Once Upon A Time…Part II
So do you remember the story of the Queen and the Ogre that dreamed of a castle facing the sun, overlooking green fields and a calm pool of water?
Certain factions kept treating their dream like a toilet, many wanting more money to keep the (warm) water flowing.
Undaunted, they kept their dream alive and trudged through to the next week. The odds were in their favor now; the law of percentages. How many more instances of bad miserable luck could their be left?
Can I make you another list?
Sunday – Our new neighbors moved in next door. It had rained the whole prior week. Our neighbor, who just happens to be a contractor for Boeing, decided against backing his U-Haul up the drive way to the front door. Instead, this cowboy ran his loaded U-Haul across the bottom tip of my driveway. He decided to cut across my lawn and into his front yard in said moving truck. He made it about 10 yards into HIS yard when his back wheel sank.
He tried backward then forward, forward then backward, each time his wheels just dug a little deeper. He ended up having to get someone with a chain to pull his truck back across his yard and mine.
So now, this house I want to put on the market, has a pair of tire marks etched into my front yard, 8 inches deep.
Tuesday – Our contractor came back over to our house to evaluate his work. I gave him I need a better job to the portion of our ceiling he tried to fix the prior event-filled week. I told him a small handful of other touch ups. He thought he could get my ceiling right. He said he also said he saw 2 new cracks in the wall from more settling of the house (Errr!) I asked him to get me an estimate of how much to fix my ceiling the best way. He told me he would call me.
Wednesday – After not hearing back from my contractor I decided to text him in the afternoon. He never got back to me with an estimate. He instead decided to just do the work. He texted back, “Can I leave the plastic sheets surrounding the project up over night”?
Me… “You started already?” remember last week a layer of white dust covered our entire house although THIS TIME I didn’t get a chance to move all the furniture out of our living room. “(heavy sigh)”. I texted back, “As long as the kids can’t reach it and tear down your work.” I followed jokingly with, “And so I can see the TV at night”.
He replied, “Oh I unhooked the TV and took it down and put it on the other side of the room.”
I gasped.
If your TV is like mine it had about 18 wires of different colors going in to their own individual portals on the back side of the TV. Its tricky and complicated and not something I look forward to doing very often.
What shape is the TV in? Where did he unplug the wires at? Where are they? Are any missing? What did he do?
I came home and found the TV unplugged and sitting on the floor on the side of the room. Now there were big hand prints made by the dirty hands that unplugged the flat screen and set it on the floor…covered in dust.
I thought about setting the TV back up but reconsidered knowing they were not done yet. So I marched the TV upstairs, out of harm’s way; otherwise known as Skylar.
Thursday – It rained so no work done. TV still upstairs. A fine layer of white powder all over the house.
Friday – I called the contractor to see if he would finish today. He said he would. In fact he was finishing up as we spoke.
I rushed home to see the results of the ceiling and was pleasantly surprised. The whole thing looked perfect. Finally, a moving burden off my shoulders. (Sigh)
I went back to the dining room to greet my family. Dylan tugged on my shirt.
“Daddy, do want to know what went wrong today?’
Mom interrupted, “Dylan let daddy unwind and eat dinner first.”
Undaunted Dylan chimed in, “The dishwasher stopped working.”
Yes, the 3 year old dishwasher had no power to it and refused to acknowledge any attempt of mine to resuscitate it. ($400 to remedy it)
Saturday – It was pretty cold for here in March and so my lawnmower didn’t want to work either. Oh, and I am out of margarita mix! Will this ever end?
How was your week?
Actually the week wasn’t all doom & gloom. There were plenty of upside highlights as well. I have rambled on here as I wallowed in my own pity. So I’ll keep these short….
– Friday was Dr. Seuss’s birthday. So our girls went to a Dr Seuss birthday party at the local library. They like a party.
– It is the beginning of a birthday streak here. My Dad’s was last Sunday and Mom’s is this Sunday. Two weeks later is Dylan’s b-day and then Skylar’s is in another 2 week’s For all you family and friends, I have the two girls registered at Target and Toys R Us!
Pleae pardon for a brief commercial interruption… Dylan wanted me to tell you (i.e. everyone) here favorite TV shows are in order: Winks Club, Batman, Superman, and Sophia the First. I think there is something like “Cat Clawed” in there too.
– We looked at two more nice houses. While both are similar (swimming pools and Jacuzzi’s) they both fell short in certain areas. But I could settle into the Hornie Grebe one.
here is one… http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/7321-Horned-Grebe-Ct_Hanahan_SC_29410_M62711-68695
and http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/1425-Coopers-Hawk-Dr_Hanahan_SC_29410_M57535-15253
Which do you like best?
