Love Buble!

I went to see Michael Buble tonight with the parental unit. I am not sure whether or not she enjoyed the concert but that is OK, I enjoyed it enough for both of us. Itwas great although next time I have to pay attention to the seats. We were in the 3rd tier and that is way to far from the stage. It wasn't horrible but I am getting to old to sit in the nosebleeds. When I was younger, I was just happy to be at the concert. Now I want premier seating. No floor seats or anything like that but I want to see everything clearly. Old eyes and all, lol.

While driving there and back, I noticed a old pulling sensation when driving. There was also an odd faint klunking sound. I will have to monitor this. Today is Friday the 13th. So far nothing horrible has happened.

Opps! or maybe not

Looking back I may have jumped the gun by locking in early. The rates have gone down a bit since late June. But on the other hand I would kicking my own ass all over the block if they went up while I was greedy and waiting for them to drop lower. I am secure in my decision.

Day 11 - Now they want money

Can you believe the nerve?! Even athough they know I am on midnights and that I haven't slept much since they have been banging on my roof, those f*****s were knocking on my door at 10:30 AM. To get their money no doubt. They will get it when I feel like it.

Day 10 - Finally!

I think the roofers are as fed up with me as I am with them. They had a whole crew here today. There were even a couple of little kids and a pregnant lady. I never did find out who the kids belonged to but their job was to clean up. They picked up every shingle and roofing nail they could find. The very pregnant chick was the girlfriend of the head roofer. Why she would choose to sit in a hot truck all day when she should have been somewhere cool, I don;t know. But they finished. It is done. And although I will say horrible things about they from now until the end of time, I can say they did a good job. Or at least it appears that way now, time will tell.

Day 9 - here by noon

So today I think is the last day. I guess they feel the same way. They didn't bother to show up until noon.

A knock on the door is the owner to let me know about the price for replacing the addition deck.

And the fight is on. I tell him I intend to hold back money for non-productive work days. He gives me excuses about rain and ankles and the weather network. AND threatens to tell the guys to stop and start tearing the roof down.

I tell him all I expected was a call telling me what is going on. He doesn't feel that is necessary. "That is just roofing" he says. Problem. (By the by, and I'm sure it the same for all of you. If I have to be at work on a Thursday and I don't show up and don't phone, I don't get paid.)

Anyway, I tell him fine, whatever, I just want to be done with him and his slack ass band of delinquents. But I want it in writing. There will be no handshake deals since he can't be trusted. He gets on the phone to talk to the wife about writing something up.

I go upstairs to take a quick shower as I anticipate a trip to the bank. I come down 15 minutes later and he is gone (the workers are still here). He is gone home to deal with some personal business - on my f****** time. Nice.

Day 8 - about 2/3 done

Back to work again. They are almost done the east side. Tomorrow is the addition. And then they are done. The deck on the addition is almost all rotten. I want them to replace it all and start from fresh.

Day 7 - rain

It rained all last night. So far today is the only day they have had a legitimate reason for not showing up.

Day 6 - back to this again

Didn't show. Didn't phone. I didn't bother to call.

Day 5 - finally

For those of you keeping score, that is 4 non-productive work days. Write this down folks. You can keep between 10% and 15% up to 30 days after completion of the job. The theory is that in that month, anything that you notice wrong will be fixed by the company if they know you still have some of their money. Once you have paid the total bill, they may disappear. At least if they do disappear, you have some of your money. I recommend 15%.

So the roofers did show up today and they set to work. I was pretty sure I could sort of block out the pounding but then they turned on a stereo blaring hard rock. That ended my sleep at about 1 PM. And I was pissed. One because the job should have been done by now and two because they screwed up my sleep.

They do good work once they show up. It is a more difficult job than most. There are two layers of shingles and then cedar shakes underneath. The west side of the house is basically done. So it was worth not getting any sleep.

Day 4 - no new roof

I wake up again today to silence. No one is walking or pounding on my roof. And I lose it. I do notice that there are packages of shingles on my roof but I think they put those there to keep me hanging on for another couple of days. I go over to the guy's house and give it to him with both barrels. Buddy's ankle is still sore. And now it is my fault nothing has been done because I didn't want one of their workers anywhere near my home but of course he is readily available to work.

But they will be here first thing tomorrow. Well great. I go back to work tomorrow - midnights. So if they arrive - yeah right - they will be banging around while I am trying to sleep. The roofers comment to me "isn't there somewhere else you can sleep". Are you kidding me, really. I resist the urge to punch him the throat and just leave.

I am hooped because I gave him half the amount as a deposit because I felt I could trust him. Take a lesson kids. You are only obligated to give 10% to 15% as a deposit. If the company you are dealing with demands more, something is wrong, go with someone else. I don't think buddy has enough money to buy the materials and pay the roofers so he is stringing me along until he can afford to finish the job.

If I had known that at the beginning, I would have paid for the materials myself and just hired them to do the work. Lesson learned.

Day 3 - no roof

Third day, roofers didn't show. Company didn't phone to tell me what was going on. I phoned and the injured guy's ankle is still sore and another roofer feels it is going to rain. Now the roofer is a f****** meteorologist. But they will be here first thing tomorrow.

