catastrophe_part.two

[the catastrophe continues...]

/*/ i forgot to mention in my previous post - and it probably goes without mentioning, but just in case, ima do it anyway - that as soon as all this roof business started things with the house selling got put on hold until we were able to determine what was going to happen and when that might be. through a series [i think 4 or 5 now...] extensions on the "inspection period" in the original contract we have been able to legally extend the deadline of the contract with the buyer, pending the outcome of this mess. to this day we are still in constant contact with the realtor and through him the buyer's realtor and the buyer and we have been ensured that she is still very much interested [possibly now more so, pending the anticipated improvements] and that she's just sitting back and waiting for things to get resolved on our end.... /*/

[agent 3]

so when i left off yesterday we had just said goodbye to jane [who was fairly worthless in this entire process so we werent exactly disappointed to see her go... bye jane.] ryan was also not from ohio. at first we were lead to believe that he would be from the local region and we wouldnt have to deal with another mobile agent from here on out - we were mis-lead. ryan was indeed another mobile rep. 3 or 4 days after we said goodbye to jane i got a phone-call from ryan. ryan wasnt irate or fuming, but its sufficient to say that when ryan called, he was extremely concerned.

apparently there had been another series of huge storms that blew through cincy and had yet again blown the tarp to hell [although apparently it was still on the roof and visible through the skylight on the 3rd floor - billowing and blowing around as it may have been....] and when ryan made his appearance on the scene and began to walk through the house he discovered that the tarp was doing absolutely nothing and that it was in fact actively raining in my house. his exact words were "water is pouring into the house" actually... at this point the new damage report was as follows:

ceiling down in every room on the 3rd floor, all but 2 rooms on the second floor, all but one room on the first floor. the carpet was saturated and puddling on the 3rd floor, 2nd floor, and the first floor was puddling in every room but the front room at this point. additionally, paint and drywall were wet, running, drippings, etc. all over the house. so... this is a bit worse, eh?

however, he did confirm that he could see the tarp through the skylight as i mentioned before and that this did confirm for him that we had made attempts to temporarily seal the house, but given the storms blowing through and the amount of rain they were getting, there was no kind of temporary repairs that would have sealed the roof from water infiltration and that we would continue to be covered under the original claim. [whew...]

at this point he advised me to immediately get my roofer back out to the house to re-tarp and seal the house and to take whatever steps necessary to ensure that the tarp was secured to the roof and would prevent any water getting into the house as best as possible - in fact he recommended that we find a tarp large enough to cover the entire flat roof and then roll over the edge onto the mansard roof approximately 6inches to 1ft so that it could be secured directly to the mansard roof [think of a lid on a jar]. in addition to getting the roofer back out to the house, he advised immediately getting in contact with an emergency water extraction company to come in and get the house dried out as soon as possible. with that, he said his goodbye and let me know he would give me a few days to get the roof sealed and the drying process started and hed be back in touch in 3 or 4 days.

obviously my first call was to the contractor. he didnt answer.... my second call was to our local insurance agent to get a recommendation on a local water extraction company that could get in there right away. he gave me a list of options [because legally they cant support one company over another of course] and i just called the first one on the list - rainbow international. well thankfully, the people at rainbow were extremely friendly, understanding, sympathetic, and eager to help me in any way that they could. we discussed the situation briefly and they got the paperwork going, within 10 or 15 minutes they faxed me the contract to go in and begin the extraction process which i immediately signed and faxed back to them. a few minutes later i got a phone call from the project lead for my case who had already been informed on the status of the house and was really just calling to quell any fears or worries i might have, to introduce himself [greg. we like greg.] and to see if there was any other way that they could help me out. i told him about the roof/roofer situation and gave him the contact info for the roofer and let him know that i hoped to have the roof sealed immediately so that i could get them in there to get started asap. obviously this sounded good to him so we hung up with me feeling much better about the whole situation although peeved to hell that the roofer hadnt called me back yet.... [anyone else seeing the pattern here?]

finally a few hours later, after several previous attempts that day, i was able to get the roofer on the phone and apprise him of the situation. the first thing he said when i was finished was that i already owed him money for the first time [and apparently 2 times following that after the wind had blown the thing up...] that he'd had to go and tarp the roof and he wanted to get paid for that as soon as possible. however, given the circumstances, he understood that the payment wasnt my fault [really, considering id seen no bill for it? how generous of you...] and that hed get over there as soon as he could [heres another one...] to get it tarped the way i wanted. at this point he also made sure to explain to me the cost that would be associated with a tarp that size and how hard it would be to find, etc, etc, etc... [whatever dude, i dont care! ill pay the 200 bucks for the tarp just stop the damn waterfall coming into my house!]

[4 days later - approximately 4:45pm eastern time]

i'd actually gotten so busy with work and greg from rainbow had done such a great job of calming my fears that i'd almost managed to forget about all of this shit. well, almost. and certainly not once i got the phone call and saw the number [or lack of number, for some reason any time these mobile reps called it was always from a blocked number, so at least that way i knew who it was. no one else ever calls me from a blocked number...] my heart sank and i knew i had to deal with this mess again.

this time.... yeah, ryan was irate and fuming. just guess what was happening...

thats right. the roof hadnt been tarped yet, and the water extraction team had yet to begin. he was beyond pissed and STRONGLY advised me to find a roofer that would get that roof sealed up asap.

obviously i called my contractor as soon as he hung up [and yes, i was PISSED]. the contractor answered the phone amid a coughing sneezing attack and let me know that he had the flu, and had been in bed the entire day and that there was really nothing he could do for me right then. hed looked for a tarp big enough to cover the roof that week but he was going to have to go to a special roof supplier to find something that large and he wouldnt be able to do anything till monday at the earliest and even then he didnt know if he was going to have the cash on hand to front me the cost of the material and labor to get the roof sealed the way i wanted.

at this point id had enough. however, i calmly asked him if it would be alright if we severed our agreement on the roof and i would find someone else who could get it done [and wouldnt worry about the upfront cost, apparently that was a big deal.... in fact, ill take a brief moment here to discuss that very aspect of all this.]

/*/ up-front payment vs. payment upon completion or some other mixture of the two...

in my working with this contractor before he had always asked for a rather large portion of the total cost up-front in order to buy materials and supplies for the job and then final payment would come on completion. well in my mind, this does make sense. after thinking it over it made sense to not have expected someone to buy potentially thousands of dollars worth of material out of their own pocket to begin a job not knowing if the client was suddenly going to bail on them or be unable to pay or whatever else. it was a kind of insurance in my mind, so i understood, and i happily paid what he needed without question - in the past.

however, when mentioning this to ryan [soon after our initial conversation , i think later that day actually] the warning bells went off in his mind that that was definitely not how this type of business was done and that i seriously needed to consider finding another contractor...

so at this point i have learned that in the contracting business [and we're talking about residential construction and repair work here so this may not be all-encompassing. im still learning all the ins and outs of the larger commercial contracting and how they go about things] it is in fact the standard of any reputable and serious contractor to have capital on hand and set aside for the sole purpose of procurement. if a contractor ever asks to be paid up front for any part of their services, walk away. just. walk. away.

this basically means one of two things. 1. they are possibly trying to swindle you and get as much money out of you as possible before either not finishing the work, disappearing, or doing a really shitty job. 2. if they are actually trying to do a good job, this is a warning sign that they are a very small company and they potentially dont possess all the experience or knowledge necessary to do a good job for you. you are much better off to walk away and find another contractor - even if it means you arent using someone youve worked with before, or is a friend of the family, or that the process of getting your work done may be extended.

