The Plumber wins this round….. May 6, 2008

So, I’m an idiot!

I went to take a shower in MY bathroom Sunday night – the one with all the faucet troubles. For the past month, I had just been using Rell’s bathroom (Yes, we have separate bathrooms – I highly recommend it) So, I go to turn on the water at the faucet – all works well…..then I turn the handle to start the shower….well, no water is coming out of the shower. Frustrating to say the least. Rell tries it too, to no avail. Monday morning I call the plumbing company to once again have them send the plumber out – third time’s a charm, right? So the plumber – John – comes out and I lead him into the bathroom. By this time, Maggie Mae doesn’t even bark at him, he is such a familiar face. Well, John pops his head into the shower and the first thing he says is “Did you try pushing this?” pointing to a small button on the actual shower head. Apparently, there is a button up there that shuts off water flow to the shower head….why, I have no idea since I sort of thought that was the point of the knob on the faucet. NO, of course I didnt try pushing that button….and in all fairness to me, why would I have, when I didnt even know that button existed? He must have pushed it when he was out here previously for some reason! So, I looked like a total idiot in front of the plumber…..but oh well, that’s why they get paid the big bucks, right? And I do mean BIG bucks!

It’s supposed to rain today, which should be fabulous for our new plants. I got up early this morning and mowed the yard in order to avoid the rain. I’m headed to Texas tomorrow to see the family and then to Austin this weekend for Russ & Erin’s wedding. Yay! Fun times!

Rell and I made this long planter out of steel. we needed something in front of what used to be the garage but what is now the master bedroom to camouflage that big white wall! It doesn’t look it in this picture, but that thing is 10 feet long….it;s pretty big! the tall plants are lady banks roses and should grow to cover the wall pretty well.

The other picture shows our front planter, which if you look closely you can see is lined with wine bottles. We’re not THAT big of lushes….we did save those bottles for FOUR years in order to get enough to do the planter…and we’re still lacking about 4, so I have to drink at least that many more before we put the house on the market. The hanging planters are actually just galvonized boxes that we bought from Ikea for like 6 bucks each. Then we painted them black and drilled holes in them to hang them!

Also, please note the bright green grass – almost no one has that out here…we’re super proud of ourselves!

Lady of Leisure??? April 1, 2008

It’s official!  I’ve given my two weeks notice to Wells Fargo!  April 11th is officially my last day of working for “the man”!  Things just weren’t right there, and I will leave it at that.  No need to go on a drama tirade!

Oh—but speaking of drama – the guest room faucet!! We had an appointment with the plumber for Monday the 31st to come replace the faucet (with the previously mentioned plumber supplied faucet)  Well, the Thursday before that we get a call at like 7 am ( which, since Wells Fargo is only about 5 minutes from my house, I typically do not get up before 7:30am) asking if he can come that morning instead.  So we agree – I hurry and shower knowing that any moment Mr. Plumber Pants will show up and turn off my water.  Good thing they called at 7:00 am since he didn’t show up until 9:00am that morning! 

 Anyways – I clear out the closet that has access to the back panel of the tub so he can cut into the wall to replace some of the pipes.  He proudly un-boxes his company supplied faucet – and not to be disappointed – it was hideous!  Oh well.  Then he takes off my so cute antique fixtures and it is at that point that he realizes that the dimensions and length of our faucets are not normal.  Normal faucets have an 8 inch spread between handles…..ours has an ELEVEN inch spread.  Wouldn’t you think that this would be noticeable to the naked eye?  Or that, as I was telling him that our house is over 50 years old he would have thought to measure????  Nope!!  So, standard (ugly) faucet in no way fits.  He calls around to some local shops to see if they have a faucet that has an 11 inch spread – apparently, that is unheard of —- at least in Prescott, Arizona.  So, we were finally able to special order one – we’re waiting for it to come in so that Mr. Plumber Pants can once again visit us and our leaky faucet.  (and people, we all know that “special order” is just code for SUPER STINKIN’ EXPENSIVE!  Hopefully it’s cuter than the standard plumber provided faucet)

And as mentioned above, after April 11th, I will be a “Lady of Leisure” – unemployed for a while – although I doubt it will actually be very leisurely.  Rell already has big plans for me.  I think he has already arranged to have several tons of rock dumped in our driveway that first day I am home, for me to transport to the backyard, wheelbarrow by wheelbarrow.  He also has visions of me installing the (faux) tin ceiling by myself in our kitchen.  I tell him that I think htese are two person projects…..he disagrees!

Come June 1st, we will be self employed business owners.  Rell and I are buying Bud (his dad) out of his share of the Steel Company.  Oh, the glamorous industries I choose to work in—Trucker chick in Waco and now Steel & Rebar in Prescott…..don’t be jealous of my exotic life! We’re really looking forward to this venture.  With it comes a tremendous amount of uncertainty and risk, but we’ve both agreed, if there was ever a time in our life for something like this, it is now.

So, wish us luck….hopefully we wont need it! 

This weekend is our trip to LA and the surprise 60th birthday we’re throwing for my mom.  We’re all super stoked to pull one over on her!

Just say no to Crack… March 26, 2008

Seriously people….I am in the WRONG profession.  We had a plumber come over on Monday because last Thursday our guest bathroom faucet started dripping at the alarming rate of 2 gallons an hour…..Don’t you worry my little tree hugging friends – we turned off the water to the house when we could to save some, and at all other times a ginormous bucket was under the tap collecting the water which we used to water our plants……anyways, I digress…..we had our local plumbing company come out to take a look.  Nice guy – complete with plumbers crack and all.  Apparently it was time for our 50+ year old faucets to be replaced in our tub.  No big deal, right?  Rell can head over to Lowe’s (which we much prefer to Home Depot, now that we actually have one!) pick up a faucet and change it out. 

 uhhh, no. 

Apparently there is also something a miss with some of our 50+ year old pipes as well.  And at this point I am thinking, ok, a couple hundred bucks – ouch, but really, we’ve been lucky with what we have (or I should say haven’t ) had to replace on this house.  As the plumber is going over all that is wrong with our faucets, pipes, etc, I am shaking my head nodding, pretending to totally understand what he is saying, all the while, thinking in my head, “Dude, you’re totally wasting your breath…I”m just going to have Rell call you in an hour for you to explain this all to him, because it is all Greek to me”.  After he finishes, he tells me that he can install his standard faucet for one price, or we can go out and buy a faucet and he can install it for another price.  At that point I tell him we would probably go out and buy our own faucet, because really, we are trying to keep as much original in that bathroom as possible, and we would like to pick something out that is in keeping with the original feel of the bathroom.  So he says ok, and he goes out to his truck to get his little book that will tell him how much he has to charge for this stuff.  Get this:

  He replaces the pipe and faucet with a faucet he provides (which you just KNOW is going to be ugly)..price $420

He replaces with a faucet WE buy..price $515…PLUS WE STILL HAVE TO GO OUT AND PAY FOR THE FAUCET TOO!!! 

All this ontop of a $40 call out fee.  As I type this I am still shaking my head in disbelief.  When I ask him what the rational on that was, he said that some people go out and buy super fancy faucets and it takes more time and effort to install them…..ok, I understand that, but $95 extra worth of labor?? And seriously, can’t they evaluate that on a case by case basis?  So, we’re going for the plumber provided faucet….ugly as I know it’s going to be, because cute faucet handles aren’t nearly as important as $200 extra bucks in my bank account.

On a side note….I should have  been a plumber.