Day 2 - no new roof

So second day, roofers didn't show. Company didn't phone to tell me what was going on. I phoned and apparently one guy twisted his ankle. But they will be here first thing tomorrow.

One More Day

The roof was supposed to start today but because of all the rain we have been having they are a day behind on the job before me which pushes me back a day. Crap, I was all excited about getting this started.

It's Done!

So I chose to redo my mortgage early to lock in at a low rate. I locked in at 5.55% for 10 years. I wanted the longest time period possible because when the rates do start to creep up, I don't think they will be coming down for a long time. I also took out a line of credit based on home value to get some work around here done. This summer I want to get the roof done, it isn't a want, it's a need. There is a hole and I have a little water damage on my living room ceiling. The range of estimates for the roof is from $4250 to $8300. Crazy huh?! I am going with a long time established company that gave me a very detailed quote of $6300.

I also want to get the soffit, fascia and eaves done. The eaves are also a necessity. It is like having none - they are so old and holey and I think redoing them will ease up some dampness issues in the basement.

I also want to get the three windows done upstairs. The cost will surely offset the decrease in hydro costs in the winter.

I am debating on replacing the super inefficient window in the back addition with a patio door in anticipation of the deck that will be out there. That door would also ease some hydro costs.

I am also going to replace and slightly increase the size of the little deck in the back. I have been buying the essentials piece by piece but for the wood, I will have to borrow someone's truck. Eventually a bigger deck will be adjoined to it (hence the back door). This I plan on doing myself. I have never built a deck but I think it is pretty straight forward. I will post before and after pictures once it is done.

Review LG DVR Model RH387-M

One of the blogs that I look forward to reading is One Project Closer. Their recent blog of a review of an LG dishwasher that they bought moved me to comment about an LG product that I bought and now regret.

I bought an LG DVR in July 2008. The DVR I had then had died after 5 years and the repair would have cost more than the price of a new machine ($400) so I upgraded. I had s choice of 3 models and I chose the LG because I thought made reliable products. It was also the mid priced machine.

I instantly hated it. I assumed that this machine would be heads and tails better than the old one - you know technological advancements and all. But it wasn't. So fine, I got used to it and then in July 2009- about 10 days after the warranty was up, it started acting up. Now if I want to record something onto a disc, i have to waste about 4 or 5 discs first.

This product is crap and I will never buy another LG product ever.

I have also learned to get model numbers and then Google forums to get the opinion of others BEFORE I spend money on a product. I found on an electronics forum that the recording problem is common to this particular model. If that is the case then LG should know. I think that if LG was a good company, they would recognize this problem and either change whatever the issue is and/or make it right for customers whose machines are affected.

If I knew then what I know now, I would have paid the $400 to fix my other machine.

Hell yeah for automation!

I was just reading a post by No Credit Needed entitled Automated And It Feels So Good and it excited me. I have had my finances automated for really for as long as I have been working which is just over 20 years. Back then, there was no online banking. I used to use a service called TelPay and I had to pay a small fee for every payment that I made. It wasn't very popular, no one I knew used the service. As a matter of fact, not many of my peers even knew what it was before I mentioned it. But for me this was a little slice of heaven for two reasons - I am not the most organized person in the world (but I am working one it) and I am a huge procrastinator (that I am not working on as much). The result is that I used to receive bills, put them aside to pay at a later date and then lose them or mistakenly throw them away. As I result, I used to waste hundreds of dollars a year in late fees and similar penalties. TelPay didn't cover ALL my bills but it was a better system than what I was using at the time.

Then I discovered mBanx and it revolutionized my life. I have always been a shift worker so my hours of work, sleep etc. have always been different the rest of the regular working world. With mBanx, it released me from the bonds of having to bank from 10 am to 3 pm like the rest of society. I could now do my banking at 3 am whenever I felt like it and I really never needed to physically go to a bank. I could pay a bill when it was received or at the very least, I could set up a later payment for when payday rolled around and file the bill right away. (For a while there I felt really organized but have since slipped).

Like No Credit Needed I also receive as many of my bills as I can online. I have also in the last year set up my pay stubs from work to be viewable online only. It is unfortunate that every one doesn't have this option. For 3 years I just received the stubs in my mailbox at work, looked at it and then threw it in the backseat of my car. Eventually, I got tired of the mound of envelopes and then recycled them. But sometimes you need a current stub for bank stuff, so that was not the best system. Now I send myself a PDF copy every two weeks and if I ever need a copy, I can print it anytime - at home or at work.

I was explaining my system to my 64 year old mother who still waits for bills to arrive and then sends cheques. I tried to convince her to set up some automated payments for bills where the amounts don't vary much from month to month but she won't even hear of it. She only trusts her cheque system. And that is her choice and she is happy with it. Her main concern is that there will be a difference and they will have more of her money than the amount of the bill and similarly that she will underpay.

