Since I’m in a REALLY pissy mood , I’ll share some with you!  About a week or so ago, I told Vern where I wanted the ductwork to go for the new heating vent in the kitchen.  It was obvious to me he didn’t like my idea and gave me his idea.  I didn’t like his idea and I reiterated where I wanted it.  He doesn’t live here, why should he care!?  I know we were very clear on what I wanted.  Well, a few days later while I was taking a nap he put the vent where HE wanted and not where I asked him to put it.  I was vivid, but kept my mouth shut because I didn’t want to have to pay him for his time to redo it.  I lost a lot of trust in him that day...  Before he installed the light switches in the kitchen he asked me if I wanted dimmers put on.  I said no.  After painting at night with all the lights on I realized that maybe dimmers would be a good idea.  So, I asked him the next day if it was too late to put dimmers on.  As soon as I asked him that he got this dumbass smirk on his face and said, “Ha!  I told you so!”  What an ass.  OH, you all remember the tree-cutting-down fiasco?  Well, when that happened he said that the night before he had a gut feeling that he might get stuck.  Then he says, “God, I hate it when I’m right.”  Um, okay.  When he installed the lights he had the left switch controlling the right lights and vice versa.  I asked him to change that.  All he said was, “Oh, I thought that was the way you wanted it”.   What?  THAT IS A LOAD OF HORSE SHIT!  VERN: The man who can do no wrong.  When he was doing my roof I went around the edges of my house with the magnet he brought to pick up nails.  I spent a good amount of time picking up nails with that magnet.  I mowed and everything.  It was fine.  I saw him go for the magnet and I told him that I already cleaned up the nails.  He smiled and started swinging the magnet anyway.  For EVERY nail he picked up he’d shout, “AH!  You didn’t get THIS one!”  “Here’s another!”  “This one makes 47!”  “OH, look here’s one!  That’s 50!”  He went on and on like that all the way up over 100.  It was SO obnoxious.  In my mind I’m thinking, “You are the most obnoxious and arrogant son-of-a-bitch I’ve ever met.”  I could go on and on with the day to day crap I’ve got to put up with! I keep a smile on my face and my mouth shut, but it’s getting tough.  I’m getting really tired of feeding this man’s ego, keeping my mouth shut and generally keeping things smooth around here.  I feel like I just want to explode!  I’m right on the edge of I CAN’T TAKE IT ANY MORE.  I’m not there yet, but I’m close.  That he’s dragging the job out and therefore being here LONGER, is that much more difficult for me to take.  I want the job done and I want him OUT OF MY HOUSE.  It better happen soon or I’m gonna lose it.  Seriously.

 

Vern worked for me for 5 months 4 years ago.  He came at 9 am, worked all day and left at 4:30.  He wasn’t obnoxious.  He did good work.  We got along fine.  I don’t know what happened! 

 

Well, anyway… 

 

Vern said he was going to fill in the ruts he made in my and my neighbor’s yard.  I waited a week.  Nothing happened.  So, I filled ‘em in myself (I have a couple of unwanted dirt mounds under my deck so no biggie).  It’s a good thing I did too.  Vern was waiting until his trailer was empty to get the dirt.  It’s been sitting half full in my side yard for the past 3 weeks with no real potential to get filled any time soon.  Ah…so, anyway, I filled ‘em in and planted grass and it’s looking good!

 

 

During the time I was working on the land back there I noticed my neighbor John had a big pile of rotting logs. 

 

 

I asked John if I could have some.  He said sure and then asked why I would want them.  I told him for mulch.  So, these last few days when Vern shows up I immediately go back there and start ripping up these logs.  It gets me out of the house, which I really need right now, occupied/entertained and the mulch I get from the logs is great! 

 

Ohhhh.  Ahhhhhh!

 

 

Despite all my whining about Vern, he does do good work.  The tile floor looks GREAT.  I love it.  I’ve been living with painted plywood floors in there for 4 years and even without grout, it’s a HUGE improvement! 

 

 

Grout tomorrow, cabinets on Thursday, appliances and some woodwork on Friday.  Please, please, please!!!   Really, I’m not asking for the impossible.  I want to see some serious progress soon. 

