subs get answers when no one is there to answer? DH answers what he can, but a lot of the interior stuff isn't his dept (for good reason, LOL) so he has to text me to come out and answer. 

Catching up after a few days

Blogger/reader T'Pol reminded me I haven't posted since last Friday. The days just got away from me. I've been trying to write this post all morning and keep getting interrupted every few sentences. I really just tried to relax over the weekend, though both DH and I were grumpy and short with each other. The shop living, long extended building process, is wearing, that's for sure.

Saturday morning we went grocery shopping and a stop at Lowe's. Seems like we are always needing supplies there. This time it was more "ram board" to cover up the flooring in certain areas. I also bought the floor cleaning stuff the installer recommended. Bona. I bought a mop kit and solution for laminate and vinyl floors. I also bought a big dust mop.

I had some good savings at the grocery store. The prior trip I earned bonus reward points, which I was able to convert to $17 off this trip. Plus, I'm playing the Monopoly game and got 3 free donuts. I've also won (though haven't turned in yet) a $5 store gift card and enough "tokens" for a $10 store gift card.

I got my mom's tax return done for her. I think it took me a whole 15 minutes, if that.

I haven't been reading much lately. Partly, because I haven't found anything to read that's holding my attention, partly because I've just been watching episodes of Doctor Who on Amazon Prime. It's a nice break to relax to.

DD had a good first business trip last week and no delay's getting home. She has to turn around the last week of this month and do the same week long trip again. Saturday they picked up their new dog. A 5 year old pooch, who seems to be settling in with them, their other dog and cat, just fine.

The painter lady is still working on staining all the trim boards. She actually worked a "full" day yesterday........which means she worked 6 hours, LOL. DH just completely stayed out of the garage/house all day. Didn't go out there once. Her hubby was supposed to be back today to start installing all the trim and doing the shower tiling. Now he's supposed to come tomorrow. We found a local guy (within same budget builder was going to have his finish guy do it for) to do the mason work on our fireplace and around the breakfast bar front. He's getting started today, so that will get done and out of the way. But, for some reason the fireplace did not get installed high enough above the hearth, so he can lay the stone there! Apparently that was the fireplace installer's goof up. He said we could put granite there, as that is thin enough, but I really don't want granite there. So, now the hearth is going to have to be taken apart and re-done (just more money to spend) so we can get some flat type stone on there, before the fireplace. GRRR.

While we were talking to the mason guy, the plumbing guys showed up, to do a little work. The head plumber is a nice guy. He's from Ukraine, or somewhere around there. I like listening to his accent and he likes to say "it's a beautiful thing". LOL. He's here today to install the hot water heaters. My kitchen sink is supposed to get delivered today and the cabinet lady called this morning and they are starting to install cabinets tomorrow.

Well, before I get interrupted again, I'm going to post this.  

Almost through to the end of the week

DH still keeps in regular touch with our old "good neighbor".  He's still there. He has a few more years before he can retire. He said the owner of our old house has a couple of travel trailers parked on her property that people apparently live in. Good grief. He said they are nice trailers though, all quiet, and since they don't deal drugs, he's ok with it, LOL. He always says he misses having us as neighbors :)

He's having a new fence put up. The old one has been there like 30 years, so it's time. The first owner of his place installed it. Though we had replaced part of it several years ago, that was getting pretty run down. He texted DH a couple of pics of the new fence going in and from the pics we could see into our old yard. Our flowering plum tree in the front yard is even bigger and all the thuja's we planted are getting really tall now! Like 10 feet tall! That's pretty neat to see.

Did I mention that DH found out that one of the drug dealers from the house behind us, with the walk up drug dealing window, finally got sent away to prison for a long time? He got sentenced to like 10 years. Wooo! It's about damn time.  Not sure about his brother - probably still dealing drugs. As that is all they know. The slumlandlord neighbor's son (the one who is like 40 years old now) is going through "drug court" for the umpteenth time. Ya....cuz that has worked out so well the last 10 times.  Such failed policies, because they think he is a "victim". He'll clean up this time, stop doing and selling drugs....he promises! Then yesterday DH found out one of slumlandlord's grandson's is in jail for burglary and drugs. Just like his dad. I had hoped those kids got away from that life, when their mom divorced slumlandlord's son years ago and went on to a better life (she got her degree and a good job).

