Bedroom Painting Complete

Huckleberry on the Bed, Lucy on the Trunk
Finished Paint Job

We finished up the bedroom this weekend, which was quite a chore. The part where we had to clean up the latex paint the contractors spilled on the hardwood floors was a highlight. Fortunately, Murphy’s Oil Soap and a lot of elbow grease got it all up without damaging the wood. The room does look great. And it’s nice not to be sleeping in the hall.

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Our Bedroom is Half Painted – A Contractor Review

Yep, we’ve had a fun day around Casa De Stephs. Our roofing contractor’s employees threw a fit and left, leaving our bedroom half-painted. Why is it not professional painters in philadelphia but our roofer painting our bedroom? It’s a long story. Read Full Report to know about who is the best one for this job. But don’t worry, there are pictures. You can also take professional help from a reliable roofing service like Roofing World. To see more about Roofing World, you check here.

Remember back in October, when I wrote about the Worst. Roofers. Ever. ? Because we had hired the guys to do several jobs in June, and he was taking months to complete the replacement of our gutters?

Our leaky roof

And remember back in December when I complained that our roofer had to come over in the middle of the night because the gutters they still hadn’t finished replacing allowed water to pour down the walls?

Our leaky roof

Well, the contractor actually just finished up the gutters second week of March. We ended up hiring someone else to do the work on the balcony because we had so much water in our kitchen:

Pan to catch water

The contractor’s name and information, just so you don’t make the mistake of hiring him:

Richard Smith
American Pride Contractors
(317) 898-1948
(317) 507-5226

Richard generously offered to remove the wallpaper and repaint our bedroom walls at no cost after causing some water damage. He explained his offer as a way to maintain his reputation, but I suspect he also wanted to avoid any potential small claims action. If you need to repair your concrete walls, you should look for concrete solutions that are tailored specifically for demanding environments. That’s where Carters Concrete’s commercial concrete services for businesses really stand out, providing a perfect balance of durability and precision. With their extensive experience and bespoke offerings, they deliver exactly what your project requires.

When it comes to home repairs, hiring a reliable roofing contractor rochester is essential to prevent similar issues from escalating into costly damages or disputes.

So Stephanie took off work yesterday to babysit Richard’s crew while they started the painting. They got the wallpaper stripped off and the walls spackled, and they were supposed to finish up today.

Today, the guys didn’t show up until 11:30. And they worked until 1:00, and took a lunch break. Then they came back at 2:30, and worked until 3:00, when they started making noise that they wanted to leave. We mentioned that we had other plans for tomorrow (they had assured us repeatedly that it would only take 2 days, so that’s what we planned for.) So they got on the phone to Richard, had a big argument with him when he told them to stay until the job was done, and they took their tools and left around 4:15. I think they may have actually done a couple hours of work.

Our half-painted room.

When I called Richard, his wife Tanya answered, and she accused us of delaying the work by asking the crew to do more painting than they had originally agreed to do. Of course, that wasn’t true; we didn’t give they guys any direction at all about what to paint, and it was clear she was trying to put the whole thing off on us so they could rationalize not getting done what they said they would do.

So, I’m sleeping on the couch tonight, Stephanie’s sleeping in the loft, and we’re going to spend the next few days trying to finish up the bedroom. I think we’ll be pitching his tools out onto the front porch and telling him to come and get them.

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Goodbye, Pennsylvania Street!

I Just Sold My House!
A small photoset of house pictures on Flickr.
I can’t begin to describe how happy I am right now! We closed on my old house this afternoon, and I drove directly to the bank and deposited the check into our savings account. Yay! Thank goodness. Now we only own two houses – ours and Stephanie’s, which is rented out. I have to call and cancel the utilities.
I thought I would be more upset than I am, but I went over this morning to gather up all the cleaning supplies and go through everything one last time, and I realize how much happier I am at our new house. This probably sounds really shallow, but I love that all the woodwork at our new house meets at the corners correctly, and we have beautiful hardwood floors, and everything is not all shabby and worn. It bugs me to look at pictures of the dog and cats from my old house, because the background of all the photos looked crappy.
Walking around the house reminded me of what bugged me all the time when I lived there; I had a running list in my head of stuff I needed to fix and work on all the time. I still have that list in our house, but it’s much, much shorter, and it doesn’t cover every square inch of the house.
And I can’t begin to say how awesome it is not to have that extra mortgage. There’s so much we’ll be able to do now – after we pay a bunch of bills, of course. Oh, sunshine day! I could not be more thrilled.

