Slowly progressing

I had a nice chat with my mom again yesterday. Again she only had one instance where she couldn't remember what something was called........AND I couldn't remember it either! LOL. It's those bushes that bloom in spring with yellow flowers and cause a lot of allergies (at least for me they always did). I can never remember what they are called, but they were abundant where I grew up and when they were in full bloom it was actually hard for me to breathe if I was close to a bunch of them. Scotchbroom? I think?

I guess her boyfriend set up another doctor appointment for some specialist thing that is out of state for him and we are kind of on their way home, if they take a little detour. They were going to do this last fall, but he ended up canceling the appointment. I guess now he's going to try again, but we'll see. It's a long drive for them. I still don't get why one of his kids won't take a few days and drive him there. But, if they do go, maybe I'll get a little visit with my mom at the end of next week.

The excavator guy/crew got the pads ready in front of garage doors for the concrete to be poured. DH left a message for our contractor that it was ready for concrete now. He just called DH. There is still some final trim work and also outside painting and caulking needing to be completed......ie Painter Lady. Before DH could even say I don't even want her back here, contractor said she is not coming back on this job, nor is she allowed on another job of his going on. He said she is having a lot of mental issues going on (well that was obvious!) and her hubby (who we really like) will finish it all himself. And apparently when contractor got on her case about scratching/denting our gutters with the ladder her reply to him was "well, he (my dh) was just going to get them scratched up anyway!". OMG.

Just now got an email from the cabinet lady. The cabinet (that was supposed to take 2 weeks to get here, which would have been last Thurs/Fri) won't be in until Thursday afternoon and they can't install until Friday morning. I called granite place and now am waiting to hear how this impacts their schedule with us. If this 3rd cabinet isn't right.......oh, and when her guys were here the first time installing the cabinets one of them said to DH "if you have the hardware knobs, we can install those for you when we come back to finish". ok. sound good. No, that will be an extra $300 if we want them to do that for us, she just told me in the email.........seriously? you've delayed us 2 months and you're going to charge me $300 to install door/drawer pulls? No thanks. We'll just do it ourselves. Our mason guy was just saying they make a template you can get at Lowes or Home Depot for screwing in cabinet hardware. Said it makes the job easier.

I did get that $10 from that company for doing an Amazon review for them. Instead of an Amazon gift card they just put $10 into my paypal account. Whatever works. I also made my $5 daily goal on MTurks last Mon-Fri, as well as yesterday. Still working on today. $2.70 earned, so far.

I need to make a quick trip to the post office in town during my lunch break and mail some signed checks back to my boss. She had sent them to me, just in case something came up needed a check (other than what I normally send via online bill paying) sent out while she was out on leave. Didn't need them, but glad we were prepared, just in case. While I'm in town, I'll fill up with gas and use my $20 in gas station gift certificates. I also need to get my mom a birthday card and mail it. I'll send her a card and gift for Mother's Day (when I got into the city tomorrow and can pick up a gift card).

Noisy day

It was a pretty good weekend. Saturday I helped DH make a template for our kitchen bar countertop. We just used some ramboard type cardboard. Then the live edge slabs will be cut into these 3 pieces using the pattern. The rest of the afternoon DH used his wheelbarrow to move some sandy type rock over in front of the two small garage doors, once goes out front, one out back. He at least got the base started, for when concrete gets poured there.

Sunday morning we woke up to a couple of inches of snow, but by mid morning it had all melted away, so that is good. It's cold though. This morning is 23 degrees. We didn't do too much yesterday. DH worked on organizing his picture and videos onto his hard drive and put a few little videos together of the recent progress. That always keeps him busy and his mind occupied for awhile. While he did that I watched episodes of Blacklist. My sister recommend it and it's a pretty good show. Lot's of episodes available, so should keep my entertained for awhile, at least.

Of course our cabinet lady never got a hold of us on Friday, like she said she would, to let us know when they are bringing the 3rd cabinet out. Can't say I'm a bit surprised.

It should be a busy week, here. The mason guy is finally here to start working. He stopped by Friday evening and dropped off some of his stuff. The excavating guy called last night and is finally getting out here to get the driveway pads prepped. If/when the cabinet shows up, the countertops should be ready to install sometime this week, too.

I really need to take some time off work - just to use up my vacation hours. I'm up to like 243 hours. Not to mention, I'm sure a little break would be good. I think we are only allowed to carry like an extra week, over our yearly amount, so I think I'm right there at that limit. Problem is I earn almost 2 days a month, LOL, so if I take a couple days off, I earn it right back, haha.

I just scheduled my appointment for my annual mammogram for Wednesday morning. I'll also stop in the lab before my appt and get my blood work done. I had to wait for the year to be up for my insurance to cover the mammogram and just want to get one trip in and all done at same time is easier.  And since DH and I would need to go into the city Friday afternoon or Sat morning, I'll probably just go get our grocery shopping done after my appointment. Then we won't have to make another trip in. 

The mason has gotten started....the stonework around the outside bottom of the shop never got finished last summer, so he's starting there. Noisy! since I'm inside it, LOL. Plus there's the excavating equipment noise going on. The dogs are a bit freaked out. One of my dogs tried to get into my lap (he's only like 80 pounds) and had his front paws up on my lap, so I was giving him hugs and he butted his head into my throat. Ouch! That does not feel good, at all.

Friday follies

Now the mason guy is pulling the same no show crap everyone else does. He's been saying for 3 weeks now he's coming. Somehow this week he blamed it on rain...no rain here whatsoever this week. In fact, it's been nice and warm. Mid 70's yesterday.

DH did the little side yard rock steps between us and neighbors yesterday. I see neighbor guy got home last night from his work trip all week. Hopefully now, their 5 dogs (their 3, plus their son's 2 dogs) will be quieter. They weren't as bad as we thought they'd be, but did have a few instances where they were on a barking binge. Mostly their youngest dog was out of sorts. He doesn't like his human dad being gone and he's out of sorts with the boarding dogs there.

Today is my half work Friday. Just got payroll submitted, so that is out of the way.  Now I need to get our AmEx statement all posted to our accounting program. One of my least favorite tasks, LOL.  There is a way to import it in, but I tried it years ago and it was more hassle to me than it helped, it seemed.

DD just found out this morning that she has to go out of town on a business trip on Monday thru Thursday. Talk about short notice! That sure would be hard to deal with (in my opinion) if she had kids. Plus, she was never told about all this travel, when she was interviewed/hired. I know she doesn't mind it too much now, that she's young, but I don't see her wanting a job, long term, where she has to travel so often. She wasn't supposed to have to go back there until the end of June. Due to the distance, it takes almost a full work day just to fly there. And another full word day to get back home.

DH has been working on getting the dishwasher installed. The plumbers left this thin line of tubing from under the sink area through the cabinet holes to the dishwasher area. DH couldn't figure out what it could be for. He called the plumber to ask....it was so you could tape the cords and plumbing tubes to and feed back through, haha. Smart. As our Ukranian plumber likes to say "it's a beautiful thing". LOL. DH get's it all fed through and the power cord is literally an inch too short to reach the outlet! I looked online at Lowes and Home Depot to see if they carried longer cords. Not in store. Was trying to find one to ship overnight via Amazon...then DH says give our little town hardware store a try. They only had 6ft, too. So then I called the lumber store. They had an 8ft one! Who'd a thunk it? LOL. They saved the day, again.

One of DH's friends (the one who says he's moving here at some point) called and said he's pretty sure another of their friends is on drugs. I find that hard to believe. This particular friend is younger then them (later 30's I think), has a wife, young kids, and his own business. I asked DH what made him think that. He said that friend was over at his shop and kept slurring his words. He said he snuck a sniff of his soda can to see if there was alcohol in it and there wasn't. Plus he said he's always been suspicous of an event a few years ago where friend supposedly just stopped breathing for no reason and had to be resuscitated. According to him and his wife they never figured out why.....Well, I sincerely hope this guy is not on drugs. That would be beyond sad for his lovely family. But, nothing surprises me anymore, these days. One of our family friends is now divorced (3 kids) because her dh got hooked on drugs the past few years. She's a smart gal, has a masters degree and a really good job. What an ordeal she went through, but she's doing better now and moving on with her life.

No weekend plans. The weather is turning kind of gray and colder for the next several days. Guess we'll just be hanging out in the shop or something.