DH had a guy from town ask him if he'd recommend our contractor....DH told him that's a loaded answer, LOL. I guess he was asking for someone else. A new business owner in town (moved here about a year ago) and wants to build a house.  DH told him, while we are happy with the quality of the work, that is all we are happy with. He would not recommend our contractor, at all, though there are several subs we would definitely recommend. DH gave him the name of the guy who did our insulation. He is also a general contractor and if he runs that part of his business anything like he's done with the insulation, he would be good. The insulation guy has given DH lots of advice, above and beyond the insulation, because our contractor can't be bothered with figuring it out.

DH is really struggling with the painter lady. Some of it is due to his own ocd'ness and the need to have everything clean and perfect, even while he's working on something. He's the type that will clean up after himself. But, I also get his point. The flooring in the garage is covered in paper, has been since taper guy put it down (in garage and house). Painter was like oh good, he left all his paper down, now I don't have to do it. The framing guys used the garage to cut all the beams and stuff to build the staircase. Of course they couldn't grab a broom and sweep up all the sawdust. I did that. Then, after the other days major lacquering job, the floor was covered in stuff that needs to be swept. (she sprays the lacquer, rather than brushing, so it's a big mess). The inside house flooring is all installed and done (and looks beautiful, by the way). They need to move all the doors inside the house to store and finish drying.......ok....so lets just track all that crap on the floor of the garage onto the brand new finished flooring in the house. DH said to them the other morning, can you sweep the garage up first, so it doesn't get tracked all in on the new flooring? Her response was "it's just going to keep getting dirty, so why bother?"

Um.....ok....so track it all in the house and it all will STILL will have to be swept and cleaned up! So, why not just sweep it up in the garage first and limit the mess and sweeping to the garage floor? I think part of the problem is most of the houses they do are spec type houses that don't have owner's yet, so who cares, right? So, DH grabbed a broom. Spent maybe 10 minutes sweeping it all up. Yet, her 2 boys that help her spend half their time doing nothing, on their phones or ipads. DH said when he worked at a tire store as a young adult the motto was "if you are leaning, then you are cleaning!".

I've seen jokes made about men that have joint Facebook accounts with their wives....that the wives are control freaks...painter lady and her hubby have a joint account.....now it all makes sense....LOL!

They weren't even here 2 hours again yesterday. Supposedly, the contractor pays them by the day, so of course they really have no incentive to work very long. In one of DH's conversations with the contractor he wasn't very happy with them. Says when he is not there on job sites with them, they pull this stuff of leaving early all the time, but tell him they were there all day. I guess he told them to knock it off, because he and DH talk on the phone for updates, so he knows how long they were there. It apparently didn't do any good, haha.

Tomorrow morning is our bi-weekly trip into the city to do grocery shopping. As always, the couple of days before we down to the last of the food and snacks.

Money in limbo

UGH! The company I work my side job for, got their bank account info stolen. Apparently, someone in Florida printed out checks with their information and tried to cash a check for about $2,000. The banks fraud dept. caught it, but the company had to close out their bank account and open a new account. This was last Friday.  Last Thursday, at the end of the month, I deposited my check from them for my February work. Tuesday morning I see in my bank account, online, a debit for the same amount as my check I deposited last Thursday.

Great, now I am short the money, until a replacement check can be done. I have company checks, but of course now they are no good, and the company CFO is in the process of getting new checks (and will mail me some). But, it could be a week until I get them. She still doesn't even have new checks, yet, I guess.

At least, I have enough in my checking to cover it, thank goodness, but it's close, with all the expenses related to building I have been paying out, our cash flow is wonky.

I emailed the CFO to ask her how soon she thinks new checks will get to me (plus I still haven't received a new signature card to fill out, as I am also a signer on the checking account).  I also asked her if all the checks she had written/sent out prior to the breach, and haven't cleared yet, are going to bounce on the recipients? What a total pain!

Just as I'm typing this out I got an email from their banker, sending me the signature cards to sign.  Then the CFO emailed me back that the banker has been presenting her with checks to make sure they are legit and ok to just clear through the new account, but she said mine wasn't one of them. Well, somehow it got declined. I had deposited the check via mobile phone app. Yesterday I received a "legal" copy in the mail from my bank. The company's banker said to re-deposit it. I did that yesterday afternoon late. This morning I get an email from my bank saying it's declined as it's a duplicate deposit. I emailed back explaining what is going on and someone called me back and said to mobile deposit it again and they will watch for it to ok it.  Now, I just gotta hope it goes through on the other bank's end this time.

You have to laugh at the logic of people in this day and age of instant information. I follow a Facebook page for our town, where people post things for sale, news about town, etc. It's a teeny tiny town. Someone just posted a question asking where the library is and what are it's hours. If you have the time to sit and type that out, why don't you just type the same thing in google and find out yourself?! LOL.