and just a side note to that, always, always, always get at least 3 estimates on any work you are going to have done if at all possible. /*/

anyway, he agreed between coughing and sneezing fits that that was fine by him and assured me he was still up for the interior work [well of course he is now that the entire interior of the house has been destroyed. shit, hes seeing dollar signs....]

anyway, i hung up with him and called the only other roofer i knew in cincinnati. they are a huge company, lots of billboards, and id had them out to give me an estimate on the roof a couple of times in the past. they answered the phone and seemed genuinely sympathetic to my situation, but explained that it was now 5:30 on a friday there and that all their people had gone home for the weekend and that there was really nothing they could do for me till monday morning, but that first thing monday morning they would have it taken care of - i could count on it.

and so.... we wait for the weekend to see what happens on monday morning i guess....

meanwhile. more storms blow through over the weekend. greg calls me saturday to see whats going on and i fill him in on the roof situation. he confirms things with his suspicions that in his conversations [ i think there were 2 or 3 of them] with the contractor that week that he was going to be extremely difficult to work with on this. i assured him that the new company had guaranteed to get the work done monday morning and that there was no way they could be that large of a company and not make good on their promises and that he should be able to get in the house and get his extraction team started late monday morning. he was happy to hear it and again tried to reassure me that everything was going to turn out alright and that he'd get the house dried out for me and that he'd be there monday ready to go.

and so... we're at another stopping place. i have to finish getting ready for and go to work, so ill try and post another part of this on my lunch break later today. happy thursday!

catastrophe_part.one

[and so... it begins.]

well i hinted a little in an earlier post that we've been dealing with a bit of an issue regarding the cincy house. theres much too much story to cover in one blog post [especially given the time limits of a lunch break balanced with the usual verbose posting a la moi]

so this all started with the move to texas. karen had just gotten into town, we were just getting settled in and we'd been working with the realtor in cincinnati via phone and e-mail to get the house on the market and try to get the dang thing sold.

at first things were actually going well. there appeared to be a decent number of showings in the place, and the feedback we were getting was positive for the most part. then, right about the middle of february we got a bite. a woman was interested in the house and put an offer on it and we started the negotiation process. considering all the factors involved with us selling the house [like not being in cincinnati for starters] we were pretty motivated to sell as quickly as possible, and seeing as this woman was legitimately interested, we gave in on a few items here and there and eventually signed a contract to begin the selling process. at this point we gave the buyer a few weeks to get inspections done look things over, etc. and then we'd come back to the negotiating table to finalize everything and get out from under this house.

well things were going okay at first. she got some inspections done and everything came up okay, but then she wanted us to turn the water back on - after we had just [2 weeks prior] had the house winterized and the water shut off. keep in mind it was still freezing in cincinnati at this point and we didnt want any issues with pipes freezing or bursting so under the advisement of our realtor we'd had it winterized. anyway, that was a bit of an issue because i felt like we got ripped on what we'd just paid for to have that done, but in the end we just bit the bullet and agreed. so she got the water inspection done and things were looking good. then everything changed...

out of the blue i got an email one day from the realtor with pictures of the backyard and the side of the house with all kinds of black material laying on the ground and the text reading 'we have a problem.' it was hard to tell from the pictures but it looked like tar paper so i was confused by this, not to mention my anxiety level shot through the roof, so i immediately called him to find out what had happened.

as it turns out, there had been a number of big storms that blew through cincinnati that weekend and apparently had blown off a portion of my flat roof. this lead to water infiltration during the storm which had dropped a portion of the ceiling on my 3rd floor/attic and had soaked carpet, etc. i would later learn that not only had it blown that large piece in the picture off my roof, but had blown more off that had damaged a piece of gutter on the neighbors house, littered her roof with debris, and had further blown debris into the neighbors yards 2 houses down the block as well... joy.

immediately i called state farm to let them know what was going on and start the claim process on the house. my insurance agent said he'd get the process started but that this was considered an act-of-god or catastrophe claim, and that those are handled by a different department of the company and that id have to wait for my claim to be processed and turned over to a representative before anything would happen. however, in the mean-time he advised me to do whatever i could to appoint a representative in cincinnati to handle things locally in my stead and to get a roofer out immediately to seal up the roof as best as possible to prevent further damage from occurring. ...and so the real fun began...

as soon as i got off the phone with the insurance agent my next phone call was the remodeler i had been working with to get the house ready to sell before i left and had had a long-standing relationship with and trusted. he'd done good work in the past and been great to work with, so i was hopeful that he would be able to help me out. as soon as he answered the phone he knew why i was calling. hed been out looking at a neighbors roof the day after the storm and while he was up there hed seen some of the damage to my roof and had seen my roof in the yards of the houses of my neighbors. he said hed have called me himself sooner, but he assumed someone would be looking after the house for us and would have let us know... [this probably should have been my first warning sign...] not wanting to waste any time i filled him in on the status of everything and asked if he could go over there and assess the damage and get the house sealed up, and he agreed that he could and assured me he would. well okay then. at this point, ive covered my ass as best as i can i think. as far as i knew id done everything i could on my end, now it was just a waiting game for everyone else to play their respective roles.... right? heh, sure....

[agent 1]

we'll call her jane. jane called me 9 days after i had initially filed the report. jane was not from cincinnati, jane had just flown into town and was ready to go look at the house and proceeded to get all my information, take down notes on everything that had happened up until this point, and assured me that she would be in contact with my contractor and realtor to go investigate the house and write up an estimate of the damage.

4 days later, i get a call from jane. she looked at the house with the previously mentioned representatives and she was not happy. the roof is kind of high, if you hadnt guessed. being that its a 3 story house, that would make sense. well seeing as its a 3 story house and theres no roof access hatch on my flat roof, she was unable to assess the damage to the roof and would have to have another team come out at a later date to assess the roof damage and she was only able to write up her estimate for the interior damage she saw. additionally, the roof had not been sealed properly and there was water leaking into the house when they were there - she was not happy about that. i would later find out that jane was not even qualified to be my insurance adjuster - she was still in the process of training and had her trainer with her during the walk-through of my house to make sure she was getting it even remotely accurate - which she didnt.

i immediately called the contractor to find out what the deal was and he informed me that at this point he hadnt sealed the roof because he was waiting for the agent to see it before he sealed it. they would have to look at the damage and anything hed done to seal the roof would have to be ripped up in order to inspect the damage so he was waiting for the insurance people before he could do it. while on the one hand this made sense to me, on the other hand i was a little pissed. i wanted that roof sealed almost 2 weeks ago and i was not happy it hadnt been done, not to mention that based on the way he was handling it, it wasnt going to get sealed anytime soon because now he was waiting other team to come out that was actually going to inspect the roof - in his eyes this was all the insurance companies fault with the delays and he couldnt believe they were doing this to me. i asked him to please just put down a tarp temporarily to try and prevent any further damage until the next round of agents came and he said hed work on it.... [yes, im an idiot. i believed him...]

