win-ders!

[oh yeah, love that texan twang!]

so obviously the big topic of yesterday was the new windows. so heres a "small" update on yesterday...

when i last left you the guys were working on the windows and id gotten my truck stuck after dropping karen off at work and id discovered my own little ice-wonderland.

well after i finished blogging the guys were all but finished with the upstairs and had moved downstairs. so i went up to take some pictures, but much to my dismay, all of the pictures were turning out like crap. it was so bright outside, especially with the sun reflecting off all the snow, that everything was crazy back-lit and silhouetted. and the flash only seemed to make matters worse. so i resigned myself to waiting till dark out to get the rest of the pictures.

not long after id gotten back downstairs there was a knock at the door [which was hard to hear on account of the hammering and drilling] and one of the installers hollered at me that there was a guy at the door. confused, i went to answer and a nice gentleman greeted me and asked if i needed a plumbing inspection. hot damn! id totally forgotten to call them that morning in all the excitement of the windows, luckily id attempted to schedule in advance and here he was! im not sure if ive mentioned this part before, so ill take a quick side-step to fill you in.

[inspections]

well as karen and i decided to get the windows put in we also decided it was time to go about getting home owners insurance if at all possible. so last week id made a phone call to our insurance agent and discussed the matter with him, and he seemed happy to work with us, but there was no way of getting around that thorn thats been in our side from day one... you guessed it, the certificate of occupancy. we'd been trying to get all the work done necessary to get the c.o.o. [lol!] but at this point we'd really been putting off contacting the city building inspections office because well... we hadnt exactly done everything legit and we were afraid it was going to bite us in the ass. now before you think poorly of me, we didnt really know either way how it was going to go, so it wasnt like we were attempting to be shady. let me explain... the wall for starters, well when we hired the masons out to do the wall we discussed getting a permit and they told us that the only reason we'd need a permit is in case the inspector was out while they were working and wanted to see it. since we were getting it done as a weekend job and it wasnt going to take more than that weekend [and the inspectors dont normally just drive around on the weekends looking for people out doing masonry work] we shouldnt have anything to worry about. now i specifically asked him if there was going to be an issue with the c.o.o. and he said as far as he knew there wouldnt be, as long as the work was done correctly they shouldnt care one way or the other about a permit. second was the plumber. when we hired the plumber we discussed permits yet again. after our discussion he formed me that most likely we would need 1 to 2 permits depending on the situation, but he was going to see if he could get around them by doing things a little differently but he'd let me know. i told him that it was fine with me, but that if he needed to pull one, go for it, i didnt mind paying for it... and thats the last i heard about it. so getting back to last week [and now that we're clear that i did ask my contractors up front about permits] after talking to the insurance agent i had no choice but to call my guy at the city building office. dont get me wrong hes a really nice guy [as many of you will remember from when i previously spoke about him in regards to us having the house barricaded oh so many eons ago...] and totally willing to work with me, i was just dreading the conversation because i didnt know how it was going to go. 

well sure enough i get him on the phone and the first thing he does is pull up our file on the computer and i hear "well, weve got a problem. im not showing any permits here." ef. so i discussed with him the situation and after talking through everything and being the nice guy he is, he said he had no problem working with me to get the permits and get the certificate of occupancy afterward. so he gave me the number of the inspectors office and told me to call my contractors and to call him back when i got my ducks in a row. all ill say is that im damn lucky, apparently there were some pretty nice fines i could have incurred, but he said this sort of thing happens all the time and as long as he can see that im trying to work with him, he'll let all that stuff slide and we'll get it done. [did i mention NICE guy?!] 

well after that conversation i called my contractors up and discussed the options with them. the mason was clueless... he didnt really know anything about permits and said he'd try to help me out if there was no other option, but he didnt know how much help hed be... great. the plumber was more helpful, he said that from our conversation he felt like i didnt want him to pull a permit, and apparently there was some miscommunication. but it was no big deal to him, hed get a permit pulled and call an inspector and let me know. well that was good news [and a segue to the inspector showing up] so i still had an issue with the masonry permit and wasnt sure what to do there and went ahead and called the inspectors office to ask them. well again i talked to a really nice guy, he gave me all the info i needed and it turns out i can pull the permit for the masonry work myself, so theres no problem at all. all i have to do is go down to their office and fill out the paperwork and we're good to go on that one, theyll schedule an inspection of the work, and unless they have a problem with what they see, we should be in business for getting the c.o.o.

so fast forward to this week, monday. we get home after work and i find a notice that the plumbing inspector had been by and that i need to call his office. well crap, the plumber never told me he scheduled a time for him to come out, so obviously he couldnt get in to see anything. well i called him up and discussed the issue and thats when we attempted to schedule for thursday morning. [i say attempted because he said he couldnt guarantee any appointments and this was obviously before the winter storm disaster blew through town...]

[fast forward to the present]

so when i saw him at the house i was elated! i welcomed him in and he got right to it. we went down into the basement, i showed him the hot water heater [the permit in question was for a new hot water heater - in you get a new one, you need a permit. so just keep that in mind if youre thinking about getting one. also, if you do any work related tot he main waterline - you need a permit. somehow my plumber got around that one i guess...] he went through his check list quickly and 5 minutes later he wrote out a form, put a sticker on my hot water heater and told me to have a nice day. that was it. we got our permit. pretty damn painless, lol! so now i just have to get around to pulling that permit for the masonry and schedule that inspector and we'll really be in good shape, eh? 

anyway, after the inspector left it was nearing 11:30 and the window guys were making some progress so i decided i better see about getting my truck un-stuck so i could get to work later. i went out and did some rocking for a while, forward, reverse, repeat. it moved a little here and there, then eventually i finally got a little traction and moved laterally about 10 ft, at which point i was stuck again and getting ever closer to that snow pile with the chewy toyota center [yummy... heh]. well at this point i was now half in middle of the road, half on the side of the road turned nearly perpendicular to the curb and not moving. i started the process over again, when my favorite neighbors come out to investigate, haha. theyd heard me working at it [ive got a v8 engine, lol, its not quite when it revs... although just the 2wd obviously, heh] and decided to see if they could help. and not long after they showed up, the window guys had stopped working and come to lend a hand as well. so tracy jumped in the front seat [the smallest and lightest of us all] and the rest of us got in back and started pushing and she tried to go forward. at first we made no progress, so we told her to try and reverse a little so she could get some momentum. and it worked! she backed up a little, then we all pushed as she got about 6 inches of momentum, and thats all it took! she finally was able to get it over the snowbank and onto the street! so that was a small victory. =] we got sahara out and parked in a much better location and then i went back in to watch the window guys install the remaining windows and help resolve any problems that may arise.

im happy to report, that there werent really any problems. haha. the only one we did face was when they first got there and they told me that theyd been sent with one window that was the wrong size. for whatever reason the fabricating guys gave them two of one window and didnt give them one that we needed, so they ended up with a duplicate of sorts. not sure what happened there, but it was no biggie. he said he got the right dimensions, hed put in the order for the right size and then in 2-3 weeks theyd be back out to install it, piece of cake! 

so at about 1pm they were on their way and i was on my way into work for the remainder of the day. i ended up staying a little later than id expected to [about 6pm] and poor karen was stranded till i could pick her up, but once we got home she seemed very happy with our new windows! the difference in the living room is just crazy with having 2 windows now that arent covered in plywood, lol! anyway, the rest of the evening was pretty laid back, we had chinese take-out and watched rocknrolla [i really liked it, very much in the tradition of snatch or lock, stock, although a bit slower... could have used a little more momentum throughout. i was a little shocked at how small jeremy piven and ludacris' roles were in the overall scheme of things, but maybe thats just me...] before turning in early. it had been a pretty exhausting day for me.

