Can You Hear the Creaking? That's Just Me ~

Peeps, I am too dang old to be doing this kind of work.  On Sunday, instead of taking Miss Diva swimming, Walker and I finished taking down all the paneled walls.  We removed all the nails and hauled the paneling outside.  Then Walker removed the nails from the trim, sanded each piece, and filled the nail holes with putty.  When the putty dried he sanded them again, then he brought all the trim pieces down to the basement for me to prime and paint. 


Meanwhile, Bro and the boys stopped by to pick up the weight bench and weights that we've been storing for them, also in the basement.  I helped them bring up the weights and bars.  Then I moved all the furniture to one side of the basement and cleaned the floor.  While the floor was drying, I took up each of the carpet tiles from the living room and brought them down to the basement.  While Walker slept, I laid the carpet squares in his man-cave downstairs.  Honestly, I would have loved nothing more than to haul that icky carpet out to the curb, but we have cement floors with peeling paint down there right now, so even icky carpet is an improvement. 

Walker's man cave in the basement, after I moved the carpet squares.  We took the far wall down after one of the many floods two years ago ~ Walker wants more drywall but I think that will be money down the drain, as we flood on a regular basis.  We're in negotiations.  =)

Walker had to go to work Sunday night, so I had the house to myself while I primed and painted all that trim.  While the first coat dried, I moved all the furniture back:  sofa, loveseat, china hutch, end tables, entertainment center, TV, dining table, four chairs, and four bar stools.  Did you know that if you put cardboard under the legs, even the heaviest furniture slides over carpet like sled runners on snow?  Walker didn't.  He still doesn't believe I moved all that furniture myself.  I am woman, hear me roar!  Yeah, right.  My legs are bruised and every muscle in my body hurts.  I know I will pay for this tomorrow ~

Two - thirds done ~ well, with the first coat, anyway!

It Started with a Letter

Last week, I sent the following letter via email to several people at Home Depot, both locally and at their corporate headquarters.  I also sent several copies to executives at Milliken, a company that makes carpet tile:

To Whom it May Concern:

In  the fall of 2005, I purchased Milliken carpet tiles for use in my “kid bedroom”, as the kid in question was three years old and I figured between Play-Doh, nail polish, and the odd uncapped marker, it would be prudent to use a floor covering that could be replaced in sections.  Honestly, I wasn’t expecting it to look so great.   But it did, and I ended up ordering a different color for my own bedroom.  A couple months later, we got around to redoing the living room.  I didn’t think the carpet tiles would be the best choice for this area, as the room is fairly large and we had a long hallway and the area around the front door to do as well.  The salesman at Home Depot assured us that not only was the carpet tile a great choice, it would hold up well to the traffic by the front door.  

The salesman was wrong.

When the carpet tile was delivered, we noticed right away that each piece curled up at the edges.  We called Home Depot but were told that it was just shipped with the cartons on their side, not flat as they should have been, and in the cold weather had molded that way.  We were assured that if we brought the carpet into the house (it was delivered to our garage) and let it sit for a couple days, it would flatten out.

Wrong again.

We wanted to send it back, but were told that since it was a special order, we were stuck. I told the person at Home Depot that I thought we got a bad run of carpet, since the other two colors we used didn’t look like this.  I was told, again, that I could not send it back.  Period.  So we cleared the room, mopped the plywood floor twice, waited overnight for the plywood to dry, ran the vacuum over it “just to be sure”, and proceeded to lay the carpet tile. 

It looked terrible.

Now, we had already used this product in two other rooms.  Those rooms looked great.  We didn’t think it was our technique, but we pulled it all up and started over.  It didn’t help.  We have a family friend who is very experienced at laying flooring of all kinds.  He agreed to come over and take a look.   First thing he said?  “You got a bad run of carpet!”  He loves Milliken carpet tile, by the way.  He said it was fast and easy to install, and a product that he had recommended many times.  But ours?  Not so much.   He checked the flooring underneath, he checked our cuts, he checked the measurements, he checked everything and advised us to replace it if we could afford to, and if not, to just tape it down.  He pointed out that we had significant shedding with this carpet, something we did not experience with the other rooms.

