Midnight service calls.....

The A/C saga continues. It's still vibrating in the wall in my bedroom and is driving me and the cat nuts. So, I asked the builder's rep to get the service people back out there. Usually he's pretty good. Apparently, he told them to set up a time with me. They called me last Wednesday afternoon and said they had some available THEN to do the call, was I available? Ummm... let's see... I'm at work, I told them. Oh, they say. Can we, oh, I don't know, schedule an appointment time I ask. Okay, they say. All our mornings are taken. How about Friday after 3:30 I ask? Okay, we'll see you then, they say.

I called them before I left on Friday. Yes, I was still on the schedule. I treated myself and stopped by Corner Bakery on my way home (one sandwich is lunch and dinner for me). And, I waited. I called at 6:00 pm to see if they were coming. Yes, however, they have been running till 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning they say. (I'm not kidding). So I asked if I was expected to stay up until 1:00 in the morning for the technician. No, I'm jut telling you that's how late they've been running. All I could think to do was say thank you and hang up. Totally insane.

Here's the kicker. The technician called me at midnight to see if I was still available for the service call. Uh... no. What are they thinking!? How effective is a technician who's been working all day going to be? And, the unit is outside and it's dark! I'd rather him not be relying on a flash light in the dark. I could understand this if the unit weren't working, but it's working; it just has some issues.

Personally, I think the darn A/C unit was installed sloppily and they don't want to deal with it or me. And, I'm afraid they may have to cut into the sheet rock to do away with the vibration. I don't want that, however, if that is what has to be done, I certainly don't want them doing it at midnight. I won't even go into the safety factor of letting a strange person into one's home at midnight.

I'm very curious what the builder is going to do now.

Memorial Day 2007

I made my first trip to Louisiana since moving back to Texas over the Memorial Day weekend. Kitty Cat survived... she appreciates me so much more after an evening alone. I didn't get to see my Mom for Mother's Day, so this was a combined trip. And, since I can't use vacation days until I've been at new job for six months, this gave me a day to still get ready for the week and relax a bit.

It was a good visit. Shreveport is growing... crime is up, but the shopping that is coming in is reminiscent of the towns here in TX. And, even though Mom complains a tad about driving "all the way across town" (she doesn't live in Shreveport, but close), I found that with the parkways it's not a bad jaunt at all. They even had a Wild Birds Unlimited store. This has to be one of my absolute favorite stores. I'm even more driven to get the bird feeders set up in the backyard. I'm also going to design a garden in my backyard with the intention of attracting the birds. At first I couldn't envision what I wanted back there, but now I'm starting, too.

The drive up and back though was the interesting thing. I've done this drive for over 10 years and never had a hint of a problem. Going... I was behind a tanker that blew a tire. Fortunately, I was far enough back that there weren't any problems. Good thing since most of his tire stayed in the middle of the road. Then coming back...a truck had been having problems. As he pulled back onto the highway from the shoulder, he lost control. He fishtailed 180 degrees and angled back toward an on-ramp that, naturally, had cars headed for the interstate. I could only watch and know this guy was going to plow into someone. God was watching over everyone. The truck went up on the shoulder (very sloped), flopped onto one side, and then righted back up and stayed up. He missed another truck by inches. Fortunately, most traffic was well behind me and everyone could see the guy losing control (East TX is rather flat) and could slow down. I made sure others got out to help (they did) and continued on. It's scary to watch something like that and know you can't do anything.

A lot of little things.....

Well, the past week and half have been full of little things. First, the AC guy, who was supposed to come to my house on a Friday, didn't. I left work early and even called them twice, at about 4:30 pm and 6:00 pm to verify that he was coming. At first I was told the ticket was closed... they left a note on my door. I said, no that would have been yesterday. I've been here since 2:00 pm (he was due after 3:00 pm) and no one has been here. Oops... he found it. He'll be there. Same conversation an hour and half later. No AC guy on Friday. However, he did come on Saturday, which really surprised me. Turns out that the way it was installed, it's vibrating something against the framing or something in the wall. Ya think? And, how do they fix this? The AC guy tried moving the pipe from the AC unit to the house a bit and oochied the AC unit over a bit on the it's concrete pad. The result - it's not as bad, but it's still there. I'm thinking that vibration in the wall can't be a good thing and will cause some type of problem eventually. And now the programmable thermostat changes settings 15 minutes ahead of what I programmed. I'm thinking they'll be back at my house some time soon.

