When last I blogged about the bedroom renovation project from Hell, we’d decided to throw in the towel and get a full refund on the faulty custom built windows. Our contractor was going to handle that for us since they were purchased through him on his account. It’s not the route I wanted to take, but something had to be done.
.
.
Yeah, I should have known it wouldn’t be that easy.
Our contractor attempted to get the refund and spent a half hour arguing with the sales rep before being bumped up to the manager who told him no refund could be made by the store until the Marvin window service expert approved it.
This is the expert for whom we’ve been waiting over three weeks and the reason my husband has smoke coming out his ears while he sputters about small claims court. They keep saying he’ll be here but he hasn’t shown yet.
After endless phone calls our contractor tentatively got a date to meet the service expert here and then… yes, you know there had to be a then…. then he had an unexpected death in the family and had to fly to Virginua.
Of course he did.
I expected nothing less.
Our contractor wants to be here because he knows if the expert tries to weasel out of a full refund they’ll blame him for faulty installation and he wants to defend himself. I want him to be here because while I know he tried everything to make the windows work… I don’t know exactly what steps he took.
So as it stands now… the expert is supposed to be here tomorrow, but our contractor won’t be, as his flight doesn’t get in until midnight.
I’m honestly hoping the expert is true to form and arrives a day or two late as I don’t want my husband to burst an artery arguing with the guy.
Veterans Day is important… and in this house it does not go unrecognized.
Hitting the road with our flower bouquets early yesterday morning, we set out to visit my husband’s family.
.
.
His father is buried in Maine’s largest Veteran cemetery.
.
.
Lovely well kept grounds on the top of a hill…
.
.
With mature trees and many places for peaceful reflection.
.
.
The second family member we visited was my husband’s uncle who was buried just this summer at the new Maine Veterans cemetery.
.
.
This setting is more traditional with endless rows of white headstones.
.
.
Personal endearments are allowed at the bottom…
.
.
Like the AKA Grump my husband’s cousin chose. Perfectly fitting as he was a lovable old grump.
.
.
There’s something about walking through these lines of identical markers that shatters me every time. All those service members who sacrificed for their country.
It’s beautiful… and quite humbling.
.
.
This airman made me smile. I hope he finds some coffee.
.
.
Apparently Crown Royal was more to this soldier’s taste.
.
.
Our final stop of the day wasn’t a Veterans cemetery, just a small country graveyard. Quite a few of the husband’s ancestors are buried here but we’d come to thank his other uncle who fought in WWII, Korea and Vietnam.
.
.
It’s not often you find someone who saw all three.
Prices have gone up everywhere on everything. It’s nuts and no matter how much we bitch and complain there’s not really anything we can do about it except pay more… and bitch and complain.
This is me.
Bitching and complaining.
We live in Maine…a clean, beautiful, environmentally friendly state. We have returnable bottles and cans, a ban on plastic grocery bags and numerous recycling programs. You rarely see trash on the sides of the roads and while all that is wonderful it comes at a cost.
Like this one we just had to pay to dispose of a dead window air conditioning unit.
.
.
Yikes.
And speaking of ridiculous charges?
When I reserved our rental car for the week long anniversary trip I planned… the price was $654.73.
.
.
Until I got to the confirmation/pay page and it jumped to $911.39… a difference of $256.66. That’s one helluva lot of add ons.
Surcharges/Fees:
County Tax 5.00%:
Concession Recovery Fee (11.11%)
Customer Facility Charge 5.00/ day:
Vehicle License Fee 4.00/day:
Taxes:
It’s the world we live in… but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.
Halloween is over, Thanksgiving is on the horizon so it’s time to be bombarded by Christmas. I like the holiday as much as the next person but geesh, there’s such a thing as overload.
Even my FB news feed is rife with Yuletide ideas and decorations.
.
.
Because nothing says Christmas like whipped spiced eggs.
