Dogs and Jen: Home Edition

Halloween is a big deal in my house. I make things very elaborate, and October 30th is pumpkin carving night. Here are my contributions this year. I have 2 more pumpkins on the front porch that we’ll be carving on Halloween evening, but these 8 are the start. More pictures later today when I get the music and other outside things setup.

I harassed Cabinet Guy today since I hadn’t heard from him confirming that he’d be here tomorrow (Friday) to do the cabinets. This is his exact, unedited email:

jen,

I was in vegas for three days. Just got back this evening. Yes I will come
tomorrow between 2-3pm

Thank you

I mean seriously? This guy is ALWAYS on vacation. This is like the fifth one!

Anyway, we’ll see how things go tomorrow. I am not optimistic.

Cabinet Guy now says Friday. The only good news about this is that he actually said he was going to inspect the incoming door before he comes. I didn’t even have to prompt him! I wonder if he’s learning how to be more professional, or he’s just learned what I’m going to harass him about.

I’ve finally started removing the white caulk from the granite in the kitchen.

I have a pretty good technique going where I lay the razor blade flat against the wall and then slide it down, followed by cutting across the bottom of the caulk. It is not quick, but I do it while things are cooking and it doesn’t feel too overwhelming. I’ve got it about 80% removed and I hope to finish the removal and get it repainted and recaulked on Saturday when it’s supposed to pour rain all day.

Words cannot describe the depth of my loathing for Home Owners Associations.  In fact, if I were to make a long rant about them (which I’m not going to do here), it would come down to the fact that I think they are immoral.  If you’ve seen Over the Hedge, I would argue that they had a softball portrayal of HOAs.

In fact, when I was putting in the bid for this house, which I wanted with every fiber of my being, I saw some paperwork that mistakenly hinted there was a HOA. If there had been, I would not have bought it. No question, no hesitation.

Why do I go on about this now? Well, Nicole got me thinking about it, but what really did it was this video report on CNN today, first covered  by the Seattle Times.

An army reservist (Burke Jensen) buys a new house, and then gets called up to go to Kuwait leaving his pregnant wife and baby at home. The wife and kids go to stay with  family on the East Coast. Meanwhile, Burke hired someone to install an irrigation system at his house and seed it. The contractor skips off with the money without finishing the job.

So that’s bad enough. Then comes the HOA which consists of one guy - Chick Edwards. I will mention here that Jensen wanted to rent the house, but the HOA guy did not allow it. That’s not the real problem, though.

Our Friend Chick threatened to sue Jensen for not landscaping the property.  Here are some exact quotes. When told that Jensen was involuntarily called up and was serving in Kuwait, Chick says:

“I really don’t give a f*** where he is or what his problem is.”

When told he couldn’t sue someone deployed in the military, he says :

“I don’t like the way his property looks. This clown gets to do what he wants, and I’m as mad as hell.”

So all the neighbors kicked in and sodded his yard and landscaped it.  That was very nice of them, but the story overall embodies exactly what HOAs stand for. They are like mini-dictatorships. Some guy or group of people tell you what color you can paint your house, how long your grass can be, what you can and cannot put in your yard, whether or not you can have a rake leaning against your house (that one happened to me in a rental), etc. etc.  It’s just evil. I mean really - why bother buying a house at that point? It’s like you buy a house and sell away your freedom.

I remember Ghostbusters being released when I was a kid. I wanted to be a Ghostbuster SO BAD, that it made me weepy knowing there was really no such thing.

However today I kind of looked like one. I have boxelder bugs at my house. I grew up with swarms of them every fall but until I moved in here, I’d never seen one on the east coast. I don’t know if they followed me or were here waiting (like Jaws the Revenge where the shark followed them down to the Carribean). In any case, they can get in through the old windows upstairs so I decided it’s time to kill them.

This meant another strange instance where i reenacted weird stuff my family did when I was a kid: soapy water on the bugs. I’m going the high tech route.

The Weapon

Stanley 4 gallon professional backpack sprayer

The Ammo

CVS brand concentrated liquid detergent

The Killer

Me. If only I had a Ghostbusters jumpsuit…

Spray Day 1 went well today. The masses of them are up on the 2nd floor, so I’m going to have to weild this thing on a ladder. We’ll see how that goes over the weekend.

The World Market rug arrived yesterday, and I think it looks great in the dining room. It makes it actually feel like a room instead of a big empty space.

…you always  leave me in October.

Today, I think, is the last summery day I will experience until spring unless we’re fortunate enough to have a day like Thanksgiving like last year (78 degrees and sunny).

It was 80 today, and it’s still in the mid-70s tonight. Alas, tomorrow it drops into the 60s and I will become a sadder version of myself. I took advantage of today; I mowed my much-neglected lawn and did a little decorating.

If you’ve browsed the other sections of my blog, you know that halloween decorating is an important part of Dogs and Jen’s lives.  This year includes a new addition - lights. I wonder if my neighbors think I’m crazy or fear what I will do come xmas time.

It’s been just over 2 weeks since my last CG encounter and he said that the “rush” would get my last door here by now. Yeah right.

I checked in with him on Monday and the door is not in yet. Also sad but expected is the fact that he said that he was going to check on the delivery date (why he didn’t just know this, I don’t know) and email me about it Monday afternoon and he didn’t.

I’ll keep bugging him, but I’m starting to believe the my wonderful SIL Michelle and brother Tom will finish their kitchen before me and they haven’t even started theirs yet.

My poor house. I keep saying I’m going to get back to working on it, and it hasn’t happened. Now that the marathon is over (I finished, btw), I hope I’ll start directing some of my attentions back to it.

Projects at the top of my list include fixing the caulk on the granite in the kitchen and redoing the trim on the entry way in the basement that Mom and I did way back in the early summer. And, you know, if Cabinet Guy ever gets my doors in, I’ll do more on the kitchen.

Today, though, I at least used a little of the house fund to buy a new rug. I need a rug for the dining room. That could be this new rug, or it could be the brown rug currently in my living room. Then the new rug would go in the living room.

The new rug is a 6′ X 9′ from World Market. They’re doing a rug sale with free shipping now. I liked this one because it’s basically neutral and red, so it will fit in any of the rooms in my house. It is a bit bigger than the 5X8 in the living room, and that would be nice. However, I worry that the pattern will be to much for the simple space I have in there now. The dining room is essentially empty and could use the life.