oh and one last thing, my dad called from saudi arabia this morning to tell us that he and my mom are making a trip up in a couple of weeks for a visit, so that shoud be a lot of fun. maybe we can get some of that electrical problem figured out, lol!

well, i know all you really wanted was pictures of the windows, so heres one for the site, and the rest can be found at my.pix.

cheers!

wow.what.a.week[+end]

so i realize its been a little while since i updated. i do apologize to all those loyal readers. its been a heck of a busy week and weekend [if the title of this blog didnt already clue you in to that.]

so we last left off the weekend before this most recent one [11.16ish]

well for the sake of brevity, we'll try to make this a pretty quick summarizing recap. [for those of you that really love the long-winded details, im sorry, theres just so much i could say this time around, i honestly will never have the time.]

monday [11.17.08]

first thing in morning the newest roofer guy calls me and tells me hes at the house and has decided to start today instead of wednesday. wow-o! alrighty, get to it! so we discuss a few variables and hes off to do his thing. the plumbers are there too, and not long after i talk to them as well. they should be 3/4 of the way done today and then it should only take another day after that and we could move in if we wanted. sweet. so monday comes and goes, work as usual, and we head to the house after work to check on the progress and do some more painting. also, the roofer was going to meet us to get a down payment [half] to cover materials and to do a little walk through and see the inside of the hosue to satisfy his curiosity.

so after work we went home, had a quick dinner and then went over to the house and not long after the roofer showed up. about an hour later wed given him the full tour, discussed all the work we were planning to do, and given him a check and were ready to start painting. the first coat of the wall paint and the second ceiling coat were dry, the plaster was still drying in the stairs, haha, and the walls desperately needed a second coat. so we got down to the business of painting and before long we had a second coat of paint on the walls and were much happier with the way it was looking with the wet coat. it had gone on much thicker, although it was obvious it was still going to need at least one, if not more than one, coat before it was done. ugh. so we left fairly soon after that and went home and to bed. 

tuesday[11.18.08]

tuesday was a little less exciting. the roofer was at it again and called me to find out our thoughts on shingles so karen and i spent the rest of the day discussing shingle colors and made a decision and were ready to talk to him about it again whenever he called us. when we talked to him at the end of the day, it turned out that once he started tearing out all the gutters he discovered that the rafters for 3/4 of the house behind them were all in really bad shape, were rotten out and were going to need to be repaired and so he got started doing that [and he said he wasnt going to charge us for it! is this guy this best roofer ever or what??] not to mention they were already tearing out trim, fascia board, and crown that was rotted out and he was getting materials to fix those as well. 

talked to the plumbers as well and it turned out they were going to be almost finished but not quite just a couple of hours on wednesday and theyd be done. but theyd hooked most everything up and had even put on the new faucet in kitchen for us [and it looked great!]. also, the faucet in the 3rd story bathroom he was able to repair and didnt need to use the new one we bought, so we could save that for a later day. 

wednesday[11.19.08]

well we went the whole day without hearing anything from the roofer... odd... the day itself was nothing special, just another work day [work was starting to wear on me, i was really needing a break from it for a while... good news coming up there] after work we went to the house to check things out and couldnt see any difference in the roof stuff, so i assumed theyd had bad weather, hit a snag with materials, or something else had come up. the pump-jacks were still there as well as a ladder and some other tools, so they obviously werent abandoning us. theres a good chance they had done something, it just wasnt anything we could see in the dark [nothing obvious]. 

we also talked to the plumber and he was finished! woohoo! we checked out the plumbing and it looked great! he even put in new copper waterlines and wasnt going to charge me extra for that. not to mention all the new cpvc, new water heater, new gas lines to the water heater [the old ones didnt meat code] and all the fixtures hooked up and working [even fixed the leak in the washing machine line!]. and all of it for the exact cost we'd agreed upon in the beginning, even though hed run into a few snags! awesome! 

one final word from the plumber though. we needed to fix our thermostat. the house needed to stay at the very least above 40degrees to keep the pipes from freezing, and he recommended we keep it above 50. he said when hed arrived that morning it was 40 in the house and that was not a good sign. now for those of you that remember, we had replaced the thermostat with a digital programmable one in the weeks before, but we had been having issues with the auto features working. basically it wasnt kicking on when it reached any set temperatures or kicking off when it reached any certain temperatures either. 

so wednesday night karen and i decided to tackle this little problem and get it fixed once and for all. we opened up the thermostat and checked everything, i went through all the directions and actually programmed every part of it [we'd just used the override settings originally] and we tested it. no change... hmmm.... so then we opened it up and i checked all the wires and we conferred with the manual...

originally, i was in the parlor hooking up lights when karen installed the thermostat. i never actually looked closely at the wires or anything, she was just reading the instructions and asking me questions. well in the picture it shows all the wires coming out of the wall all nicely labeled and theres all 5 of the necessary wires, etc. haha, our house isnt exactly that "optimum" wiring situation. there were two wires staring at karen neither were nicely labeled and she asks me okay it looks like i have a red wire and a brown wire here, what do i do? well i ask her what it said and she rambled off the letters on the sheet there were a w, r, r2, y, & g. i said that the red was most likely red, and the brown [based on my limited previous knowledge and not actually seeing the wires] was usually a ground, so that was probably her g. so thats how she hooked it up and it worked for the most part [other than the auto stuff] so we had no reason to think shed done it wrong. 

well when i opened it up, i looked at the wires again and was double checking everything to make sure they were getting good contact and stuff, and then it occurred to me... haha, this "brown" wire wasnt brown, lol! its obvious to me its a white wire, but karen had never seen wires before and just assumed that it was brown because it looked brown to her. hahaha, this is why i love this girl. she never even thought about it being old or a little dirty, it just didnt look white to her, haha. so anyway, i switch it to the w and we hook everything back up and there you go, now the auto is working, haha. we test it a few times and it works every time, so we set it and leave laughing at ourselves but happy we have the thermostat issue resolved!

thursday[11.20.08]

thursday we didnt do any house stuff. we left work and went home to have a quick bite before karen had to go to class for a presentation. so i spent the next few hours cleaning up the apartment a little and packing for the weekend and karen got home around 10:30 and did her packing. so my sister's wedding was this weekend and we were heading back to tx for the next 4 days to do wedding stuff and see the family and just take a break from everything in cincy for a while. our flight was leaving at 6am and the airport was a 2 hour drive away so we ended up having to get up and get ready at about 2:30 [after going to bed at just after midnight when it was all over with, haha!] anyway, not a fun way to start the weekend but we went to sleep ready to leave with little preparation required in the morning, and were definitely ready to have a little "vacation!"

well, thats the week recap. now for the weekend recap. and ill keep it even shorter. 

weekend [the.wedding.extravagganza!]