[agents 2]

dont know their names. 3 or 4 days later they met up with the roofer to get on the roof and inspect the situation on the roof. i found out later that both of these guys had been flown in from the south and while one of them actually did have roofing experience [the other one is still out to the jury] neither of them had ever worked on a flat roof and didnt seem to have a clue what they were doing. the result of the inspection determined that the roof was a total loss and would have to be replaced - wow, thanks guys. way to be thorough. the contractor supplemented that with a core sample and discovered that the existing roof was comprised of 6 layers of torch-down modified roofing membrane over a layer of tin roof over 100year old 1inch thick, wide plank, spaced, decking over the roof joists. well that was a start at least. now we know what was actually up there all this time...

not long after this i received janes initial estimate in the mail which resulted in a phone call with me being as calm as possible while pissed the ef off at this nonsense. she quoted slightly less than $6000 total for the roof and interior damage combined and estimated that the entire interior damage amounted to a single 4x8 sheet of drywall worth of repairs as well as a little spackling and painting to finish it and that my carpet could be cleaned for a reasonable price to repair the damage [from it being completely saturated when they were there???] this was not good. my estimate from the contractor was upward of 13,000 for everything he needed to do at this point. i wont even go into the saga of actually getting a freaking estimate from my contractor.... [at this point i really should have known where this was going...]

a few days later i get an irate phone call from jane. the roofer had finally tarped the roof at some point, but the tarp had blown up in another storm and there was extensive further damage from the storm. more of the ceiling had fallen down, now in another room on the third floor, the carpet was soaked throughout the 3rd floor, there was a piece of ceiling that had fallen on the second floor under the original area the water had started coming in on, and she was fuming that i had not gotten the roof sealed properly and was in breach of my claim requirement to mitigate further damage to the house.

i tried my absolute best to talk calmly to jane and calm her down and discuss what needed to happen at this point and what the heck i was supposed to do from 2000 miles away. eventually she did calm down, apologized, and expressed her concern that i was being taken advantage of and couldnt believe that someone had actually put down 6 layers of roofing on my roof - for anyone that doesnt know, thats waaaaaaay too much. the weight alone from that much roofing is a serious structural problem, i dont know how the roof never caved in. not to mention that over time that weight had caused the roof to sag and hold water [the bowl effect] and that was causing even more problems...

so after calming her down she spoke with her supervisor and called me back to inform me that state farm was sympathetic to my situation and wouldnt hold me personally responsible for the damage not being mitigated and would roll the new damage up into the existing claim [and save me the additional 1500 deductible for a second claim, thank God] and we'd be going from there. however, at this point, her time in ohio was up and she was flying off to the east coast somewhere [to possibly get some real training?] and would be handing off my case to another mobile agent that would be in town soon and would be in contact with me...

i think this is a good place to stop part one. now that we've gotten rid of jane and are about to meet agent 3. hopefully hes less useless....

until we meet again...

lone.star.livin'

as i sit here typing, the window next to me depicts the serene images of leisurely life at its utmost. the palms gently swaying in the sea breezes, the small song birds happily chirping and flitting around playing a lively game of tag, the hint of saltwater and sand floating on the air, and of course the rousing chorus of the 3 pugs chasing each other, fighting over the most select toy, and all-the-while attempting to breathe through their genetically deformed air passages... [the latter, perhaps less serene...]

yes thats right y'all, im in texas. and on the texas coast to be more specific. home-again-home-again-jigitty-jig.

its been several months since i last updated the ole' blog, and much has changed. most of you that actually read this are close enough that you're already aware of most of the events of my life, however, supposing there are the rare few out there in the entire world [and beyond...?]that might per-chance stubble upon this and decide its worth a read, follow-along as i briefly wrap up the major events of the recent past and set the scene for future-posts.

[the.job.situation]

when last we spoke [er, wrote?] i was embarking on a little adventure of landscaping with my friend from n'awlins and we had completed a few little jobs with some success. well that lasted about as long as you read.

we never ended up getting another job [i think it was really just the seasons changing] even though we bid on a number of them. after a couple of weeks however, i was desperate for cash-flow again and sought some other income situation.

i still had the itt job at this point and was enjoying my first class [and getting the hang of it a bit more as time went on] however the minuscule salary of a new adjunct teaching one class is not something to sustain one's extravagant lifestyle... ;]

so to shorten the longevity of my verboseness in the instance, i posted an ad on the church website boasting my qualifications, and through a series of serendipitous events, i ended up working for jones the florist [the name in florists in the greater cincinnati area] that ended up being a pretty great experience for a few months. i started out doing candy bouquets[if you dont know what that is, just go to their website...] and as it would turn out was quite the craftsman. i picked this little skill up very quickly and in a few days was pretty much the fastest person on production in the place. so i candied for a couple of months while they got through some big seasonal orders and then when the seasonal time was up i inquired about staying on for a bit longer if theyd have me...

meanwhile - in those months at jones, i had been offered and accepted another classes for the following quarter at itt, took up karate in my "spare" time, and then as i looked into extending my stay at jones, was offered and accepted 2 classes for the upcoming quarter and had a couple of promising interviews.

one of the interviews was with one of the biggest architecture firms in cinicnnati [and while i wont play the dropping names game, they're huge and "worldwide"...] and i was very excited about the prospect. this was the dream job in the cincinnati area and since karen and i had resolved to sticking around there, this was a big deal. in conjunction with that, i started interviewing, via the vast world-wide telecommunications network, for a position in a construction firm in houston. [spoiler alert! if you havent yet read the title of the blog.... um.... dont.]

well jones decided to hire me on as a delivery driver because of my mad-skillz and obvious awesomeness and i enjoyed working for them through december. the interview with the b-i-g arch firm was less than fruitful in the immediate present-tense sense of things - although it was a great feeling knowing they were interested and seriously considering me! - and as it would turn out i was offered and accepted the job in houston. [shocker. i know.]

thus begun a whirlwind of activity revolving this drastically life-altering occurance...

[h-t-x]

so... heres the run-down on h-town.

i interviewed for this position for a bout a span of a month's time and on the friday before karen and i were supposed to leave for our annual christmas voyage to the south to see the family, the construction company emailed me the offer letter.

i thought it over [but not for long - this was an amazing opportunity!] and discussed it with family and friends over the weekend, and then first thing monday morning i accepted and we got the ball rolling.

the next day [tuesday] karen and i flew out to texas for our holiday vacation and i stayed in loose contact with my new boss via email - and while we were in texas anyway and so near our soon-to-be-home, we decided to get started on some of the more menial tasks of setting up bank accounts and starting the apartment hunt...

on the 28th of december we flew back to cinicnnati and at this point it had been decided that my start date would be january 10. for anyone not doing the math, thats about a week and a half that i had to be back in texas and ready to start the job with my truck, and any belongings of mine that i would need in texas, as well as helping karen as much as humanly possibly to pack up our house, get rid of whatever we werent taking and generally begin the moving process...

i needed to embark on the cross-country drive by no later than the 5th to have 2 days for the actual driving part and a couple of days to get settled in and ready to start work on the 10th.

so between dec 28 and jan 5 karen and i worked like crazy people to go through our entire house and get rid of anything and everything we could do-without so that we didnt have to move it cross-country.

we sold off furniture on criagslist, had an extensive garage sale to rid ourselves of smaller items, donated a ton of stuff to the church and local clothes-closets, had contractors come in and do some of the final repairs we just hadnt gotten around to yet on the house and now had no time to do and needed to be done before the move/sale, got the house put on the market and worked with the realtor to figure out the best plan of attack, said goodbye to as many dear friends as i could before i left, and in the end... karen still ended up having to stay in cincinnati another 3 weeks after i left to finish all of the above...