We thought the tape and texture guy was going to push DH off the deep end? Nope, it's going to be this painter lady. Now we find out that SHE told the building supply guy who is handling our stuff (doors, windows, etc) when to deliver them....delaying it (they were ready 2 weeks before) so she can delay and work her partial days, most likely. She's been told by the contractor and DH she has the 1000 sf garage for all her work area and to store the stuff until ready to install doors and trim. Nope. she tells DH she really needs to move the doors back in the house (they smell so strong with stain and lacquer!) because  they will dry better in the house. DH tells her it's actually the same exact temp (well, garage is actually 1 degree warmer) in the garage as house. But, ok, fine, but put them in the dining room area, not the kitchen, as supposedly cabinets are supposed to come this week and we don't need to move the doors again....she wants to argue about that too! DH says "it's 3 extra steps from the kitchen to the dining room". She says all snotty "is it really? is it really just 3 steps?" (ok, it's FOUR steps!) OMG. She is just too much. Then it turns out that she wants to wear a respirator while the stuff is still in the garage (it really is bad, I can see why) and so DH told her - there are people working in the house every day now....flooring, electricians, soon the cabinet people. They can't wear respirators! DH told our contractor this is exactly why he did not want to be building in the winter time! It's a total pain in the butt. If this was warm weather, doors and windows could be left open. The garage and house would not need to be kept heated so they can paint and stain and lacquer. Her only saving grace is that she does do good work (just as all the subs have done). Now, we know why the outside stone mason guy quit part way through doing the shop. He was fine, until she showed up to paint. She was most likely being herself towards him, he got put in his super crabby mood and was arguing with everyone, including DH, so DH got blamed for him  leaving. It all makes sense now. All of these subs working here around her and just shaking their heads.

But, our doors are turning out beautiful. They are knotty alder. DH called up the building supply guy, just to tell him thanks for doing such a great job helping us pick all that out and that we really appreciated him.  DH is like that's all I'm calling about, LOL. The guy was like "really?! In 25 years I can count on one hand the number of customers who called just to say thank you."  Then somehow he brought up the painter lady....he doesn't like her either. Said she acts like this on all the jobs and he hates going to job sites if she is there. So, I guess in some ways that made DH feel better -  it's not just him she can't get along with.

How I saved $143 today

I had to get my kitchen sink (copper farmhouse) and cooktop ordered. I already knew what I wanted to get, so that part was easy. I picked out the sink months ago. I picked out the cooktop from Lowes a month or so ago and the model one I wrote down is no longer offered at Lowes but they had a similar one for same price and same size (as I had already given our cabinet lady sizes of appliances.)

The sink and strainer was $498 total at Home Depot. My Ebates app on my desktop popped up and said it would be cheaper buying from Houzz, plus a 2.5% cash back that Home Depot doesn't have with Ebates.

Price at Home Depot: $498
Price at Houzz: $485

When I was checking out, my "Honey" app did some coupon code searching and as usual, found nothing (I just need to delete that app!) so I googled coupon codes and found one for $40 off a $400 order!

(I'm rounding some numbers to nearest dollar, for ease of reading)
$498 - Home Depot price I thought I was going to pay
$485
- $40 coupon code
- $12 ebates
-$9 credit card cash back
$424

total savings $74

The cooktop was on sale for $539 at Lowes
I spent $1 and bought a 10% off Lowes online coupon code from ebay.

$540
-$54 (10% off $539, rounded)
-$5 ebates
-$11 credit card cash back
470

total savings $69

Just trying to save a dollar wherever I can!

Let the week begin

I just think we've been dealing with contractor and subs for wayyyyy toooo long now.  We are so over it, LOL. At the end of this month it will be a year since we started this! They are just getting on our nerves, big time.

The finishing guy (hubby of painter lady) and painter lady and their two boys, show up Monday morning (well, mid morning, as usual). She's in a bitchy mood, as usual. She will be using the 1000 sq ft garage area to do her sanding, staining, lacquering of doors and trim. Apparently that is not good enough for her. DH had told her he wants our garage roll up doors covered in plastic, since she'll be spraying in there. She said it wasn't necessary, because the lacquer doesn't stick and just floats to the ground. Hmm...  But, Sunday DH and I took some cheap plastic sheets we picked up at Lowe's and covered two of the garage doors, just to be safe. We didn't cover the middle one, because sometime soon, all the trim is supposed to get delivered and they'll need to open that door.