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I think I’m finally selling my house tomorrow

It’s been such a rollercoaster getting to this point, and I think that’s partly why I haven’t shared every update along the way. Every time it looked like we were making progress, something would come up to delay things or throw us a curveball. There were moments when I thought it was just never going to happen, and after a while, it became a bit exhausting to get my hopes up, only for plans to change yet again. A Quick Sale of Georgia Property can be advantageous if you’re looking to relocate or need funds urgently. By accepting a cash offer, you can expedite the closing process and minimize delays.

But this time feels different. Knowing that the buyer’s lender has officially sent the package to the title company feels like a huge milestone, and it’s really starting to sink in that tomorrow could actually be it – the day I finally close this chapter and say goodbye to the house. As I walked through the rooms one last time, the memory of the home clean out process came rushing back—sorting through years of belongings, deciding what to keep, and what to let go. I know there were times I thought, I’d like to Sell my house fast in Everett,” but even then, I had to remind myself to stay cautiously optimistic, just in case. Now, though, it’s hard not to feel a little excited at the thought of truly moving forward. If you’re considering buying or selling a home, you might find the home buying guide on GatorRated.com to be an incredibly helpful resource for navigating the process with ease.

I feel a little guilty for not telling everyone sooner, especially my mom, but the uncertainty made it hard to share. I think part of me was just waiting for something concrete, something I could feel confident about. Now that we have a set time for closing, it feels a lot more real, and I can start to share the news with everyone. Fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly tomorrow!

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Photos of Our Balcony

I mentioned awhile back that our contractor had finished working on our balcony. When Stephanie and I bought the house, the balcony had been leaking water into our kitchen and the post and railings were rotted through, so it wasn’t terribly safe to be out on it. Also, the screen door was too long and scraped on the floor, so it was hard to even push it open to walk out onto the balcony. Fixing all this was wrapped into the purchase of the house, along with a new roof and the gutters, which are finally (!) done, too.

2007-balcony

So we’ve been diligently painting the new posts, railings and deck on the balcony in preparation for sitting out there in the springtime. Stephanie was talking to our neighbor Kraig, and he said that he can’t remember anyone ever using the balcony in the last 20 years; he didn’t even realize there was a door to go out to it. He thought it was just decorative. So we’re excited to be giving new life to a part of our house that has needed it for a very long time.

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Magnetic Fork

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A while back, I blogged about a strange phenomenon that I and my co-workers discovered while out at lunch in a restaurant – some of the knives at our table were magnetic. We noticed it a few more times in different restaurants – one or two knives will be magnetic and you can pick up, or at least drag around, other utensils with them.

We had a number of theories about what caused this, but of course we don’t know beans about science, restaurant management, or the production of silverware, so they didn’t go anywhere. I tested all the knives at home, but found nothing.

My friends briefly considered naming their band magnetic knife, but the rejected that (along with “Escalator Accident” – a band name I created a logo for) in favor of something else.
Since then, I’ve always checked for magnetic knives when I go out to eat. Last night, Stephanie and I were discussing the subject at Max and Erma’s and playing with the silverware, when she discovered her fork was magnetic.

Which is really cool – except that all this time, I haven’t been checking the forks!

Damn.

Knife and Fork

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A Cloud of Bats in Austin

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Austin is home to the world’s largest urban bat colony; they live under the Congress Street Bridge, where the unique construction of the bridge lends itself to being a great shelter for them. In the summer, the bridge is home to over 1.5 million bats, and at dusk they leave the bridge to fly off down the river to feed. Watching the bats is a huge tourist attraction in Austin, and the bridge is right next to our hotel, so we walked down to hang out and watch them fly off. I took several videos of them.

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Open Content, Remix Culture and the Sharing Economy Panel Notes (SXSWi 2007)

Open Content, Remix Culture and the Sharing Economy: Rights, Ownership and Getting Paid
Moderator: Eric Steuer, Creative Dir – Creative Commons
Eric Steuer, Creative Dir – Creative Commons
Glenn Otis Brown, Products Counsel – YouTube
John Buckman, Founder and CEO – Magnatune
Laurie Racine, Eyespot and DotSub
Max Schorr, Publisher & Founding Ed – GOOD magazine
Open Content, Remix Culture and the Sharing Economy Panel

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