AAAAHHHHHHHHH!

That pretty much sums up my life right now.

Just a quick update...

1. The house is still not finished. Buddy is still not finished with the tile despite all of the promises to be done by the time we got back. I don't think he even started until yesterday. Buddy didn't even touch the tile in the half bathroom. The kitchen STILL is not finished. The master bath is starting to resemble a bathroom now, but it is probably going to take Buddy weeks to get any further. However, if he's not finished by this weekend, he should be hung until dead for being such an imbecile. The plumbers did not do all they were supposed to do and now we have no hot water (which is an absolutely wonderful thing to come home to... NOT!). Our hardwood floors have been refinished. They look wonderful. The countertops were delayed. Again. They're supposed to be in next week. They won't tell us an exact date. Jerks. The plumbing in the kitchen can't be finished in the kitchen until the countertops are put in, so we have no water in the kitchen either.
   
   
2. The GraphExpo was incredibly boring. I met some people. I wandered around and got blisters on my feet. Joe and I went to the Shedd Aquarium and the Field Museum while we were there. We also just wandered around the city. We had to do some shopping on Sunday when we arrived because we couldn't do laundry before we left (the plumbers cancelled 3 times in a row so we had no water), and therefore, we had no clothing to pack. I got some new clothes out of it, so at least something positive came out of it.
   
   
3. We are almost finished with the house in Crackton. I am leaving work early today to finish cleaning it up and to do some touch up painting (the power will be turned off at 4:30 today). All of our stuff is out of that house. And most of it is sitting in the garage in Shelby. We started moving some stuff in last night. However, there is only so much we can do when we can't use our bedroom, our bathroom, the half-bath, or the kitchen. It's so incredibly frustrating.

It was nice to at least have a few days away from it all. Now, I'm way behind at work, and only the tiniest bit further to being done. Yay.

Vote for Ansley! :)

Subject: NC Dept of Ag.-Vote Ansley!!

ON BEHALF OF THE ANIMALS

Ronnie Ansley has issued a statement supporting a ban on gas chambers in NC. The continued use of gas chambers and the sorry performance of the Animal Welfare Dept. have all taken place under Steve Troxler, the incumbent.

Regardless of party affiliation, it is important for the welfare of NC companion animals to elect Ronnie Ansley for Commissioner of the Agriculture Department.

His opponent Steve Troxler had an ad on TV recently that mostly discussed farm issues. However, the last clip was him petting a dog. Ironic. Maybe he caught wind of the emails going out in support of the animal friendly candidate, Ronnie Ansley.

Just a suggestion, contact everyone you know in all counties to support & vote for Ronnie Ansley (give reasons).. Most campaign headquarters are not aware of the animal issues (gas chamber and heart sticks) that hinge on who is elected. Also, most people have not been informed about the benefits for animals that electing Ansley will bring about. You can share that information with them.

It is important to let your everyone who is an Independent or Republican know not to vote a straight ticket because Ronnie Ansley happens to be on the Democratic ticket. Encourage them to cross party lines on this position and vote for Ronnie Ansley!!

Since N. C. is a toss up state this election, this may be the best chance to replace Steve Troxler. If Troxler stays in office gas chambers will continue to be used. So the point is.....get the word out to the general public & the campaign headquarters ...

ON BEHALF OF THE ANIMALS
VOTE RONNIE ANSLEY (NC DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE COMMISSIONER)

Thanks,

Peter


Peter MacQueen III,

President

The Humane Society of Eastern NC

Southport, NC 28461

910-477-0368

Someone is going to get hurt...

Well, we had to call an electrician to get the kitchen ready for our new cabinets and appliances. No one would call us back until yesterday. He wanted to tear out walls to fix it and he was going to charge us $1,300. And then we'd still have to fix the freakin' walls! Rudy, our tech here at work, offered to do it for $500 and not tear out all of the walls. So, he came over last night to do it. We were there until 1:30 AM. He's still not finished because part of it has to wait until the cabinets are in. So, we'll be finishing that up on Thursday night. It's such a pain in the rear.