– We had our house deep cleaned this past weekend, getting up all the layers of dust through out our casa. We only need the outside power washed yet before we put our money bit lovely home on the market.
– Our super-duper (one blogger says I can no longer use the word ‘awesome’) Realtor pointed out once we put our house on the market all appliances are under a certain warranty. This means our dishwasher can be REPLACED for the amount of a $60 service charge. Yea baby!
Our Realtor is soooo good! She has the reputation of selling a house in 7 days in the area we have been looking. ~ She may have met her match with our house!
– And, Friday my wife got her 2012 bonus check which could basically pay for ALL the disasters the past two weeks, pay for our forth coming vacation, our Federal taxes we still owe, everything on my AMX card, plus add a couple grand for our new home’s deposit.
Yes, I had a margarita dining out this past weekend; a big one!
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OUR LIFE IN 3D 
Yes, we always knew there was a light at the end of the tunnel but literally got scared waiting for yet another ‘shoe to drop’ until we got there. We had a good weekend this week and hope it all is behind us …cross your fingers! Thanks for stopping by Karen! Have a great week too!
Phew! That’s a lot of living right there Andy and you have a lot of patience! Happy to read your frustrating week took an upswing & was balanced out at the end! Have a good one….
I actually couldn’t remember which blogger posted that blue eyes. It was kinda a shout out. If I coulda remembered I would have linked you up. But it s true, I used that word all the time, and didn’t want to, but couldn’t come up with an alternative. I hope I did OK. ~the neighbor did a half hearted effort to fix the yard today. All we need is a little rain and it should come back. Thanks for dropping by Sandy! I hope we both have better weeks ahead…
Good luck with putting your house on the market. I hope yours goes smoother than ours. The fun part is all the great buys you can get right now, given the rates and nature of the housing market.
Sounds like a wonderful week! *note sarcasm here*
I hope the next week and all the upcoming birthdays are happier and filled with less stress and dillhole neighbors.
Also, “one blogger says I can no longer use the word ‘awesome’”…was that a shout out or am I trying to read too much into it? 🙂
We are planning to put our house on the market, too. Our dog sitter accidentally backed up out of the garage while the door was still shut. Her car insurance is paying for our new garage door. I think your neighbor’s car insurance should pay for landscaping – you should not have to pay for damage you did not do. Good luck – I’m glad things picked up for you.
Sounds like you’ve got it in the bag. Your realtor is good! I love the idea about the lightbulbs. I’ll have to put that one in my back pocket. Good luck, I hope it sells quickly!!!
Yes, its time to stock up on my summer supply. If we get that second house you know there will be Margarittas by the pool! …in plstic glasses of course. 🙂 Have a great weekend Jenn!
It sounds like you are missing your calling! Yes, our realtor wants to stage our closets, color code them, we removed as many pictures as possible, removed some clutter (lots of clutter) and she even had us change all our lights to 100 watt bulbs to make it brighter. Yes, I am a first impression guy too. I thinkwhen you pull up you get an idea of yes or no and then lok for reasons to buy or reason not to buy based on that first appearance. So I am working on the outside this weekend and getting th ehouse power washed to brighten it up. AmI missing anything?
margaritas totally make everything better!! and i love both houses, but number 2 totally stole my heart.
I’d love to get over there and help stage….it’s one of the secret professions I wish I’d pursued, along with bartending, but anyway. Closets can be a big deal because they are big sellers if you set them up right. Also the usual, depersonalizing and decluttering and even taking furniture out, if it cramps the space. Having a nice, clean garage is optimal as well, along with spiffing up the curb appeal. I’ve read that buyers usually decide whether they’re smitten during the first 30 seconds as they approach the house, so no pressure! : )
It sounds like you only have to put your house up for sale to get a new dishwasher. Who knew? It doesn’t mean you have to sell your house. I wish I would have known about the warranty idea when the water heater went out….but then again going 10 days without hot water in this weather would be HARD! Thanks for dropping by SSM!
Well where have you been hiding? we could use your experience up here! Taupe is the ‘neutral’ color they painted our house these past two weeks. Any tips?
I vote for #2. Will the bonus cover our dishwasher, also on the fritz, warranty expired? 😀 What a headspinning life we lead!
House hunting and renovating is one of my favorite pastimes so thx for letting us live vicariously. I li ke house 2, buty middle name is taupe!
We have been out of the straight tequla too. Do you have any you can send me? What were the brands to look for again? We finished that off and now working on the Merlot. Its less things we have to pack. 🙂 Hope you are doing good Lola! Thanks for dropping by!
I see you got your marg, but that’s okay that there was no margarita mix in the house… it sounds like you could have used straight up tequila! Good luck with the house stuff– so stressful!