She walks in, all attitude, and is getting set up in the garage. Says to DH "YOU need to cover up that 3rd door with plastic". DH had the extra roll of plastic next to the door and picked it up and started to hand it to her. She says "I'm not doing it". OMG. - that is the painters job! DH turns to one of her sons and says 'Ok, well then you are going to help me with it because it takes two to hold it up and get it started with tape". I told him he should have just handed it to her anyway. Said, it's not my job. I did these two doors for you yesterday. Your Welcome.  And just walked out!

After an hour and a half she ran out of stain, so had to go drive back to the city to get more stain. Obviously she would have had to know when she was here an hour and a half on Friday, that she wouldn't have enough stain left to do all the doors and door frames. Her excuse on Friday that since the doors got delivered late (they showed up at noon, instead of 10:30) so that is why they didn't get to start staining the doors on Friday, so they left. Well, obviously she didn't have enough stain to do the doors on Friday anyway! Just silly.

So, there goes 3 hours of her working Monday, with a trip back to the city. I've been inside to answer questions twice (from electrician and about shower tile) and since she's gone to get paint her 2 boys are just sitting in the garage on their phones, while she's gone.

Back up to Friday. She didn't show up Thursday (and worked an hour and 45 min on Wed) and the flooring guy asked if she was coming on Friday, because she's still staining and lacquering the staircase and if she was coming Friday he wasn't going to come because the fumes give him a headache. So, DH makes a couple of calls and finally finds out she is coming Friday. She was here a whole hour and a half and left. We lost a whole day with the flooring guy because she was here an hour and a half?!

When they got here Monday morning, the finish work guy asks my DH if he has any more space heaters, as they need to get the garage warmer. DH says, no, he's already used all his. Then the guy goes out in his trailer and gets 2 heaters. WTH?!! That's what your heaters are for! Then he says they need the garage warmer and DH asks them what temp it needs to be at? (we have a sensor in there from our weather station, so dh can go look on our weather station thing inside the shop and tell him what the temp is) and he replies back "what's the temperature in there?". Just rolling our eyes. They just want to be difficult. If DH had said it was 60 degrees, he would have said it needs to be 65.

Let's see what else.....oh Friday afternoon we went into the city as we needed some supplies at Lowe's and we got into the granite place and I picked out the granite. When I was in there months and months ago, they didn't really have much in the colors I had wanted. She said everyone was changing towards whites and grays, not browns and creams, but she had given me some websites of her suppliers where I could look online and tell her what to get from there. But, I had no idea of what any of those cost, as she had quoted me the entry level granite. When I emailed her a few "looks" I liked, she said those weren't entry level. So, we stopped in there. Now she had a whole bunch of slabs in colors I liked and they were entry level priced, LOL. Plus I didn't care if the upstairs bathroom and the laundry room had the exact same granite as kitchen or master bath. I was perfectly happy to pick something out of their remnants section. So, I stood outside in the freezing cold and there were a whole bunch there, that I liked too. So, all that is picked out and I'm happy with it. For the most part the remnant I picked was almost exactly like the slab in their showroom I picked out for the kitchen and master bath.

The interior doors are getting stained. I'm loving those too!!

The electricians got done early on another job they were at (not supposed to be back here until Thursday) so they decided to come out for a couple hours and do some more work. Hung the kitchen pendant lights and the dining room chandelier.

The flooring guy brought a helper yesterday and they really got a lot done. He said he should be all done today. I'm really loving the floor.  Gives it all a warm homey feeling. I'm also really glad I decided to go with a plainer vinyl flooring in the baths and laundry. I think if I had chosen the vinyl planking with the more stone look, it would have looked too busy with the granite on the countertops and the wood look tile that will be in the shower.


DD is on her first business trip this week. She's pretty excited for it. Monday was a travel day, which is good because they got stuck in Denver for a couple of extra hours, to catch their connecting flight. At least she is with a co-worker who has been to this mfg. plant many times, so she's not having to do this first trip on her own.  Sounds like she'll have to go back again at the end of this month.

DD and DF are also adding another dog to their family. It's a 5 year old dog, someone her DF knows, who needs to rehome it. It was her son's dog first. Then he had a baby a couple years ago and now that it's walking I guess he's too rough with the dog. He gave it to his mom, but her other dogs don't get along with it.  So, DD and DF went and did a meet and greet with him and their dog. All got on well and played together. They've been wanting to add a second dog, just not wanting to deal with a puppy, so hopefully this will work out good. They are going to wait until next weekend to pick him up, since she is gone all this week.

We started yesterday morning out at -15 degrees and ended the afternoon with 30 degrees above zero. 45 degree temp change.  Wish when we are starting out at 20 it was ending at 65 one day LOL