The drywall is about finished. Larry said that he was finished, but Sammy is making him come back to redo one corner of the half bath. It wasn’t as smooth as it should have been. Joe and I were just going to let it go, but Sammy didn’t want us to feel shafted. It’s the corner next to the door where there are just a few inches of wall. The floors upstairs still aren’t done. He went back and sanded them another time and he sanded the stairs. Then he had to pull staples out of the living room floor because Joe never finished his job. He’s going to be doing the staining today. And sanding the downstairs. He said that the staining upstairs shouldn’t take long.

Buddy didn’t show up yesterday. He didn’t answer any of Joe’s phone calls. He did tell us that he’d be working on another job yesterday, but it wouldn’t take all day. I’m ready to kill him. When he put in the tile in the half bathroom, it looked funny to me. I thought it was because it was dirty (there was dust from the drywall all over it). Well, last night I went in and swept it up so that I could get a real look at it. It’s 2 different tiles in there. There are 5 tiles of what we actually picked out (that dark brown tile), and then the rest of the bathroom is in a dark tile with lots of reddish colors in it. And then, I was sweeping up the kitchen last night (because there was sawdust from where Rudy had to cut some of the walls for the new sockets) and stuff kept getting trapped between the tiles. He did a shitty job of grouting the tile. There are deep holes in it so stuff falls into it. So, Joe is going to make him fix the grout in the kitchen. We have to talk to him about the half bathroom.

Joe spoke to Buddy just a little while ago. He argued with Joe about the tile in the half bathroom. He thinks it's the same throughout. It's obviously not. Even Rudy just glanced at it last night and said that it was different. You don't have to look closely to see that it's 2 different tiles!

Before, Buddy told Joe that he could finish everything by Friday. Joe spoke with him the night before last. The problem was that the floor guy (refinishing the hardwoods) would be in the way of Buddy. Joe told Buddy that he worked it out with the floor guy so that he will not do the foyer until Thursday. That meant that Buddy could continue working on the other bathrooms until Thursday or possibly Friday (depending on the speed of the floor guy). Well, Buddy told Joe that night that he had everything worked out with the floor guy. Since Joe had already told him what the plan was, Joe assumed that working it out meant that he was going to follow the plan. That was a stupid assumption. Buddy isn’t over there today. What he meant when he said, “worked it out” with Maurice is that he just isn’t going to show up again until next week so that he could stay out of the way.

Joe told him that it was unacceptable. We have to get our stuff moved in! We will be gone Sunday through Thursday and we have to be out of Crackton by Friday! He needs to be finished! Since he said that he could be done with everything by Friday, that meant that he should have been able to be finished with at least the master bath by Thursday! Which meant that we could move in! Now who knows how long it’s going to be. If one more thing goes wrong with Buddy, I’m going to call him myself and cuss him out. I don’t think Joe is getting his point across well enough. Why does this have to be so difficult? Joe told him what to do and he changed it. It’s stupid.

But, on the positive, our cabinets arrived yesterday. They were in boxes in our garage. We opened up one to look at it. It was hard to see the cabinet, but it looked pretty! It looked a little more red than I had anticipated, but right now it’s hard to tell. They’re in the garage and it wasn’t very well lit and it was still in a box. So, we’ll be able to tell tonight! :) I think they’ll look really good.

I'm trying to stay positive about all of this. No matter what, Joe and I have to be moved in on next Friday (Halloween). If everything is not finished, I am going to have a conniption. I take that back, I will accept it if the half bathroom is not completely finished yet. However, if anything else is still unfinished, someone is going to pay for it. We set it up so that everything would be finished last week. My mom left a week ago. They still aren't finished with the things that were supposed to be finished when she got here 2 weeks ago. I can tell you one thing. People asked us to give recommendations for workers after we finish remodeling our house. Buddy and Paul will be getting no recommendations. I will be telling people to stay as far away as possible. This is f*@#ing ridiculous.

ROOOOAAAAARRRR!