Hits

I'm still working M-Turks. While I used to have a goal of $3 per day, I've kind of changed it the last couple of weeks, as I've figured out a couple of things lately, with using it. First is, I rarely do it on weekends, which throws off my "daily" goal. I've realized that if I leave the website tab open all day, and check back often, I find many more hits to do. Most come up for very short periods of time and you need to grab them fast while they are there. If I only try to do it during my lunch break, sometimes I only find a couple to do....or none. I've also just realized I can accept more than one at a time and they will go into a "hits queue", where typically you have about an hour to get to and complete them. That way you can grab more than one hit, while it's still available.

With checking back often and putting them in my queue (when I can, it's not always that there are more than one I find available to do), I am finding that Monday-Friday I can usually get $5 a day, sometimes a bit more. So, that is my new goal. $5 a day, Mon-Fri. That puts me at about $100 a month. I'm hoping I can get this to be routine and then eventually work it up to more $ per day. I just went over 1000 hits (I've been doing this about a year and a half, now). One of these days, when I have more time, I'm going to try to figure out how to do batch hits and see if that will help increase my daily total. I think once we get moved and settled into the house, and I have my own office, and not sharing a desk with DH, I'll be able to maybe add a little bit on the weekends, too.

Another helpful thing I have found is an "add-on" called MTurk Suite. It marks ones I've already done or opened to look at. It also rates them with color codes and quite often will show the hourly rate of pay it equates to, which I find helpful in deciding if it's worth it or not. It also gives me my daily total up on top, so that has been really helpful in reaching my daily goal, rather than trying to go back into my dashboard and have to keep adding up my hits done for the day. Saves time.

Does anyone else do these from a phone or tablet? I always use my desktop, but maybe I can log in via my ipad mini, while I'm sitting watching tv in the evenings and find a survey or two do to. The other thing I am trying to figure out is what the column "hits" with the number listed means. Sometimes it's 1, sometimes it's another number. What's it mean when it's a higher number?

Calgon, take me away!

Yesterday was a good day for work getting done. The rockeries are all finished now (we ran out of good weather, last Fall, to finish it then). We have quite a bit leftover medium sized rocks. They are going to haul some of them away for us, so that is good.

The plumbers came and got the tub and faucet installed, the 1/2 bath pedestal sink and faucet installed and the dog shower faucet/handles installed. We don't know why they didn't bring the sink for the laundry room. Most likely the countertop guy will need it for template. It will be same sink as in our shop bathroom, so maybe they can measure from that if they need to, I hope.

I have to admit, I took my shoes off and sat in the tub! I've so missed having a bathtub. One of these days we'll even have water to it ;)  I spent yesterday afternoon trying to get the grout haze off off the shower tile floor. I bought some "professional grout haze remover". of course it barely works. Some did come off, as my rag got quite dirty, but it really doesn't look any different then before, to me. I'm going to give it a 2nd try and see if another layer will come off.

We had ordered this cheap dent repair kit off of Amazon a couple weeks ago to try and remove the dent in our garage door (courtesy of the finish guy). It helped bring the dent out a little, but still there (darn). I think it's mainly for car dents. I received a post card in the mail yesterday from the company offering a $10 Amazon gift card if I leave a review and email them a screen shot of the review. We only paid $16 for the repair kit, LOL. I left a review. Hopefully, I'll get the $10 Amazon gift card. If I do, it was worth the few minutes of my time to leave a review and email them.

The dishwasher got delivered. Not sure why it takes 2 guys, LOL. One rolled the box in on a hand cart. The other carried a small box of hook up parts. Obviously only one can drive the truck, too.

The staircase railing is all done. Nothing fancy, but we like it. The lighting fixtures match well with it  (not planned, haha) with black metal and wood.

The granite installer called this morning and they will be out sometime today to do the templating, so at least the process is getting started. Hopefully all goes smooth with the cabinet.

Well, back to work. 

Little by little progress

The fireplace guys came and hooked up our gas fireplace and put the trim piece around it. Looks nice. It does put out nice heat and I guess there is a battery back up thing, that if our power goes out, we can still have heat blowing from the battery power.

Still no mason guy. He did call DH this morning and said now he'll be out later in the week to get started. I just got a call from the cabinet lady. She won't know until Friday what day the cabinet is supposed to be delivered to their shop (the following week), but she has talked to the granite people about keeping our schedule going. They will come out to template, either tomorrow (as scheduled) or possibly Thursday. That is fine, as then they said they need 3-5 days to cut the granite tops, which by then the replacement cabinet should be in and installed.

The excavator guy and a helper (and some help from DH) worked all day yesterday getting more of our rockery areas done. Got the first driveway lined on each side and an area in front, where we will have lawn. They are working again today (but with no helper), and should have most of it done by the end of today. He's working on a very short wall behind our shop and between us and our neighbors, today. Our neighbor lady asked if we were putting in a couple steps between our lots (out lot slopes down a a bit to their lot)...so we can visit each other without having to walk out to the road and around, LOL.  Yes, we will ;) and that's where will put the gate between us, too.

The plumbers just got here and will be installing the master bath tub, faucets, shower faucets and the half bath pedestal sink and faucets. I'm not sure about bathroom sinks...they are undermount and I'm not sure how that works. Plumber said something about the granite installers attach them during their installation process. I like our plumber guy, he's really nice and I like his Ukrainian accent :)

The dishwasher is to be delivered this afternoon, sometime. I am feeling really tired this morning. I feel like I slept good, though.

DH's buddy sold a few of his acres. They just really need a vacation, he said, so are using some of the money from the sale for that. So, they and their 2 teenagers spent 13 hours in a car to their destination, spent 3-4 days sightseeing, and 13 hours back in car. No thank you, LOL.

I just went next door and let old pooch back in the house, as she had been laying outside by herself, again, for awhile. Poor old girl. I wonder why she can't seem to get back in the doggy door now. She can get out, LOL. Neighbor said she has a vet appointment for her next week.  Neighbor guy picked a good week to go out of town - he doesn't have to work at home and listen to the backhoe and rock noise these past 2 days.

Easing back into the week

It's kind of a busy/noisy day here. We're supposed to have 4 subs here....mason, framer (to finish staircase railing), rock movers, and plumber. So, far the framer and heavy equipment/rock mover guy is here.  Then the fireplace lady called and they are coming later this morning to put on the final trim piece and hook up the gas and show us how it works. They didn't want to do this part, until all the trim work was done and no dust everywhere.

I got an email Friday afternoon from the cabinet lady that the cabinet isn't even supposed to ship until week of 4/29 now. What happened to 7-10 days production plus 4-5 days delivery...putting it HERE at the end of this week? I just sent her an email earlier this morning, asking that very question and then said how about, since this is the 3rd try to get this cabinet right, the factory ship this overnight so it is here in time for our countertop scheduled time? I also asked what is going on with the upper cabinets that had to be replaced (wrong size)...it has been almost 6 weeks for those? Longer than they took to make and get there the first time? The way the granite people explained to us, is they come in (the 24th is when they scheduled us) and template it all. Then come back in 5 days, to do the installation. I asked the cabinet lady to emphasize with them that they could still come in on Wednesday and do their templates and when the come back the next mid week (as I'm assuming they meant 5 business days) the cabinet will be here, or they could start on bathrooms and laundry and do kitchen last.

Our neighbors now have their son's 2 dogs until July. They did bring bark collars. But, neighbor guy is out of town on business this week (usually he works from home) so no one home all day, this week. They all only barked a little bit, when the backhoe got delivered. Then I got an email from neighbor lady, telling us she hopes they don't bark all day (she's at work) and their oldest dog, for some reason, is now having trouble getting back thru the doggy door, so if we see her outside all day, could we go open the door for her to get back in? of course! That is my favorite of their dogs, LOL. I can't have my girlfriend stuck outside, haha. But, it's a nice sunny day, so it's not hurting her to be out there for awhile. That's what she usually does anyway. She just likes to sit and watch all the goings on. She's an old girl, like 11 and getting up there in age.

My boss is back working, from home this week, and then will be back in the office next week. Glad she is back. I only had to sign 2 contracts while she was out, LOL.

We decided to use our tree lumber to have the farmhouse dining table made. The guy came and picked up the lumber from us yesterday. We sure do like him. I think DH has made a new friend, in him, already. He also said, if it cracks too much, then down the road, we can always add some more urethane in the cracks and I said that is what I was thinking, too. We are also going to use our live edge slabs for our kitchen bar countertop and then have him burn in some "scene" in the top. Not sure what yet, but I think it's sure going to end up one of a kind, when it's done. Just some kind of wild life scene....deer/elk, etc.