of course that then precludes to the ensuing madness of my driving to texas and staying with josh and cassie for the short-term while i searched for an apartment and a place to move all of our crap, started the new job and got settled in, had miscellaneous issues with the truck that needed to be dealt with [for instance i ended up needing to have all 4 tires replaced after the journey south, or the entire engine maintenance checkup i was 10,000 miles over-due on, etc., etc., etc.... ]...

in the end however. we arrived safely. we got everything moved. we found an apartment. i started my job and have settled pretty well into it. karen has since found a temporary job shes enjoying teaching swimming lessons in houston, while still searching for that perfect career job of her own. and last - but certainly not least - we have had quite the rollercoaster of events surrounding the sale of the cincy-house....

but that my friends... is a story for another time.

and with that - im signing off. hope to post more soon-ish, but with life's many obstacles, who really knows?

god bless texas, and have a good-un y'all. =]

bed+breakfast

first off, theres been a little update in our visitation situation, lol. 

i got my parent itinerary yesterday and they are coming for 6 days starting wednesday, feb. 18th and staying through tuesday, feb 24th. thats cool with us, a nice long visit [and hopefully we could get this electrical situation under control with dads expertise while they were here]. additionally, last night my brother called and informed us that he and cassie [my future sister-in-law] were planning to come up and visit as well [but just for the weekend, theyve gotta work and such] - no problem, we've got enough beds, although the sleeping situation might be interesting. weve got the new windows and they definitely help in keeping a lot of the rooms on the second floor much warmer that they used to be, however, theyre still quite chilly for some reason. so, if anyone sleeps on the second floor they'll definitely have to cuddle up a little extra, lol! mom says its no big deal, we've all shared hotel rooms before, they can just share the attic room we were going to put mom & dad in [which also happens to be the warmest room in the house when the little electric heater in there gets going.], which is fine with me, i dont have to sleep in there with the snoring. ;] well, if that wasnt enough of a full house, dad informs me this morning that my sister doesnt want to be left out of the festivities either, so she'll be tagging along as well for the full 6 days that my parents are in town. shes off school during that time or something. so now theres going to be all of them in that room i suppose? its certainly big enough, and we've got enough air mattresses, so im not too worried about it. 

the one thing i am worried about however, it the showering situation. as far as bathrooms go, we've got three functioning toilets & vanities, so i think we can accommodate all the women. showering on the other hand... well theres only one operable shower and that wont be changing before this visit happens.. additionally, karen and i have discovered recently that we have about half an hour to maybe 45 minutes of continuous hot water with our new water heater [depending on how hot you keep the water i assume - karen takes scalding showers while mine are slightly less so]. it gets nice and hot, but i guess the tank doesnt last forever. so now that we're going to have 7 people sharing the one shower, it's going to be interesting, lol! its like being back at home in the mornings before school all over again... im thinking everyone gets 10 minutes and we do it in shifts, not to mention divided between the nights & mornings. anyway, dad assures me itll be fine, we'll make it work, and im really fretting over nothing. at any rate, it sounds like we're going to have plenty of hands and little assistants to help out for bit, so we should be able to get TONS of work done... i hope. karen and i are going to have to sit down this weekend and plan out all the projects we want to work on, coordinate materials & such, and hopefully we can be fully prepared for all the projects we have the potential to accomplish. the only two problems i foresee being a real possibility:

1. all the new recruits might not be up to working at our pace, haha! we hit the ground running each weekend [if you hadnt noticed yet] and we dont stop till we drop. 

2. ever heard the term "too many cooks in the kitchen"? my family, god love em, is a very opinioned bunch... its bad enough when karen and i cant agree on how something should be done or a color choice, etc. but now add this group into the mix with their views and thoughts on how it should be done... its going to be interesting. we're definitely buying any and all paint required BEFORE anyone gets here, haha, that should cut out at least half of the problem - if its already purchased, they dont need to "help" us pick it out. ;]

in other news, karen and i have recently been hit with credit card fraud and its really pissing me the ef off. it started last monday when i checked our bank account. im a little bit on the anal retentive side at times [real news flash there, huh? as if you hadnt already picked up on that, haha!] and i tend to check our accounts online at least every other day [if not everyday when im tracking certain purchases, bills, or expenses]. well this time around it paid off and i caught these 3 charges while they were still pending. 

well i called the bank and told them i didnt recognize the charges [theyd been made under my debit card number, not karens] but that i had the card in my possession so it obviously hadnt been stolen. furthermore, my lovely wife and i had been asleep at 12:37am, 2am, & 2:19am when the charges were made and no where near the address it showed the purchases being made. well they tried their best to assist me, we cancelled the card and ordered a new one [takes 5-10 business days minimum... ugh.] but they were clueless as to how it had happened or what the actual businesses were that were listed. when something posts to our account it lists the amount, time, date, and location, but depending on how the business has it set up a lot of times it just shows an address. this time it was simply an intersection of two streets which wasnt much help. not to mention, the intersection in question just happens to literally be a block away from my office, we drive by it every single day, and theres nothing on that corner! [or so we thought...]

anyway, i was frustrated then, but since we'd caught it early and it had only been my card used [although i still dont know how!] we thought we'd be done with the mess and just move on. id still have to call back later after the purchases actually posted to my account to dispute them and get them taken off, but i was assured that wouldnt be to much of a problem. 

well fast forward to this morning... i get on to check the account and sure enough those purchases had finally posted, however... theres a new one!! the same place! again at a time karen and i were at home and together and both had our cards[well, mines been destroyed since then]! this time however, there was a new twist. it was under karens card number... im irate at this point, not to mention completely confounded as to HOW! its obvious at this point that its not some kind of accident, not some kind of bank error, this is definitely intentional and too much of a coincidence to not be the same person doing it... but HOW?! karen has her card! anyway... so i called the bank and disputed the original charges, and karen has to call and do everything for her card. so now im assuming we're going to have no debit cards and depending on how we have stuff set up to debit for our bills [which i honestly couldnt tell you if its electronic check or debit card off the top of my head for any of them] its going to cause some nice problems for us to sort out. not to mention we pretty much strictly use our debit cards for purchases, and 90% of the time its my card we use because we're together when it happens. needless to say im a bit miffed right now and anxiously waiting for my new card. 

one problem still remains however... the how! ive yet to figure it out for sure, and the bank is no help. dad thinks we may have inadvertently had our cards cloned somewhere. apparently some crafty thieves can now take your card to pay a bill, lets say at a restaurant you frequent, swipe it in a card reader that makes a digital copy of the magnetic signature on your card, then ring up your bill as usual and youd never know the difference. well they can then take that digital copy and essentially paste it onto a blank credit card [dont ask me where you get any of this equipment, im befuddled!] and then voila! cloned credit card! i dont know how real this is or not, but i tend to believe my dad. either way, its bothering me that this has happened, and even more so that i dont know where that is. i cant for the life of me think of any place that we frequent often enough that this would have happened, or for that matter, anywhere that we've both used our cards for this to happen. like i said, its almost always just my card, rarely karens... so how do we avoid it happening again? honestly, i doubt anyone is going to catch the person doing it, and i cant figure out where id even stop going to avoid possible scammers... we really dont go anywhere that frequent other than the grocery store or home depot - and i assure you neither of those places has a person thats swiped my card twice, hell we usually do the self check out - so unless someone is installing fake readers at these places or something... ack, im so far beyond confused...

