Me and Ma Out On The Town

So a couple of months ago, my mom said she wanted to see a Celtic singer - Daniel O'Donnell in concert when he performed here. I had never heard of him but was intrigued because I love Celtic music. (I really think I should have been born Scottish, but oh well, I can dream). I wasn't too keen on going mailny because I knew the average age of the concert goer would be about 85 - BTW I was wrong, it was more like 90.

But I love my mom and she really wanted to go and it wouldn't cost me anything so I said ok. Well, it was quite an experience. O'Donnell and his group are great entertainment. He obviously loves to sing and it shows. He tells jokes and stories and they are all outrageously funny. And then youo have the Irish accent and that always makes everything better. I was pretty surprised when we were looking for our seats and found out we had floor seats. I thought the tickets were very expensive and I didn't buy floor seats because I wasn't spending my money but I really have no memory of purchasing floor seats. But the upside to that is that he cruises around the audience and we were on the end so Mama Bear and I got to shake his hand. And he certainly gives you your bang for your buck. The concert had an intermission and an encore and was just over 3 hours long.

I told Mama Bear last night I wouldn't go again but in the bright light of day, I would. If only because she really enjoys him and I love her. Next time I will pay. They are going to be in Minot in 2010. I have a year to convince her to take a road trip with me. Plus, we went out for dinner first and who doesn't like an excuse to go out for dinner.

Square One

Well, I told the window company to beat it. After getting over my anger and thinking rationally, I understand what was happening. They didn't have the money to buy materials which is why that asked for a 50% deposit. I believe they low balled the quote to hook me and then tried a bait and switch type game to try and make a little more. Or maybe they just figured I was a pain and just wanted to see if I would bite but didn't care if I didn't because I was such a pain. By a pain I mean telling them I would not be paying a 50% deposit, repeatedly asking for a written quote and questioning why it has taken so long to get to this point.

They don't know that my mom managed to hire quite a few shysters when doing home repair and that I learned a heck of a lot by watching her experiences. To my knowledge, a customer is only required a 10% deposit once the final contract is signed and that you can also withhold 10% deposit up to 30 days affter the job is completed so that you can make sure there are no problems. The idea being that the company won't disapperar if you stilll owe them money and will return to your home to fix anything that needs to be fixed if they want it at the end of the 30 days. I can almost hear the cash register sound when some of these jokers come to my house to do an estimate for windows, doors, roof etc. and see a young(ish) woman open the door. They assume I don't know what I want or what I am talking about and figure they are going to double the regular price and make some easy money. Not so, and I have asked a couple to get out of house after gettting an outrageous quote. So I am back to square one, and for inconveniencing me and wasting my time aI am seriously considering filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. Wish me luck.

But right now I am going to jump in the shower. My mom and I are going to a concert tonight and are heading out for dinner before hand so I have to run.

The Window Saga Continues

So I thought everything was cool with the windows and I was expecting the final contract in the mail. And then yesterday they called. I wasn't awake when they called and called back about an hour later and no answer. I thought that was weird but so far eveything with them has been weird so . . . I know they have call display since the woman answers with my name when I call so I knew she would know I called and expected her to call me back. No call yesterday. Hmmm. So I called when I woke up this morning and this is the jist of what she told me. They have two suppliers. One American and one Canadian. The Canadian company makes better quality windows more suited to Canadian winters and the American company makes lesser quality windows. Now since I obviously live in Canada and must experience Canadian winters, it would make sense to me that this would be the supplier she would choose when we initially talked about windows. But it wasn't. I did say price was a factor but I also made it clear that first and foremost, I wanted a good quality window. So of course now she is saying that the American company is way behind in production and if I wanted a better quality window the $1800 estimate would now be roughly $200 to $500 more.

So this is of course why she would not give me a written estimate. I have a number for a guy that works at a window manufacturing company. The problems with that are (1) I would have to pay cash (which I won't have for a couple of months), (2) since it would be under the table, I can't claim the tax credit and (3) I am a little sick of all things windows right now. So now what, keep letting this company jerk me around because I don't have the cash right now or wait and pay less but up front? Sigh . . .

One Step Closer

When I bought this house, I knew there were insulation issues. It was built in 1913 after all and it was obvious that previous owners had not been taking regular care. So I have insulated the completely uninsulated addition (8 " x 8") and mud room. I replaced the window in the mudroom. I still need to replace the window in the addition but I want to replace it with patio doors so I'm not going to bother. I will just keep covering it in plastic in the winter.

I have also added insulation to the attic and have filled every gap with dozens of cans of monofoam. The basement is still not finished but this fall I am going to cap all of the joist ends to try and cut down on basement drafts.

So I wanted to get 3 upstairs windows replaced when I had two weeks off at the end of July. Obviously I haven't got it done yet. I have had about 4 estimates done in the last four years. One was way too cheap, one was way too expensive and the other two were alright but I didn't have the cash at the time. Fortunately for me now, the hydro company is giving out loans to so "green" home improvements so I applied to do it that way. The company I am going with may be a mistake. It has taken about 2 1/2 months to get to the final estimate point. But they have given me a good price and after researching and installing a window myself, I know what to look for. I can't wait. I believe the windows are the last part of the main insulation problem. During the winter, I wear layers and toques and still end up paying about $500 a month (electricity and gas) during the 3 or 4 cold winter months. That is way too much. And that is with windows covered in plastic. I can't wait to get through a winter without plastic taped to my walls.