We've kind of realized, that for the most part, the people we meet, who are the nicest, are also transplants, LOL. This woodworker guy has lived here about 4 years, from another state. There are a few long time locals who are super nice, but many just don't like the "outsiders". But, we haven't met anyone, who is an "outsider", who hasn't been super friendly. Everyone who has moved here, from other places, really seems to appreciate living here. The people that have lived here their whole lives, not so much.

More cabinet delays

I didn't see an email the cabinet lady sent Friday afternoon until Saturday. I had stopped working at 1pm and didn't get back on my computer. The "replacement cabinet will be here in 2 weeks" now is changing to 3 weeks. There goes our schedule for the countertops to get installed. We are so mad and disgusted. How about, since this is the 3rd cabinet to try and get right, the mfg ship it overnight?!

The other evening, Dh had gone over to that wood working guys place to talk and then didn't get to stay but a few minutes, since the refrigerator was being delivered. So, we both went back over there after dinner last night. What a nice little place he has. His house sets in the woods on the edge of a clearing. His nice lawn and trees, all looks like a little park in the woods. And his little house is so tidy and decorated so cute. I was so surprised for a 72 year old guy, haha. All his cabinets and table, etc he made himself. Rustic but very nice stuff. He does really good work. So, we ended up spending 2 hours there, visiting with him. And he showed me his chickens :) While we were in his living room, the next thing you know he's got 5 does out in his front yard eating from plates of corn he leaves out for them. He says the come just about every evening. Then a wild turkey showed up, like he owned the place. The does didn't like him much, LOL. So, neat.

This guy also does wood burning pictures/scenes in wood. He had a whole bunch that he had done up and framed, that he sells. He's very talented and that's how he supplements his small social security income, along with building tables and such. His ears must have been ringing because as I'm typing this out, DH's phone he left on the desk, rang, and it was this guy.

We/I decided to use our lumber for the table....cracks be damned! I'm sure it will turn out great and I like rustic, so if it cracks, it cracks. Plus, just about everyone, from those of you who commented on my post, to a couple of my friends I texted with, said to use our wood and have the cracks.

This morning I've just been vacuuming our little carpet area for our "bedroom/office" in the shop and cleaned the bathroom. It stopped raining and the sun is starting to come out.  Of course, after our neighbors did an Easter egg hunt with their grandkids.

It seems I can do nothing right for DH, of late. On our way grocery shopping he's telling me a story of a conversation with the two guys installing our staircase railing (the framers). One is coming back to finish it up on Monday. He was the one who last Fall, missed out when we bbq'd steaks for the framers and roofers, so DH told me he told him he's taking him out to lunch on Monday, for steak. LOL. So, I buy our usual groceries and steak for 2....as I'm putting them away in our little fridge he says didn't you get enough so I can do steak on Monday? No...you said you were going out to eat..?! Then he's complaining because I don't have any cash in my wallet. I should always have $20...I said I did just have $20...I gave it to YOU a couple of days ago to rent the hammer drill! I just haven't had time to get more cash, already. Geez. It's not like there's a bank/ATM down the road. Then he's mad because I didn't see the email about the cabinets until Saturday. Like, what was going to be done about it with 3 business hours left in the day Friday? It's not like the cabinet lady every answers her phone or returns calls timely, anyway.

Little stuff

I got to quit work at 1pm yesterday, which was much needed. I decided to wait and go grocery shopping this morning and DH went with me. First we stopped at Lowe's and returned the first ceiling fan/light I had purchased, that our electrician said I wouldn't like it that small. So, there was a $150 credit. DH, of course, needed more things at Lowe's so there was another $40 spent.

Then we stopped at Harbor Freight as he was out of latex gloves. I said that is all we are going in there to get! He couldn't believe he wasn't going to get to look around and see what he didn't know he needed. LOL.

We got our grocery shopping all done. They were having a good sale on soda, so DH loaded up his cart with that, to stock up on. He's learning to watch prices.

On the way home we swung by our HVAC guys house. He said our dryer vent was in the back of his work pickup truck, so we grabbed that.

It started thunder and lightning last night and then pouring rain. Hasn't much stopped raining since.

As expected SIL's story on the will and sale of house changed again. Got a message yesterday that the house sale closed the day before. (we were told 4-5 days earlier it wasn't going to be able to be sold until probate was done...), so that is very good news. She said the proceeds from sale will go into the estate account, until probate is done. Plus, DH received a letter from the attorney handling the will, kind of outlining what happens. Yesterday the notice to creditors was filed, so now I guess they wait 120 days to see if there are any creditor claims on the estate. The letter didn't say how long it might take to finalize probate after the 120 day waiting period.

We have no Easter plans. Still can't make a real meal, so not going to worry about it. Maybe we'll go out to dinner tomorrow. We haven't been out to eat in a restaurant for probably a couple of months, now.

Just got an email that our replacement (2nd time around) cabinet isn't shipping until a week from Monday. So, who knows now when we'll get put back in the schedule with the granite installers. Beyond frustrating.

Let's go grocery shopping

The stair railing is finally getting done. They think they will be able to finish it today. They were still here working when I got done working yesterday, so since it was sunny and 70 and I was tired of listening to the puppy bark/whine/and try to howl, I went outside and let her out of her little crate and played with her until they were done. She couldn't have been any cuter, but like grandkids, then I got to send her home, haha.

DH and I ran into town mid day to get some stain for the staircase posts (they were supposed to have brought them stained, since painter lady isn't here anymore). Thankfully the tiny hardware store actually had what we needed (I called first). And since it's a small town our retired friend, that usually stops to visit us often, saw us pulling into the store and followed us in, to chat. He said "I was going to stop by last Sunday but didn't see your car, so thought you weren't home". We had parked in the garage and said we were wondering where you were, since you always stop by every other Sunday! LOL.

They actually worked until 5 yesterday. Then DH and I did a little quick clean up of sawdust with the shopvac and had dinner. DH decided to go over to that wood working guy's place (that had come over the day before about the table) because he wanted to also talk to him about building our daughter a hope chest, as a wedding gift. I said see you in a few hours (cuz that guy can talk....and dh loves to talk too)!  I was going to take a nap! Shortly after he left the phone rang around 6pm and it was a delivery guy wanting to deliver the refrigerator. He said he was about a half hour away. I called DH and said he needed to come back home (he was less than 10 minutes away) because the guy was definitely going to need help pulling his 35' semi trailer in.

and of course the guy shows up 10 minutes later and no DH yet. I called him again and said get home now. ok, on my way....which still took him like 15 minutes (because the guy he was visiting kept talking!). So, of course the dumb driver pulls up and says "I can't get in here". I'm like my dh will be home in a few minutes, he will guide you in. He used to drive trucks and he designed this driveway so a truck and trailer can get in and out. He didn't want to wait, so he's trying to pull in one of the driveways. I call DH again and say are you almost here?? geez- he's literally less than 5 miles away. He said to have the guy back in the shop driveway, so I tell the guy that and he said that's what he was trying to do. So, he gets where he can start backing up and the top corner of his trailer is about to hit the corner of our shop. I'm like stop! Where in the hell is DH?! Then the guy pulls forward and is trying to keep away from the shop, but the other side of the driveway isn't wide enough (or so he thinks) and he's saying I can't do this. Finally, Dh pulls in. Guides him right back up to the front door entry, no problem. Guy unloads it and puts in on a hand cart and brings it into our kitchen.

So, now I have a new fridge - that I can actually put a whole gallon of milk in and DH doesn't want to use it yet. Gah!

I feel like howling, too

Well, the framer showed up this morning to do the staircase railing. (yay). But he brought a little hound dog puppy with him. I could (almost) see doing that if he was doing outside work, but not when he's working inside the house and can't see her/be with her. She is not liking being kept in the back of his little open, 2ft sided trailer he brought, so of course it's been non-stop barking and howling....nice way to spend my day trying to work....then, of course she was able to jump out over the short trailer wall and of course went straight to the front door and started scratching at the door and side windows. I am just so sick of all of them.

and speaking of dogs - while I neighbors got their dogs all straightened out with the barking, they now are getting their sons 2 dogs (again) until July. Neighbor said they will have bark collars, but they will probably have to put the collars back on their 3 dogs until they all settle down.

We met quite the character yesterday! The day before DH had seen this farmhouse table advertised, that a guy makes and sells. $375. Seems like a great price. While he was looking at this on his phone a friend of his called and said what are you up to? He told him he's looking at a farmhouse table ad, so he doesn't have to try and make one! Friend said there is a local guy that makes stuff like that, I'll give him your number. He called yesterday and then came over. We had wanted him to take a look at the lumber we have (from our trees cut) and see if that could be used to make a table.