That's my angry roar. :( Things were starting to move along. The tile in the kitchen is almost finished. The kitchen cabinets were supposed to arrive tomorrow and the countertops on Thursday. The upstairs floors should be completely refinished today, and the downstairs will be finished this week as well. The drywall will be finished today which means that bathroom work can commence.

Well, bathroom work can't get started because people can't walk on the floors until at least 48 hours after they've been refinished. Well, you have to walk on the hardwoods to get to the bathrooms. So, they're on hold until probably next week. The electrician came in today to look at our kitchen. Stuff has to be torn out to rework the wiring for our new appliances. Thank goodness we haven't put in the cabinets yet. He is hoping to have stuff done tomorrow (HOPING), so that we can just delay the cabinets for one day. I hope that goes well. We can't afford any more delays.

We're supposed to be completely moved in by October 31. I'm really starting to lose hope that that is going to happen. If things get delayed anymore, we may not even be able to walk on the floors by then! :S

At least we have wonderful, fabulous, fantastic friends who helped us move in a bunch of our stuff this weekend. :) That stuff is waiting in the music room until the floors are finished and we can move it where it goes... Except for the couch. It's waiting on the screened in porch. Joe thought that this would be a good idea. I disagree, but oh well. It's out there now. We'll see what it smells like next week when we bring it in. lol

The tile guy was supposed to be finished by last night with the tile in the kitchen. He promised he could do it. He lied. He originally told us that he could be finished in one day with the kitchen. Definite LIE. He worked on it Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and yesterday. It still isn't finished. He only finished the place where the cabinets are going to be. He arrived yesterday at 7:00 AM. He didn't leave until after 11:00 PM. He finished like 3 more rows of the tile and he grouted what he had done. He did that much on Saturday when he wasn't there for nearly as long. What the hell is taking this guy so freakin' long?!?! I'm ready to scream and pull all of my hair out. I'm sick of all of this crap. Just do what you say you're going to do when you say you're going to do it! It's not that hard!!

Blahhhhhhhhhh

I am depressed. I thought I had a home for a pup that I fell in love with at a shelter earlier this month (a previous post is devoted to her), but it fell through today. Now I just want to cry. Her time is about up and if she doesn't get adopted, she will be put down. It's very upsetting. If you know anyone interested in adopting her, please, please, PLEASE, let me know. She's incredibly sweet and I'll pay for everything she needs to get started. :)

My mom called about an hour and a half ago. My sister is out of surgery. She was supposed to be in recovery for about an hour, so she's probably awake now. She had breast augmentation. She's only 20, but she's wanted this for a long time. And she paid for it herself. She worked hard to earn the money for it. I would NEVER in a million years do this, but I support her decision. We come from a family of large breasted women. I am a C cup and I am one of the smallest breasted women in my family (except for my sister). She is a small B cup. She just wanted some boobies... lol. Anyone who met my sister would tell you that she is a strong woman and secure in who she is. She doesn't take crap from anybody and she loves her body (she takes care of it). She is doing this for herself (ligitimately... her boyfriend and several of her male friends do not support her decision), and no one else. So, I say go for it.

In house news, we are no longer using Paul. He's about as worthless as handymen come. It was pathetic. But, we have someone who is doing an excellent job. The tile guy has finally gotten going and the half bathroom is about finished (he's slower than Christmas!). Joe gave him until Monday to finish the tile in the kitchen (as of yesterday, he hadn't even started on it). Our cabinets will be arriving on Wednesday. They will take all day to be put in and then the countertops will be installed on Thursday. Our appliances are in. As soon as the kitchen is finished, we'll have them deliver the appliances (so probably Friday). So, by this time next week, our kitchen should be finished. :) And then the only thing that should be unfinished is the master bathroom. I have hopes that even it will be finished, but it's not likely with as slow as Buddy is. We'll see.

