Our contractor stopped by the house today to deliver his final bill for the siding work. It was supposed to be cheaper than his estimate, since we decided to cover the existing siding rather than having it torn off. However, I opened the envelope and discovered that it was about $1400 MORE than he had estimated. I was furious. I called him to ask what happened, and he said, "I dunno. I guess that's what it cost us." Looking over the breakdown, it appears that he is trying to mark-up the labor for his subs by another 100%, so that's about $700 worth of the overage.  read more »

Today, we had scattered thunderstorms throughout the day. I was planning on painting some of the new siding, but I guess I'll have to wait. I started it last night with the kids, but we didn't get very far. I was hoping that it was going to be one of those made-for-TV movie moments, with the three of us laughing while we got paint all over ourselves. It didn't quite go like that. Choosygirl got tired after about ten minutes and went inside to watch some TV. Choosyboy helped a little until he got distracted with an old rusty screw that he found beneath the deck.  read more »

Our kitchen walls still have a small unpainted band around the edges. It is all that is left to do on the interior of our kitchen. I know I need to get this done. I'm just not feeling motivated to break out the step ladder and reach my arms over my head for another hour. My arms already feel a little like jelly after texturing the walls in my home office. It's also too chilly outside today to have the doors and windows open, so the house is apt to reek like paint chemicals all over again.  read more »

In case you're just tuning in, we had a large oak tree fall on our house about a month ago. We are STILL getting things back to normal. The primary reason why it took so long is that the first contractor that the insurance company had sent out (their "preferred provider") screwed up a bunch of things, agreed to put everything back together, and then totally blew us off. After having them break three or four scheduling commitments, we finally had to go with another contractor.  read more »

Today, I woke up with a bad headache between the eyes. I'm hesitant to call it an actual migraine headache, but it was so bad that I was feeling nauseous. It was particularly inconvenient, since I was planning on getting our kitchen up and running today. I ended up sleeping about half of the day away, waiting for the headache to go away. At about 11am, I rose from my ill slumber and spent a few minutes checking email. The brightness of the laptop display hurt. The headache was still there, no thanks to the Tylenol I had taken.  read more »

Last night we installed new vinyl flooring in the kitchen, and we finished hanging the upper level of cabinets today. As a result, I feel pretty accomplished. Of course, it was a lot easier than installing new cabinets, since the holes were already in place. I just had to hold them up, set new screws, and level them.  read more »