ill summerize it all to say this. kimberly's wedding was beautiful and it went off without a hitch [or actually with a big one considering the event, lol! but without any real problems]. we attended her bachelot/bachelorette party on friday and had a lot of visit time with my parents and a lot of fun. saturday we hung out with karens folks and did all the wedding rehearsal/dinner stuff again a lot of fun and some great food! [man i miss mexican food!] sunday was the actual wedding and it was great. we got to see all the family and spend a lot of time with them and catching up with people, not to mention a little good food, great cake, and a little dancing on the side. monday started off fairly relaxing as we got up, packed, said goodbye to her parents and spent some more time with mine. had a nap, watched a movie, just chilled in general before going to the airport and saying goodbye to my parents. and then all the fun really began. it was a jam-packed weekend, there wasnt as much vacationing as we were hoping, but it was really great to get to see everyone and feel all the love! we love all of you guys and miss you like crazy up here in cincy!

monday.night[yeah...life and all its fun has found us again.]

so we arrive back in cincy at about 8:30pm est, right on time. the flight was fine [minus a little more turbulance than karen cared for] and i read a new book [the visitation - frank e. peretti] pretty much the entire flight while karen worked on a presentation for school this week. we even got a nice little snack. and the flight back was waay more comfortable than the one to tx on this tiny little jet that held about 20 ppl.

anyway, we got to cincy, went and picked up our bags with no problem, actually remembered where we parked the truck pretty luckly and only got charged for 3 days of parking [dont ask me how] and were on our way home by 8:45! and this is where everything stopped going well...

we hadnt even gotten out of downtown columbus when i start hearing something funny on the right side of the car and after a few second pull over to check it out and see if we were dragging something or what. well after inspecting the truck, i dont see anything and we get in to see if it just works itself out [this damn truck is old and this crap happens way too often... see the trip to denver posts for more on this...] well instead it starts getting worse so i pull off the highway and we find a small empty street and i get out and have karen drive around in a little circle to see if i can see anything when its actually moving. well i dont see anything, but i can definitely hear something and i can start to make out a smell around the front right wheel. so i get back in and tell her we need to find a repair place or something, but theres no way im driving it for 2 hours like this. well, on the way to find a gas station or anything to pull over in i start losing break pressure and im pretty much on the floor board before it responds at all... not good. weve got to get this thing fixed asap or figure out another way home...

so we find a shell station open, i call my dad and talk to him about whats going wrong, then we talk the guy at the shell. he tells us theres nothing open but a walmart up the road a few miles, so we get back in and very slowly and carefully drive down this road for what seems like forever till we find this walmart. well the walmart doesnt even have an autocare center. great. so we decide at this point to call triple-a and see about getting it towed to a shop nearby or whatever we need to do...

well as with the last time talking to triple-a proved to be a task in its own but we actually managed to get somewhere with them after about 45 minutes of talking and holding ans what have you. so basically heres what happened - in a nutshell. triple-a sent a tow truck out to pick up the truck and take it back to cincinnati and to a shop that was one of their approved shops or whatever and they did it for free because we were just under [2 miles!] the 100 miles free towing. [whew!] while waiting for the tow truck we ordered a cab to pick us up and take us back to the airport to rent a car - because apparently the car rentals at the airports are the only ones open passed 6pm... well the freaking taxi showed up at 11:15, and the car rental placed closed at 11:30, so we had to race to get there in time and beg them to stay open and wait for us while we were en route. we got there at 11:34 and they had waited, and so by about midnight we finally had rented a car and were getting in. 

well... their airport is in a similar state of affairs as every other airport ive visited lately in that theres tons of road construction. so i dont like admitting this, but it was late, and i was tired and as we left with the rental car [which is a BRAND NEW dodge avenger by the way - very nice!] i somehow took an exit at a fork instead of the onramp to the highwayright before leaving the airport and for the next half hour to 45 minutes we were completely lost driving in a huge circle around the airport and neighboring suburbs before eventually going back through it and finally starting over where we'd originally begun. this time i took the onramp. gr.

so now 12:45am - weve FINALLY gotten on the road home from columbus, we're both completely exhausted and drifting off, and ended up having to pull over at a rest stop twice for a 20 minute nap and switch driving once between before we finally got home at about 3:30am.

tuesday[today, the present, now...]

this morning we both called in till after lunch and slept till around 8:30 - 9am. i got up and got in the shower and no sooner was i out that the phone was ringing. its the autoshop. the guy has my truck up on the rack and he tell me whats wrong with it. now im not car guy, not at all, but esentially these are the parts of what he said that i kind of understood. the right front wheel bearing siezed, causeing damage to the spindle, which in turn caused damage to the seal on the rotars and the ball joint. or something like that. he was going to need to replace the spindle, outer bearing, inner bearing, rotator seal, and both ball joints on the right side. after further inspection the ball joints on the left side were in pretty dire need of repair too and if i didnt replace them now, i would definitely need to soon. total = $1200.

for those of you that are up to date on the truck and all its issues, you can imagine my reaction here... so after i stopped screaming profanities in my mind and regained my sanity a little, i told the guy id call him back. karen and i then discussed our options, conferred with our respective sets of parents, and came to the conclusion that putting any more money into this truck is a complete waste of time and in my opinion, an act of insanity [repeating the same action and expecting a different result is the DEFINITION of insanity...]. so we're going to figure out how to get rid of this pile of junk [that for the record i have had a long love/hate affair with and will probably miss terribly at first... for a few minutes.] and get something else new to us. 

we called the guy and told him it was a no go and he thanked us and put it back in the parkinglot where he found it, meanwhile we called a number of salvage places and looked up the blue book value on the junk truk. so far... all the salvage places are offering about 250 bucks, and the bluebook on it was something like 527 dollars. great. it really is WORTHLESS. grr... so i dont know what to do now. we'll figure something out im sure, but right now im really hoping someone steals it and we can get more than 500 bucks out of the insurance claim. [its wrong of me i know, im probably going to hell, blah blah blah, what would you be thinking?! lol!]

on a lighter note, the security people installed the alarm system this morning and its up and running so i feel much better about that. the roof looked the same still when we were there and we hadnt heard anything from the roofer all weekend. however, about 45 minutes ago the roofer called me and said that theyve been ready to start removing the roof since last week, but because its been threatening to rain everyday since, they hadnt gotten into it because they didnt want to let any water in the house, but now that the weather appears to have cleared up a little hes planning to work all day tomorrow and hes going to get us some samples of the shingles to look at tomorrow as well. cool. i guess theres a silver lining somewhere... the entry still needs another coat of paint. 

well kids, adults, and fans of all ages, thats it for now. youre caught up to this very moment with our lives [and obstacles.......] i'll let you know more when i do, but for now thats all ive got, and ive wasted as much time today as i possible can at work, lol! [dont worry, ive been working too! just taking little 5 minute breaks every now and then to work on this] life is really somethin huh? well, at least its not boring, lol!

keep us in your prayers, wish us luck, or whatever custom youve got thats appropriate, we'll take it!

see you next time!