So I contacted Home Depot about the warranty.  They told me to contact the manufacturer.  I contacted Milliken, who advised me to deal with Home Depot for an exchange.  Home Depot reminded me that I was not eligible for an exchange since I ordered a color they do not carry in my local store.  Back to Milliken with no success.  We went back and forth a couple times, then I got cancer and my crappy looking carpet didn’t seem to matter.  Well, guess what?  I kicked cancer’s butt and now I’m back.   This carpet looks terrible.  It is matted, it sheds, oh, and that area by the front door that the salesman said would hold up to traffic?  Yeah.  He was so, so wrong about that.

So here’s the deal:  my time on this planet is precious and I will not waste any more of it bouncing between Home Depot and Milliken while y’all hope I get frustrated and give up.  I am sending one copy of this letter to Home Depot, and one to Milliken.  Y’all can go to lunch and figure out what you want to do to resolve this and let me know.  The stuff was supposed to have a ten year warranty so let me know what I need to do to claim it. 

Meanwhile, in two weeks, I will post a copy of this letter and any replies, or lack thereof, on my blog.  I will invite my blogger buddies to link to it, or copy it to their own blogs if they wish. It will take over cyberspace.  Everyone on the planet will hear this tale.   So, you know, you could come out looking like the heroes of customer service.  Or you could end up being the goats.  Your choice. 

Oh - and so you know?  The carpet in the two bedrooms still looks great.  We just got a bad run for the living room.  And I really, really wish you had worked with me when I first got it. 

As I said, I sent this via email.  Honestly, I wasn't expecting much.  I thought I might get ignored, or maybe someone would send us a Home Depot gift card with a couple hundred bucks on it.  Happily, I was very wrong.  By nine the next morning, I had two phone calls and three emails from Home Depot.  I had an email from Milliken, too, but they wanted all kinds of information I did not have on hand, such as the original purchase order number and the names of everyone I spoke to in 2005.  I have the receipts, somewhere, but I decided to start by calling Home Depot back.  I spoke with the manager of our local store, and I am very happy to report that I received a sincere apology and I will be getting new carpet for our living room, courtesy of Home Depot.  They are even going to pay for the installation.  Home Depot gets an A+ for customer service this time around.  It's going to benefit them a bit, too, as Walker decided to fess up that he hates our current color scheme and would really like to paint the walls, ceiling, and trim before we get the new carpet installed.  I shouldn't be surprised - he did the same thing with the bathroom when we had the new tub liner installed.  Funny thing is, when I asked him what he'd like to do with the living room, he said, as he always does, "Whatever you like, honey, is fine with me."  Which, apparently, isn't quite true, as I'm the one who chose the current decor.  Sigh.  At any rate, I'll be posting progress pictures as we go, and all our supplies will be purchased at Home Depot.  Because we love them.

A Special Gift

My mom and I celebrated St Paddy's Day by going out for Reuben sandwiches for lunch.  We went to a local restaurant that used to be part of a big factory.  It's pretty cool how they revamped the building.  The restaurant is in a small part of a very large building.  There are some other businesses in there as well, including a flea market that we participated in last year.

As we left the restaurant, my mom stopped to chat with an artist who was paining a mural in the front hallway.  While they were talking, I took a look at some of the paintings for sale in the same area.  All of them depicted local scenes and were beautifully done, but there was one that I absolutely fell in love with.  Yesterday, Walker bought and brought it home for me.

 

One of the reasons this first caught my eye was the format of it.  When we travel, Walker and I look for artsy postcards that we take home and frame in groups.  It's a pretty cheap way to make art but we love to have these momentos of our travels decorating our home.  This one was from a trip to Kansas to visit my mom, who lived there for a short time a couple years back:

This one is from the Painted Desert in Arizona.  We visited this area several years ago, when we scattered my father's ashes in a meadow nearby:

This one is my favorite.  It shows several scenes from the San Francisco Bay area.  Walker and I have visited there twice, and have great memories of both trips:

We have a couple more but you get the idea.  Needless to say, I was thrilled to add this home town watercolor to my collection.