So the measurer guy tells me I will get the estimate in the mail, I guess that will be the contract and we will go from there. I almost can't wait until winter. I plan to insulate under the addition since there is no other way to stop the upward migration of cold air. That is to be done this fall as well. Bring it winter, I AM READY!

3 Cable Boxes and One Allergic Repairman Later

Well the tech guy never called back yesterday so I took that to mean that, whatever the problem was, it could not be fixed on their end. So another night watching movies or old stuff on the DVR. It was a blessing in disguise I guess. I got rid of about 30 hours of old DVR shows.

At any rate, the cable guy got here at about 0930 hrs. I was up but only kind of awake. He came in with what appeared to me to be a bit of an attitude. Was it my messy house? Was it his cat allergy? ( I know he wasn't fond of cats when he had the nerve to swat my big lovable guy out of the way, seriously). Obviously because he complained about both, he also complained about the lack of play in my cables. I must be such a jerk for tying my cables up neatly behind my entertainment unit. Did I mention this is all happening at 0930 hrs? On days off, I normally get up at noon. Anyhow, he asked me several questions over and over again (was anyone here this weekend - NO, were any cable messed with - NO, is the TV upstairs doing the same thing - YES, and your internet still work - YES). I was almost to the point of yelling at him. So he narrowed it down to the cable box being defective. He said it was very hot and that I should put my DVR on top of the box because it can't get ventilation. Basically he said, it's ok if your DVR cacks out but heaven forbid don't ruin your free cable box?! Huh, I don't care about your hardware!

He says he has more boxes in the truck and off he goes. He comes back in , gets it all hooked up and ... more of the same - nothing but fuzzy static, not even a cloudy picture. He does all sorts of adjustments and finally comes to the conclusion that this box must also be defective. It is freshly refurbished out of the box but apparently their techs have a rep for not actually repairing defective units. So he says he will be back in 10 - 15 minutes. He is going to check the cable box on the pole and grab another cable box.

On the upside, when he comes back, he is clearly perturbed by the boxes but has much less annoyed by me. He has discovered that the lines on the pole and in my home are fine. I had already figured that out because, I still had internet and because I wasn't home - what could have possibly changed.

He brought some kind of diagnostic tool and hooked it up to both cable boxes and discovered they were both defective. Now I am not a rocket scientist, nor am I a certified cable guy but it seems to me that if you have this handy little machine, one or two things should happen. One, he should have brought the damn machine in the first time. I think from my description of events, machine failure was really the only option. Secondly, if he is provided with this magical machine AND he knows that the refurbished units sometimes don’t work, USE THE F***EN THING TO CHECK THOSE MACHINES BEFORE YOU LEAVE THE SHOP!

Whatever, he is now on a mission and has forgotten all about my house and my cat. He goes out to get yet another box. It is a different model than the one I currently have and it is the last one in his truck. I am excited because I am sure that it will work. Well without my even telling him to, he used his diagnostic machine to check it and guess what – IT DOESN’T work either. He is sheepish and stumped and almost snarling mad at their tech guys. He said he has no more boxes but he actually has one left – his own personal tester machine. Well, he gets that – he knows it works and there are no other options. He gets it all hooked up and there were a couple of tense moments, rally almost a couple of dozen tense moments but it eventually synched up to everything it needs to and BOOM, TV was back. He was sweaty, annoyed and visibly bewildered. He went upstairs to make sure that TV was fine, it was. He did some slight remote controls adjustments and I was good to go. He mentioned that this call would be a story for the shop. Odds and circumstance have made my home a cable man’s cautionary tale. Maybe they will even put in a policy about checking the units first.

But all is well, I should just appreciate getting my MTV back.

Techinal Difficulties

I have to say - I love TV. TV and I have had a love affair since I was a young girl. So when I came home from the cabin, the first thing I wanted to do was curl up with my neglected kitties and watch some. I had grainy picture and the sound was just loud and staticky (?). But yesterday was a holiday and I couldn't get tech support. I called today and he had me unplug my cable box and re-plug it in and now it's worse than it was before. Now I have nothing. I have internet but no TV. It is just fuzzy snow. I am trying very hard not to have a panic attack.

Techie guy just phoned back and they are going to try to fix it on their end. If they can't they will send a guy out tomorrow morning. This sucks.

I was relaxed

I just came back from 4 days at my buddies cabin and it was a great weekend. I used to go frequently. I would help open and close the cabin and also go as much as I could during the season. But now that I am working shift work, it has been problematic getting the time off. Also since I have bought a house, money is alot tighter than it used to be. So, I must admit, I was a little apprehensive about going. I haven't been for three years.

And it was awesome! I never realized how happy and relaxed I was until we got back to the city and literally I was hit by a wave of memory of day to day problems. I felt the tight squeeze of money stresses I currently suffering. The memory of that horrible feeling has renewed my resolve to be better at the business of earning and spending money.

I want a cabin and I thought I could make do with having a trailer on a lot but I am not so sure. I will experiment with this concept first because it is a cheaper option but I think I want the stability of a cabin and neighbours etc. Everyone needs to have that get away and for me nature is just that. I mean don't get me wrong, this weekend was more about drinking than nature but the nature was a part of it as well. I am already planning for next year.