I basically take the amoung of a bill, cut it in half and then pay that every two weeks. For example hydro is roughly $300 a month so every two weeks, I pay $150. Some months like this month have three paydays so I will be $150 ahead. I am sure that some where through the year, I will need that $150 and will adjust that weeks payments so that no payment will be made and I will no longer be $150 ahead. When I exlained this to my mom, she was appalled that I would let them "hold" my money like that. Really, it is not ideal. But for me as someone that has a credit past of late payments for no other reason than that I'm stupid, it is a small price to pay to make payments in good time.

So for the extremely organized and for those of us that are just not that motivated. Automating your banking life is the way to go for sure!

Really!

I tell you, there is one thing that chaps my a$$ more than anything. People who when driving, put on their brakes before they indicate why they are braking. Don't these idiots realize that the turn signal is the indicator to the car(s) behind them to slow down or to change lanes if they so desire. When you brake first without warning, it ruins my smooth driving because now I wonder, is there an animal in the road? Am I not hearing an emergency vehicle; is the driver in front of me in some kind of distress? No, the vehicle ahead of me is being piloted by an imbecile who doesn't know how to drive and shouldn't be allowed on the road. Aaaargh!

In Grief

I had the loose framework of a post that I wanted to write on Thursday night. I felt exuberant and free and wanted to share my joy with the world. Well I will still write that post but it is now tainted by a great sadness.

My friend's young cat had to be put down yesterday. I don't know all the details as I understand how raw the pain is for her. I will call the cat "Bootsy" for the sake of respect and privacy. The story of Bootsy is for another day as I am grieving as well.

Big sigh, anyhow before I learned of Bootsy's passing, I was feeling exuberant. After a situation at work that I see as another form of harassment. I had experienced some harassment from a peer last year and have been dealing with the emotional aftermath since that time. Last year during that difficult time, I was not dealing with it well at all. Actually, I don't really deal with adversity well at all period. Unfortunately or fortunately depending on your point of view working with difficult people in a difficult environment has forced me to speak up to defend myself and learn to deal with adversity.

I am a firm believer that you are where you are supposed to be so perhaps these are all lessons that I need to learn to have a happy successful life. In the meantime however, it makes for some crappy and dark days. This is where my wonderful mood comes in. I didn't go home after a couple of difficult days at work and cry (as I have done in the past). I also didn't toss and turn as I replayed conversations over and over in my head, second guessing my responses and wishing I had said different things (as I have also done in the past). I slept like a baby and woke up rested and content. When I realized that this minor setback (because really, it is not the end of world although sometimes things feel that big and bad in the moment), hadn't shut me down as minor setbacks in the past have done, I felt victorious.

I am a Phoenix rising out of the ashes and I know today that I am mentally and emotionally stronger today than I was even a week ago. Those bastards can throw their best at me. As long as I continue to try to be a diligent fair employee, there is nothing they can do to me. Bring it, I'm ready! Wednesday, February 17th is my new birthday - financially and emotionally. Today is the first day of the rest of my life.


Rest in peace Bootsy. I am convinced that you are a angel that I was fortunate enough to know for just over two years. Thank you for sharing a part of your life with me.

Damn Nice

It is a damn nice feeling to not feel the pressure of bills unpaid, looming large in your mind and in your dreams. To be able to plan is awesome. And the cushion of my now very small emergency fund is like a cloud under my feet. Wow, so this is a tiny taste of being debt free. I can't wait!

Hmm, It seemed like a good idea at the time

So I have made what at the time seemed like a great decision. Now I a a little apprehensive but what is done is done so there can be no looking back now. I took out a consolidation loan which will free up $475 every paycheque. The loan is pretty high interest but is only $350 a month so I can pay ahead on that loan and still throw some money at the line of credit (also high interest) and still have a little to build up a small emergency fund.

I did go a little crazy. I bought Michael Buble tickets because he is awesome and I was celebrating my good decision. I bought a cheap vacuum cleaner because I have been borrowing my mom's for about a year and that really sucks. It is refurbished and the belt broke the first time I used it. I bought an extended warranty for $10 which gives me two years so I can deal with that. I bought a new belt for $6.50 and look at 'er go.

So after this Wednesday's payday, my car loan will be done. Complete. Mine all mine. Now Bazoo 2 is free to break down. Lol, please Murphy, if you must use your Law on me wait until next winter when car dealers are desperate for a deal.

Net Worth - Better Than I Thought

So I have been reading a lot of financially related blogs and I just read one by Spilling Buckets - Positive Net Worth: The Day of Zero! and they were celebrating that fact that after just under a year of budgeting and frugal living, they have achieved a positive net worth. The whole article gave me a great deal of encouragement. I have felt trapped by my debt mainly for the last year. Really only since I have set my goal of being debt free. Since then I have realized that I have been and still am wasting literally tens of thousands of dollars on interest. But if I look at my situation in terms of net worth I am not doing too badly.

Value Owed
Home $60,000 $41,000
Second property $15,000 $ 9,000
Vehicle $10,000 $ 7,800
Other Debt $ 900
$ 2,000
$ 8,000
$ 1,800

$85,000 $70,500


Based on my rough numbers I have a net worth of $14,500. Which is remarkable because my net worth will be really rockin' in less than a year. I am energized and my resolve to keep on this path is solidified.