So flipping unreliable..........

One of the jobs on our list to be done on the house for 2019, is having the windows re caulked.  It's a time consuming and tedious job for the amateur, so we decided to find someone to do it for us.  At one of the home improvement shows back in March/April, we got a guys name.  We called him and he came out within a few days to give us a quote.

Super nice guy, all his company did was caulking and we liked him that much that we sent him round to son's house, as he wants his windows done as well.  We were both happy with the prices he gave for both houses, and said go ahead.

At the time the weather wasn't conducive to that type of job and we told him we weren't in a rush to have the job done.  He made a couple of appointments to do son's home, but due to bad weather he cancelled.........which was totally understandable.  A couple of weeks ago I sent him a text to say hi, and to make sure we are still on the list................nothing........fair enough he said he was terrible at answering his phone and texts.......  So I wait a week or so and text again............radio silence........nothing.........  Our son has sent him texts, with no answer either.

So I put a post on our local Facebook page to see if we can find someone else.  I must say I am very disappointed in this guy as he seemed so nice and we liked the way he ran his business.  However we need/want this job done this year...........I'll keep you posted on how we get on.

Why are people so unreliable?

When is first thing in the morning to you?

To me first thing is 8 am when scheduling people to come and do work at the house.  So when I made arrangements for the HVAC people to install the air conditioning unit, I asked the lady when do they start work?  She said 7:30 am, but they'll have to load up the truck etc., so probably won't arrive until after 8 am, more likely 8:30 am.

8:45 am and still no sign of anyone, so call the office and ask if they are arriving today and she said yes they're on their way.  The office is less than five minutes away.  One guy arrives, takes a look and then disappears.  It is 10 am when him and another guy comes back and starts work.  That is not first thing!!!

I was not impressed .  What a disorganized bunch they were.  Plus we were forecast for rain after lunch, so if they had started when they should have the job would have been finished before the rain started.............but no, due to the late start they got wet!!!

One guy was an apprentice and the other guy was training him.........fair enough.  Then the apprentice gets a call, he has to leave for another job at 2 pm.  To cut a very long and exasperating story, the guy finally left at 8 pm. 

Thank goodness my dh had done all the electrical for them as it would have been midnight before he left.  We have had air conditioning units installed before but it has NEVER EVER been a 10 hour job, NEVER.

Anyway, it's installed now, and we are ready for the heat, so that's a good thing!!

I now need to sort out that side of the house garden as it is messy, but more about that another time!!

Busy, busy day, and Earth Hour......

Friday was a super busy day.  The day went by so fast, in fact the whole week has gone by fast.  There just doesn't seem like there are enough hours in the day at the moment.  Still it's better to be busy than sitting there twiddling your thumbs right?

The workmen worked until 2pm on Friday and will not be back again until Tuesday, as they don't work on weekends, and I have an appointment on Monday morning.  So fingers crossed they will be finished on Tuesday and I can start and decorate our bedroom, as I am not loving sleeping in a double bed with dh.  It's too squished and for someone who is permanently having hot flashes that isn't a good thing!

Then on Friday afternoon I attended the church advisory meeting, as I was going to present my recipe book fundraising idea.  I am pleased to say that we are going ahead with it which is hardly surprising as I am doing the majority of the work.  However I am dreading the next meeting we have to have as getting everyone to agree on something is bloody hard work.  I mean it's painful; I couldn't believe how much they hummed and haa-ed over every slight detail on another lady's project.

So all I got them to decide on today, was would like like me to do this and could they supply me with recipes.  We still have to figure out the graphics, the colour, the type of font, the dividers, the title, and the forward for this process.  I think I will need to take a valium before that meeting, as when God was handing out patience I was either in the shopping or eating chocolate line, and you need the patience of a saint with some of those ladies.

Infact when I started to talk about the church having a website, one lady got up and walked out without saying a thing???  When the reverend was thanking me for my presentation I mentioned I think I had upset this lady, but he said she was grumpy today anyhow!!!

Don't forget today at 8:30pm it's Earth Hour, for more information on it, please click on this link  Will you participate?

