Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Fabulous Weekend...sort of

Well, this weekend was a great weekend for two things, a typical weekend for many things, and not a memorable weekend for one thing.

Let's start with the "not" first and get that out of the way. The "not" is my contractor. I found out on Saturday that he is "not" paying his sub-contractors for work completed at our house. We have paid him, but he seems to be lacking in his bill paying habits, and not passing the money through to them. So, which means we can be held responsible for his lack of paying. When confronted he said he has paid, which after speaking to the AC installers (one of the subcontractors), his statement is completely untrue. Unfortunately for us, we need to either get him to pay or pay the sub-contractors ourselves and sue him for the money. The "between a rock and a hard place" thing is we don't want to piss our contractor off too much, because he still has to finish the work. So both C and I are crossing our fingers and praying every night that it all works out in the end; otherwise, we may be out upwards of an additional $10,000 to pay everyone off and prevent any liens from being attached to our home. Life of home improvement is never dull. One huge lesson we have just learned: Never hire a general contractor, be your own--it's more of a headache for you, but at least you are the only one to blame if you don't pay the sub-contractors.

The typical weekend stuff happened: cleaning and grocery store shopping, which by the way has anyone noticed how expensive food has gotten. WTF??

The good things that happened this weekend is that my friend and I held our first monthly crop at Recollections and ...drum roll please...I got FIVE layouts completed. Two single page layouts and three two page layouts. I am finally getting back into the scrapbooking groove and it feels good.

The other good thing that happened this weekend is that C and I went and played golf and I actually made par on a par 4 hole. Meaning that the rules say you must make it from tee to hole in four shots or less, and I did it!! Only on one hole, but still it was my first par 4!! Mind you, I typically shoot a 6 or 7 on a par 4.

...and that's it for a weekend. I am hoping next weekend isn't that "not" exciting.

Friday, August 25, 2006

Friday...and the weekend is almost here

I am so looking forward to this weekend. I have a crop to go to with my friend on Saturday, and C and I are playing golf on Sunday. This afternoon it is my turn to babysit the contractor, as he is getting ready to install our bathroom cabinets, and work is slowing up--thank goodness. I am actually a bit excited to be slowing up at work. BTW, can you believe it is almost a year to the day that Entranco was no more? Time really does fly by a little too fast for my tastes these days. I can't believe summer is almost over, and we are heading into fall. I remember being little and the days, weeks, and months used to slowly creep by. These days they fly by--

Actually, I think I am having a little panic attack about my age today. I don't know. I feel like I should be doing more with my life then what I am doing. Seems strange to write it down, kind of silly, really. I enjoy my life, and I am happy--but I feel like there should be more, but I don't really know what that more should be. Does anyone else feel this way?

Anyway, I am leaving work now, heading home for the weekend. Bye.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

House update

This house expansion was supposed to be complete by the end of July. Sitting here at the end of August, and we are still not complete. Closer, but not complete. Cabinets arrived today for the bathroom, the correct bathtub will be delivered tomorrow along with my forgotten item of order the medicine cabinet. Those MIA items will finish the list of materials for my bathroom. More on that later.

OK, OK, OK...damn blog police

So, I received a warning. Fine. I'll play the game, promise.

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Love this...

My friend Mara sent this to me yesterday evening and I love it:

God grant me
the Space to put the things I buy,
the Money to buy the things I want,
and the Wisdom to know when to get rid of something,
so I can get something else.

Hope this brings a smile to your face!

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

So very cute...

So I have been doing my blog haunting lately and came across this very cool little website for custom purses that Ali E had a link to. BTW, I think its so cool that she gets to travel to places like New Zealand all with scrapbooking. Makes me jealous sitting here behind a desk with half-finished roadway plans staring back at me. Anyway, back to the purses. I adore purses, bags, totes, containers, etc. All things that I can't resist. They are from Elisa Lou, and I just adore the Mary Jane bag, hell, I want them all including the Messenger bags.

So onto another topic that combines totes and scrapbooking: I found this baby on eBay this weekend and bought it for $30.10 with shipping it came to just over $40. I swore to myself that I wouldn't buy another carry case because I don't scrapbook outside my house, but I have persuaded some friends to try and start up a once a month crop at Recollections. So, logically I need a tote. I got the pink and brown one. I need to see what all I can fit into this baby and whether or not I am in need of that tool carry thing. I can't seem to find it online anymore, saw one in a scrap store the other day, but couldn't bring myself to pay $30+tax for it.

K--thanks for the idea about the monthly crop night. Hope we can get this going, because I really need to get some layouts done.



Thursday, August 03, 2006

...learned a bit

Thanks! I will take a little creativity and say your feet shouldn't be pointing out an outside door because if we place the bed on the west wall our feet will be pointing out the french doors, while if we place the bed on the southern wall they point down the hallway. So, if he tries and pulls rank on me I will just tell him it's bad feng shui. Anyway, the painters are at the house today, and I can't wait to see by crimson red wall. Now I will turn my attention to another matter, succeed in getting the contractor to phyically call me and set up a time to meet to discuss what is left to complete and the timeframe everything.

Something funny for the day on our house adventure: My dear husband almost had a break-down because he had to tell the painters today what colors I wanted and where I wanted them, and bless his heart, he didn't want to screw it up. He called me frantic wanting to make sure he understood the note completely. It's really easy to remember: I have three colors, burnt crimson for the south wall, oyster for the remaining walls, and french white for the ceiling. See not that hard, but I guess for men remembering things like that can be challenging at times, or he remembered the horrible reaction I had when our idiot neighbor asked if he could tear down our perfectly nice (and new) wooden fence to put up a block wall, and he said yes without consulting me. So, maybe it's just a sign that he is finally learning.

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

...getting my act together

OK--it's been forever, and I admit it. I have haunted all my regular blogs, but I haven't written anything. So if anyone is still coming to check my blog for updates, I will try to be better in my writing. Funny story yesterday, all I can say here is that my husband is a typical man.

OK--new master bedroom actually looks like a room now, and last night he figures we need to start talking about furniture location. We still need carpet and paint but the room is a room, so I think why not talk about this he will just re-affirm his preference that our bed will go against the southern wall as we decided about three months ago, and the reason for the smaller windows on that wall, so the bed can fit under it. We talked and talked, and I thought this would be a good comprimising point, and then he won't bug me about most of the other items I pick out for the bedroom. So I go happily off into the decorating world planning that wall to be the dark red wall in the bedroom, madily scanning decorating magazines for some fun window treatments that won't look so overwhelming next to the bed, and peacefully coming to the conclusion that C was right, the bed would be better on that wall... (little hint: my preference was the bed against the west wall)

Flash forward to last night: We measure, we talk, and he says the bed would be better against...you guessed it...the west wall. I'm sorry but wasn't that my preference in the first place? Now, I am lobbying to keep the bed against the southern wall, and he the west. So we diplomatically left it, well when we have the room finished we can move the bed frame around and see what works.

PS. I am hoping once I get that red wall painted and carpet in, and then he will have no choice but to keep the bed on the southern wall. BTW, is that bad feng shui??