This weekend is homecoming weekend at Catawba. Joe and I will hopefully be going. There is a wine party in Salisbury that we will probably be going to. Especially now that the dog thing has fallen through. :( And after the game tomorrow, we will be coming back to work on the house. I will be painting all of the doors in the house (except the entrance/exit doors to the house -- they will stay the way they are). The doors are ugly, so I'm painting them all white. We can't afford to replace all of the doors in the house, so we're just giving the old doors a new look. They'll go much better with the wood floors and white trim then. :) Also, I have to paint the places in the hallways where the baseboard heating was. Luckily it is low to the ground so it won't matter that the paint won't look exactly the same (no one will be looking that closely at the wall a few inches from the floor!).

Irritation...

So, remodeling isn't so bad. My mom and I got a lot accomplished while she was here. That wasn't the irritating part. The irritating part is that the people we are paying to get stuff done are not doing anything. My mom and I work for free and we got more done than what the people we are paying got done. They still haven't finished the stuff that they promised us that they'd have finished by the time my mom arrived. Well, she already LEFT and it's still not finished! It's so frustrating.

The house is painted. The living room looks great in Posh Red. The dining room and the master bedroom look great in Vanilla Bean (It's so creamy!). There was chair railing on the center of the wall in the work-out room, so we switched to a darker blue and just painted below the chair railing and left the top white. It looks awesome. Lowe's gave me the wrong color green for the kitchen. The formula is off, so I had to switch colors. It looks good now though. Mom and I changed the color for the music room. It's called Gray Teal. It's a pretty color and it's brighter. I think it looks more musical. :)

Yesterday, Paul finally put in the glass blocks for the window in the master bathroom. And Buddy finally got started on the tile in the half bathroom. Both of those things were supposed to be finished before my mom got here. They didn't get started on them until after my mom left.

My mom and I got the drywall up in the half bathroom and the drywall up where the door for the bathroom used to be. The plaster didn't dry in time, so I have to finish up finishing the drywall by myself. It's a pain in the butt, but at least now I know how to do it. :)

Bed Adventures...

It's not what you're thinking, you dirty minded person! By bed adventures, I mean the craziness we went through to try to get the bed for the spare bedroom.

We were supposed to pick up the bed from Joe's Uncle Joe this past weekend, but he wasn't home. He has been out of town the past 2 days. He was getting back into town last night. He lives about 45 minutes to an hour away from us. Well, he called when he got home last night and we headed up there. Joe decided that the GPS didn't know the right way, so he made me turn it off (even though the GPS got us there for the New Years' Eve party). Well, we ended up lost in the next town over. He called his uncle and got directions. We headed back the other direction and finally got the key at about 9:00 last night.

Well, Joe lives at his wife's house during the week and they stay at his house (a farm in the country) on the weekends. Well, it's about 45 minutes away. So, we drove up there. When we arrived, we tried the key in the front door. It didn't work. Then we walked around back and tried it on the other door. It didn't work there either. So, we tried a few more times with no luck. There is no cell signal in that area, so we just drove home. Which was over an hour away. We didn't get home until after 11:00 last night. And we didn't have a bed to show for our troubles. :(

Joe is supposed to be bringing the bed to us at some point today. I don't know how he's going to do it since it's supposed to rain today. And on top of that, he thinks that is the right key. If he doesn't find the right key, how is he going to get into his house? And how is he going to load it up into the truck by himself??

Oh, well. I guess I'll just hope for the best. :)

Jippy + Other Stuff in My Life

Joe and I picked Jippy up from the vet this morning. He is now testicle-free. :) He doesn't seem to be in any pain. He's on pain medicine though. He's mostly just scared/traumatized. And probably not because of the lack of testicles. Probably because he not only had to go to the vet, but he also had to spend the night at the vet. He's never spent the night anywhere other than at home (or at least he spends the night with us when he's away from home).

Last night, Joe walked by Jippy's crate at bedtime and freaked out. He demanded to know where Jippy was. It was cute. As soon as he said it, he realized where Jippy was and he tried to clear the emotion from his face. I rubbed it in that he missed Jippy and was worried about him. He had to admit that he does love Jippy. :) I think Joe has finally accepted Jippy as a member of our family. It only took him several months!

