Yesterday Was Mostly A Bust

I took the day off work to go out to the property and meet with two appliance installers. One was to deliver and install the new dishwasher and stove, the other, the new range hood. The range hood guy was supposed to show up between 8 and 11. I did not have a time for the other guys, despite calling three times the day before.

While I was at the house waiting, I figured, I'd do some cleanup. The trash was still out front, so the city collection hadn't been by yet. I brought some trash bags and spent about 1.5 hours hauling more garbage from the house to the front yard. I swear, with all the bottles of cleaning products the previous owners had in the house, you'd think they would have kept the place a bit cleaner! And they must have loved pickles, because the laundry room had about 15 one gallon glass jars and almost all of them had pickle labels on them. They were all empty too. Don't know why they were being saved, but I tossed them all. I also had to pull out an old recliner. I was a bit pissed that the handyman did not take the refrigerator to the curb, like I asked him to.

While I was doing all this, no less than three people stopped by in front of the house and dug through the trash and took stuff. The first was someone from the house across the street and they took an old stereo cabinet. The second was a guy who took all the scrap metal and aluminum he could find. The third, though, is the one that really baffles me. He took a couple old paintings and then some weird stuff - a half empty bottle of fabric softener, a half empty bottle of tile sealer. I don't know what else because, once I saw him take those things, I tried to avoid him.

I tried calling the dishwasher and stove people again and was told they weren't coming until tomorrow! They claim they received the dishwasher damaged and had to order a new one. They also claimed they called me three times yesterday to tell me and that they left a message. This is crap. I told them I was the one who called them three times. The number they have is a cell phone and my caller ID log shows they did not call, nor was there a voicemail from them. The stupid guy on the phone just said "all I know is that my computer tells me they tried to call you three times." Turns out, these people are the same jerks who screwed up the last dishwasher installation I had. I will never use Home Depot again. Anyway, they called later that day to tell me the installation will happen the following day (today) between 9 AM and 1 PM.

It got to be 10:30 and the range hood installer had not shown up yet, so I called him. He had me down for 2 PM to 6 PM. No no no. I told him he told me 8 to 11 AM and we hemmed and hawed for a bit. I finally asked him if I had to be there when he installed the thing and he said no, so I gave him the lockbox code and left.

He called me around 5:45 PM and told me he was there working and he got the thing installed. One thing I did wrong was I bought a ductless range hood (meaning the exhaust fans just blows back into the house through a filter instead of up a pipe to the roof). The last house I rehabbed was like this, so I didn't think about this one being different. No big deal. The hood can still be installed, it just won't vent to the roof.

As I was talking, the installer informed me he used to work for a bank fixing up foreclosed houses. He installs dishwashers, cabinets, lighting, and anything else needed to fix a house up for sale. So I asked him to give me a quote on replacing the cabinets in this house - something I wasn't going to do, but I thought I might see what it would cost, since he said he could do it for cheap, using good but cheap cabinets. I should get the quote today.

So, I only got 50% of what I wanted to get done accomplished and I have to go back again today. On the other hand, I have a potential new handyman and I spent the rest of the day setting up my Quickbooks file for this new LLC, something I have been putting off for a couple months.

I also forgot to bring a camera yesterday, but I have one today, so hopefully I can get some pics posted.