New Siding and Entertainment is Out the Window

Since Monday young boys have been surrounding our house putting on permanent siding.  We started with the foundation work, moved on to the new windows, and the final step outside is the siding.  Hubby thought he chose a lush green color but instead they installed a rather gray celery shade  I don't dislike it -- but it was not the color Hubby and I choose. 

Our first problem with the siding company was they insisted they had to come inside to hang the new windows.  Hubby had been adamant from the beginning that we have some windows barricaded behind mountains of heavy furniture and it would be impossible for them to do the work inside.  It would all need to be done outside.  On signing a contract with us (and accepting a  substantial down payment) they agreed.  Then the windows arrived and they crew insisted they had to come inside. 

Hubby barred the door.  "You will not work inside my house, " he decreed.  So they left the windows in the backyard and departed.   Hubby found a couple of neighbor guys to come hang the windows -- from the outside. 

Then for several weeks we heard nothing from the siding company.  Finally, Monday morning while Hubby was out dog walking,  they showed up -- and started immediately installing siding. When Hubby came back home he found they were installing the celery colored siding, not the forest green he and I had picked out.  Too late now -- the work had already begun and the siding already ordered. Who know how much longer it would take to get in the right batch?

At this point, Hubby moved into the car so he could watch everything these guys were doing.  He even took his fancy camera out to take pictures.  Monday went fairly smoothly.

Tuesday morning they boys appeared, started to work, and quickly I lost DISH satellite contact.  It was a dreary day with some rain in the area, so it took me about 30 minutes before I reacted to the message that the inside tuner had lost contact with outside dish.  I picked up the phone to tell Hubby, sitting outside in the car, watching, that somehow we had lost DISH -- when I found dead phone lines.  And dead internet service.  All the wires at the back of the house had been disconnected, twisted, broken, or cut -- and the phone line was laying on the ground. 

Meanwhile the siding boys are playing radio music and dancing in the backyard, having a grand old time -- that is until they heard me inside dropping the F word on Hubby, who unfortunately had picked this crew from the five he had interviewed.  Hubby goes out to talk with them about what they have done -- and when they would reconnect the wiring -- and finds they have no utter idea what had happened or why.

At first AT&T tells us that they can't provide repair service until Saturday -- but Hubby tells them a sob story, and they did come out today and make the repairs. 

DISH, though, was harder to convince.  We managed to move their estimated August 29th appointment date to Thursday, August 16th -- but only because Hubby reminded them, in his "don't toy with me" voice, that he had been a customer since DISH began -- or the last 20 years -- or actually 12 years but we paid them on time so they better show up and fix this problem N O W.

Yesterday was a dreary day.  Wrong color on the house.  No internet.  No TV.  No phone service.  Still, we had electricity.  The cell phones worked.  Luie was having his teeth cleaned and unlike Gus, did NOT die during the surgery, and came home at 3:30 a little drunk from meds but just fine-and-dandy.  We had to pay the vet $368 dollars for the cleaning and the meds -- and then add that to $864 for Gus to code on the table during his dental and the $128 for pre-meds for Gus's before his surgery this month and we were left feeling pretty poor.   

August 14th just wasn't our day. 

The crew finished the siding work today.  But they had removed all the gutters from the house -- and that was NOT included in the work to be done.  So Hubby is still going to have to get them back to put the gutters back up.  The color is still celery green but I don't hate it.  In fact, it really was a toss up for me between the forest green and the celery.  I think now I'd like to paint the computer room the same shade. 

The company Hubby hired to do the foundation work was fabulous.  Then he hired a local crew to take down shrubs and mini-trees around the house and they did a very good job, too.  Both groups did superior workmanship and cleaned up after themselves wonderfully.  The siding, of course, was the most expensive job -- and it's been full of problems. 

AT&T came out and didn't even charge us to fix the problems.  The guy just laughed and straightened out the wiring.  There was a time when Hubby could probably have done it himself -- I miss those days.  We quickly got back our phone and internet.  We're still TV-less which Hubby hates. 

Luie is totally back to normal and Gus is doing fine, also. 

The house has new siding and windows -- but no gutters.  We're still waiting to see the upshot on this deal.  The final, large payment to the company, has not been made.  Negotiations will commence. 

Next up we need a new mattress and bed springs.  Problem -- Hubby is unable to carry these items any longer.  Or transport them.  We've been looking into the company's that deliver and take away -- but I certainly don't want to deal with paying $5000 for a mattress set. 

This getting old sucks.  Retirement, though, is way cool.