Unfortunately, Daly will be even harder for him to accept. She's such a pain in the butt. At first, Joe was more attached to her than I was. He had an easier time getting close to her. It took me a long time. But then, the more she misbehaved, the more she got on Joe's bad side, and now she's gone too far and it's going to take some growing up on her part before Joe will reattach himself to her and accept her as family.

More demolition took place at our Shelby house yesterday. I didn't get to see any of it because we didn't go up there last night. We went home and ate black bean soup and watched Pursuit of Happyness. It was pretty depressing. Joe was freaking out because we just bought a house and he's worried that the market is going to go to crap and leave us with a mortgage that we can't afford. So, that wasn't such a great choice for a movie. I thought with the word "happyness" in the title, that it would be a happier movie (P.S. It drives me nuts to have to spell happiness wrong for that movie!). Not true. There are 115 minutes of unhappiness and then 2 minutes of happiness. :( I could have used some more happiness in the end. Also, I wanted him to find that taxi driver and pay him back. I guess I was just asking for too much.

Joe is going to pick up the bed today after work so that my mom and I will have someplace to sleep while we're in Shelby at the new house. And then we're going to buy the paint so that we will be all set to get started on the house when my mom gets here. :)

This pup needs help... I can vouch for this one!

I was bad and fell in love with a dog at the shelter last weekend. Well, I’ve been trying to find her a home. I spoke with my contact at the Humane Society, but she says that since she is shy and because she thinks that she may have pit bull in her (I disagree), they can’t foster her. She said that since they only have 3 people doing foster care right now, and since she is less likely than others to be adopted (b/c she is shy and not full bred and she’s thin and her pedigree is uncertain), they can’t use the space on her. The lady said that she will most likely not be adopted and she will have to be put down (but to reassure me she said, “I’m sure your pictures will help many more find a home. Think of the good that will do.”)

But, I’m not willing to give up. She’s already been to the vet and she’s healthy. She is really shy, but she’s so sweet. I’m sure that with some socialization she’d be a great pet. She REALLY needs to find a home soon. If you can’t take her in, I’m hoping that maybe you know someone who can. It’s $85 to adopt her, but I’ll cover the fee for anyone who wants to adopt her. The fee covers her shots and getting spayed. :)

I’m attaching pictures. I don’t know how old she is, but she’s still a puppy. And since we don’t know what she is, I don’t know how big she’s going to get. She’s thin because she’s not eating at the shelter. I think she’s pretty well traumatized (but I would be too!). If you find anyone who is interested, please let me know.

Our house is a very, very, very fine house!

We had a frustrating first weekend. We spent a lot of time at Lowe’s but in the end, they didn’t have the kind of paint that we needed for the tile in the bathroom. Well, they did, but with the paint they had, it could only be tinted a very light color and we did not want to go with something that light. So, after all of that aggravation, Joe and I decided against painting that bathroom. Lol… I’m going to look around and see if we can find anything, but if I don’t find any paint that we can use, then there is nothing that we can do.

Paul Kitchen started on Friday and has almost all of the baseboard heating out of the house already. Luckily, the holes are in the walls and not the floor! :) So, that was good news. And they are just tiny holes in the wall. However, there were thermostats in each room for the baseboard heating and they came out leaving holes in the wall that have to be patched. :(

They will be back again today to finish demolishing the downstairs bathroom and to take out the rest of the baseboard heating units. I think the new A/C unit is being put in today as well.

Our doorbell started working! The inspector said that it didn’t work. Well, I pushed on it a few times and it didn’t work. Then a few minutes later, it rang. It scared me. It turns out that something was just stuck and it unstuck itself. Now it works perfect. :)

We cleaned a bunch. It was me and a crew of three men. :) Joe, Dan, and Philip. Lol… it was amusing to watch them scrubbing the walls because I don’t think they’d normally be doing that sort of thing. I got all of the caulk off of the tub in the upstairs bathroom. It was disgusting. Then, I tried to recaulk the tub. So far, it’s just a mess and I’m probably going to have to remove that caulk and try again. lol

The bathroom floor has stains in the grout. I’m still not finished in there. I couldn’t find a brush at Wal-Mart so I had to use a toothbrush to scrub it. That was working, but I wore out quickly. Joe went last night and got be a good scrub brush, but I was busy playing with the caulk at that point and then we went back to Gastonia. So, the floor in the bathroom still has grout stains over ¾ of the floor. Joe doesn’t want to go back over there tonight. I’d like to go back over and get more done! I understand that he needs a break though.