 

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Monday, August 11^th

 

Yeah, I’m still here.  The progress on my house has been painfully s-l-o-w.  Vern is no Speedy Gondolas!  The drywall was finally finished last Monday so that I could paint.  Those of you who read my chat last year will recognize the color.  It’s the same color Kitty and I painted every room in my dad’s house.  It’s a light yellow.  It comes premixed from Wal-Mart.  It’s called “County White” and a very safe color choice.

 

 

The shutters finally came in!  So, the windows are now all done!!!

 

 

Last week Vern took down my old basement staircase and built me a new one.  I never liked the open step design on them plus they were all chewed up (literally) from the previous owner’s dog(s).  The new design is also much easier to clean also, which is always appreciated!  I painted them last week also (I did a lot of painting last week…).

 

 

Last Friday Vern laid down half of the tile in the kitchen.  He’s laying down the other half today.

 

 

And that, folks, is the extent of the progress made on my house since I last updated this page.  I’m glad to finally get all these things done, BUT it’s taking Vern FOREVER.  Three days last week he only showed up for a couple hours at a time.  It’s irritating.  Today, he’ll finish laying down the tile, then he’ll leave.  Tomorrow he’ll grout the whole thing, then he’ll leave.  He better not drag out the floor past tomorrow or I’ll be pissed.  I mean, COME ON!  On Wednesday, fingers crossed, the cabinets will be here and will be installed.  Vern’s primary problem, imo, is that he hasn’t timed the jobs in such a way that he can stay busy full time.  I am SO, SO, SO anxious for my house and my life back.  He’s been here since June 23^rd.  Apparently, getting done isn’t a priority for him.

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Thursday, July 31^st

 

On Sunday I drove to Erie to go to the craft store cuz they were having a 50% off sale on plastic shoeboxes.  I’ve been waiting months for them to go on sale.  I just didn’t want to pay full price on 70 of them knowing that eventually they would be half off.  When I got there they had ZERO in stock, which really sux cuz I made sure to go there on the first day of the sale and it’s a longish drive – irritating.  I filled out a rain check form thingy, so I’ll get them eventually.  Anyway, while I was out that way, I stopped off at the cemetery to check out my dad’s plot.  The grass I planted is growing fine and overall it looked okay.  I told everyone last year that I wanted to be the one to maintain his grave.  Well, I totally dropped the ball following through.  I suppose I got distracted with demo-ing my kitchen, then I guess I forgot about it for a while and then my life got really busy…  ::sigh::  So, I drive back home all pissed off at myself for pretty much doing nothing other than planting grass.  [btw, what makes this whole situation that much worse is that my grandparent’s and great grandparent’s graves, which are in the same cemetery, are some of the best maintained plots out there.  So in comparison, my dad’s grave looked totally neglected!  I’m sure my aunt’s noticed…]  As soon as I get home, I get on the computer and start IM-ing Kitty w/all my frustrations and stuff.  Bless her heart, she immediately went out that afternoon and made our dad’s grave look GREAT (something I didn’t have time to do that day)!  Next year, I won’t put it off.  ONE afternoon is all it took.  I could have done that.  I should have done that.  I will do that.

 

Before…

 

During…

 

AFTER!! 

 

X-Files: I Want to Believe came out last Friday.  I haven’t seen it yet, but plan to this week.  I read it had mixed reviews, which is a huge bummer because that probably means there won’t be a third movie.    I’m really looking forward to seeing it despite what the “critics” say -- if for nothing other than sentimental reasons. 

 

The home remodeling project is still dragging on.  The windows are rewrapped.  No shutters yet.

 

 

 

The drywall went up yesterday.  Hopefully, Vern will have it finished by the end of tomorrow so that I can paint over the weekend.

 

 

 

My neighbor’s chickens are proving to be quite entertaining!  They roam my neighbor’s property freely (and mine, lol!).  The white one Vern and I have come to call King.  He’s definitely a very distinct chicken – curious, assertive, etc.  All the other chickens pretty much stick to the group and run away whenever I approach them.  King is different so he deserves a name!  Here’s a picture of the chickens hanging out under a bush.

 

 

King sees me approach, so he leaves his group to come and say hello.  Kinda sweet…

 

 

I get to his level and he comes right up to me!  He pecks at me, which can be a little painful but he’s just being curious and since he doesn’t have any hands or fingers, I don’t hold it against him.

 

 

I have a really big blue spruce in my back yard (Thelma) and they like to sit under her.