Omg! This guy was something else. I think he was here like 3 hours, non-stop talking. I don't even know how to describe him. LOL. Early 70's, gun toting, "keep off my property" kind of guy...but funny. He's divorced from his wife, but she and her disabled son are living with him right now, while he's building them a house next door to his house and they will live there.

Since the lumber we have wasn't kiln dried he explained that the boards will likely crack in places (as our fireplace mantle has done, but we wanted that really rustic, so it's ok), so he just wanted us to know that, in case that isn't a look we would eventually want. Otherwise, he could use different wood that he supplies. So, now we aren't sure what we want to do. We really wanted to use the lumber from these trees for a few things around here, but I guess the question is exactly how "rustic" I want my dining table to be! I think I'm just so tired of making decisions that I don't even know. We also have 2 big slabs that we want to use on our kitchen bar counter top. That will crack too. But, we really want to use that wood, as it has live edge on it and will just live with the cracks.........so I guess I could live with cracks on my dining table, too. If I eventually just don't like it, several years down the road, we'll just have to get a new table, I guess. It's not like we are entertaining people and need this perfect table. I'm tired of making decisions.

Here's the table the other guy is selling for $375

Except, it's a bit shorter than I really wanted, so if we had him make us one, I'd go a bit longer, so that 3 chairs fit comfortably on each side.

And the guys coming to do the ground work to prep for the concrete slabs in front of garage and shop put us off another day. Now they aren't coming until Monday. Next week will be 6 weeks since the cabinets got started installing and still not done.

More this and that

Well, it's later mid morning and no sign of the framers to put up our staircase railing. No word from the guy, either, of course.  DH is finally able to return the scaffolding we have been borrowing since last spring/summer. It had belonged to the electrician that died. The wife said we could use it as long as we needed to. We just weren't expecting this long! (though he has contacted her several times to see if she needed it back). Our neighbor has a little old pick up truck he uses for hauling stuff and told DH the other day if he ever wants to borrow it, he can. DH decided he would use that to return the scaffolding. Called up neighbor to ask and he's like sure....keys are in it - help yourself! haha.  Anyway, taking it all down, getting it loaded, and delivering it back is at least giving DH something to do today.

One of the things I want DH to build me as soon as possible is a farmhouse table. Well's I guess he's been doubting his building skills, so was looking online and came across a local-ish guy who builds them. Exactly what I want, for $350. Which I think is a really good price. It's a bit smaller in length than I probably would have had DH build, but the guy also takes orders. The original plan was to make it out of the lumber from our trees cut down, so maybe the guy can use our lumber and we'd just have to pay him for labor, if we decide to go that route. DH contacted him, but he's out of town for a couple of days, so we'll find out more later this week.

I had a pretty long chat with my mom yesterday. About nothing in particular, but she seemed to be doing really good. She didn't once have trouble with remembering a word, so that was good.

DD was a bit miffed at her job yesterday. She has the option to basically start whenever and work 8 hours, so she starts at 6:00am and gets off at 2:30pm (same hours her fiance has, so they can carpool). Now one of the people above her in her dept has decided to schedule a daily phone conf. meeting at 4-4:30pm every day for at least the next 6 weeks. This includes some people from their supplier who are 2 hours later! DD is miffed enough that she has to now be available at 4pm every day, I can only imagine how those folks in the Central time zone are feeling. So, she calls in to the meeting yesterday and no one else calls in. Hopefully the stupid lady that scheduled this realizes how ridiculous that is to expect those in the 2 hours later time zone. Geez. People need a life outside of work in the evenings. I could see a once a week call/meeting, but not daily at that time.

There's been a wild turkey gobbling all morning, somewhere nearby. He must be trying to attract the ladies, LOL. Those birds crack me up.

We have a friend from where we used to live. Ever since we moved here, he's been saying he's going to move here, eventually. I assumed he meant when he retires (he's like late 40's now). But, I guess he's been waiting for this big settlement on an injury he received to get done and he's using that money to buy something over here, and it's settled now, I guess. He's actually interested in some acreage on the other side of our town. Eek. That's a bit close. haha.  He's a super nice guy, but he is sooo loud and one of those that knows everything. I was texting DD about it last night and she said "that's too close...you'll still be able to hear him from there" haha! Plus, he's the type that would say to DH "oh you have your big shop, can I store this in it or use it?" (he's a mechanic). And Dh is the kind who has a really hard time saying no, even though there is no way he would want to do something like that. We just want our peace and quiet, especially after this long build process. Hopefully, it's still a long way off before he moves here.

Friday we are supposed to have some more site work done, getting the driveway pads ready for concrete, as well as finishing up the last part of our rockery wall.

I just went and got our mail. One of the envelopes is from our telephone company. I almost didn't even open it. Usually they just send junk mail or notices of meetings, as they are a co-op. Well, it was a little check for $18.47. The annual member reimbursement. I forgot that did that. Better than junk mail :)

Plugging along at it all

Today our stone for the rest of the outside of the shop and the house is being delivered. The mason guy says he will be starting next Monday on it all. Big flat bed truck load. Originally, I wasn't sure if I wanted to use that same stone for our inside - fireplace and back of kitchen island/bar, but I'm really liking it inside. Gives me a very "lodge" feel, every time I see it.

My boss has been out 2 weeks and I just received some emails from her. She is starting to work a bit from home and feeling much better after her surgery. Very good news. So far, no emergencies have come up with (knock on wood!!) that I have had to deal with since she's been out.

DH is going to drive me nuts with his sister and brothers. SIL is the executor. She's always been the type with an attitude (just like DH, ha!) and she isn't tactful at all in communicating (though DH is), so he's getting annoyed and wants to respond back to her. I keep trying to tell him it's really really not worth his energy! The will will get resolved and will end up the same result whether he engages with her or not. I'm just too tired to deal with that too and listen to his complaining about her. She's always been that way and she always will be. I told him just acknowledge her texts and emails with "received" and sign when you need to sign something. Sometimes saying nothing can send the same message. His main issue is she keeps changing explanations of the house sale and probating the will. Since the remains will be interred here, nearby us, DH didn't go over there last Friday, as at least one of his brother's did. Now's she's saying because "not everyone" was in town on Friday to sign something, the will now has to go to probate. She never communicated beforehand that if everyone could come over and sign, then it wouldn't need to go to probate (though over the weekend his (smart) brother told him it had to go to probate no matter what. Who knows. I'm sure she's just as confused by it all, too, but she has a terrible way to communicate it all. And since when can't legal documents, in this day and age, be signed either electronically or sent certified and signed with a notary and sent back via overnight? A few years ago I did a whole legal transaction and never once had to set foot in the attorney's office.

All our snow has melted. A bit muddy in some areas, but at least the rains have stopped for the most part. Most of our driveway got graveled last spring, so it helps with the mud for our feet. The dogs still get muddy because they go off into the dirt areas and to the lot next to us.

One of my co-workers, who just got back from vacation and was gone when I processed payroll, called and thought he didn't get a paycheck, since he wasn't here to send me his timesheet. Gave me a panic for a minute! I know I estimated his hours, so he should have gotten his direct deposit. No, he didn't look to see if he got his paycheck direct deposited. He just assumed since he didn't send me a timesheet he didn't get paid, LOL.

Now that the weather is warmer DH was able to install our Christmas gift! I love it. It was the eagle catching a fish we had designed. Below it (that I cut out of picture for privacy reasons) is our address, too.

We were at the town lumber store getting a drill bit for rock, but then DH realized he would need a "hammer drill" to drill it, which he doesn't have. I rolled my eyes and said you are not buying another $300 tool, just to drill some holes in a rock one time". Then the lumber store owner said "we rent ours out". Done!

Monday Misc

Since I adjusted my mom's aol spam settings last week, she has hardly received any spam at all. It all seems to be going into her spam folder. I'll keep checking her account for the next week or so, just to make sure, but I think it's helped a lot.

Now, supposedly the framer isn't coming until Wednesday to put up the staircase railing. The electricians are here today, doing most of what they can finish, but other things are still holding them up to get 100% done.

I had ordered a pack of 5 re-usable/washable pads for my new Bona floor mop. They are a generic brand, but they worked fine and washed up nicely. I think they were like $14 thru Amazon for the pack.

On Friday our  neighbor, who has a new job with the county health dept, asked if we would complete these survey's they are trying to get everyone in the county to do. Sure. When he came and picked them back up he said we get two $10 gift certificates to the town gas station. I said oh, just give them to someone who really needs them! He wouldn't, so now I have $20 to get gas with, LOL

There's not a lot going on. How boring is that?!

