Thursday, September 22, 2011

Catching Up....Part 1

(before the toilet went in)

Gosh, I'm sorry it has taken so long to write in my blog. I've received emails asking how things are going since they've not had any updates on here. Thank you for following me and for caring!

Well, ok, so I did get moved in here on the 31st as planned. But that's about all that has gone as planned. My lovely internet company which I had scheduled my move date 2 weeks ahead of time, to avoid any interruption because above and beyond anything else, I didn't want my business to suffer from my personal life. However, as my luck would have it....my internet cut off my internet TWO DAYS early....then "lost" the move order and told me they didn't have the new address on file. I told them that was impossible as I'd already received 4 pieces of mail from them at my new address. Fast forward 8 hours of phone calls including the automated "hell" that they now have "for your convenience" over a period of 9 days without internet, then a nice young lady took it upon herself to see it through and see that I got my internet. They had to cancel my old service, make a brand new order with a brand new phone number in order to make it work. Bless her heart though, another 2 days after she started working on it, I had internet again.

During the period of time without internet, I began working with a wet saw to cut the tile for the bathroom. Something was wrong with the saw in which sediment made it's way into the pump (from a previous user) and caused the water to go in elsewhere....leading to a horribly bad electric shock for me. I was jittery and didn't feel right the rest of the day...and it took about a week for the tip of my finger to once again feel like normal. This could have been due to all the work that finger has been seeing, no way to know I guess.

When the shock occurred, somehow it burned up my computer inside the house. Then the next day would be the day I got my internet back on. Again, this is my luck. I had internet but then had to use my laptop, which wasn't capable of handling many programs I use in my business and is extremely slow. However, I made do with it until my computer was repaired, which took alot of time, money and a new power supply. Needless to say, I decided to nix the tile idea for the time being as I felt a little shy of using a tile saw for a bit there. Peel-n-stick tiles to the rescue for a temporary fix! Just temporary though as I'm going to have that bathroom tiled one way or another!! :)

After getting the new power supply, the computer worked but kept shutting itself off. I finally became frustrated with it and went to clean the tub. Oh! Let me back up a bit, for almost 48 hours in this house, I had no toilet..just a convenience store down the road which was unpleasant to wake up in the middle of the night and having to drive to use the restroom. Still, I made it through that 48 hours. Still, I had no tub but I had a toilet and that made me so so happy. Back to the computer shutting itself off....that particular day my handyman was here and had finally gotten the wall up behind where the tub is and put the faucets back into place, I just knew I was going to finally have a bath! It had been 106 degree weather and I moved from an upstairs apartment...I wanted and needed my bath and not just a sink bath - a real soak-in-the-tub bath!! So I went to clean it and there was tons of construction debris inside it. I got up the nails, large pieces, etc and then plugged in the vacuum cleaner....which didn't have enough power to have any suction. And, when it was turned on, the lights went dim all over the house. OMG electric problems too??? Ok, one thing at a time, Rhonda. Right now you are going to have this bath, so do whatever it takes to get it clean. And, I did. It took 2 hours but I could think of nothing but a good hot bath. Finally, it's ready. I turn on the water....rust, rust, rust and rust. Then it stopped coming out. Nothing. I sat down in the floor and cried for a good long while. I guess I was feeling sorry for myself and I was terribly disappointed, felt personally hurt that this house took my precious bath from me. Did I mention this was Friday evening before the holiday weekend? No one could come out until Tuesday.

Eventually I got over that. The next day, my parents came over. By the way, I still had no fridge and no stove, so I was eating out every meal or eating junk here. There were no cold drinks or ice, I had to go out and get one if I wanted something cold to drink. Anyway, back to my parents coming over. We worked on a few small things and they had brought me some roast beef, some pinto beans and some cornbread. I'd eaten mostly junk food/fast food forever while moving and living here so I could have cried when they told me what was in the bag. Well, they finished and left and I went immediately to heat up my precious food in the microwave...which didn't have enough power to turn on. What? Try another outlet. Same thing. Ok try another room. Same thing. Again, I sat down and cried my eyes out. I just wanted a hot meal. but I ate that meal cold and was glad to have it because even cold, it was marvelous.

In the meantime, I was still working on my business, working on this house and just wanting a few things to work or work somewhat normally. I feared sleeping with anything on because what if the electrical here was dangerous? So I unplugged everything before bed except the air conditioner. And just prayed it would be ok. I could have made it without the air but little Mietta in her fur coat? Well let's just say that wasn't going to happen.

With the electrical issues, there were several which were repaired by an electrician. There was an issue with the line that went from the house to the pole thanks to a squirrel(s) pretending it was a chew toy. It was so bad, they had to bring out a bucket truck and replace the entire line from the house to the road.

There are still some electrical things that need to be fixed but all are "ok" for now. Mainly some electrical boxes are in poor locations and could be a big problem, as could the wires that should be in a pipe that run outside the house. All these will be fixed soon, but there have been bigger things and my electrician says they will be fine for now but not to forget about them.

There's more but this post has been like writing a book....I'll pick back up on more as soon as I can. It always feels good to get all this out of my head, as I've held onto it to share here. I think I have all my days straight and somewhat in the order they happened lol but I've no idea if I missed something or not. If so, I'll be sure to share.

Hopefully when reading this, you take it with a grain of salt. I really was feeling sorry for myself when those two things happened (the hot meal and the bath) and they were very low moments. I did snap back out of it - the hot meal as soon as I ate those cold tasty morsels and the bath as soon as I took buckets of water from the kitchen to the tub a couple days later. I bounce back pretty good and really am glad I went through what I did with all of it. It makes me appreciate the hot bath and hot meals I'm having now. Very very much. :)

2 comments:

  1. Of course you were disappointed and you should have felt sorry for yourself!! Pretty much everyone I know has to deal with unexpected expenses when moving (and even more when buying a house), but my dear, you take the cake with your experience. While you knew the house you bought was a fixer-upper, I know that you had NO IDEA you would have to endure ALL of this trouble. Poor thing. Don't you even worry about what other people might think about how you've handled everything. If anyone judges, it's simply because they haven't had to go through any type of hardship...or they're just heartless! :)

    You are so amazingly strong and I admire you greatly! I would have been throwing myself in a ball on the floor and crying my eyes out way before you did! Trust me, my sweet friend, when I say that you are Wonder Woman!! :)

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  2. Thank you so much dear Mel. I sure appreciate the encouragement and support you give me. It means the world to me to read your comments and hear you cheering for me all the way in Texas! :)

    I sure appreciate your friendship!

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