anyway, hope you've enjoyed this little update. hopefully you figured out the title [hint: i feel like im running a bed & breakfast soon, lol!] but if not... wow, youre dumb. ;]

if you dont already do so, id advise watching your bank account and credit card summaries like a hawk. this fraud thing is a serious epidemic and it doesnt seem like anyone is coming up with a solution that really works. i never thought it would happen to me, but now i know it really can happen to ANYONE!

have a great afternoon!! miss you all!! leave some love =] 

little.victories

1.30.09|friday

well when last we spoke of current events it was friday afternoon and if memory serves, we were discussing the new windows, the inspections|permits situation, and my parents had just informed us of their impending visit. for those of you who actively read the comments as well, you already know that i mentioned in one that amanda was coming to town friday night, that was the basis of our evening's activities.

so after work karen and i called up amanda and we arranged our schedules for the evening and planned what we were going to do. amanda had some meeting to attend when she first arrived in cincy and we werent going to meet|eat till after 8pm, so karen and i decided to make our first stop dinner [seeing as we were famished post-travieller] and after a short debate on what sounded good we ended up at deweys for a nice big salad and a nice big pizza. it was delish as always and after dinner we headed home for a little hard work. 

we got back at the house around 6:30 and the place was a disaster so we spent the next hour and 45 minutes cleaning any and every-thing from one room to the next. just general tidying up, straightening, putting things away, organizing, and where necessary some good old fashioned cleaning of floors, surfaces, etc. at 8 amanda notified us that she and pay-trick [thats patrick in "amanda speak" - her boy... well, im really not sure what they are technically...] were at hideaway [another local northside restaurant that has some pretty delicious food and a funky-eclectic atmosphere that karen and i find pleasing and humorous. they also have the most awesome appetizer called creamer potatoes with special hideaway sauce - if you ever venture to hideaway you HAVE to try them... mm-mmm, delectable!] and were ready for our arrival. so we finished what we were doing, bundled up for the cold [high teens to low twenties i believe] and drove the 4 blocks to meet them, lol! [it was cooold!] soon after we arrived a few more of amanda's friends from cincy joined us as well and the 6 of us waited for a table and had a few laughs. eventually we were seated and had more robust conversation and some of the fore-mentioned creamer-potatoes, and eventually main courses [i was still full from deweys so i abstained from a main course, haha]. we had a good time hanging out and having dinner and eventually it was time to hit the road so we said our goodbyes and then amanda and pay-trick followed us over to the house so that they could be the first of our friends to see the new place! how exciting!

well for the next couple of hours we gave them the tour and then enjoyed more conversation and laughs [not to mention a little wine and some of my mother-in-law's AWESOME fudge! which we all thoroughly enjoyed! thanks mom!] before they ultimately said their goodbyes and headed home for the night. it was a ton of fun getting to have a social life for a night and we loved being able to finally entertain at the house - even if it was only for a short while and the place was a disaster, lol!

1.31.09|saturday

saturday morning we slept in a little, but eventually were pulled from our warm cozy bedding by our desire for sustenance. i was the first down and got coffe started and then decided to make some of my famous breakfast burrito concoction that i can only refer to as "breakfast mix-up." i wont divulge my secret recipe, but i will say its always a pleasing meal for karen and i and will surely fill you up! for us it made a quite satisfying brunch [as it was nearly noon by the time we finished] after which we decided to relax on the dining room sofa for a while and watch some west wing. [i LOVE west wing!]

i honestly cant say how long we vegged out, but at some point we decided it was time to get something accomplished for the day and the first thing we did was unpack and put away a bunch of boxes that were still in the dining room. satisfied with that project and ready for the next, we decided to move all the furniture away from the walls and get started prepping the dining room for painting. it was the next room in line and we were anxious to get the ghastly sponge-painted catastrophy that was our dining room out of sight and out of mind. so for the next few hours we cleaned, taped, and plastered the walls on 2/3rds of the room. [we've decided that the only way we can really do these rooms and live in the house at the same time is to do half a room at a time until completion and move all the furniture from one side to the other, but still have it in somewhat of a useable arrangement. such was the case with the dining room as well.]

eventually karen decided to call it a night [without telling me, lol, i thought she'd just gone upstairs to use the restroom or something] and i did a second run-through of plastering before assisting a neighbor in freeing her car from the snow and then eventually a nice-hot-shower and bed. [karen had passed out pretty quickly, so she didnt even notice my absence until i made my way upstairs and woke her, lol!]

2.1.09|super-bowl.sunday

haha, super-bowl sunday indeed... 

karen and i had decided the night before that we were going to get up early sunday morning and get one coat of paint on the dining room before church so that by the time we returned it would be ready for the second coat. well as arranged, we got up early and did some painting and were really excited about the new color. its kind of a sagey-olive-green [although it reminds me more of what i consider to be army green than anything else] and after the first coat we were quite pleased as we headed upstairs to get ready for church. the paint went on very well and thr room looked a trillion times better after one-wet-coat. [that sponge paint was horrific!!]

well, as it often seems to happen, we finished getting ready for church at about 10:05. church usually starts at 10am [although this weekend for super-bowl sunday they were starting at 10:15am. regardless...] it was obvious we werent going to make it to the 10am service, so we resigned ourselves to doing a once over of all the shopping lists before treating ourselves to a breakfast at ihop before attempting the later service. 

well i dont mind telling you we were very pleased to discover that ihop had all you could eat pancakes! hahaha! i enjoyed the hell out of some pancakes and was quite proud of myself for putting away 3 plates of them =] however, in light of the all-you-can-eat situation, the plates they brought you were about 2/3rds the norm. at any rate, we were nicely filled to the gills by the time we waddled out of ihop, however it was only 11:30 and the next service wasnt starting for another 45 minutes. at this point we decided to make the quickest shopping trip on our list, a quick run to walmart for some lightbulbs and license plate covers [we finally got our license plates for the new truck last week!]

well... haha... things never quite go as planned. we got to walmart after 15 minutes of traffic [which was pathetic because it was only across the freakin bridge from ihop! where did all these people come from?? and where were they going??] but were sure we could get our few items and still make it on time. so we went in and found the lightbulb section just where we'd left it the last time we'd been there, however this is where we ran into a slight problem. we were getting lightbulbs because we had some cupons from our energy company that were going to expire soon and we wanted to take advantage of them before that happened. however the cupons were very specific about which lightbulbs [all cfl's of course! woohoo!] each cupon was for. well you wouldnt think that would be too much of a problem except that the specific packaging was shown on the cupon and the packaging of the lightbulbs in the store had changed since the things were issued. i wasnt sure if it was going to be a problem or not, but looked for the ones pictured for a while. 

to make matters worse, haha, while i was being anal retentive, karen got distracted by the adjacent fabric section and wandered off. it was an awesome find though, all the walmarts in denver, and im pretty sure texas as well, have stopped selling fabric and i assumed that it was a nationwide thing. recently karen and i have been looking for fabric to redo the new couches and chairs with, and joanns was a disappointment to say the least... whooo-expensive!

