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Daily Mishaps
Holiday Activities     updated 11/27/01
Trips Planned   

SHAWN AT PROM
Shawn & Ang

Shawn, Ang, Ashley, Brennon

HOUSE REMODELING
-- UPDATE 12/10/01 -- The FOURTEENTH WEEK is beginning and the workers show up so sporadically, we never know what's going to happen!

Where we stand:
The cabinets/shelves are in (and fit...mostly) but they don't have any handles.
All of the glass is up in the sun deck but there are large gaps and it keeps raining inside the room. The locks on the doors have been reversed and the doors are in the correct locations.
All of the lights and ceiling fans are up, in the right locations, and actually work; although, all the light sockets have only 40 watt bulbs.
All the furniture's here and level (except the couch--"the rug will take care of that").
The phone and cable jacks seem to work

We are still waiting for:
The area rug that belongs in the den ("it's been ordered, it should have been here by now")
The hardware to the top shelf and bridge for the Entertainment Center
The mantel ("it's at the shop being painted")
The handles/knobs for the new cabinets
The Curio Cabinet shelves
The glass people to finish
The pieces for the cabinets/shelves to make them look like they fit
The floor people to fix everything that's been messed up

What's been screwed up recently:
  • They switched the locations of the chandeliers in the Dining Room and Foyer so if you ate in the Dining Room you would have to keep knocking the chandelier out of your plate
  • They were setting up the Entertainment Center and the manufacturer forgot to put the bridge screws in the box so they have to order them and we get to wait!
  • While putting up the Entertainment Center they scratched the floor and one worker got his arm pinned behind the it then pinched his fingers in the cabinet.
  • They put up the Curio Cabinets and when they came back to clean them (why this wasn't done before is beyond me)they scratched the floors.
  • When they finished cleaning the Curio Cabinets they realized the cabinets weren't level so they sent out somebody to level them. A day or so later, the leveler came. When he left he said "That's the best I can do". Talk about instilling confidence! Now Mom says the cabinets are worse off so if you come over, pretend you don't notice.
  • When they brought the furniture, the ottoman was about ½" unlevel so they took it back to do something to fix it. The couch is a little unlevel but the "rug will take care of that". We'll see...
  • They did FINALLY come today to put the handles on the cabinets...of course Mom wasn't here so the ones on the cabinets are too high and the drawers only have one knob in the center and they were supposed to have one on each side
  • After the people came to fix the phone and cable outlets...they wouldn't work! When the electrician came to install a couple of outlets in the floor, he took a look at it and his young apprentice had a few choice words about who hooked it up before. Mom had to run get something when they were here and that's the time they moved the Entertainment Center to get to the plug behind it and THEY SCRATCHED the floor.
  • One of the shelves is missing a holder-thingy so if you put anything on the shelf it winds up on the shelf below it.
  • They lost a set of blinds that go in the foyer
  • I've lost count of the number of times they've stained the frames in the kitchen trying to get them just to blend it
  • Oh, and now it seems instead of "fixing" scratches/grooves in the floor, they just took the paintbrush they were using to stain the door frame and PAINTED the floor


Why we're are still unorganized:
  • The bookshelves in the middle of my parents' kitchen can't go out on the sun deck because there are still leaks
  • The big piano in MY kitchen can't go out on the sun deck because there are still leaks
  • The music albums, video tapes, etc. in my parents' bedroom can't go in the cabinets because we can't get them open easily (no handles, remember?)
  • My Mom's clothes, holiday decorations, cleanining supplies, linens, mementos, etc. in the Living Room, Dining Room, and Mom's Study can't go in the hallway closets because they STILL need to be repainted (we don't think they were painted the first time)
  • All of Mom's collectibles spread over the house can't go in the Curio Cabinets because there are NO shelves!
  • The books, magazines, knick-knacks, etc. spread all over the house can't go on the Entertainment Center shelves because they might need to be moved to put up the bridge and shelf and that would make them heavier (we DO NOT want that) and the knick-knacks might get broken (what do I mean might? If you've read the other stuff, you know as well as I they WOULD get broken!)