The story on the sale of FIL's house and will seems to change every few days. First it was everyone needed to sign an affidavit ok'ing the sale and then it could close and the will wouldn't need to go through probate. Now it's the will has to go through probate before the house can even close. So, if that's the case, that could takes months, so I'm guessing they'll just have to put it on the market at a later date and try again. Who knows. DH just said whatever....if I need to sign something send it to me. He's not the executor and neither of us has the energy right now to deal with it. Whatever happens happens. It would just be easier if they/she stopped changing the info every few days. Eventually it will get figured out. Not a huge concern, just a bit annoying, since we already have enough issues to deal with on a daily basis.

I'm trying to drink more water. I am the worst at it. Every time I make the attempt I give up because I get tired of having to go to the bathroom every half hour. My DH drinks tons of water (and he has to pee all the time, LOL).

Weekend wrap up

I think I was just tired of being on the computer and didn't even sit at my desk all weekend, until now. Friday was my half work day. I think I took an afternoon nap. About 4pm we decided to run into the little lumber/paint store in town and get some primer paint we needed and a couple other things. Then, since we were halfway there and dinner time, we went and got burgers and shared a fries from the little drive thru burger stand. We took a bit of a detour on the way home to see if we could spot any deer or elk, but no luck. Though we have been seeing some deer around our property the past week or so.

Saturday, DH needed one more gallon of the primer, so back I went. I stopped and filled up with gas and got some milk from the grocery store, so now I have enough until our city grocery shopping trip next weekend. We have a small "utilities closet" inside the garage. The floor area was half covered in paint overspray, so I scraped it off and then just cleaned the concrete floor with a rag and warm water. Looks much better. Eventually we're going to have to do the whole garage floor....as that is where painter lady did all her painting/staining and even though it was covered in paper taped down, it sure doesn't even look like it was. Sigh..........

It was decided that DH's parents remains (they were cremated) will be brought over to this state (where they were originally from) and interred at the VA cemetery, together. DH and his brothers (who all live in this state) are happy with the decision. When that's done we can hold a little service for them. Still don't really know what is going on with sale of FIL's house closing and the will. It's been 10 days since SIL said he needed to sign some papers and nothing has been sent yet. 

DH spent yesterday afternoon staking and marking out where the concrete walkway needs to go (to front entrance) as well as the concrete pads in front of garage and shop. I helped a bit with that, after I woke up from a really good nap. For dinner I did up some steaks and green beans. We went out to the house to look at stuff and turned on our little electric fireplace that is in the upstairs loft sitting area. Cute little thing! I think it will look cozy when I get a little love seat and chair. We were trying to decide where some of our furniture will go. By the time we got back in the shop, it was 8:30pm. I spent the rest of the evening reading a Nicholas Sparks book.

Got to sleep in a bit this morning, as the older dog finally didn't wake me up at 7:15 like he's been doing every morning the past week or so. I went ahead and got in the shower and dressed, rather than lounging around. It seems like just about every other Sunday, later in the morning, our friend from town will stop by for a visit, LOL. He's the older, retired guy (but he keeps busy with odd jobs) who cut all our trees into lumber. But, he didn't stop by today.

I had ordered a pack of 5 cleaning pads that go on my new Bona mop for the laminate flooring. I cleaned all the wood laminate - again - this is the first that it finally looks better and cleaner. Probably because I had all the extra pads and replaced one as soon as it got dirty with a new one. I used all 5. I think the flooring looks better, but it still has kind of a dull look to it. I found that Bona (the flooring installer recommended only use Bona on the laminate) makes a laminate floor polish, that is recommended to use every few months, so I ordered some of that to try. The pics on Home Depot customer's shared in the reviews looked great, so I'm hoping it will shine it up a bit for us. I also discovered I could order a refill jug of the cleaning solution, which is cheaper than the individual bottles.

We just spent some time up in our loft area, looking out binoculars at a herd of elk up on the hills across and down a ways from us. We need better binoculars! ha! From our aide great room window we could almost see the eagles nest that is up in a tree across the river. There were a few branches of a tree blocking our view, so DH trimmed them down and now we can look out and see the eagles nest (though better to see with binocs). I think we're going to have to get a telescope to put there.

Well, time to get dinner made. Nothing sounds good at all. 

Mom and the spam emails

So, I log into my mom's aol again this morning. No new emails, but she apparently got another one of those spam "we are going to deactivate your aol account in 4 hours emails" yesterday afternoon.......and I see in her sent emails, she replied to it "please do not deactivate me, I did not request this". Ahhhhh..  I've told her in two phone conversations, just days ago that this is a spam email trying to hack her computer. Do not open them! I also told her just don't open any emails that look suspicious and if you do, do not click on anything in them.  So, I just emailed her. Hi Mom, just following up on our talk the other day about the spam emails. If you are still getting them, don't even open them. But if you do open them do not click on anything in them NOR try to reply to the emails.  That is how they get your information or put a virus on your computer.  Geez........I can't monitor her emails all day. But, especially since I specifically told her to ignore these "we are deactivating your AOL account" emails. It's not like it's some new topic of emails she's now getting and thinks they are legit.  You'd think AOL would have enough technology to block spam related to it's own email. They say they do block most spam before it even gets to email box.  Obviously, not.

I'm not really sure what to do. I can try to delete as many as I can, as often as I can, and at least try to protect her that way. She does ignore most of the obvious spam but it's the trickier ones, that pretend to be from a business she uses, that she gets tricked with (of course).  I'll just keep doing my best to monitor her email account and delete what I can. It will be easiest on the long weekends she spends at her boyfriends. I can delete them, without her getting to them first.

I don't like feeling like I am prying into her life (and I'm not opening emails I know are legit to her) but she's obviously not getting what I am telling her ignoring these emails. I also sent her an email that another common spam email is from her bank (she uses BofA). I told her never to access her bank account online via a link from an email. Hopefully she remembers this, especially!





 

...and another bad cabinet

They brought our replacement lower cabinet out this morning. It's also cracked. We've waited 4 weeks to get another cracked cabinet! I told the cabinet lady we don't have another month to wait on a replacement. She had told us 7-10 days on this one and it's been 4 weeks. She then said "well, it takes 7-10 for expedited production and 4-5 days to ship. We've had the cabinet, we just haven't had time until today to get it installed." OMG. I said our scheduled granite date is in two weeks. So, if the cabinet isn't installed we're going to lose our spot for that and be delayed again.

What really ticks me off is she's had the cabinet for 2 weeks. If they would have made it a priority to get it out here and installed as soon as they got it we would have known 2 weeks ago it was also damaged and could have had the new one here by now (or close to it). SOOOO Frustrating. It's not like we went with cheap cabinets, either. And the crack is where they bolt the door hinges to, so not something we want to accept, of course.

We used this cabinet store because that is who our friends used to build their house and also, the building supply place guy said he would recommend her over their cabinets. I just googled the mfg and there are a bunch of reviews on Houzz for this company. Same issues - broken cabinets replaced by broken cabinets. Great. You'd think for this price they'd sure be good quality. And why would they even send out a cabinet that was cracked in the first place?! Ever heard of quality control?

Oh, and I was right (and cabinet lady wrong) about the kitchen sink cabinets getting cut for "over" mount sink. So, they are fixing that now, too. They will have to cut out a bit more of the front of the cabinet to lower the sink, so the top of sink is level with cabinets and then the granite will go on top of sink edge. I'm glad I caught that.

Framer guys still haven't showed up this week to install our stair railing. The pouring rain (all day, every day) is keeping the mason guy, to do our outside stone work, away.  DH was probably right when a month or so ago, he said it will probably be June before we get into our house.

I just walked to our  mailbox to leave something to be mailed.......a poop sample....test kit compliments of my doctor from my appointment recently. It was either that or have a colonoscopy. Guess I'll do the yearly poop sample. LOL. Isn't getting old so much fun?  I still have to get in and get my mammogram, too. Another fun procedure.