well we found all kinds of cool fabric and eventually i even found a sales associate [who was totally clueless about the lightbulbs anyway, so i just said screw it...] and got the closest thing i could find - oh and we also found some license plate covers, haha. anyway, by the time we checked out we looked at the clock and it was 12:30pm... so much for church. meh, they were doing some super-bowl sunday special thing anyway, and i was hardly interested in what that would turn out to be. i didnt mind missing it and we got to continue our sunday shopping anyway. 

after walmart we went next door to the depot [february had finally arrived!] to get a few things on our list - it was actually quite short considering how long it had been, 4 or 5 items total i think? followed by a quick trip to home emporium to pick up one specific item [more to come on that at a later date however], then next door to lowes for an additional supporting item to the one at home emporium, then finally next door again to bigg's to do our grocery shopping for the week. [whew!] after all of that we finally got home just before 4pm and were pretty tired, lol! well after unloading and putting away everything we decided to get to work, and jumped right in to the second coat of paint. it went on very smooth and we were really loving the color - it had only gotten better as it had greated us when we got home - fully dried and to its real color!

well after that coat of paint we were hungry again [although i dont know how!] and had a snack|supper and watched some more west wing [yeah!] and just relaxed for a while. however, around 6:30pm i was motivated again and we decided to tackle another project - re-covering the dining room sofa. 

well, after discussing our approach and testing some fabric and batting options, we searched the house for karens staple gun only to discover that it was pretty dinky and was NOT going to get the job done. we were both pretty revved up at this point so we made the decision to make a trip back to the depot to get a real staple gun and various staples and brads and such, and then continue the project. it was a very quick trip - we stayed focused: get in. get out. get home. - and before long we were stretching fabric and experimenting with the sofa. im not sure how long we played with that but we got half the sofa re-covered and so far we're really happy with it! i dont have pictures yet, im going to wait till we're finished with the transformation, but im really hoping it turns out well! =] after that i talked to my mom and brother for a little bit before bed and then karen and i passed out exhausted from our weekend.

yeah, we totally forgot about the super-bowl in the midst of all the projects, but then again neither of us were all that interested in it anyway - i didnt even know who was playing - nor did we have tv to watch anyhow. oh-well. 

2.2.09|monday

well, thats today. and youd think that it being only lunch time i wouldnt have much to report, however i do have two victories to add to this update! this morning on the way in to work we stopped off at the city building & inspections office and officially obtained our permit for the wall! woohoo!! so now that we have all our permits in order, i just need to schedule a couple of inspections and hopefully we can get the certificate of occupancy soon !

secondly, about 2 hours ago i got a phone call, and i was shocked to find that it was the window people calling. theyd already ordered the correct sized remaining window, it was being fabricated this week, and would be ready for installation this weekend! so we're getting the last window installed saturday morning! woohoo again!!!

i love little victories! =]

this week is starting off pretty good so far, but now, ive got to get back to work. hope you all have a great week too! ill try to keep you updated on any more progress we make on the house this week - although i certainly cant promise anything, lol!

cheers! [and go... steelers?? where my cowboys at??]

post.project.progress.past

sorry to those of you that were expecting this last week[or even early in this week...], work has been keeping me pretty busy lately and now once or twice a week im meeting with some co-workers during lunch to study for the leed certification exam. so yeah... lunch is getting tighter and tighter it seems. then there was the winter storm and the windows and such and well... time gets away from me... at times... anyway, lets get to the good stuff.

so not this last weekend but the weekend before, my mother-in-law came into town to visit us and help with whatever she could at the house. well... the week before she came we had to start getting ready for her arrival and figure out what projects we wanted to tackle while she was here. the most obvious projects involved painting but we werent sure which rooms, and we still needed to finish the ones we'd already started. not to mention we were still appalled with the paint in the entry way and there was no way we were letting anyone else see it like that... 

thursday|1.15.09

so thursday night, we put on our painting gear after work and got to it. we started by working on the second coat of the kitchen so that we could get it at least halfway done and push all the appliances back out to the walls where they belonged and out of the middle of the kitchen. [which alleviated a lot of tripping over each other in the kitchen, lol] that coat got started pretty quickly after we got everything prepped and as karen worked on the kitchen, i got down to business. it was time to fix that damned entry. 

so i got started taping and prepping and before i knew it karen was done with the kitchen and not really in the mood to do the entry, so i told her to take a break and id finish prepping and get started on it, she could join me when [if?] she felt like it. well i was able to get about 75% of the new paint on the walls when karen joined in [my memory eludes me at this point as to what she was doing in the other rooms of the house, but im sure it was something productive that wasnt painting] and she picked up the last bit of entry painting. we were really happy with the way the new paint was going on and it was already looking a million times better, even wet! we decided that was it for the night as far as painting goes, but we still had much to do in preparation - besides that coat needed to dry for the remainder of the night anyway. so we spent the remainder of the evening searching for our extra set of bed linens, unpacking the rest of the stuff in the attic and general cleaning organizing and such. i think we even got around to moving the mattresses upstairs and putting the bedding we finally found on the bed that night as well. needless to say we got a LOT accomplished - we didnt want to do much more than a second coat of paint in the entry if we had to the next day - she was coming in friday evening after all.

friday|1.16.09

so friday morning we woke up to a very pleasant surprise - the entry looks fantastic!! it was about freaking time! just one coat of the new paint was like magic so we said to heck with another coat we were done and cleaned all the plastic and tape up before work - the transformation was really just unreal to us. so anyway, the day went by fairly quickly as i remember and by the time we were home anne's flight had either arrived on time or a little late, but either way she was just getting on the road and wasnt due at the house for another half hour or more. so we busied ourselves tidying up a few last minute things cleaning up all the tape and plastic in the kitchen and putting the furniture in a much more pleasing arrangement, having a beer, chillin. soon enough she arrived and we began her arrival with hugs and... presents! presents? you got it! karens parents had just returned from a little holiday in new zealand and karen and i both got gifts! well turned out to be socks! awesome! haha, mine were possum fur - i kid you not - apparently its quite warm stuff down under. haha! after the presents we gave anne the grand tour of the place and she was a bit overwhelmed with it all. apparently the pictures we post here just dont do it any justice, the house is so much bigger and looks much better in person! [well thats great news!] after the tour we were just about time for dinner so we headed in the direction of the restaurant for the evening. karen and i have been wanting to try this place for some time but never got around to it, so we decided this was the perfect opportunity. we took anne to a local place in our northside neighborhood that always gets raving reviews - honey. 

well dinner was pretty good in my opinion. i cant remember now exactly what each person got, i remember i had the fish & chips and we shared some "honey fries" and that everything i ate was quite good. the atmosphere was fairly laid back, but refined and sheik. if i had any complaints about the place, its that we somehow got the table directly in front of the door, so we were greeted with many an icey-blast throughout the night as people came and went. overall id say it was a good experience though, and we'd have no problem going back again. 

after dinner we went back to the house for a little night-cap and to go through all of the pictures from the trip - wow were they gorgeous. i want to go to new zealand really bad... its just beautiful! other than that whatever else we did escapes me at the moment, but i remember it being a nice night, and a good preface to saturday.