Did you remember to put money in your Daily Saving's Pot?  We are getting close to the end of the month.

Today's Money Saving Tip:
If you have fluorescent lights, don't turn them off when leaving a room if you will be gone for 15 minutes or less. It costs more to turn a fluorescent light off and on again than keeping it running for this period. This will also help make the light last longer since turning fluorescent lights off and on wears out their tube.

Tip from this site

My goal for Sunday afternoon, is to catch up on everyone's blogs, as again I haven't had a chance to do that yet.

The good, the bad and the ugly.........

The Good:

Well my column is now up and running on the Orangeville Banner, however it's almost impossible to find it, other then putting in the word "blog" into the search feature on the site, they are experiencing a few technical glitches at the moment.  Here is a direct link to it.  I am not happy with how the column is looking,  but it will all come together no doubt.  I will be using some of the work that I use on the Eden Valley Messenger's site, but generally each one will have their own unique columns.  I am responsible for putting everything together, whereas with the EVM, I email everything over to them and they upload everything onto the site.

The Bad:

Well I knew in the back of my mind that these workmen would run into some sort of problem, as everything we do in this house is an issue.  So today they started to work on our bedroom ceiling and by coffee time they had run into problems.  The reason the ceiling was cracked was the floor joists in the attic are only 2' by 6', rather than 2' by 8's or 10's.  So its not as strong, and when people are walking in the attic, there is some "bounce" in the ceiling, which in turn causes the cracks.

The solution to this issue would be to take up all the flooring in the attic and replace all the joists, can you all say CHING-CHING!!!  Well have to say this house is living up to its name, "THE MONEY PIT."  What we have decided to do, is to get them to repair the ceiling as planned, and if and when it cracks again, I will put up either a faux tin ceiling or wallpaper the ceiling. 

When the house was built the attic was mainly a storage place, not a living place, so that's why they only used the smaller joists.  As we are only using it as my sewing room, and a spare bedroom it should be fine.....we hope.

I must say I am going to be on pins and needles when they start in the basement, as goodness knows what they will discover down there!!

The Ugly:

Not exactly ugly, but I am not loving my latest finished project.  I can't exactly figure out why I am not happy about it, but I generally love my work, but not in this case.  The finished size is 20 inches by 28 inches.  Hopefully someone loves it and will buy it off me?

The front of the table runner:

The back of the table runner, blogger turned my photo around?

Did you remember to put your money in your Daily Savings Pot today?

Today's Money Saving Tip:

Four questions that you should ask before adding things to your life:

1. Do I have something that can serve?


2. Can I make it?


3. Can I buy it used?


4. Can I do without it?


Only when all four answers are “no” do you then go through the research of finding the best price on a new purchase.

A couple of other things.  I have been super busy so haven't had the time to visit everyones blogs, I am sorry.

Also I am having trouble with editing this post, and aligning the text to the left?  Not sure what is going on with Blogger?

My column, and other "stuff"

I talk about BBQ season or in my case cremating season in my column this week on The Eden Valley Messenger.  No idea what I am going to write about next week......no doubt something will pop up before the weekend.

The workmen arrived on Tuesday and  got all the drywall/plasterboard hung in the attic.  So now the guy who puts on the mud and tape will come in and sort it all out.  He has got the stomach flu at the moment, so not 100% sure when he is going to arrive?

It poured down all day on Tuesday and with the guys walking in and out, there is mud from one end of the house to the other.   However there is little point of doing too much cleaning as when the sanding begins its going to be nasty.  I am so not looking forward to that.

10 WAYS TO KNOW IF YOU HAVE "ESTROGEN ISSUES"

1. Everyone around you has an attitude problem.

2.You're adding chocolate chips to your cheese omelet.

3.The dryer has shrunk every last pair of your jeans.

4.Your husband is suddenly agreeing to everything you say.

5.You're using your cellular phone to dial up every bumper sticker that says "How's my driving-call 1-800-***-."

6.Everyone's head looks like an invitation to batting practice.