Here We Go Again

So this morning, Walker wakes me at 7:30 to tell me that - surprise! - there are puddles in the basement again.  Sigh.  The problem is, we don't know where they came from.  My money is on the water heater (that we just put in around the holidays) but Walker thinks it must be from somewhere else.  Okay, but where?  The water was only in the utility room, so it could be from the water heater, the bathroom, the washing machine, or the floor drain.  Well, nobody did laundry or used that bathroom.  If the floor drain backed up, it didn't leave any sandy grit stuff like the last two times.  And the clean out was clear.  Nope, I'm betting on the water heater.  Walker made a dam of kitty litter all around the water heater.  If there's water inside the dam, we know it's leaking. 

Walker cleaned up the puddles as best he could.  I helped a bit but he did the bulk of it.  Now, we're just waiting for it to happen again, so hopefully we can figure out the source.  I'm not keen on paying a plumber to check everything.

On the plus side, temps are rising, and so are my flower bulbs.  This morning, the snow had melted enough to show me this:  Three inches of tulip leaves popping up in my front garden.  This area is sheltered from the wind, plus it gets sun all afternoon.  That combination creates this little micro climate that makes my flowers bloom a good two or three weeks before any of the neighbors.  I'm so excited for color, I can't tell you.  The last couple years my garden has been very neglected.  My medical issues pretty much took up all my time.  I'm anxious to get out there this year and clean things up.  Come on, Spring!

Lazy Saturday

It's been snowing all day.  Big, fat, lazy flakes that just keep falling.  Diva and Squeak shoveled the driveway for $2 each - they charge a dollar for each inch of snow.  Can't beat that.  Unfortunately, my happy snowman neighbor succumbed to the warm temps.  He's now a pile of broken snow chunks.

When they weren't outside working, Diva and Squeak were busy in the kitchen whipping up new flavors of soda. I gave Squeak the soda making set for Christmas, but this is the first time I have been recruited as a taste tester.  I tried a few sips here and there, but in the end I paid my nephew Cubbie a dollar to take over for me.  Some of the flavors they came up with were.....appealing only to a kid.  Let's just leave it at that.

I spent a little time in the basement, trying to get reorganized after The Flood Saga of 2011.  I should not say this, but so far, we've been dry since the plumber came last Monday.  I hope that statement doesn't tempt fate.  Anyway ~ we still need to get the burst pipe repaired but it won't leak unless someone turns on the outside tap.  Given the weather, that is not likely.  We're hoping to have someone in next week.

Until that pipe is repaired, I can't put anything on the shelves in the storage room, as they are directly beneath the pipe. We did a good job of drying out the things we could, and everything that was not salvageable has been carted to the local burning plant, where they convert garbage into usable energy. I'm pretty much done down there until I can start moving things back to the shelves. It was a lot of work, but in a weird way, I'm not sorry it happened.  We needed to do some cleaning and I don't think anything less than disaster would have motivated us at this point.  It's funny how fast you can fill a house ~ we've been here about five and a half years, after moving from a home half this size.  And our storage area was full of junk we did not need. 

It's Not Even Watery Wednesday!

So yesterday I went down to our basement to put some stuff away and discovered that a pipe going to an outside hydrant had burst.  The pipe in question was way in the back of the basement, in the storage room.  The first puddle I stepped in was at the very front of the basement, at the bottom of the stairs.  Gallon after gallon of water had flooded down from the pipe in the ceiling, covering the storage room floor, seeping under the wall, running the entire length of the utility room, seeping under the next wall, and into Walker's man cave at the bottom of the stairs.

I was not happy.

Lucky for me, both Walker and my brother had just gotten home so I had help with the cleanup.  Where do you even start with something like that?  My brother ran the carpet steamer just to suck up the puddles he could get to, Walker did the same with the wet vac in another room, and I pulled boxes and totes off the shelves to check for damage.

There was a lot of damage.

By the time I had to leave for work we had all the standing water mopped up.  The concrete was still damp but no actual puddles remained.  I had carried box after dripping box up the stairs to the garage, where they will sit until the garbage goes out next week.  I don't know, yet, how much was lost.  It will take the whole weekend and then some to get everything cleaned up.  The bad part is, since the water heater was leaking, I had shoved some things onto the shelves in the storage room to keep them from getting wet.  They would have been safer left alone, as the water heater wasn't leaking all that much.  Ah, well.  Who knew?

The silver lining in all this is that I was meaning to clean up the basement this winter.  Now I have no choice.  We will be seriously purging some (read: most) of the "stuff" stored down there.  It's been a long time coming and I'll be glad when it's done.