I've checked my mom's emails the past couple of mornings (it's earlier her time, plus she doesn't even get up until like 8:30 her time) and she hasn't really had that much spam at all. I think when she notices it the most is on weekends she goes to stay with her boyfriend. She'll go down on Thurs or Fri and come home Sun or Monday and hasn't checked her emails in all that time. But, I think I will keep deleting ones that might temp her to open or cause her confusion (like her account being deactivated). She has never ever understood how Facebook works, even though every time we are with her we explain it. She always asks how to get rid of all these posts after she's seen them. She's somehow set up to get email notifications if someone posts. It's one of those "no reply" email addresses. I see in her sent mail she sometimes replies to it, thinking she is sending her facebook friend a message. She still cannot figure out how to comment on someone's post.  I keep saying just click on "comment" or start typing in the box below the post where is says "write a comment". But, she asks, how do I enter it? Just hit enter. Where is enter? On your keyboard....

She will be 78 next month. I imagine another couple of years and she will need to go to assisted living, like her boyfriend lives in. She will love it though, as she loves to talk to people and would enjoy all the activities. I asked her before if she'd like to go to where here BF is and she said not really, LOL. She'd like to stay in her area (he lives about 30 minutes from her). Not sure why it would really matter that she stays in her area, as by that point she probably won't be driving anyway. I guess just the familiarity of feeling like you are still in your own area.

UPDATE: well, at least this brightened my day. The cabinet guys, left the copper sink in so I could see what it looks like. I love it. Though it doesn't quite stand out against the similar cabinet color as much as I had in my mind, I think once the lighter granite gets installed, it will help it stand out a bit more.

We've got heat

Our HVAC guy came yesterday afternoon and got our furnace turned on and showed us (well, me, LOL) how to use the fancy thermostat. It's all touch screen and wi-fi and phone app connected. Though, he said pretty much "set it and forget it" is what he does with his, LOL. If something goes wonky with it, he will actually get an alert via his phone/email that something is wrong with it. But, they still aren't done! We have 3 heating zones, and they've only hooked up the main downstairs one. And we can't get the a/c condenser unit until the contractor gets the concrete pad outside for it poured.

I don't know if I mentioned, my mom's credit card got compromised last month with 3 charges. She was able to take care of it with her bank, so that is good. But, she called me twice in the past several days about an AOL email she got about her aol account being deactivated in 4 hours. Last Thursday when she called and read me the email, I told her it was spam. Just delete it. She called me again Sunday and appears to have forgotten she called me a few days ago about same thing. I just said "oh, I'm positive it's spam, just delete it" and then she said "oh, did I already call you about this earlier?"

I am on her bank accounts and do have the log in info (though I've never logged into it, the year and a half I've had the info). I have her aol password, too. But, again, I never go into it. I did go ahead and log in to her bank accounts to make sure everything is looking "normal" for her bills and such. Like I told DD - she keeps telling me that she knows she is forgetting words and stuff, but she is still able to balance her checkbook and drive places, etc. But, like DD pointed out, if she was having memory problems with it, she might not even realize she wasn't doing it right. Good point. Anyway, her accounts look fine. I did look at the aol email she got and yes, it was most definitely spam. It wasn't even from an aol email address. Somehow she sent a reply 3 times to this, but didn't type anything to them. Not sure how she did that, but not good. Could be how her credit card got hacked, if she did something like that with some other email. Who knows these days?! She gets so much junk email, which is kind of surprising since she doesn't do much online. She doesn't do online shopping. I told DD I'm tempted to just log in every morning and delete most of it, so she doesn't get confused and try to open stuff (and for some reason hit reply!) that isn't legit. She does have Norton anti-vurus on her computer, that she pays for every year, so hopefully that is keeping her protected.

Our cabinet lady is beyond frustrating me. She told DH 7-10 days to get the replacement cabinets. The countertops cannot get done until at least that lower cabinet come in. It's now been a month. I have left her at least 4 voicemails on it.  This morning I sent her an email that says I have left several messages for her and we need to get an update on our cabinets! Good grief. How hard is it to call or email an update on when she expects it to be in.

It hasn't stopped raining for like 5 days. Makes it so gloomy and we are already in a gloomy mood. Some sunshine sure would be nice. The weather forecast for next 10 days is either rain or snow. The framer guys haven't showed up yet this week, like he said he was, to install our stair railing. You'd think with all this rain, they'd be on this inside job, rather than outside framing. Wish they were here....DH is getting antsy again, with nothing to do. And then he gets frustrated...and then he's crabby....

I'm too tired to think of a title

I am so not ready for a week of work. DH and I both cannot shake the exhaustion. Too much STRESS and even though we got to rest a bunch this weekend, it really didn't feel like it helped one little bit. The house stress (for the most part) is our own doing, for taking it all on in the first place. But dealing with 2 deaths during it, is hard. And actually, since we started this building process a year ago, it's been 4 deaths. DD's future SIL, our nephew, and DH's parents.

We're kind of on hold with our cabinets....the 3 that need replaced, she had told DH it would take about 10 days...well this week is now 4 weeks! and she, of course, won't call me back. She's awful for trying to get a hold of and returning calls. But, the granite people can't do anything until those are in. The tiling for backsplash can't get done until after that. Etc, etc. I just left her my 4th message in the past 10 days.

DH is so missing being able to call and talk to his dad every night. He feels like he doesn't have anyone to talk to now. While, for some reason our son reached out during Christmas, when MIL passed away, that is the last we heard from him and he hasn't bothered to even acknowledge DH's phone message or text about Grandpa. Sad.

Our neighbor made some brownies and brought over a plate yesterday. Like she said chocolate seems to help when you are sad. They are such a sweet couple.

No one is here working today and it's another rainy/muddy day. DH has just been sleeping all morning (even though he got up and got dressed) so I'm hoping that helps him. I turn around from my desk and see him all snuggled in bed and I just want to crawl in and go back to sleep too. I can't really take any time off, unless big emergency, for the next few weeks, as my boss is out on medical leave for 3 more weeks. I'm going to text her this afternoon and see how she is doing. I'm hoping she has a speedy recovery. I'm sure she'll at least be able to start working from home on her laptop soon.

I love my DD and her perspective on what is important in life. We were just messaging about weddings. Her simple wedding is not stressful, nor breaking the bank.

 Last night for dinner we tried some frozen salmon patties we picked up at the grocery store. Teriyaki and sesame. Pretty good and so easy to make. Just 11 minutes in a skillet, turning over halfway. And it took up very little space in my tiny freezer.

Tired Saturday

DH and I were both wiped out yesterday, but we needed to go grocery shopping and supposedly today the HVAC and gutter guy were coming, so he wanted to be here. We went to the city at 4:30 yesterday afternoon and got back home by 6:30. Stopped and got Wendy's on the way home, so at least I didn't have to make dinner.

And of course, neither hvac or gutter people came today. LOL. Our neighbors have a little grove of trees they planted last summer and had put straw down over the winter to keep them insulated, but were raking up all the straw to burn it. DH offered to take it from them and he's spreading it out along the back of our shop- so there will be less mud when the mason guy comes back to start putting on the stone. Then we can burn it when we are done with it.  Worked out good for all. Neighbor just loaded it in the back of his little work pickup truck and brought it over and DH is just unloading it into our wheel barrow.

Well, much to everyone's surprise the sibling not in the will actually signed the paperwork needed yesterday. I'm not really sure what is going on beyond that. I'm not really sure I understand the why of it...but apparently if they don't get everyone's signatures, the house closing would have to wait until the will is probated. This way the house can close and the will doesn't even have to go through probate, unless the one sibling not in the will protested it. But, from what I read, protesting a will is very costly and takes lots of time and you can't protest a will just because you feel left out, which would be her only reason. The only way to win contesting a will is to prove it's not a legal, legit will. His was drawn up by an attorney, all legal and witnessed, sound mind, and all that. It doesn't sound like they will have to deal with that.

DH crashed for a good hour nap after we got home last night. I watched a movie (An Interview with God) on Netflix and went to bed early. For some reason my older dog (who sleeps on the bed with us) keeps getting up at 7:15 (my usual time), even if I'm not up. Usually he will just stay in bed until someone gets up, even it's it's 8am or later. He's interrupting my sleep in!

This afternoon all of us (DH and dogs) took a good 2 hour nap. Sometimes I feel like we are never going to feel rested again. Hopefully, soon.

The inevitable

DH's father has passed away. DH was at least able to talk to him one last time on the phone and tell him he loved him and that it was ok to go be with mom now. BIL said he could hear, as he'd lift his hand. He died several hours later. It's a blessing, now he can be with his wife, where he wanted to be, and no more suffering with health. I'd say 80 years is a good long life, especially when you were a heavy smoker all his adult life. You aren't going to beat heart and lung disease, eventually. He was a good man, gentle and always kind.  DH is sad. It's hard to lose both parents in just a few months, even when you know it's coming. He had really enjoyed talking to his dad on the phone just about every evening these past couple of years. I told DH I can just hear his mom saying to FIL "well, what took you so long to get here, to me?" LOL. She was a fiesty lady, haha.