-- UPDATE 11/12/01 -- The NINTH WEEK has just ended and I'm not sure what has been accomplished. The glass guys came, saw, and re-did a lot of their work. Monday they put UP part of a wall and one of the doors. Tuesday they took DOWN the door and then put it back up IN THE WRONG PLACE. Besides that, the lock was on BACKWARDS! The key part was on the inside and the bolt was on the outside. Talk about moronic! Wednesday morning Dad told them the door was in the wrong spot. They said they knew it was but their boss told them to put it in the other spot. I wonder if their boss told them to put the lock on backwards! Anyway, they took the door down AGAIN and put it back in the same spot it was Monday. By Thursday afternoon they finally put the lock on correctly, finished with the framework, and sort of cleaned up their mess. However, they can't finish because the glass won't be ready for TWO WEEKS!
The cabinetmakers came on Thursday to put in the new cabinets/shelves. They didn't FIT...imagine that! They were too deep so the cabinet people had to take them back and we haven't heard from them again. I wonder if the two big scratches they left in the new wooden floor has anything to do with their disappearance...
The floor people finally put the new floor down in the den, foyer, and hall. They sanded it on Tuesday and Wednesday. In fact, the spots they actually did sand were so well-sanded there were HOLES in the wood. Anyway, they varnished it and polyeurathaned it, except in the doorway leading to the dining room and my Mom's study...they just left little sanding-cirlces there (are they going to tell us aliens left the circles?). The painters were supposed to come back so they could finish up and the floor people could put the final coat of polyeurathane on it. Well, the floor people gave up on them and polyeurathaned it anyway. Now, whenever the painters DO show up, the floor people will have to come back AGAIN because you KNOW the painters will mess up the floor.
Today, beginning THE TENTH WEEK, only one guy showed up. He stained the door facings in the kitchen and then left even though there are SEVERAL SHADES difference between the facings and the paneled-walls. My Mom just said, "You know, this is the tenth week and they haven't FINISHED ANYTHING they've started." A friend of ours said our predicament reminds her of the movie The Money Pit (where Tom Hanks buys a house that turns out to be falling apart).

-- UPDATE 11/2/01 -- (STILL the EIGHTH WEEK) Okay, this was just too hilarious to wait a decent amount of time until the next update. The glass guys came this morning to start enclosing our patio to make it a sun deck. They apparently went all around the house knocking on the doors until somebody opened one (the other people were working on the floors still and making a lot of noise). By the time I decided to open a door they were "deep in conversation". The old guy looks at the young guy and says..."I didn't realize [the ceiling] was this high!" (it's a least 14 feet high). Anyway, they saw me and said they just wanted to let me know they were there. Uh, duh. I saw them walking all over the place.
They spent the next hour or so bringing all their equipment onto the patio. Then they stood around and talked about what to do. They started putting up a small area of the wall -- and took it down. They stood around and talked about what to do again. They put up the small area of wall -- and took it down. They sat around and talked about what to do again. They put up the small area of wall -- and called it a day. Sylvester was the only cat brave enough to actually sit AT the window and watch the show. Jack was under a chair and Tumble was under the table. The latter two probably didn't want the glass guys to see them laughing.

10/31/01 -- EIGHTH WEEK -- Now we have a real floor in the den *pause for excitement* but NOT in the hall. They decided it wouldn't match so they've ripped the hallway floor up and will hopefully replace it. Our front door is Hot Pink  [picture] (my Mom says it's coral but it's really hot pink she just can't admit it) on the outside so they MUST repaint that--SOON! They replaced the door frames in the paneled kitchen (remember this) to match the other doors but they also painted them off-white to match the other frames in the rest of the house...remember the kitchen is PANELED (a.k.a wood, brown, dark) so they will have to replace those. They broke the inside pane on the door that leads from the den to the patio so they had to replace that. The electrician came to put in the new light fixtures; I think everything went fine with that aspect... hold it...no, wait...OOPS! They broke the ceiling fan that belongs in the den by leaving it leaning all lop-sided on the patio for about 7 weeks. Oh well, I never really liked that fan; I'm not much older than it, believe it or not.

-- UPDATE -- 10/25/01 -- Okay, so now it's their SEVENTH WEEK. They have at least started on the patio/deck. It has a new floor now and there's a hole in the bricks for the air conditioner/heater but that's it. I can't tell that they've made any progress in the den. The guy who sanded the sheet rock didn't do a good job, the painter didn't care and painted over it so they have to do all that over again.
Of course they had to waste time putting the crown molding up THE CORRECT WAY!! (It was upside down. Actually, they said THEY put it up the right way...the OTHER 3 or 4 carpenters throughout the years put it on upside down in all the other rooms in the house. Yeah, right!)
Right now we are having the den remodeled and the patio converted to a sun deck. When they first started this project, the architect/carpenter/head honcho dude said "We'll have it done in two weeks". Well, this is the FOURTH week and they haven't even STARTED on the patio/deck thing much less finished the den.