[sorry this got so lengthy, but to be fair, i really DID try to keep it to as much of a summary as i possibly could!]

slacking

hello out there to all you readers!

sorry ive been slacking a little lately in the updates, but we've been super busy.

so heres a quick update from last week but i might need to do a few installments to get everything from this weekend and this week in. theres just so much to talk about! lol!

tuesday[11.11.08]

so tuesday was one of the last times i blogged and i mentioned that we were going to dinner for one of karen's friend's [caye] birthday. well we ended up meeting a couple of people at this local korean place [well, sort of local - its accross the river in that other state we dont talk about, heh]. well at first it was just 5 of us, and we decided to sit down at the table that was already prepared for the party and wait for other people to arrive. challenge 1 - sitting down. this was an authentic asian experience, let me tell you, we had to remove our shoes and sit on the floor indian-style on little pink pillows, and wow was this an interesting task, lol! i dont know about you guys, but im not quite as flexible as i was in say... 3rd grade, anymore, lol! not to mention im only slightly taller now. [hardy-har-har...] anyway, the sitting ended up being quite an experience the whole night as a group of 8-10, twenty-somethings all curled up under this table, lol! my legs were numb after like 20 minutes and i just ignored it most of the night. 

anyway, so before long people started straggling in and we made introductions one by one, and eventually even the birthday girl showed up, lol! [second to last, heh] and we all had some conversation, presents, and then got down to the business of ordering. being that this was my first time ever having korean food, i had no clue what to get so karen and i read the menu a multitude of times. the group ended up ordering a couple of different appetizer dishes for everyone to share and they were all delicious! at that point i was feeling much better about my entre choice and i ended up getting a grilled pork dish. karen got a giant stone bowl concoction that had chicken, rice, veggies, and a myriad of other goodies in it. i gotta say, we loved it! everything was just so amazingly flavorful! im a lot more adventurous in my eating these days and will try most everything [which is a good thing! because a couple of years ago i wouldnt have touched anything on that table except the rice, lol!] and it really pays off. there are just so many wonderful foods out there that i havent gotten to experience yet and slowly i hope to get around to most of them, lol! the only thing i didnt love that night was this steamed korean cabbage thing that i dont know how to spell but its something like kim-chi i think.

well when it was all over we had a great time mingling with new people and eating delicious food. we had some really interesting conversation and met some really nice people, ond obviously there was the food! overall an a+ for the night. =] 

thursday[11.13.08]

yeah nothing special really happened wednesday so im skipping to the juicy bits. 

thursday, a roofer finally called me back!! yesss! so he went out to the house and had a look at everything. he said he needed to replace all the box gutters [nothing new to us there] redo some flashing and facia, and we discussed ripping all the slate off and replacing it with shingles. he was of the same opinion that the slate would end up costing us a lot more money if we left it there, ultimately damaging the new gutters again at some point - not mention a maintenance nightmare. for the whole job, we discussed our options, and his initial estimate was waaay lower than that first guy [25k!] we talked to over the summer. so i was definitely satisfied with his thoughts on the whole thing and looked forward to getting his quote in writing to see where we would go from there. 

also on thursday morning we had an interesting little experience at the house. our neighbor from across the street [the ones weve gotten to be pretty friendly with, theyre great!] called me up in the morning to ask if i was having anyone out at the house today. well, no, not exactly... why? turns out theres a few hours shes home most days and she happened to notice this guy kind of lurking around our front porch. a bit odd to say the least. he didnt seem to be doing much really, just hanging out on the porch and then eventually talking to a guy who lives a few houses down for a little bit. anyway she called me to let me know he was there and that shed let me know if she saw him getting into any trouble while she was home. well not long after she called the first time he apparently moved on about his business and found some other place down the street to lurk i guess - but he didnt do much of anything other than trespass. either way, it got karen and i thinking about our security issue again - given that we sometimes keep tools out at the house that we know we're going to use everytime we're there, and we certainly dont want anyone breaking in and stealing tools - or appliances that we've recently acquired!

well when we bought the house it had a security system pre-installed that came with it. the thing looked in fairly good shape to me [but what do i know about secuirty systems, lol], and it was clearly labeled with the security company who had originally installed it, so karen and i had already discussed a few times if we wanted to try and get it up and running again. the guy at work whos been helping me find contractors had mentioned a few times that he recommends having an active security system in the house when rehabing [as he does] to prevent theft, and to definitely have it clearly marked that you do. so anyway, i did a little research on the top security people in the area [the system's company being one of which] and found that the company that had installed this thing originally actually had the best deal in town and the most options. so i ended up calling them up that day and was able to set up an appointment for the very next day to inspect the system we had and see where to go from there. cool! so now friday has a plumber getting started and a security system guy coming out, its starting to look busy!

friday[11.14.08]

friday was an active day indeed!

at 8am we were supposed to meet the plumber to let him and get started replacing all the plumbing in the basement and basically getting the house functioning. well karen and i were there and waiting at 7:55 but by 8:15 he hadnt shown up yet and karen was getting anxious about being late to work, so i drove her to work and the plumber would just have to wait if he got there soon. well as soon as i dropped her off the phone buzzed and it was the plumber wondering where i was. haha, of course. so i told him to sit-tight id be there asap, and headed that way. i got there around 8:45 and let them [he and his associate] in and we discussed what all he was planning to do that day and the money exchange, etc. a little after 9 i was getting back in the car and heading back to work. 

on the way to work i decided to drop my paycheck off at the bank [always a good idea, lol!] and no sooner had i pulled up to the drive-thru than my phone was buzzing again. well, the security guy had called at 8am to say that they werent going to be there at the original time[10am - 12pm], the reason for which being that the guy that was supposed to do it had to go to the emergency room the night before[although they didnt say why], and that theyd try to reschedule for later that day or monday. at first it was a touch of a bummer, but no big deal - monday is still better than later alternatives[this whole house thing has definitely taught me some patience when it comes to contractors & etc, lol!]. so when my phone buzzes, oh yes, its the security people. theyd had a cancellation and they were en route - be there in 15 minutes... okey-dokey... so i did my bank thing, turned around and headed back to the house, lol! i got there the same time he did so we got out, shook hands and went inside. 

the plumbers were a little confused to see me back so soon, but just did their thing and ignored me while the security guy and i did a little sweep of the house and he looked at all the contact points, sensors, the keypad, etc. well when we finished he let me know that the system installed was in pretty great shape from what he could tell and the only thing he recommended doing was adding two smoke alarms that were wired into their system [that way if we werent home when they went off, theyd call the fire dept. for us and then call us - sounds good to me.] and i wanted an extra key-pad installed in the master bedroom. well the end result of that meeting was amazing! basically by having the system pre-installed we got to wave all the installation and equipment costs and saved ourselves over $800! awesome! the only catch was that we needed a phone line through their company to use with the system, but thats really no big deal considering. so i left there and was finally to work by 10am and had accomplished quite a bit that day already!

however, not long after id been at work, the phone started buzzing again, lol! who could it be this time? well i answer and its none other than another roofer! score! id contacted this guys last week but to no avail. turns out he was on vacation last week, but now he was back and ready to work. now this guy is a contractor that pretty much my entire office recommended to me in chorus. hes done a lot of work for at least half the office. roofs, floors, additions, you name it. so he calls me up, and hes a real nice guy, southern accent to boot. [well obviously i feel comfortable talking to that, lol!]

so anyway, hes on the phone with me and heads over to the house. he looks around, asks me some questions here and there, we discuss things, and he throws out a few general numbers but then stops himself short and asks if we could just do a walk around later that evening and he can really show me what he wants to do and explain the cost. not only that, but hes really willing to work with us on the cost of things. he says he does this to help people more than to make money, so hes willing to try and get in our budget the best he can. so i told him sure, we could meet him after work to talk it over and go from there. 