The people who are supposed to fix the ding in my back door didn't show up either. I re-scheduled for last Friday. Left work early, but was still running behind. Called them to confirm I would definitely be there, but might be late. Their response. The tech is still in South neighboring city and probably won't make it today. I'll have him call you. He didn't show and he didn't call. I'm tempted to live with the darn ding, but it's the principle of the thing. I've been trying since I moved in in January to get the ding fixed.

So, several items still remain from this last round with the builder. I'm going to continue thinking the house itself is sound, but this builder's finish out work I'm not impressed with. I doubt I'd buy a house from them again or recommend them to anyone. Really a shame, since they are supposed to be one of the better builders in the area. Makes you wonder.

Then I spent a weekend killing spiders. I don't particularly mind small ones (don't really like them either), but after killing several large ones, I called the pest control company. I could do this, since the one repair that did get done on time was the sheet rocking for the window above the door. I have tubes in the wall of my house where they spray. But, for the first visit they come out and treat inside the house as well. Service still includes treating the yard and outside the doors and windows. I'm very bug phobic, so this is a very good thing. He also knocked out two wasps nest, one which was above my front door. This guy showed up on time and did an awesome job. You always run the risk of seeing more bugs before less. So far, not in my house, but, ugh... some really big, thankfully dead, spiders on the porches. Moths, too, which is kind of sad cause I don't mind those. Never seen this many moths, though.

Exercise. Ack... not so good for the past couple of weeks. Had to be home early three times to meet repair people, plus some not so good weather equals very little gym time. I think I went twice one week and three times the next. On the plus side, while I'm still having some joint problems, nothing like when I was doing step aerobics. I'm hoping once things settle down with the home repairs, I can get back to a more regular schedule.

Not that I haven't gotten exercise in other forms. I have finally organized my garage! Naturally, I chose a hot, humid Saturday to do it and naturally, the rain and cold front moved through after I was done, but I got it done! Probably not as good as my Dad would have done, but he had some mutated gene for organizing that I don't have. I think he was just born with that ability and alas, he did not pass it on. However, I now have some usable space in the garage and can start going through boxes that were in storage and getting rid of stuff. That's the goal at least.

Exploding soda cans, alarm systems, and a stressed out kitty....

Well, last night my goal was to get to bed early so I could get to work early because the builder had arranged for warranty work to be done on my house this afternoon. Not to be. Right before bed, I decided to put a few more sodas in the refrigerator so they'd be cold for this afternoon. I dropped one, which is not an out of the ordinary thing. Well, it blew up. And, it set off my alarm system. I have a unit which is supposed to detect shattering glass (most alarms don't detect a broken window, just a window being raised or a door opening). Apparently, mine also detects exploding soda cans. It's a new system and is just a high pitched wail. It's awful. After I recovered from my heart attack, I looked for the cat. She was under the bed and there she stayed for quite a while.

I have a walk-in pantry and that's where I dropped the can. There was still soda in the can, so less that 12 oz got splattered. It was EVERYWHERE. I was amazed at all the places I had to clean soda up from. Thank goodness for the Swiffer mops... at least the floor isn't sticky. But, I didn't get to bed early. Kitty cat did eventually come out from under bed.

Today wasn't much better. One of the warranty jobs was someone to look at my AC unit. I'm not sure it's working up to par because it just stays kind of muggy in the house. Plus, in the master bedroom the noise is awful... this loud, grinding sound like something is going to burst through the wall any minute. All appointments were made for after 3:00 pm. Alas, the AC guy showed up at 11:55 am. I wasn't home. So, now I get to repeat this tomorrow. Hopefully, we'll both be here at the same time.

The other warranty work went okay, but while I have guys in the house with drills and hammers and blowers for texturizing the wall (short story - they forgot to sheet rock and finish the bottom of the window above the door), the yard guys showed up. It wasn't quiet by any means. Kitty was again under the bed. She didn't come out until she was good and sure everyone was gone.

The last warranty work had to do with my door knobs. Sounds weird and I felt like an idiot saying these door knobs feel "loose." (I did get second opinions before doing this). End result - the front door knob was installed wrong. It's been fixed. Three others actually have defects and will be replaced. It's nice to be validated.