7. You're convinced there's a God and he's male.

8.You can't believe they don't make a tampon bigger than Super Plus.

9.You're sure that everyone is scheming to drive you crazy.

10.The ibuprofen bottle is empty and you bought it yesterday.

Off to get more chocolate and ibuprofen!!!

Did you remember to put your money in your daily savings pot?

Today's Money Saving Tip:

Keep it indoors. Whether you’re heating or cooling, you don’t want your energy going out the door. Caulk and weather-strip around doors and window frames. Closely check any area where pipes go from the outside of your home to the inside, especially plumbing pipes. And if you have operable storm windows, make sure those are shut, too.

Couple more jobs crossed off the to do list......

Well first of all the workmen never turned up on Monday.  Personally I think the store forgot about us, but they used the excuse that some of the guys had come down with the stomach flu.  Anyhow, they will be putting up the drywall/plaster board on Tuesday.  Then someone else is coming in on Thursday, Friday and maybe Saturday (?) to do the taping and sanding.


Regardless, the sooner it is done the better, as me and dh are camping out in the spare bedroom, and sleeping in that bed, which is only a double bed.  We are used to a queen sized bed, and it's a bit squishy; and with me suffering from numerous hot flashes being squished together is not a good thing. 


I got a couple of sewing jobs done.  Including the black, white and red block of the month.  I have to say this block pattern is my favourite so far and pretty easy to do.

I also got the net curtain sewn for the closet and dh got the shelves put up in there.  I will have photos of that tomorrow.  Plus dh got permission to take some old breeze/cinder blocks to work to dispose of; so we loaded the truck up with them on Monday afternoon, saving us dumping fees.

I am so glad I moderate all my comments, as I have been hit with all sorts of "spam" posts these last few days.  I have no idea where they are coming from but it is a pain.  I'm just thankful that I can moderate them and reject them, so you guys don't have to deal with the rubbish that is written.

Did you remember to put your money in your Daily Savings Pot today?

Today's Money Saving Tip:

Visit your home improvement store like Lowe's or Home Depot. They offer free programs that teach you the skills you need to fix up your home. If there isn't a class someone will explain in detail the how to of fix up.

Cross Stitching.......

I got a new to me magazine when I was out the other day, called Cross Stitch Crazy. It's of course a British magazine, I think the British have the best magazines in the world.  I signed up for the newsletter and entered all the competitions, other than the ones for the sewing machines, as they won't work over here.

It had a lovely little free project in it, for a bookmark, so I have been busy doing that. (right of photo)

One tip that all experienced cross stitchers know, but if you're new to the craft, these kits have a habit of coming with no identification of what colour is what.  Make sure you go through the colours in the day light, and get a piece of cardboard and write down the colour and the symbol used, and put a hole in for each colour.  That way it's easier to find the right colour threads.  In this case there are 4 different mauve colours and a pink, which is similar to the light mauve!!

I love doing cross stitch as much as I love sewing.

By the time you read this on Monday morning, the workmen should have arrived (9am out time) to start on the drywalling/plasterboarding. I of course have signed up to be their chief supervisor, and a fine job I will no doubt do!!  Not sure how lon they will be here, but I have cleared my week to be at home, other than on Friday when I have a meeting at 2pm at the church.  I am putting forward a motion to be in charge of organizing a cookbook for a church fundraier.  Should be fun and pretty simple to do.  Just have to print out some figures, got my sample cookbook and I am all ready to go.  Think it should be a relatively easy thing to persuade the members to sign up for.

I still have a list of things to do sewing wise this week, so want to work my way through that list; as when these guys have gone, I am going to be busy deocrating.

Did you remember to put your money in your Daily Savings Pot today?

Today's Money Saving Tip:

Eat less meat. For the nutritional value, meat is very expensive, especially as compared to vegetables and fruits. Simply change around your regular meal proportions to include more fruits and vegetables and less meats – eat a smaller steak and a bigger helping of green beans, for example. Not only is this a healthier way to eat (saving on health costs), it’s also less expensive.