saturday|1.17.09

well saturday morning we were up and going by about 9am, karen and i started off by getting coffee and breakfast together while anne went about getting ready. we had fresh fruit with our coffee and i made pigs-in-blankets for the main course. they were quite scrumptious, i must say. [although, not the most challenging thing to prepare, haha, i guess i shouldnt pat my back too hard] after breakfast and conversation then a quick rundown of the days objectives, we got gussied up to brave the bitter cold and walked a few blocks to the local hardware store. karen and i had made a vow the weekend before that we werent going to go to lowes or the depot until february came [we'd been spending 200+ a weekend for a few weeks now on project stuff and we wanted to stop ourselves - not to mention force ourselves to finish all the projects we already bought supplies for!] but luckily we only needed a few items. well by the time we got there we discovered that they didnt open till noon [it was around 10:30] - bummer. so we walked back and discussed what we'd do in the mean time before we could get the few things we needed to get started on the bigger projects for the day. well in the mean time we decided to finally install the toilet in the upstairs bathroom. woohoo!

well it proved to be a little bit of a task between removing the old toilet, cleaning up the aftermath of the removal and getting it prepped, then following all the directions and installing the new toilet... but we got it done! somewhere a little after noon we'd successfully installed the new toilet and we were mighty pleased with ourselves. the only thing we needed was a new water line hook up [the old one was too short for the new toilet] and we'd be ready to test it out. well the next thing on our list was to go back to the hardware store, and karen needed to go return some library books, so we let her go run that errand while anne and i walked back to the hardware store to get our few items. we were able to find everything we needed after a little help from the guys that run the store and we got home at the exact same time karen did, great timing! so the next thing on the list was actually a few projects. 

anne wanted to start prepping the rest of the kitchen to paint, and while she did so karen and i got to work in the project room sanding and painting some trim for one of the doors and our coffee table for the parlor. while we were at it anne asked if we'd cut a piece of scrap wood to act as a brace for the kitchen counter top that was caving in behind the sink, so we got that done as well - and it looks much better now! after we finished our first coat of paint, anne was making progress in the kitchen and i started plastering the walls while she finished up cleaning and taping. at this point we needed to let the plaster dry for a while so we decided it was time to work on the base boards for the entryway and really make that room start to come together. 

well it was definitely a pain in the ass but eventually we started making a little progress with the trim although it was a major fight. at some point i was nailing in a board and it bounced, knocked another board over that was leaning against the wall and hit me square in the face. at that point i was done fighting with the stupid baseboard and returned to the kitchen to finish the last fo the taping while the girls kept trying to work on the baseboard. before long they managed to get the rest nailed in and started going around with caulk to seal em up and make em look prettier. well it wasnt long before i had a nice black eye thanks to that stupid board, grr.... at some point wetook a break for lunch, although i cant remember when now, and again at some point we decided to get thai food for dinner. well, while i went to pick that up the girls finally got around to getting a first coat on the remaining kitchen walls and before long the kitchen was drying and our stomachs were happy... mmm thai food... well after dinner i worked some more on the kitchen while the girls started to hang some of karens art work in the entryway and other than that the nights a bit of a blur. i dont think we got much more than that done but the place was really looking amazing - not to mention we got a ton of work done with annes help, thanks mom!!

sunday|1.18.09

well sunday morning anne left to go see her family in indiana and i vaguely remember that karen and i put a second coat of paint on the kitchen and also installed a molding type thing to the entryway light. it was kind of a pain in the ass and we had to mess with it a lot to get it in there [jury-rigged for the time being at that] but we were pretty happy with the way it looked. other than that, time has gotten away from me and i cant remember what else, if anything else we got accomplished, but the weekend was definitely a successful one. the entry was looks great now and the kitchen does too, just awesome! so now i guess you all want to see pictures again, eh? well dont you worry, ive got you covered [although i seem to have misplaced them for the moment, i will get them up tonight as soon as i get home, i promise!]. and as seems to be the trend lately, ill put a few highlights here, and then you guys can check out the full set at the photo site. 

thanks for sticking with me through this one, i know it got a bit long - but hey, its for your benefit and entertainment anyway! stop complaining, lol!

[1.31.09|additions...]

so here they are, as promised. sorry it took so long to get them up, but as it turns out i had to do quite a lot of searching to find the pictures i took a few weeks ago of all the progress we made that weekend, and then once i did find them, i wasnt happy with the turn-out [they were a bit blurry and grainy to say the least]. so... i had to retake them. however, i assure you the only change since then is the new windows - which you can hardly tell in these pictures. 

and now, as promised...

as i mentioned before the rest of this series showing the updates of the kitchen can be found at the my.pix link. 

and while im here i may as well answer a few questions... yes, that is a hole in the wall. yes, we put it there. yes, it was intentional. its a kind of "art installation" of mine and karen's. originally we were going to put a door in the door frame and the idea was that youd open the door to a brick wall. karen really loves the idea of this, we [karen, anne, & i] decided ultimately that it was much nicer with out the crappy door however, so for the time being this is the finished product [minus some possible additional door molding]

secondly, the 6 white squarish shaped things on the wall there are some of karen's art. i wont go into too much detail on the specifics of the artwork - its certainly not my place, but i have always enjoyed this series. additionally, the bench is a re-purposed piece of trash that karen and i discovered in over the rhine and karen just had to have and has since painted. we thought it worked well in the room. its a great place to put your shoes on! =]

okay i think thats all i'll cover for now, hope you enjoy the rest of the pictures! have a great weekend!!

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!

monster-cles!

good morning adoring fans. [i could probably use a little adorning as well, but eh...]

as i am writing to you new windows are being installed!! yesssssss! the ringing of hammers and the whirring buzzes of drills are creating a symphony of glorious glorious music to my ears! its been a long time coming, and its finally here!!

this morning as karen and i debated the treacherous ice-laden roads from here to her office, the wonderful phone call came in - "confirming our installation of your windows in about an hour?" | "yes, please!" as i vaguely recall mentioning in some blog-past we had finally taken the step to order our windows a few weeks ago. they were supposed to call me back to schedule an installation time and karen and i were getting antsy as first one week, then two weeks, then two and a half weeks went by without a phone call [or the half down payment being debited from our account] until last week on i believe it was wednesday afternoon, during my lunch break while i was studying for the leed test with a co-worker, my cell phone rang with a most spectacular call - "hi, this is window world, im calling to schedule your window installation, how does next thursday sound?" | "fantastic!" well this morning next thursday officially became today and i awoke with excitement and anticipation. 

around 8:30am karen decided she did want to risk the roads and go into work after calling her office and confirming that there were in fact a large number of robots rolling into the office as usual. grr.... damn robots... anyway so we embarked on our journey downtown and to our surprise the roads were actually in fairly decent shape. traffic was still a little heavy but the roads were mostly clear on the way down. it took nearly half an hour to get to her office, but it took about 10 minutes to get back and greet the window installers with a huge smile and handshake. we'd left a key for them to get started as soon as theyd arrived and theyd done just that. as i pulled in behind a snow pile [with a chewy toyota center] and thoroughly succeeded in getting my truck very stuck [now?? after all we made it through the last two days? now it gets stuck?!] i was elated to find our installers had already unloaded the windows onto the porch and one guy was already removing a window from the second story front room. yee-haw! i cant imagine why, but i am in GREAT spirits this morning! 

well anyway, to fill you in on the details i have so far, the windows look amazing. i momentarily had a conversation with the fantastic neighbor across the street whom ive mentioned on occasion in the past and had the chance to see two fully installed windows smiling back at me. damn they look good! tracy was pleased as well, lol, our poor neighbors have had to suffer through the wreck of a house weve had so far just as much as we have, lol!