-cut to 5pm-

so after work i picked up karen and we met this contractor/roofer out at the house. he walked around with us pointing out things here and there, explaining how he was going to repair different parts and how he was going to try to salvage everything existing that he could to keep the cost down and not replace things he could repair, etc. well a half hour - 45 minutes later wed discussed at length the situation with him, and karen and i were both getting a good vibe. then he gave us his initial estimate....

now we were engulfed in good vibe! haha! he was well under the other roofer i talked to that week and was ready to start in 4 days! amazing! so we shook hands and he promised to get a contract together with the scope of work and email it to me as soon as he could and we'd go from there. awesome! well i gotta say, we were feeling really good when we left him. it was going to cost a lot less than the initial 25k we were quoted to fix the roof, and we really liked this contractor in general. hes just one of those friendl,y cut and dry kind of guys. no bs, tells you how it is, a firm handshake, and a big smile. so needless to say we're happy with those circumstances. =]

additionally, the plumber called me a little before 5 to let me know the progress of the days work. hed gotten a lot of the fixtures hooked up, some things needed to be replaced and repaired, but we had working water in some parts of the house, and working toilets even! amazing! he even got the hot water heater installed and working! so we were definitely in business for our plans to clean over the weekend, lol! karen was happy about that one anyway ;]

friday.night

so when we left the contractor my phone was buzzing again. this time it was a friend of mine from work at bhdp - amanda. she had been wanting to hang out for a while now, and had invited us to go to a wine tasting thing at one of the local whole-foods in cincy and was checking to make sure we were going to make it. we told her we were on our way and that we'd see her soon. amanda is a sweetheart and she loves karen [i completely understand!] and weve had fun when weve hung out with her before. so eventually [after a LOT of friday night traffic - ugh!] we arrived and amanda was there to meet us with a huge smile and a hug. i love nice people! well i wont be long and drawn out on this little story, but we had a lot of fun. we tried a few wines at these little stations and some tiny portions of food "pairings" and just had a nice time in general. we met a bunch of amanda's friends and had some nice conversations, and eventually we all shared some whole-foods pizza [delicious!] and capped the night off with a movie and a little more wine over at amanda's. it was a fantastic evening! and pretty relaxing considering all the events of the day/week/our lives in general as of late, lol! thanks amanda!!

well gang, ive gotten you updated up to the weekend and this is where im going to stop. theres sooo much more to tell, but my lunch break is over now - so its back to work for me! hope youve enjoyed this installment, hang on tight and the next one will come your way soon!

post.script: yeah, im going to stop saying quick update, lol, they never are! ;]

reconstruction[the.conclusion]

picking up where we last left off...

sunday.

sunday was another fun & exciting day of work, although there wasnt quite as much destruction... for the most part anyway, lol!

we got started fairly early again, meeting the masons out at the house around 8:30-9ish to get them access to whatever they needed and get ourselves started on the day. yes, we missed church on sunday [blasphemous i know, but i doubt god will sweat it much, hes got bigger things to worry about im sure]. so first things, finish up the hanging fixtures for petes sake!

well one of them we decided not to modify, the aqua colored one, we just loved it the way it was so we didnt mess with it. we've got plans to design the room somewhat inspired by the fixture, so while karen was putting finishing touches on the fixtures we were messing with, i got started on installing this thing. 

now to preface this, i had never in my life until this point wired up a hanging lamp [or much of anything else for that matter]. but thanks to some awesome d.i.y. books my amazing mother-in-law sent us, i was confident in my ability to decipher brightly colored step by step graphics [lol, isnt that what i do all day at work anyway?]. so i got out the new ladder [yes it is alu-min-ium-as they say 'down under' - and that did worry me a little], my pliers, screwdrivers, etc. and got started. 

well needless to say, anything new with no real prior knowledge has a learning curve [much like the installation of new door hardware], and this was certainly no exception. after a long series of trial and errors [mostly concerning the damned length of the chain vs. the length of the wires, grrr...], a multitude of redos, and a dash of making the friggin thing fit; not only had i installed the aqua fixture, but i had also wired into it one of the other lamps [that we decided wasnt worth the hassle to disassemble in order to modify] in the same box and they were both functional! score! i hadnt even electrocuted myself! =] and karen was a great helper, i assure you. she was a champ at holding the fixture over her head on the little step latter for endless lengths of time while i cursed at the stupid chain links, wires, caps, plaster, and other uncooperative elements - this lamp had a freaking attitude that would rival some family members of mine, lol! ;]

not to mention during some times when i didnt need her help [while i was on the ground splicing wires or experimenting with some part] she had snuck off upstairs and finished disassembling the last studs in the attic that we'd left the night before - double score!

so in the end, the first lamp[s] took a few hours to get up, but i/we was/were successful and i took a step back admiring with pride this thing that i had accomplished. until i felt a tap on my shoulder. hm? i turned to face my wife whos standing there looking at me like im an idiot and holding the fixture that goes in the entryway, lol! we werent finished, this was no time for taking a break, and she wasnt about to let me forget it, lol! ah, wives... so i clambered up the ladder to inspect my next victim. well the entryway fixture was a slightly different situation. there was no nice little electric box pre-installed with all the trimmings and ready to go. this was two wires hanging out of the ceiling, daring me to mess with them. ah, i see. well that was fine by me, no biggie. a half an hour later with the help of my trusty drill [god, i love that drill!] i had this thing wired up, installed, and ready to test. flip that switch baby! *insert awkward silence and darkness* hmm... well what the hell? i know i wired the damn thing right... 

so i climbed back up, switched the wires, try it again sweetie. nothing. shit. alright what am i doing wrong? i switched the wires back to the way i knew they were right and ventured down to the basement. had i tripped the entryway at some point? well when i got down there all the fuses were in order and nothing was out of place, so i thought id just reset a bunch of them and see if that worked the kink out of the system. so i start flipping the switches back and forth and then i hear karen hollering through the floor above me "its on!" sweet! "but..." shit. "but the lights in the parlor[as we've decided we're going to call it from now on] turned off when this one came on." huh? how is this even possible? i have the fuse switched into the off position and the light in the entry is on, while the lights in the parlor are off like theyre supposed to be. wtf...? so i flipped it back to on, they switched back obviously, and i went back up stairs scratching my head...

well, luckily, two of my cousins are electricians by trade, and this is obviously an electrical problem, so i made a few phone calls and called up cousin wade. after his initial shock of finding out id not only bought a house, but did so in cincinnati, with my wife? wife? lol! where has he been lately? haha. anyway after that he talked me through a few things and we discovered that some idiot had wired a 3-way switch wrong and while its not a real fix, we did figure out how to manipulate the switches in a way that we can turn the entry light on and off at the switch we want to control it. good enough, thanks cousin wade! 

well after i got off the phone with wade, i was perturbed with a light switch that im guessing the same idiot had installed up-side-down, and decided to fix it right quick. heh, up until this point i hadnt shocked myself at all when i was actually handling the wires, but of course on the simple task of removing the face plate and flipping the switch right-side-up, i managed to get myself not only once, but twice, lol! yes, thank you, i appreciate the applause. moving on... 

so after i "fixed" the light switch, we moved onto the dining room fixture. this was another one that karen had finished modifying that morning,and possibly my favorite fixture of them all, i might add. im afraid the pictures of these guys dont do the mod justice, but you'll see eventually when we get some better ones. so anyway, back up the ladder, score, this one was in great shape. an even better box to work with than the first one, and the lamp had tons of chord to work with. this one went up like a breeze, 10-15 minutes tops. the only part that took any time was figuring out the two switches in the dining room to get the thing to turn on and off, lol! its a little redundant to have 2 switches that operate the same light on opposite sides of a 12ft space, but nothing surprises me in this house anymore, lol!