 

 

And, as usual, King approached me as I was taking pictures…

 

 

It kinda bothers me that King could become a chicken patty or nugget or something.  ::sigh::  It’s not my problem, I guess.  I’m not writing this to criticize those of you who eat chicken.  I eat (and enjoy!) eating chicken.  Of the meats, it’s my favorite.  I suppose I’m just very thankful that I don’t personally know the buggers before I eat them!  Also, it’s become very obvious to me now why people for eons have paused before eating (to say a prayer, to perform a ritual, whatever.).  Yup.  Makes sense. 

 

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Vern finished installing all the insulation on Thursday.  Yup, not too exciting but here it is.

After that he ripped up the floor in one corner of the kitchen.  This is the corner that made the ceiling so un-level.  Thankfully, Vern didn’t raise the floor 6 inches to fix it!  LOL.  Normally, an un-level floor isn’t a big deal in an old house.  I doubt any of my floors are truly level.  This corner, however, had such a dramatic drop that it had to be fixed if I want ceramic tile installed, which I do.  I had no idea this corner of the kitchen was so problematic.  That’s where my old stove used to be and because it was hooked up to a gas line, I never moved it.  Someone at one time did try to fix it.  They used several small pieces of plywood plus lots of some kind of leveling agent.  It was unacceptable and all of it had to go.

Vern leveled the floor by adding 2x4s underneath the floor and then putting plywood over top.  A much better solution to the problem.

On Friday, Vern started working on the windows again.  He ripped off the old aluminum coil stock wrapping and old wood plus added new wood trim on two more windows.  Here is the progression of one of the windows (both windows pretty much look the same).  They aren’t finished yet.  They still need to be wrapped with new aluminum and have the shutters installed, which haven’t come in yet.

A few weeks ago while Vern was working on my roof he approached my neighbor, John (the guy who fixed my AC unit), about 2 dead and dying trees in his back yard.  Vern asked if he could come by one Saturday and buzz them down.  John said okay.  So, “some Saturday” turned out to be yesterday.  These 2 trees are directly behind my house.  Vern asked me on Friday if he could back his van and trailer into my backyard and have the trees fall toward my house.  I said, “Sure, no problem.”

9 AM yesterday morning, Vern showed up and backed his van and trailer into my backyard.

Here are the 2 trees to be cut down.  The red line is approximately where my and John’s property meet.

Vern got his latter up there, tied some rope around the first one to be cut down and then cut his wedge.

As Vern cut the tree down my neighbor John and one of Vern’s buddies applied some tension to the rope…

And down she came, without a hitch! 

Okay, now on to tree number 2!  As Vern climbs up his latter and ties the rope, everyone gets his or her camera out and shoots off a couple of shots (cuz, this is just SO exciting!  LOL.  Not really, but why not!?)

So far, so good -- couldn’t be going any smoother.  Before Vern starts to cut the second tree down he realizes that he needs to move his van and trailer a bit so as to avoid hitting it.  So, he starts to do just that.  He tries to go forward but his wheels start spinning.  He tries backing up and then going forward again, but his wheels continue to spin and sink into the ground.  Things just aren’t going as planned!

He keeps backing up trying to find solid ground, but finds none.  The mood has suddenly turned somber…

Vern tried disconnecting the trailer to lessen the load.  That didn’t work.  He tried putting wood under the wheels, but that didn’t work either.  He was in deep!

Finally, Vern decided that he couldn’t get himself out and that he needed help.  He called Smitties, a local tow truck company.  He was told that it would be an hour before they could be here.  So, the van is thoroughly stuck, the trailer is disconnected, the second tree is ready to be cut down, but the van and trailer are in the way.  The only thing left to do in the meantime is to start cutting up the first tree.  So, that’s what he did. 

The feeling of frustration was thick by now and I definitely sensed it.  I felt quite uncomfortable taking pictures (but I did it anyway! lol).  In the beginning Vern’s buddy was taking pictures too but he stopped when stuff started going south.  From my point of view, that’s when things started getting interesting!    Men and their pride – screw that!

Pretty soon, Smitty (our savior for the day!), showed up. 

Now, the tow truck couldn’t just hook on to Vern's van and pull him out because that would leave the trailer with no way out.  So, the first order of business was to get the trailer back on to the van.  The tow truck would pull Vern’s van forward and then Vern would go into reverse trying to get the hitch lined up with the trailer.  This part of the process really ripped up the yard!