Project Update

Our shower has been completely dismantled. We have to go to my mom's house to shower now, which isn't so bad as she lives in our neighborhood, but it's dang cold out so I have to dry my hair all the way dry before I come back home. I'm not used to spending so much time bonding with the blow drier.

Walker put the old tile in boxes and left them for the trash collectors. We weren't sure they would take them, but we got lucky. Saves us a trip to the dump. Wahoo! The new plumbing was installed today, the tub and surround go in Monday. We have to wait 24 hours after the installation before we can use it. I'm just glad to be finally getting it done. Today, while I was listing to the smoke alarm go off - again! - from the plumber's blow torch, I was wishing I could afford to just go to a motel until the work was finished. I realized that technically I could, but I'd rather use that money for other things. In the end it all comes down to choices.

Snow Boots and Jammie Pants

We're expecting an ice storm tonight.  The temps have warmed up just enough to cause our snow pack to melt, so we already have ice issues.  Our roof was still buried under most of the sixteen plus inches of snow we got before Christmas, so I asked Walker to get the roof rake down and clear some of it off.  Freezing rain on top of a mound of wet snow is a recipe for roof failure.  We had to get it taken care of.

Well, Walker kind of forgot.  He has family in town for the holidays, and he made plans to take Diva bowling with them.  By the time they get home it will be dark, and most likely raining.  The roof rake is stored in the rafters, where I can't reach it even with the ladder. Walker does that on purpose, so I can't try to tackle the heavy stuff when he's not home.  Unfortunately for him, I don't give up easily when something needs to be done.  Did you know that a soft bristled broom makes an excellent tool for lifting the pieces of a roof rake out of their cubby in the rafters?  The bristles will grab and hold those pieces like they were made for the job.  Guess I showed him.*grin*

So I got the thing together, all 18 feet of it. In the beginning, I raked that darn roof pretty well, too, I have to say.  The snow was absolutely soggy and heavy as hell, which wasn't a problem until I had to clean up the mess in the driveway.  It was literally up to my waist and weighed about as much as a baby elephant.  A chubby baby elephant.   On the back side of the house, the snow isn't shoveled. There's no sidewalk so really, no need.  Or so I thought.  I was still wearing my fuzzy jammy pants and in about four seconds they were soaked to the knees.  The real problem back there though, is this:

 

This, my friends, is an ice dam.  A good four inches of ice that built up when the snow melted, ran into the gutters, and froze there.  It doesn't look as menacing in the photo as it does in real life, but if it doesn't melt off it can lift the shingles right off the roof.  Then you've got leaks and water damage and maybe mold come spring and really, who needs that?  The problem is, there is not much that can be done except to watch it and keep the snow away from it.  There are chemicals, but they don't work well. Hopefully the warmer temps and my raking efforts will put and end to the ice dam in a couple days. 

The last side of the house is too high for me to get at, even with a 15 foot reach on the rake.  Walker will need to get the ladder out to take care of that tomorrow if it isn't raining.  Right now, I have dinner in the oven and I need to get ready for work.  The days just go too quickly.

Good Lord, He's got a Nail Gun!

I woke this morning to Diva hunting for her snow pants and the most obnoxious humming noise coming from the hall.  When I investigated, I found Walker in the bathroom with an air compressor, tacking trim onto the bathroom walls with a nail gun.  What started as some loose tile in the shower has become a major project.  We pulled the trim, painted the walls and ceiling, and stripped and painted the vanity.  Tomorrow, Walker's uncle is putting in new lighting (which we actually need as the fixture we currently have has a broken ballast) then hopefully, we can end the phone tag with the shower people and I can get the tub and shower system ordered and scheduled for installation.  Walker decided to replace the trim because when he first installed it, several years ago, he couldn't get the mitered corners to line up.  It's been bugging him the whole time.  This time around, he borrowed a compound miter saw from his uncle, which apparently was the missing link before.  The new stuff looks a lot better.  Now if I could just get him to wear safety goggles.....

Update: so I went back into the bathroom to take a photo of my handyman and discovered that he has REMOVED all the trim he just put up.  He said he should have started from the other side, so he's doing it over.  Sigh. 

