Joy And Pain

I had a whole post planned in my head yesterday, but didn't do anything about it.  And again this morning.  Now that I've got time to sit down and jot something down, I don't know if my head is in it.  I hate that.  

The general frustration with trying to get things done around the house seems to have turned the corner.  It's not been a complete 180, but it seems to be getting there.  Baby steps.

JOY - We finally have painters.  They've showed up every day this week to get this house into shape.  It's looking really, really good.  It doesn't even look like the same place anymore.  I'm absolutely thrilled.  It took two sets of painters and seven weeks, but we're finally making progress.

PAIN - Ken's not completely thrilled with the job they're doing.  Since I'm the one home while they're painting and he's a work, he's had a lot of questions for me that I don't have answers for and it's frustrating.  He's a micro manager to the extreme and I couldn't be more different.  I've been letting them do their job without getting in the way.  Today I sat out on the front porch and read.  He's given me an entire list of things to address with the guys tomorrow.  They were hoping to be done today and with Ken's list, I think they might be here straight through until Friday.  

JOY - Driveway has been successfully sealed. 

PAIN - Like the painters, it took weeks and two different companies before we could get the job done.  With company number one, most of the issues we had were weather related.  If it rains, they can't work.  Our first four appointments with them were cancelled because the weather didn't cooperate.  Appointment number five was a complete failure.  They never showed up on Saturday.  On Monday they called to reschedule again.  We found out they did show up, saw a car in the driveway and just went on to their next job instead of RINGING THE FUCKING DOORBELL.  We were home and waiting for them.  Monday Ken called a different company our neighbor uses.  They came out that day, gave an estimate and showed up the next morning to do the job.  We'll be using them from here on out.

JOY - Ken scheduled the sprinkler company to come out and make sure our sprinkler system was in good working order.  One of the cool things about this new house is the in ground sprinkler system the previous owners had installed.  No more dragging out the hose and sprinkler to water the grass when needed.

PAIN - They had to come back today to replace two of the sprinkler heads.  They checked to make sure the system itself was working, but not the actual sprinkler heads.  One was leaking and left a big puddle after being on for just a couple minutes.  The other one didn't rotate.

JOY - We got a new washer and dryer on Monday.  The washer we purchased a few weeks ago just wasn't cutting it.  It's not the machine we walked in the store to buy, but rather one that we were kind of talked into.  It didn't work out, but luckily there was a 90 days, no questions asked return policy on it.  The set we intended on buying was the one we went back in for.  Although it's very similar to what we initially bought, I'm liking it much better.

PAIN - The delivery guys were supposed to hook up the washer and dryer upon delivery.  They did with the washer, but never did the dryer.  And that's where the pain started.  After four calls to Sears to try to get the issue resolved, all we got was a heaping helping of attitude and no help whatsoever.  The best we were offered was for someone to hopefully come out a few days later.  That's just crap, if you ask me.  They didn't do their job in the first place and now we had to suffer for it.  The following day Ken called back only to find out that there was no record of any of his calls the night before.  And now the best they were willing to do was send someone out maybe next week.  He got really pissed, left work and headed to the store.  I, on the other hand, took to the internet.  I found Sears had a Facebook page and I aired my issues there.  I was shocked to find an email back from Sears about fifteen minutes after my post.  And then I got a phone call from their corporate office later in the afternoon.  I now had an appointment scheduled for today.  Not only that, but I got a follow up phone call this evening where I reported how the visit went and I was promised another follow up phone call on Monday.  I'm stunned.  Now it's not going to change the fact that I'm never using Sears again for any type of major purchase, but I'm thrilled that I got someone to listen to me.  The customer service at Sears does not exist in any way, shape or form, and it sucks that it took this for me to figure it out, but at least I know it now.

Overall, I'm pretty damn happy with the change in the way things have been going.  I feel like we're starting to make progress again in getting this house in the shape we both want it.  It feels like we've been living out of boxes since we moved in (we haven't, but it feels that way) and now that chapter can start coming to an end.  Furniture can be placed, artwork can be hung.....  We're almost there.  I've been living in one sort of chaos or another for a year now and I can't take it much longer.  Between getting the old house in shape to sell and getting this one in shape to live, it's been very trying.  Knowing there's a light at the end of this tunnel is very exciting.