I found places where the wallpaper is peeling. I pulled and it came up easily. I think that we may be able to get it off there!! :)

My mom comes in on Wednesday to help me do the painting and the other stuff. She'll be here until the following Wednesday. It turns out that my ex-boyfriend and his parents will be in town at the same time. His parents have asked if we could go out to dinner on Sunday, so I'm hoping that they don't mean with Michael and his girlfriend. That could be uncomfortable. I'm not even sure they'd be comfortable this way (especially if Joe goes with me). And, they invited us to dinner at a Barbecue place. I checked out the menu. Not Veg friendly. So, I'm probably going to have to pass on that unless they don't have their hearts set on that restaurant.

The dogs were with us at the house in Shelby all weekend. They seem to really like it. It's quieter so Jippy seems to be quieter. Not as much to bark at, I guess. And that is awesome. Speaking of Jippy, he went in to be neutered today. He will be neutered between 12:00 and 3:00. He has to spend the night at the vet. It will be the first night that he's not spent at home or with us since he's been with us. I hope that he won't be too traumatized.

Oh! and Joe admitted that he'd probably miss Jippy if he were gone. It's a huge step. Joe has had a lot of trouble getting attached to Jippy and Daly. He's still not close to admitting love for Daly, but I have high hopes. They're doing well now, so it's easier to love them. Daly is still such a needy puppy that Joe gets annoyed with her. And Jippy isn't the smartest dog (Jack and Cody are really smart), so Joe has had trouble bonding with him. But, Jippy tries really hard to be a good boy (and Daly is a brat!), so Joe is getting closer. :)

Also, while we were in Shelby this weekend, we ate (again) at this awesome Mexican Restaurant. It's called Mi Pueblito. It's got a vegetarian section on the menu! :) And it's absolutely delicious, and FAST. It's a wonderful place, and should you ever find yourself in Shelby, North Carolina, I highly recommend it! :)

I'm a homeowner! :)

Joe closed on the house yesterday. We now are homeowners. :) It's so exciting!!

We went to the house last night. We were going to bond with it, but we bonded with our neighbors instead. ha! They are really nice, open-minded, senior citizens. They love to talk, and they're intelligent. Plus, they're animal people. They have 2 dogs. They said that they had an arrangement with the previous owners where if one couple went out of town, the other couple would take care of the dogs. He told us that he'd love to have the same arrangement with us. We agreed! We talked to them for several hours. Until I was finally so low on sugar that I was getting sick. So, we had to leave and get some food.

Tonight, Joe and I will be going to Lowe's to pick up supplies. Then we will be going to the house and I will be working my butt off. :) I have to get that bathroom painted this weekend. it should be interesting. I've never painted ceramic tile before. From what I've read, it shouldn't be too bad. It's going to be quite a bit of work, but hopefully it will be worth it in the end. Joe and I were originally going to paint the tile "grapolicious." However, Joe isn't so sure about the color anymore. So, tonight when we're at Lowe's, we're going to finalize a color and then Joe will be stuck with whatever we decide. Because I am NOT going to paint the tile more than once!

Today, Buddy the tile guy is ripping out the tile in the downstairs bathroom so that we can completely redo that bathroom (I'm just painting the tile for the upstairs bathroom and then re-caulking around the tub). Monday, the baseboard heating and the carpet in the living room are being taken out. And then on Wednesday, my mama will be arriving to help me do a lot of painting, and taking out wallpaper, and putting up drywall, and tearing out a wall. :) It's going to be great fun!