at this point we decided to take a quick run to grab some food and run to the hardware store to get a few s-hooks and a plant hook for the second light in the parlor so we could properly hang all these things where we wanted them. a quick check on the masons [moving on fantastically! we had half a rebuilt wall!] and off we went. lunch was the local taco bell, because neither of us had had it in a while, or felt like cooking, and it was 3 doors down from the local hardware store. lunch was delicious, as usual, and the hardware store was fast, and we were home before we knew it, with everything installed and adjusted to our liking. and now the moment youve all been waiting for!

luckily you can see them all if you get at the right angle, heh. 

well, at this point we decided we better move on to other things on our to do list for the day. we hit the grocery store to re-stock the kitchen cabinets for the week, and by the time we had dropped those off at home it was slowly starting to get dark. we went back to the house to see how things were coming along and then milled-about the house trying to decide what else we wanted to tackle in the near future while we waited for the masons to finish up. not too long after we'd assessed the future rehabbing situation, they were finished and we went about paying them and closing up the house for the day. the wall looked great! see for yourself!

happy with the days work and ready to get on with the rest of the day before it was pitch black out, we left them to finish cleaning-up and went on our way to continue the night. 

we ended up doing laundry [no, not yet with our own washer and dryer, we still need working plumbing for that to happen... soon though, this weekend even!] and went home to quickly put away our clothes, get dressed and primped, and have a very, very, short dinner. ...why you ask??

because we went to a concert! lol! i know, on a work-night too! oh, that crazy wife of mine... so sunday night we went to see girl-talk[definitely not parent, grandparent, or closed minded people appropriate - but killer music if youre into this sorta thing]. one of karens absolute favorite bands! ...well... its really more like a guy, a few turn-tables, and a laptop. its kind of an electronica/dj situation. but we had a total blast! karen got her dance fix for a while and we sweated buckets in the dead center of the throbbing crowd as we danced for hours and had a great time. it was a ton of fun, a great concert, and im pretty sure i saved the life of a crowd-surfing girl who i caught from hitting the ground and tossed back up onto the wave of arms, lol! it was so much fun! however, by the time we left we were soaked to the bone with sweat and it was like 34 outside, lol! needless to say we froze all the way home before a quick shower and then jumping in bed. i think i finally drifted off to sleep a little after midnight, but it was totally worth it. if for no other reason that to see the joy beaming off my wifes face. she had the time of her life and im glad i got to be there to share it with her.  =]

well. i think... yeah, thats it. l0l! youre caught up now. yesterday was a total snore of a normal work day, today is proving to be much the same. the only real beacons of excitement in our week are a friend of karen's birthday dinner tonight and the plumber coming on friday to fix our plumbing!! so stay tuned for more updates, go vote in the lightning round if you still havent yet, and ill touch base with you soon!

concluded!

reflection.election

it seems ive created quite a quandary for you loyal readers, i assure you it was unintentional. but your little imaginations are going wild try to figure out the 'why' of my last post [ahem! instead of focusing on the problem assigned to you! ahem!], so in order to satiate your curiosities, ill finally [although briefly] sit down and catch you all up on the goings on of our recent history. 

last week.

when i last left you all hanging, we had just mutilated our newly procured appliances, and had made a feeble attempt at restoring the rightful function of our doors. 

post last post... weve gotten a few things accomplished. 

monday after work we went to the mens wearhouse where i was fitted for my tux for kimberly's [sister kimberly, not colorado kimberly] wedding. some recent news on that, i was upgraded from lowly usher to full-fledged groomsmen not long ago, so now i actually get the pleasure of walking my own bride down the processional isle. how exciting. 

tuesday karen had class as usual and i spent the time waiting for her to be done with school updating the photos on the entire blog [you may or may not have noticed this update], watching robocop2 on netflix online, and preparing a delicious meal for us to share when she returned to me. and when we were both finally ready for dinner, oh how delicious it was. turkey tacos - YUM!

wednesday after work we went to this cocktail party/informational gala for a charity event that karen's firm is participating in over the next several months. its a competition called CANstruction [which id never heard of] and its actually a really great cause. any aec firm in cincy [actually this thing is global, but im only speaking locally - oh and for those of you not in "the biz," aec = architecture, engineering, & construction, but i digress...] is eligible to participate if they choose and the task is quite simple, although extremely complex. they procure as many canned food items as they deem necessary and design a sculpture using only said canned foods, a little tape [no glue!], and a lot of physics manipulation that even sir issac is baffled by. they decide a winner and theres some festivities, but in the end all the canned food goes to free-stores for people who cant afford food and thats the real glory. if youre interested in more information check out the official website.

thursday after work, while karen was in class i watched the rest of robocop2 - man i love sci-fi movies that are ahead of their time, lol! - and umm... oh yeah.. i did paperwork for my student loans for hours upon hours... yay for the ability to go to college.... ::shudder:: and never get out of debt afterwards...

friday was really just a break for both of us. right after work we went to the depot and got a few more items for the weekends work excursions then headed home where we had a nice dinner, opened some wine, and watched tv all night. 

now then, i dont remember the exact time frames on everything house related, but heres the house specific update:

i do know that on wednesday i met both a furnace guy and the new plumber out at the house [at different times though, lol] where we got the furnace serviced and repaired and all that business - our furnace is good to go! the plumber came by, took a look at everything, and said hed get back to us with an estimate later that night.

at some point we got the official email estimate from the newest mason and boy it was a beaut, makes me smile just thinking about it. 

i finally contacted a roofer who said hed go have a look at the house and call me. 

and now for the latest:

we officially hired the new mason and have him scheduled to come out this weekend, so by sunday night we'll have us a new wall!

we officially hired the plumber and we're still scheduling when he'll do his thing, but hopefully soon. 

we havent heard back from the roofer... freakin roofers. i blame ike. its all his fault. theyve all got dozens of jobs replacing whole roofs after ikes little mayhem in ohio and no one will return my calls!

last weekend.

saturday we had a successful day. we got kind of a late start to the day. we slept in a little then had breakfast, then karen experimented with making some home-made orange marmalade [yeah... i'll let you know how that one goes in two weeks when its done, lol!] then we had to run errands to the bank and the post office and such. then it was time for a quick lunch before heading out to see about some new prospects from craigslist. this time around we were pursuing a dryer and a dishwasher, however while we were getting cash at the atm we got a call from the dryer guy and it was gone. one down - bummer. but! we did end up driving out into the super-suburbs [and i mean wow! crazy man, the little gated community was actually called the polo-fields if that tells you anything, lol!] and got a dishwasher! and, on the way to get the dishwasher we made a short stop at the local salvation army store and picked up 4 awesome hanging light fixtures for 25 bucks!!! pictures to come later, i promise. [and yes, oh yes, we're up to some modification mischief as usual, hehe]

after picking up the dishwasher we headed to the house where we unloaded and spent the rest of the daylight hours [which wasnt much at this point 3.5 maybe?] installing the rest of the new door hardware, and with the right tools this time around! and boy-howdy! it went so much more smoothly! ;]

sunday we did our usual church + shopping routine, although this week we hit the meijer [its like a walmart and its pronounced meyer, like oscar meyer, and yeah id never heard of it either before i moved here] and the target for some groceries and a few other essentials. after lunch we headed to the house and installed new weather-stripping to the doors and i repaired the window in the front door. by the time daylight was starting to fade we headed home for a lot more fun. we ended up doing our laundry [+ sheets & towels!], had dinner, and then cleaned the entire apartment. ugh, it was a long day. but overall a successful weekend! :]

and now, haha, the reason you guys are all still reading this, lol! [yeah, im probably guilty of stringing you along a little, heh. hey! its my prerogative! im the author! hehehe]

so at some point last week my brother calls me up - hes decided recently that he was going to buy a house, obviously im a great role model, and has been looking at stuff back home in the tx - and has decided he wants to build a house. and... drumrole, he wants me to design it! haha, so since then hes given me all kinds of specifics on the different things he wants and likes and whatnot and karen and i have been brainstorming. so if you havent already guessed, thats the prime reason we're feeling the crunch on deciding the name of this firm and seeing about getting our small business started. ive looked into llc's a little, the next step is definitely the name, lol! especially if we're going to issue drawings for anything, its kind of a must. 