Unfortunately, his house sale didn't get closed before his death, so that is going to take some extra legal paperwork. It was due to close pretty soon, I guess. Something to do with all the siblings need to sign some affidavit regarding it and then the will won't need to go to probate. But, apparently the one sibling that is not in the will will also need to sign it, so good luck with that! If that sibling doesn't then it has to go to probate, is my understanding and will delay sale of house, I guess. Always something, right?! Just wish SIL didn't have to deal with that, too, but maybe the other brother (the only one who still somewhat talks to that  awful sibling) can get it taken care of.


Speaking of parents, my mom is still struggling with remembering words for things, when I talk to her. Two or three months, ago, when she had her doctor appointment, she had told me that he mentioned maybe getting her off the anxiety meds, as that might cause memory issues. But for some reason he had wanted to wait until summer. I mentioned this to her, asking if that was still the plan and she has no recollection of it now. Sigh...She said she kind of remembered it and wasn't sure if it was the pharmacist or doctor who suggested it. I told her it was her doctor and maybe she should check back with him on it (as I'm sure it's not something he's going to follow up with her on his own). According to the doctor, when she had her appointment, he said she is not starting to get Alzheimer's.

I got my refrigerator ordered and should be here in about 10 days. This was one of the appliances I had priced out and measured from Lowe's and then they stopped carrying it. Home Depot carries it, but charge a fee to deliver to us. I found it for same price online, from some other company and free delivery and it sounds like it will be here sooner than HD could get it here. I think I might just order the dishwasher from them too. Now, I don't have to make a trip to HD tomorrow morning, like I had planned.

Our furnace is supposed to get a practice run tomorrow and make sure it all works. The gutter guy is coming back to finish the last part. At least that will give DH something to do tomorrow. I'll just go grocery shopping again by myself.

One of DH's friends just called him on his cell phone. He was sitting near me, when his phone rang and wasn't going to answer it. I said answer it. He'll make you feel better. He's wise and spiritual. It was nice of him to call.

Which tv service to get

Painter Lady is done and gone. You shouldn't have to ever hear about her again.

Now. back to normal life stuff:

I'm still trying to decide what to do about tv service once we get into the house. I want to save money compared to what I was spending, but I also want it easy for DH to access.

When we moved and I put our Dish satellite service on "pause" for $5 a month, we were paying $83 a month. I can't remember which channel package. I think Top 240. The reason I like Dish is DH can push the power button on the remote and easily go to whichever channel he likes.

There are cheaper Dish plans I could probably switch to, but to get local channels (which I want) and cable news (he likes Fox News) added to their $37 "flex" package, it would be $60 a month.

We also have Netflix (well, when my DD gives me a gift card for a gift, which she usually does now)  and Amazon Prime, that I access both via our Firestick. DH doesn't understand how to switch over to those, even though I've shown him numerous times, so he never watches anything on there unless I'm watching or I do it for him.

I'm also considering dropping Dish and going with either Hulu Live or YouTubeTv with live tv. Hulu is $45/mo and YouTubeTv is $40.  Hulu I could access with my Firestick that I already have (but pay an extra $5 more than YouTube. If I go with YouTubeTV I'd either need to get a Google Chomecast or Roku device to stream the service. Neither are super expensive, but on the flip side, Amazon Prime isn't available to watch through either of those, is my understanding. Plus, from my understanding the Google Chromecast is only operable from your phone or tablet, not a remote control.

Plus, I want turning the tv on and getting to his favorite channel(s) as easy as possible for DH, without him having to ask me to do it every time. He likes to watch tv after I go to bed and the last thing I'm going to want is to have to keep getting up to change the channel for him! LOL.

I'm thinking of just sticking with the Firestick (though maybe getting an updated one. The one I have I got several years ago). With that we can do Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Prime. I will have to just keep showing DH how to use it, until he figures it out. That would save $38 a month over what I was paying for Dish.

When we moved and I put the service on "pause" we were 6 weeks from our 2 year Dish contract being up, so it's not over yet, as far as I know. We are still under contract. I'm probably wrong, but my understanding is if I cancel the service before our contract is up, I have to pay $20 a month for the 2 months I'm short. At least, that better be all it is!

DH keeps telling everyone, "I haven't missed tv a bit!". Whatever!! He doesn't tell them he watches Fox news every night on our computer screen, via signing in my mom's xfinity account. Same way he was able to watch Gold Rush every Friday night the past few months, Hello! that's tv you are watching! haha. We are getting tv service. I like watching shows in the evenings and I like watching them on a tv better than a tiny ipad or a computer screen. I sit at my desk all day long. The last thing I want to do to watch a tv show is sit at my desk some more.

I know there are other streaming options out there, that are cheaper, or a combination of more than one might be cheaper, but to get the channels we actually watch Hulu or YouTubeTv are the best options. It will be hard enough teaching DH how to access one, I'm not going to have more than one.

What a day so far

I was about 30 minutes into my work day when I lost my remote connection to work. Their internet went down for a few minutes. No biggie. But I could not get connected again. I could get connected to the server, but not to my computer. My boss checked to make sure it was still powered on. Then I had her reboot it. Still no luck. I had to call our IT support company. IT guy called me back with the bad news: my computer died! I've been expecting my home one to die. I'm sure that one is next, as it's getting pretty old.  Fortunately the IT guy was on his way to our office to do some work, so he was quickly able to get me set up with a new computer. I'm not 100% back to normal, but getting there. He's going to try to get all my stuff saved on my old desktop over to the new computer later this afternoon. I have a lot saved there, for short cuts, documents I use a lot, etc. Plus, adobe reader isn't on there, like I had before. It opens in some Windows reader, which I'm not liking, and it's Windows 10, so that's a big ugh. But, it does seem much faster.

We use this "app" that connects Quickbooks to our expense reimbursement program. That was missing now. It took me an hour to figure out how to get it set back up. Then I got it loaded in  Quickbooks Webconnector but the password wasn't working. Then I finally realized I needed to use the temporary Token password from the expense program. And I need to really get it figured out and working today, because my boss, who will be out several weeks starting tomorrow,  needed me to get some reimbursement checks data transferred over so I could set up the checks for her to print before she leaves today.


Then painter lady is going to do her paint touch up this morning after they got here and I guess paint where her hubby caulked around the tile areas is not paintable caulk. oh boy! What a $H8t storm that caused. That isn't the normal caulk they use. DH walks out there and she's on the phone to the flooring place (got the tile there too) giving them an earful. Every chance they get they bad mouth this flooring guy to us. Well.........your boss/our contractor told us to use him! Then I guess she started to blame me (because I went and picked up the grout and caulk last week). DH was having none of that. He said it's not my wife's job to figure that out, let alone should she even had to have gone and picked it up last week!

Then he came in the shop and told me what is going on. I said Finish guy is the one who said to get silicone caulk! Here, I have the text right here! I was at flooring place and the girl asked me does he wants silicone or regular caulk. I have no clue, so I texted and was told silicone!!! DH went back out there and reminded him of that...oh ya....well, usually the stuff is 50% silicone, not 100%. Back to bad mouthing the flooring guy and I guess while DH was in the shop telling me all this they called the contractor and I guess he said something like "what in the world are they (meaning me and Dh) doing? DH blew a cork and said well maybe if our contractor was ever here and doing his job and acting like a contractor is supposed to taking care of all these details, instead of expecting us to know what you guys need, it would have been right! That shut them up really quick.

Then, while guy is working on finishing the last of the baseboard trim,  he's cutting a really long board at his saw set up outside our garage doors. The board gets loose or something and bangs into our garage door. Now we have a nice big dent in our brand new garage door! And because DH happened to be standing there "helping" him, he's like "well, it's both our faults" meaning, they aren't going to fix it or have the panel replaced. That's our problem now.

So, painter lady used their regular caulk over the top of the un-paintable stuff and then painted it. DH said it looks like crap. That's all she did today. She's either just been sitting in the house or in their truck for last few hours.

About 2pm finish guy tells DH he's all done (as in all done with the job).  Dh says what about this and that? Oh, well, we'll get it when we come back............DH just literally rolled his eyes and shook is head in disbelief in front of him. Now he's doing what DH said needed to be done.  Just leave......before anything else gets damaged that we have to fix.

But.........maybe, just maybe, this is the last day to see Painter Lady?!!! Keeping fingers crossed.