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DAILY HAPPENINGS
10/22/01 -- I had a doctor's appointment Monday at 12:30pm. It was just a check up so I figured I'd be in and out quickly and I could grab some lunch on my way home. Well, I sat in the waiting room for an hour before being called back. At 1:30pm I still hadn't had any lunch. By 2:20pm I was STILL waiting in my little room for the doctor. I'd finished the book I brought, was bored of the Gameboy games I'd brought (all 2 of them), and on the verge of starving to death. I ventured out of my room and found a nurse I knew. I asked her when the doc would ever see me and told her I was starving. She acted kind of annoyed (but nice) until I mentioned my appointment was at 12:30 about 2 HOURS AGO! She went to find the doctor. He came in about 30 seconds later saying nobody told him I was there!!! Anyway, I saw him for maybe 6 or 7 minutes then went to Burger King and bought me a Whopper Value Meal...it was so good!

Mom had a doctor's appointment Wednesday at 10:30am. She wove around sawhorses, pieces of wood, scaffolding, and sweaty carpenters to get ready. When she got to the doctor's office they told her she wasn't supposed to show up until 1:00. She went back at 1:00pm and they said she was supposed to be there at 12:30pm! Of course the receptionist responsible for all of this is named "Michele" (but it wasn't me).

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TRIPS
I'm probably through going on trips until the weather warms up.

 -- UPDATE -- 10/16/01 -- Dad and I have gone to and returned from Louisiana. It was FUN! I got to see a lot of my relatives and had some great meals. I hooked up one of my Aunt's new computer for her. She is now online and rarely offline. She's "ILuvBeaniesToo" so if you run into her on the Internet Highway, tell her I said "Hi". It rained practically the entire time we were there. Saturday I saw ducks swimming in a parking lot..that's how flooded everything was! I'm looking forward to going back but I don't know when that will be.
Dad and I are heading to Louisiana this weekend to visit relatives. I plan on sleeping the entire way...I sure hope Dad knows where he's going. Mom and the cats are staying here to keep an eye on the carpenters. My good friend, Linda Ford is coming to help with the cats since Mom can't bend or kneel down. THANKS LINDA!

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HOLIDAYS
-- UPDATE -- 11/27/2001 -- It was a blast at the Wynfrey! Due to the house remodeling (see above) we got off to a late start but I still had time to do some shopping before the real crowds came. Thanksgiving Day we saw "Domestic Disturbance" at the Summit. Despite what the critics say, it was a hit with all 3 of us...and we weren't the only ones seeing it either; there were 3 other people! We then ate at O'Charley's and we DID NOT eat turkey! The Galleria had a Rock 'til You Shop deal EARLY FRIDAY morning from 1:00 am until 5:00 am. A live band performed, a couple of food places stayed open, and around 30 or 40 businesses were open for shoppers. I finally turned my video game off about 12:55 am and went down to check out the "party". I did a little shopping but mostly I entertained myself watching people. There were a lot of older women who brought their husbands (the husbands hung out with the band...where there were chairs). Also, a lot of teenagers were there so the arcade was naturally open. I spent a lot of time watching the teens make fools of themselves playing a game called Dance, Dance Revolution where you had to hit the correct arrows with your feet in time to the music. It did kind of resemble dancing and there's no doubt it gives you a work out. It seems the arcade is on the second floor and no matter what floor you were on, you could tell when you were getting near the arcade. When I was on the first floor, I could tell when I was near because I could hear the stomping. When on the second floor, it was even simplier. The more the floor vibrated, the closer you were to the arcade.

I finally went back to the Wynfrey around 3:30 am, watched TV, read, and eventually went to sleep. Around 9:30 a.m. I was back watching the crowds at the Galleria. It was amusing because it was raining so it made it even more important for people to find decent parking places. Some people invented places and others took their chances running through the rain. I never did see anyone melt. The cars were backed up as far as we could see trying to get into the Galleria until late afternoon. Then the cars were backed up a pretty good bit entering AND leaving the Galleria. I took a break from about 1pm - 2pm to eat lunch then I went back until about 8pm. Needless to say, I'm pretty much done Christmas shopping.

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