so yeah, now you guys are pretty caught up, lol! its tuesday now and the only real news i have to report for this week is that we voted this morning. it was quite and experience, but it felt great! we got up at 5:15, were at the polling center by 6:15 and we're with the first 50 or so people though the door. it was a much more satisfying experience than my first vote - 2004, sigh... - and being that we're now in ohio, one of those highly publicized "swing states" its cool to know that your vote really counts. unlike in a state like say... the tx, where its already been called who will win the state before you even consider your options. 

alright, thats all ive got. its time for the wife and i to watch some election coverage before hitting the sack to try and recover a little of the sleep we didnt get last night, lol! 

happy election day!

charged

happy friday!

so yesterday ended up being a good day for the house. 

we finally got the energy guy out and got both the electricity and the gas turned on and it didnt cust us a dime. awesome. the guy even switched on the furnace for us and made sure it was running before he left. 

on the subject of furnaces, heres our story. in most of the houses we looked at the furnace was ancient and in questionable shape at best. but. this house was different, we actually got really lucky with this one and the furnace was installed in 1998 and appears to be in great condition. it works, i can tell you that from feeling the heat when we walked in the door yesterday evening after it had been on for a couple of hours, however we do need to have it serviced. some of the pipes arent installed properly and they arent venting right either. so just to be on the safe side we're going to have it serviced and we also need to install a digital programmable thermostat [or two or three, lol].

also, we got one of the masons estimates back [the one that was technologically challenged, heh]. it was a little odd to say the least. he only gave us prices on the labor, they seemed to be a little random on their pricing [it costs 250 to take down one chimney but 6-800 for the other one??]. so the fact that he didnt include any materials or equipment and that the labor was as high as it was to begin with, makes me hesitant [to say the least] to take this estimate seriously. not to mention he wrote in there that he wants a 3rd of the money upfront and the remainder after which there is no way im doing. ive had a number of people tell me not to pay anything upfront because youll ultimately get screwed. and if this guy doesnt have any kind of official invoices or anything anyway... nah. ill use someone else. hopefully ill have another mason and a roofers estimates pretty soon.

additionally, i finally got that other plumbers information today. i called and gave them all the information and now im just waiting on a call to confirm a date and time to have them out to get the estimate. i gotta say, this process is starting to get a little frustrating, especially when these estimates arent as low as id like them to be. but we've gotta get the work done and it IS a learning experience, so we're doing and well and having fun. hell id say we're doing really well, im sure its not near this smooth for a lot of people to get estimates for work. this whole contractor thing is just hit or miss and it really sucks. i dont understand what happened to honesty and integrity and just plain good business practices. until the last couple of years of experience i never would have imagined that people would agree to give you an estimate and then never answer or return your calls again. or that a firm would just never respond to a job inquiry. seriously? how does a large architectural firm [or dozens of them for that matter] just never respond to multiple inquiries from an interested individual. i understand that times are hard, but common courtesy people! if someone sends you their resume, you at LEAST say "sorry, but we dont have anything available." at the very least... thats just common courtesy, have we lost even that?

anyway, im not going to rant on that business today, just happy thoughts about the house for me, haha! so this weekend, we're going to do more house work. karen is planning to completely scrub the entire interior of this house and make it immaculate. ugh, sounds like a lot of work. additionally, we're going to get a chainsaw and some hedge shears and do some more yard work [a large part of that being the removal of a felled tree in our backyard that is currently destroying a section of our fence - apparently there was some damage from ike at our place after all]. between those two, im sure we'll have more than enough work on our plate to keep us busy, but we're also looking into getting some appliances for the house to try and get it up to livability. there are no, zero, nada appliances in the house right now, so we're looking for all of it. stove, oven, fridge, washer/dryer, grill, you name it - we need it. so we'll be looking on craigslist to see if we can find anything [we've already spotted a few items that have caught our interest] and if we dont make any progress there, who knows. re-sale shops, rich neighborhoods garbage, lol, we'll see.

well anyway, thats your daily update. any thoughts or advice on any of the above projects is welcomed [as always] and i wish you all a happy weekend!

post.script: ive been addicted to a couple of friends blogs for a while now, and it might just be me, but i love getting to be part of their lives, thoughts, ideas, experiments, or whatever else they share. if you havent already checked out my linx section, do so - you might find something you like.

justin's blog - an obituary for mediocrity - is filled with a lot of insight into the current state of disrepair our country has let itself slide into both economically and more specifically on a city-planning level. he asks some great questions [and i usually add a few of my own] that hopefully we can eventually answer and make strides of change and hope in our futures. 

claire's blog - two c's in a pod - just awesome, awesome stuff. claire and chance love to "dish" about their favorite restaurants, pets, and local hotspots back in austin,tx as well as a lot of really great results theyve had with crafty stuff like furniture rehabbing. its just fun and intelligent to read and often has fantastic photos! [did i mention claire and chance are awesome photographers?] not to mention shes got a list a mile long of awesome links to check out if youre into that crafty stuff. :]

kim's blog - running in circles - just a friend back in denver sharing some current events as she takes a leap into marriage and just takes on life in general. shes got a great sense of humor and sarcasm and a playful appreciation for life and the fun little aspects of it that many of us enjoy. 

"theyyyr grrrrrrrrrreat!"

in.my.house

just a short one to keep you all up to speed.

wednesday was a fairly successful day as well. we went to work as usual and did our whole work thing up until lunch time. i worked on more leed stuff, i assume karen did her usual as well. at lunch time we actually both had a lunch & learn. 

ill deviate topics for a moment here - have i discussed lunch & learns?

in our little industry, theres the overarching organization which most registered architects choose to be a member of - the AIA [american institute of architects]. well as a membership requirement you pay dues like so many other professional organizations, as well as various other little requirements - one of which being the AIA's commitment to continuing education even after professional registration. i can't speak to other professions on this one because i honestly have no idea, but the AIA believes that as architects we have a responsibility[and really just the need if we're being honest] to stay informed on current trends in our industry and all those related [which is a LOT] if we're to be the best at our jobs and id say if we're to stay relevant in the world in general. so what this means is that members of the organization have to fulfill x number of points of continuing education each year to meet the guidelines and stay in good favor or what have you. as a result, pretty much every architectural office out there [im speaking specifically of u.s. based, obviously] has regularly scheduled "lunch & learns." this is where some product manufacturer, distributor, or other professional relevant to architecture and its related industries [take door-knob manufacturers or software developers for example as options in this realm] come to the office during lunch time [so as not to waste valuable billable hours], provides lunch, and gives an hour long seminar over whatever the topic is. [so if the guy develops the software from my previous example, he gives a seminar on the relevancies of different software types in the industry, what trends are occurring within the profession involving software vs. traditional methods, and ultimately slips in briefly how his software is a better fit for our office's needs than all his competitors] in return, we get a couple of points towards our c.e. quota, and this guy [yeah, i know im not being pc, get over it] gets the option of having our office spec his product, service, etc.