well at this point i was truly pleased with the progress and went inside to inspect the now mostly finished "closet" on the second floor. so i went in and there they were, gleaming in the sunlight as i played with one to see how smoothly it opened and closed... and thats when it happened. oh yes, thats when i noticed something else gleaming at me. the most awesome monstrosity of an icicle that i could ever have imagined!! awestruck, my shoulders slumped as i stared in wonder at its majestic radiance... even more excited than before i bolted downstairs to get my camera and capture its amazing essence. well, in my attempt to capture the beast from a good angle i was looking through various windows in the room and thats when it happened again. oh my god!!! theres more!! as a scanned the edge of our newly-constructed-although-not-quite-finished-box-gutter i saw dozens of spectacular ice formations riddling the gutter line and the ladder jacks that were buried in snow. overjoyed i went down the hall to an empty opening where the installers had finished removing a window and were on their own quest to find its new replacement and leaned out to find an amazing plethora of sights. i snapped dozens of photos there and down the hall from another window before running downstairs and outside to the side of the house for a different angle. and then... it happened again! even MORE amazing formations! the side of our house is covered in the most fantastic ice!! haha, im sure you all arent nearly as excited as i am, but these things are just sensational. karen and i went out last night after staring at a particularly large icicle on the neighbors house [through our one decent dining room window] convinced wed find some good ones in the front yard. but seeing as it was dark out and there was nothing good on the fence or front porch, we gave up, distraught and disappointed. if only we'd gone out sooner and crept around to the wonderland of glory on the side of our house!! i wish i could create a frozen museum out there and preserve the ice-scape!! anyway, ill quit boring you all with my silly fascination and instead get to some pictures! im only going to post a few here for you, but if youd like to see the entire myriad of awesomeness, you can check the my.pix link.

and without further adieu...

flash.alert! winter.storm.warning!

reporting to you live from the snow & ice storm of the year in cincinnati, our lead correspondent [namely, me] comes to you with an update on weather conditions and other breaking news coverage. 

"thanks chris, well it truly is quite a storm out here, chris."

...alright, enough of that...

it all started monday night when temperatures dropped and the snow started falling. come tuesday morning we awoke to 4 inches of snow covering everything. being the dutiful husband that i am, i took up my snow shovel and got to work on the front porch, the steps, the path, and eventually the sidewalk - clearing about a 5ft path across my property and half the property of the vacant house next to us. next in line was the truck, so i turned it on with the defrost on high  and got to work un-burying the truck from the apparent avalanche that had overcome it during the night. well i had just finished scraping and clearing all the windows and taken a step back to check out the drivers side, only to find that the passenger side [where id started originally] was completely covered in snow again, it was still coming down obviously. ugh, i gave up and decided the heat in the truck could handle it - i was done.

anyway, we managed to make it to work, a lot slower than usual, but with no real problems. the roads were pretty bad, but we made it okay [i was actually the first one there!] and slowly some people started straggling in half hour, hour, two hours later. half my office called in, and the other half showed up late - some, really really late. karens office however, was a different story. im sure youll recall me describing her nazi-controlled craziness in previous posts, and yesterday was no exception. according to information we've received from fairly reliable sources, every person in her office was there, mostly on time, and working a full day as if nothing had happened at all... im not sure when the aliens landed there and reprogrammed all those people into robots, but at my office people were normal and acting normal - as they should with the streets that bad!

cincinnati is no where near prepared for heavy snow - just ask any cincinnatian[or at least all the ones ive asked]. they get one or two storms a year like this [or so im told] so theres really no incentive for them to invest in the very expensive tools required to handle this kind of a storm as if it were a regular thing [like they do in denver every year. i think last winter they were saying on the news they denver spent an estimated 11million dollars more on snow maintenance than they had budgeted - and trust me they budget A LOT! but i digress...]

this morning so far has been a slightly different story. first off, the weather had been reporting that we were going to get freezing rain and sleet and tons of icing as the evening and night came on tuesday - which we did. it started sleeting around 1 and karen and i ditched work at 3 before the roads got so nasty that we couldnt make it home. we were lucky and got home pretty quickly and smoothly before all the traffic got terrible and the roads got ridiculous. anyway, over night we were supposed to get up to another 4 inches of snow on top of the 6 we ended up getting by lunch on tuesday meaning that come wednesday[today] morning i was expecting some 10 inches outside and for work to be cancelled. so you can imagine i didnt even want to get up this morning, but i did so and the first thing i did was to check the window.

well there actually appeared to be the same amount of snow out as there had been when we got home last night, but id definitely been hearing ice pellets bouncing off the skylight all night|morning. so i assume we never actually got the snow, just a ton of freezing rain and ice. so we got up and did our usual morning routine only to find that when we got outside, the entire truck [and everything else for that matter] was covered in a thick layer of ice. and i do mean thick, we're talking 1/8" - 1/4" of ice on my truck. as you can imagine, scraping the truck this morning was an exhausting task and it took quite some time and effort. luckily it hadnt regathered by the time i finished and karen certainly had a great time sitting in the truck watching me... from the warm... gooey... center... gr.

anyway, so this morning we were supposed to have an electrician come out at about 9:30am to look at the house and give us an estimate so i was going to take karen to work and then come home and then after he did his electrician thing, i was going to go to work as well. well we finally got on the roads although they were definitely worse than tuesday[yesterday] morning - as we were approaching the on ramp to the highway we actually passed a salt truck that had broken through the road this morning and was half submerged in the road and its load was covering 2 lanes [which obviously had been closed at that point], it was a very crazy sight [id certainly never seen anything like it.... just how weak are these roads??] and i was worried we might come across some other roads that were going to cave in... not a good thing.

anyway, we took it slow and steady and eventually made it to karens office after passing several cars that were in ditches or off the road in some other fashion and a ton of slippery roads - luckily we hadnt slipped or slided much on the way. so i dropped karen off and then turned around to head home and about 3 minutes after i left her office the light ice we'd been having all morning stopped coming down and was replaced with snow. at first it was light, but it was quickly gathering on the roads, and soon it got more heavy and the roads got really slippery. needless to say it was a very slow drive home and i slid all over the road to get there. at one point everything steering related locked up on me and i went sailing off the road - luckily though, there were no cars around [the streets were nearly vacant] and i was able to just throw it in reverse, get back on the road and be on my way. but i did make it! [hooray!] and with no dents scratches or bruises [to me or the truck] to show for it. anyhow, its coming down really hard at this point - the snow is just relentless. they say we could have 4inches or more by noon on top of everything from yesterday but then it might stop. either way, the roads are going to be terrible at that point, so theres a very real possibility that i might just not go in to work today. 

right now its 9:40 and the electrician has neither called nor shown up at the house, but in this weather i sincerely doubt he will. at this rate it may very well be a day off for me and poor karen will be stuck at work and not be able to share it with me... 

but maybe itll get better, and maybe by 1-oclock ill be at my desk for at least a half days work. we'll see... for now though, im going to end this little winter storm update and return you to your regularly scheduled programming. perhaps later today ill get around to finishing the blog i started near the end of last week chronicling the weekend before's adventures [that would be the weekend of the 17th & 18th for anyone keeping score. we did nothing this weekend, haha! and it was FANTASTIC! i really needed a break...]

thanks for tuning in, we now return you to...

[and at the request of the brother, starting now all pictures from the blog will also be available via the link in the left *ahem* right [apparently im dislexic today...] sidebar for my.pix for your viewing pleasure.]