Changing topics, I like a good humorous license plate and often enjoy the challenge of deciphering the messages while driving down the road. But I draw the line at vulgar slang and crude content. There’s a place for that but it’s not on the back of your car for young children and your curious grandmother to see.
Maine has outlawed the F*ck this and F*ck that and blatantly sexualized custom plates but every now and then a few slip through the cracks.
.
.
I was stopped behind Mr. Give Her Some at a light the other day. Do men really think this endears them to women?
.
.
After seeing this I realized I could be monetizing Lord Dudley Mountcatten’s 18 hour a day naps. It’s about time he started pulling his weight around here.
.
.
For the love of all that’s holy, no.
The houses don’t sleep and neither would I. That is beyond creepy. And because my algorithm is nothing if not consistent…
Einstein said time is relative and while that may be true in most cases, when you’re seriously considering slashing the tires of a building supply store’s sales representative you have to wonder at the veracity of his statement.
Time has been crawling… and often standing stock still for our small, nothing special, should have been completed long ago project.
We ordered windows in July. They were delivered in October. On day one of the installation the first was found faulty. On day two the second was found faulty.
And then we waited. And waited. And waited for the Marvin window specialists to come inspect the problem. We waited and we complained to our contractor. Who in turn waited and complained to the store’s sales rep. After a full three weeks of waiting and complaining and wind whistling through the gaps, we issued an ultimatum to our contractor who issued an ultimatum to the store’s sales rep. Come out and fix the issue or take back your windows and refund our money.
When pressed the sales rep said the specialists could be here in 3 weeks. Three more weeks? That would put us at the end of November… which in Maine can mean snow. And if we wait those three weeks and the specialists determine the new windows are indeed faulty and need to be replaced? We’d be another 3 weeks behind schedule.
Nuts to that.
Our contractor is coming back in a few days to remove the two faulty windows and reinstall our old leaking nightmares. We’ll demand a full refund and will have to order another set of custom built windows at another store because the customer service at this one…. which is local, Maine owned, and highly respected… sucked the big root.
And after I put a curse on the manager? I’m never dealing with them again.
.
.
I’m beyond disgusted at this point. The new bedroom flooring and furniture I’ve been anxious to buy has been put on hold again and there’s no telling how long it will take for 5 new windows to be built elsewhere.
The doors? Do not get me started on the doors. That problem hasn’t been solved yet either.
This project has been such an utter clusterf*ck it makes me shudder at the mere thought of redoing our two bathrooms. They were supposed to be next on the list… but to be honest I’m not sure my nerves can take it.
After the recent mass shooting tragedy in Maine lots of people were paying tribute to the resilience of my state and its people. I happen to like Stephen Colbert’s take…
.
.
And since it’s November in my northern home, temperatures are dropping rapidly at night. They had snow to the west of us and we’re waking up to frost. I say bring it! But my husband is starting to shiver. Since menopause has endowed me with internal heating I’m slow to crank up the furnace these days and see nothing wrong with throwing another blanket on top of the spouse. … which is why I got a kick out of seeing this online the other day.
.
.
I really need to post that on our thermostat.
.
.
If you’ve never listened to the Grateful Dead? Never mind, you won’t get it.
.
.
And if you’ve never watched Game of Thrones or The Last of Us? Never mind you won’t get this either.
But speaking of the latter?
It’s real.
.
.
Thankfully it hasn’t moved on to humans, but you never know.
Which is why I was a little shocked to see it was the top ingredient in a coffee that’s being hawked on FB.
I was in Wal Mart the other day, innocently walking through the health and beauty section looking for some reading glasses.
We call them cheaters and I swear the older I get the more I need a pair in every single room of the house and two in the kitchen.
I’m old y’all.
And while I admit I have a hard time reading the fine print on labels, I didn’t have any trouble identifying these products when I turned the corner in search of eyeball magnification.
.
.
Tush toys?
Vibrating rings?
Little suckers?
Shelf upon shelf of …. accessories.
And to think I used to take my mother shopping here.
🥴
.
Where there's only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.
River's world..... 