so during the lunch in learn [or "l&l" for short, or "cell" as its referred to in my office - continuing education lunch & learn] karen got a call from a blocked number and excused herself to answer it, didnt get it in time, and there was no message or callback... weird. we assumed if it were one of our people they'd try again and ignored it. about 5 minutes after my l&l ended i got a phone call from the plumber scheduled that day saying hed be at the house in about 20 minutes, so i coordinated with karen and she met him out at the house. 

from what i can tell it went well, but the guy either didnt know how a high-efficiency water-heater works or was just trying to pull a fast one on us, because he told karen that the current water-heater was venting through the wall instead of the normal through the roof and that he'd have to install a "special fan" to correct this when he installed the new water-heater... the reason its venting through the wall is because its a high efficiency water-heater [be it old and in need of replacement, probably one of the first models] and they vent through the wall... thats how theyre designed. so either the guy is ignorant of his profession, or thinks we are. [im betting on the latter, or maybe just hoping, lol!] 

so she got that taken care of, we'll get his estimate in a day or two. [speaking of, we got the other guys estimate later after i blogged, and it was almost double the first plumber! what?! not to mention he was trying to get us to install new waterlines and venting for the laundry that we already have and look like theyre in perfectly functional condition... is everyone going to try to ef us? seriously? what happened to honesty and integrity in your craft?] so we we're looking good, now we just had to get the energy guy out to connect the electricity and gas, and we'd really be in business. 

well karen picked me up from work as usual and my first question was "what happened with the energy guy?" turns out he never called her... weird... so she called them. the blocked call she missed in the l&l - yeah, that was their guy. so she had to re-schedule that for later on this week. possibly today [thursday] or tomorrow, i cant remember which now. but i do know they gave us a smaller window this time around, 12-4, so thats cool. 

so yeah, thats the update on the contractors. 

hope youre all having lovely days. holla back!

post.script: happy birthday kimber!

post.post.script: daft punk is playing in my house, in my house. 

that is all.

contractors.galore

so today has been a busy day... i wont bother with the topic subtitle/section business, its all about the house these days. :]

monday.

so monday morning the first thing to do on our list was to figure out this barricade situation. the woman i had talked to on saturday said we could go to the city buildings & inspections office and that they would give us the keys to the locks since we were the homeowners and we had the right to access our property. thats good news, right? lol! so apparently they were supposed to open by 7:30 and we figured wed just stop by there on the way to work, get the keys, and then one of us could meet the electric company guy we had scheduled at some point between 8 & 4 [really specific right? freakin energy companies...] out at the house to let him in. no problems right? haha, its never quite that easy.

so we get to the city office at around 7:45 and ask the receptionist to see the guy who id tried calling a few times. she sent us on our way, and after waiting upstairs for someone to fetch him, we met dave, and he was a really nice guy. he walked us through everything we were going to need to do to obtain permits, what we needed to do to get the house up to passing inspections, you name it, the guy was a wealth of great info. except the keys, lol, he forgot all about those until he was about to send us on our way and i was like oh, one last thing, could we get those keys? haha, he laughed and went and talked to a lady who came out to tell us the bad news. the contractor who was out over the weekend doing all the work still had them. so we discussed our options and we decided to swing back buy tuesday morning before work to get them and she swore shed have them for us. so... close enough. whats one more day?

so later on i ended up making a number of phone calls and talking to a variety of contractors. first, i scheduled 3 different plumbers to come out and give us an estimate. all three are local and i just found them using a google map search for the closest to our area, and these are the guys that popped up. one of them even had some ratings on google and they were encouraging, so i felt good about it. so i called all these guys up, gave them my info and scheduled them all for as soon as possible. so we ended up getting one guy for tuesday [today] between 8 & 10am, one guy for tuesday but we didnt get a time frame from the woman on the phone, and the last guy for wednesday between 12 & 4pm. additionally i contacted the new mason [the friend of the window guy] who was very happy to hear from me and said hed love to come out either tuesday or wednesday morning to check it out and we could go from there, and then i called the roofer again who promised he hadnt forgotten about me and would try to be there by wednesday to have a look, thursday at the latest. meanwhile, karen was calling the energy company to try and re-schedule them to come out on a day when we actually had access to the house, and she made that for wednesday as well [although still the really specific time frame of 8-4...]

so all in all we had a pretty successful day i thought. i felt good about how things were going, and even more so how smoothly they seemed to be going even with a few hiccups.

tuesday[today, for those of you keeping score]

so this morning we got up early and got over to the city office at 7:30 and great news, she had the keys! so we were in and out of there in no time flat, just a copy of my i.d. in case anyone wanted to dispute who had the keys, and off we went. so we're headed back to the house and karen is on the phone confirming what time the first plumber would be there, ah... 30-45 minutes. crap. now what?

 so we decided to turn around and id take karen to work [because her office is anal about starting at 8am sharp] and then id meet the morning plumber, take her the truck, and then shed meet the afternoon plumber [hopefully on her lunch break]. so, i dropped her off, turned around, and arrived at the house at the exact same time as the plumber and another truck with two guys who got out and walked towards the house as well... masons? yesss! score. so now i had not only a plumber on time, but also a mason who showed up at all, and i had the joy of juggling both to get an estimate at the same time. well it went just fine. the masons had a look around outside, the plumber did his thing in the basement and when it was all over with i had an estimate in hand from the plumber [nice guy, by the way] and the mason [also a nice guy but technologically challenged] promising to drop off an estimate at the house either wednesday or thursday. sweet. things are lookin good. 

so i took karen the truck and then went to work [only an hour late after all this, not bad at all] and did the whole work thing. right now at work im working on getting leed credits for 6 different schools we're working on, and its a good learning experience, but tedious as hell. for those of you that dont know, LEED is a certification that a building can achieve for designing and building sustainably and efficiently and is a program sponsored by the USGBC [united states green building council]. its a good thing for all new buildings to get, and is a great start in driving our nation to thinking about energy efficiency and what we can do to reduce our impact on the environment. anyway, ive been working mostly on daylighting points lately, but thats not really the point of this post. 

at about a quarter to noon i get a call, its the other plumber, he'll be at the house in about 20 minutes. so i called karen and off she went to meet him. i dont have any gory details of their exciting meeting [lol] but i know it went well, and the plumber should email us an estimate by wednesday afternoon at the latest. 

now. 

so after a long day, we're doing great i think! tomorrow weve got another plumber coming, the energy guy, and potentially a roofer. so house repairs are looking up at the moment, and hopefully they stay that way! honestly, if all wed gotten done today was gaining access to the house id have been pretty happy, but in my opinion we surpassed that by leaps and bounds! 

well, i think thats it for now. if you havent already noticed, look carefully at the blog layout and see if you can find what i changed today, lol! i know, i know... im a nerd. but i cant help it, its who i am. [and i love who i am, heh]

"catch you on the flip side yo"

[for 10 awesome pts in chris' book of awesome, email me and tell me where that quote is from. no cheating, and dont post it directly on the blog to spoil it for everyone else. and seriously, no cheating. just whatever knowledge youve got locked away in that head of yours. hint: potatoes]

post.script: lcd sound system is rocking my world as of late. lovin it. 

post.post.script: http://www.shapeofamerica.org/ [get inspired!]