Sunday

It's funny but right after I wrote the last post, early this morning, I suddenly couldn't stay awake.  I logged of the computer, went back to bed, and slept like a rock.  Which makes me wonder: am I keeping too much inside?  Maybe my efforts to pretend everything is normal, everything is fine, I am fine, is acting against me. I've been trying to just accept all this cancer stuff as just another speed bump of the road of life but I'm thinking it might be getting to me more than I'm willing to admit.  It might be time to look into a cancer support group or one of those alternative programs my cancer guide was talking about.  They do healing touch massage, acupuncture, wellness classes, stuff like that.  I kind of dismissed it because the programs are generally held in the evenings, when I'm working, but I could always take a couple days off. 

Something good came out of my insomnia, though: since there was nothing on TV except infomercials and home shopping, I chose QVC for my late night viewing.  They featured an iCarly video camera on their toy show, and when I woke up this afternoon I ordered it for Diva's Christmas gift.  There weren't any product reviews on it yet, so I hope it's a good toy.  Diva loves anything iCarly and she's been wanting a video camera since Mattel came out with a Barbie doll that has a camera in it.  This one cost less and looks a lot more sturdy. Plus, it's purple, her favorite color. I have my fingers crossed that it works well. 

Walker went to town on the bathroom project this weekend.  He took down all the trim, gave the walls and ceiling a second coat of paint, and sanded and primed the vanity inside and out.  On the plus side, we're almost ready to have the new tub liner, shower surround, and lights installed.  On the minus side, the bathroom is torn up worse than before.  Walker had to empty the vanity and take down the towel bars to get his stuff done.  I'll be able to put everything back together after he goes to work, if I can stay awake that long.  If we ever move, I'm going to insist we find a place with two full bathrooms. 

When Good Appliances Go Bad

Apparently, the water heater was jealous of all the attention that the shower has been getting.  Last night, I went downstairs to find this:

Yep, looks like somebody's trying to get my attention.   Walker has been tasked with finding a plumber to replace this beast when he gets home from work today.  Just to make sure the other mechanicals stay happy, I scheduled a maintenance check for the furnace, too.  I think I'll just stay in bed tomorrow.

Some Days are a Total Waste of Makeup

Nothing went right today.  First, I called the clinic to confirm my appointment with the radiation oncologist. When I made the appointment I learned that there are no radiation oncologists in my insurance network in a 100 mile radius of my city, but I could request permission to go "out of network" to see the doctor at my regular clinic. I still don't understand why that doctor doesn't join the network, but regardless: the insurance company had not yet responded to the request for permission, so my appointment had to be rescheduled for next week.

Next up was the shower. Nothing scary there, right? Yeah, I thought so, too. Until a tile fell off the wall. The wall behind it was mush. Apparently, the grout has been damaged for a while and the drywall behind it was soaking up the shower water like a sponge. There's no easy fix for that. We have to take off all the old tile, replace the drywall with cement board, and put up a new surround. I've been wanting to do something about the ugly faded terracotta tile but the alternatives were cost prohibitive. Right now is not the best time to be raiding the savings account, either. But it's our only shower, so there really is no choice.

Since my mood was pretty much shot, after my shower I put on a fresh pair of jammies (at 1 in the afternoon) and called the bath tub repair places in the area to schedule estimates.  Then I called my mom to make sure we could use her shower until ours is fixed.  Right about then, Walker fessed up to the fact that he really doesn't like the look of our bathroom, so as long as we're having work done he'd like to do a fresh coat of paint and a new shower curtain.  The kicker is, I have to choose the colors.  Sure, honey, I'll get right on that.  I'm not looking forward to it since I chose the current decor, which apparently he hasn't liked since I put everything in five years ago.  I went online and found three options that I loved, but he vetoed all three of them.  I offered to get dressed so we could go to a department store and take a look, but he didn't feel like driving me.  (Officially, I'm not supposed to be driving myself yet, though I'm not taking any meds so I probably could.)  Yep, this is going to be a fun project.

Finally, Walker's work schedule changed.  He now starts working at midnight.  That means he'll be sleeping in the afternoons, so I have to find another driver to take me to my appointments.  I also have to try to be quiet in the afternoons.  I'll need to start getting up earlier to run the dishwasher and blow dry my hair before he goes to bed.  He's been working so much overtime, I'm glad that his company is making changes to give the crew a break, but we're both going to have to make some adjustments.