A nice surprise

I've mentioned before that any time I hear (usually via email) about a class action lawsuit I might be eligible for, I check into it and register my claim. I've gotten several checks over the years. A few extra bucks, is a few extra bucks. I think the biggest one being like a Sprint check for $66, haha.

I just got a check in the mail from a class action lawsuit against Chase Bank - related to, of all things, our bankruptcy back in 2010. Apparently they sold off debts after they were already Ch. 7 discharged and reported them incorrectly.

I had no idea what to expect in the check. Maybe $50? It WAS $438.75!!! Woo hoo! I can sure use that right about now. That was definitely a suit signing up for.

Painter Lady, hubby, and son were quite pouty yesterday, after DH told them what's what. DH wasn't mad, mean or angry. Just said, we've had enough, this is how it's going to finish out and this is what we expect. Her son showed up with her suv a couple hours later and they started loading all her supplies that are in our garage, into it. I'm not sure if the son had planned to come or not or that came about after DH told them it needs to get cleaned up now, so the electricians can come back and finish their job. I'm sure she'd have just left it all spread out all over the garage as long as she felt like it, if DH hadn't have said something.

And now apparently all the leftover "grout haze" that he left all over the tiling is ours to clean up. I'm guessing it's not just going to wipe off with a wet rag.....

Our front entrance concrete might have to be torn out and redone. That spot was ready and prepped for 6 weeks before freezing temps hit....but they waited and brought out the concrete truck literally the very last day of the season they could pour concrete and really it was too late/cold then. Then they didn't do anything to keep it heated and warm (DH's dad used to do concrete, he said he would have brought heaters and/or insulated blankets to put on it). so it froze before it could get completely cured and crumbled on the corners. The pad they poured for our little shed is junk.

Painter lady literally only worked to put her supplies in her car yesterday. and I highly doubt that was the plan, until DH told her the electricians need to get back. She spent all the rest of the morning and afternoon doing absolutely nothing. She was outside playing with her dog (they've been bringing one of their dogs, instead of both, and leaving in the car). DH walked by and asked her when she was going to do the little bit of touch ups still needing to be done in the house. She had some long explanation that she's coming tomorrow to do it. WHY!?! Why not take 15 minutes and do it today? and not even come tomorrow? Just. do. not. get. it. The only explanation we can come up with is if contractor still thinks she's not done with this job, she can basically screw off all day and not have to get started on one of his other numerous houses he's building.

There is a door that goes in our garage, to the "utilities room" (hot water heater, etc). They still haven't installed it. Just keep moving it around the garage, because it's in their way. Hang the dang door! Another 15 minute job. They've spent more time moving it the past 3 months it's been sitting there, than it takes to install it.

I watched a pretty funny comedian on Netflix. Nate Bargatze. Nice PG funny every day life stuff. Then I watched The Highwaymen with Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson. It wasn't too bad. A bit slow. If that is really how people acted if they really did bring the shot up car with Bonnie and Clyde still dead inside it through the town, just wow! People are something.  I think I'm done watching Doctor Who. I'm just not getting into the new cast for season 5.

DH hasn't been able to talk to his dad in over a week. Even though FIL called one day last week (I talked to him) and said he just couldn't breathe very well and would call DH as soon as he could. DH has still tried to call him every day, but no answer. His brother said he talked to him last Thurs and Fri...(I talked to him Thurs) but maybe after those calls he wasn't up to another one. Doesn't sound good, though.

Well, trying to re-establish my remote connection to work. They lost their internet service for a few minutes but when it came back on my office computer went offline. Oh, and painter lady just showed up........yay, another day with her......

Six long weeks

The sun and blue sky finally showed itself around noon Saturday and got up to almost 60 degrees. The painter lady did finally paint the outside of our shop door. But, when she and her son put it back on the hinges, of course it wasn't fitting right and not adjusted right to fit inside the frame and shut correctly. Gah! So, that was a half hour or more of them trying to fix and figure out what happened. "The frame must've shifted"...don't think so. It took finisher whaling on a board up against the frame with a hammer for it to even shift a little bit (because the foam insulation is basically like glue). So, then today, she has to fix all that trim paint he took off from all the hammering.  Door still isn't in quite right, like it was before.....

The framing guy (contractor's son) and his wife stopped by Saturday, too. They had stayed overnight at a resort area and came through our way on their way home and he wanted to show her the house he built. She sure is a cute little thing. They are only in their mid 20's. He said he will be back in about a week, to do the staircase railing, so that was good to hear.

On Saturday Painter was up on her really tall ladder outside to get up to finish painting trim and caulking the dormers above the garage....So, now our gutters damaged from her ladder leaning on it. DH was fit to be tied when he realized this yesterday, while looking around at stuff.  Last Fall, when the lift truck was here and the framer was telling her to get that "up" stuff finished while it was still on site, she said she wasn't working more hours and would get to it later, in the spring.  At some point DH asked her how she was going to get up there and told her gutters would be going in and she's not leaning a ladder up against the gutters. This was mentioned again weekend before last. DH also asked her how she plans to get up above our front covered porch, where trim needs to be painted. She wants to lay boards on the roof shingles. DH said no way. It's still too cold out and they will break right off. Then she said she'll just use the scaffolding that is (still!) on our back patio (because she still hasn't brought the right color grout she needs for that final job) out front.

When they got here this morning, DH just matter of factly told them what is and what is not happening. They are not using that scaffolding on bumpy/muddy uneven ground. It's not our scaffolding (nor is it theirs, it belongs to the wife of the original local electrician we had for shop, who died of heart attack, she said we would use it as long as we needed it) and we are not going to have it bent and tweaked using it on uneven ground, let alone that is not safe. DH is trying to get a hold of someone in the area that has a bucket truck for tree trimming, to see about doing it that way.  Finish guy said, well I guess we'll need to get another lift truck out here. DH said WE are NOT paying for another one. It was already here and there was plenty of time to have used it to get that little bit of work done. DH said all in all, what needs to be still be done for the trim painting and caulking to do is probably 4 hours at the most.  This easily could have been done last Fall.

Finisher totally left all his excess grout to dry on all the tile. DH told him WE are NOT cleaning it. From what I gather (reading Bob Vila online) once it dries and leaves a haze it's not easy to get off.

DH told them the garage needs to get cleaned up now. It's still spread out with all her painting supplies and still some baseboard to go on and leftover trim stuff. It still looks like a bomb went off in there. DH told them the electricians are waiting to come back for their final visit so they can install the garage overhead lighting and they can't do it until the garage can be accessed and they can't finish getting paid until they can finish the job. Finisher had brought more baseboard last week, because enough wasn't ordered first time....apparently it still was not measured right and now he is saying he'll probably need a little more....which of course needs to be stained/sanded/lacquered (good grief!). Finisher says "well, I guess wife will have to finish the extra boards at our house". DH says, I guess so.

We have this flat shelf up in the loft sitting room that needs more sanding and lacquering, I guess. She wanted to do that lacquering now, inside. DH told her absolutely not. She is not spraying lacquer all over, inside our almost finished house, where it will float through the air and could land on our cabinets. I'm thinking right now to myself....can't she just sand it and lacquer it with a brush or roller or even a rag??

DH told him he's tired of brand new stuff getting ruined because their attitude is "we'll fix it... later". DH said we are way past "later" now. She and her son were in the master bath (doing nothing) while DH and finisher were working on tiling. Their son, with his filthy, dirty t-shirt on, leans up against the corner of one of the bathroom cabinets and scratches his back. Sure, just rub the finish off of my brand new cabinets!

She harped and harped about getting this front door done....it's been 2 weeks now. The side windows and top window (which has been here since last Wednesday morning) are still not in. They have cardboard taped up over the windows. There was apparently some wind yesterday (and a bit of rain). DH went out before bed to check on everything and realized the wind blew off the cardboard on the front door....what if we hadn't been living here? It would have just gotten left like that, for rain, weather to blow inside the house.

She wants to wait to do all the little spots that need paint touch up AFTER the carpet is in. Nope. There's no reason she can't do the few areas that need it right now, when she sits for hours saying she doesn't have any more to do that day. She is not coming back in after carpet is down. Just leave the paint and we'll do it ourselves...before the carpet is down. It will probably literally take 15 minutes or less.

As of tomorrow she will have been here 6 weeks now.......ENOUGH! We are beyond exhausted.  When I was visiting my old neighbor friend last week and whining about all this she said "is that the lady that was there that time I went out there and she acted like she owned the place?!" Yep, that's her. What she all has left to do is honestly probably not more than a days worth of work.