The Carpet Saga continued...

So I hear that for some of you my post yesterday was "great material." Typically that would be used to describe a comedian who told some great jokes. So just to be clear....yesterday's "great material" was my very own reality not a Last Comedian Standing audition.

But, because I at least know some of you enjoyed reading....here's the update:
- Chris came home at 6:00p
- I left for a super night of girlfriends and chocolate at 7:30p
- Chris tried to work on our class with lots of banging, almost gave up
- Workers finally leave close to 9:00p
- I get home at 10:00p
- We dare to go upstairs...

Ok, so if I'm being real, the carpet looks good. It isn't too dark, it feels like a million bucks compared to the stained bachelor rug that we used to have, and really the installation appears to have been done very well.

However, what we found upstairs was our newly painted walls had been chipped, the fresh white banister had scratches from their tools, and the drawer on my beloved art table was broken. That alone was enough to make me want to crawl in bed and pout when horror of all horrors, we see that they have thrown...yes thrown our pillows and bed linens onto the bathroom floor. To make matters worse they moved some stuff in our bathroom to have room to finish out the edges. Apparently they grabbed the plunger (I pray it was because it was somehow in their way not that they used it) and threw it on top of our linens as well as a few other things. I was horrified. They did manage to put our weather and emergency broadcast system back in place. (Chris got it for Christmas, it could be it's own blog but the short of it is that it gives you the weather forecast and sets off an alarm for emergencies - strange they were careful to put that back but our alarm clock is still M.I.A.). So, we did the appropriate and healthy thing....

We went back downstairs, made a mid-night snack and started researching websites where we could leave poor ratings if they wouldn't make this right. Well ok that's what I did. Chris continued to work on the class.

Finally after midnight I changed out all the bed linens to make sure we were going to be sleeping on fresh sheets. Chris and I talked through our game plan of who would call in the morning (me) and how nice I would be (ha!). Really though at this point I was so tired....not just physically but that each home project seems to lead to 5 more. We can't bring everything back upstairs because now we have to re-fix painted walls that were just painted last month. We can't arrange the furniture how we want because we want the manager to see the pile of mess they left etc. I tell Chris I just need to cuddle and go to bed and of course my wonderful husband was happy to help.

We had just about nodded off and like an alarm this loud noise was echoing through our room. Apparently a cricket had made it's way into our home in the carpet installation process and decided to play a midnight tune. I don't know if you know this....BUT THEY ARE LOUD!!! We get out of bed and head to the loft where we see the culprit perched on the newly painted and scratched wall. Chris goes over to scoop up Mr. Grasshop(Mr. GH) and off he goes jumping and flying like a mad man. Naturally a blood curling scream was appropriate so I did the honors and scared Chris and caused Mr. GH to shut up. After looking and looking for where he went we finally gave up. If nothing else, I scared the song out of him.

Back in bed and really ready for sleep this time an alarm really did go off....louder than the grasshopper - because it just wouldn't be a Crack Team story otherwise. Of course it was our Weather and Emergency broadcast system that had so carefully been returned to it's location. Apparently there was a tornado warning in our area. I asked Chris if we should pray because apparently things weren't settling down....and go figure that was the last of our evening interruptions.

So the update is that we have new carpet, we can't take fun pictures to show you yet, and Mr. GH is probably dead somewhere among our piles of stuff. I am sure I'll find him one day when I've almost forgotten and then leave him one last blood curling scream....

We'll have pictures up as soon as we can!

Painting, Carpet, House Repairs, OH MY!

We haven't blogged in awhile. I am still trying to determine if there value in putting our thoughts, happenings, or muses on here. If you have thoughts on this, feel free to comment.

In the meantime, I am in a state of delirium and needing a place to vent so...read on if you dare.

As many of you know we've been working endlessly for the past almost 2 years on refacing the bachelor pad to a home. The downstairs is 95% done...with most of the work coming from our own two hands. It looks great but each wall, outlet, light fixture, and hardware is still hard to look at without thinking of the time and energy spent. All we're saying is those home make over shows make it look MUCH EASIER and FASTER than it is.

So, 2008 has been a year of paying to have others finish the upstairs as much as we can afford. Earlier this year we had a great painter paint all the upstairs trim, our loft, the mater bed room, and the master bedroom ceiling. It looks GREAT. If you are in Austin and need a recommendation, let us know. He did a fantastic job and was totally reasonable.

We also purchased carpet to replace the last of the stain-filled bachelor stuff. The first time it came into the warehouse it was damaged. So, it wound up that by the time they reordered and we finished with a house guest, today was the first day we could have it installed. (Side note, we also had tile installed last summer in our Kitchen. Some of it cracked by the garage entry door so we asked to have it fixed under warranty - conveniently scheduled for today as well). They told us the carpet team would move furniture just not electronics or breakables. Needless to say, our downstairs looks like our upstairs vomited over the ledge of the loft.

At 9:00ish this morning the carpet place called to let me know that they were still planning to install today and that I needed to be here. I took off work and began the waiting process. At 10:45 they called to let me know that the tile guy would be here this afternoon. Nice update, right?

Finally around 11:45 with no sight of the carpet team I figured it was time to call and figure out what was going on. They had said morning and we were 15 minutes away from the end of the time slot. The Carpet place assured me that the carpet team had just left and the tile guy would be 2 hours later. This was good news as the carpet place is only 8-10minutes from our house which would mean technically they could still hit their morning slot.

At 1:15 the doorbell finally rang. It was the tile guy, an hour early. He came in looked at the tile, realized he'll need caulk to match our grout, not grout. This meant he can't do the job today and will have to come back some other time. Drat! Five minutes later he was gone and the carpet team who supposedly left the place that's 10 minutes from our house over an hour ago still aren't here. I eat a few girl scout cookies, try to focus on an outline for a class Chris and I are teaching, and then realize I am going to have to call again. As I am looking up the phone number, the doorbell rings again.

The Carpet team is here!!! What does carpet team mean to you? Especially when they promise it will be done today which is now only 1/2 a day. Well apparently to Carpet Mills it means two people. Those two people came in, went upstairs, and looked around. At one point one of the guys yelled down: "Ma'am, how do you expect us to move the furniture?" I told them I was told they would be taking care of that. To which they started yelling at each other in Spanish. I could understand enough to know they were not happy and did not know how they were going to do it. I could have told you it would take more than 2 guys to move our bed. Then they started laughing uncontrollably. As if this was one big joke. This big joke in which we just spent a wad of cash and our weekend clearing the upstairs for. What is a girl to do?

Side story - in college a dear friend asked me to cut her hair to save some money. I admitted I had never cut hair before but was willing to try. She got some good scissors and we laid out a sheet and started the whack job. At one point when I realized it was bad news that I didn't know what I was doing I started laughing. It was one of those times where once I started laughing, I couldn't stop. My formerly carefree friend now started to get panicky telling me that when you are trusting someone to do a job and they are laughing hysterically it's hard to trust what is about to happen to you.

Funny how what goes around comes around, huh?

So here I am blogging you....who knows what will happen next. In light of a good attitude I am trying to laugh myself. One thing is for certain....it is always an adventure at the Crack House.

Hopefully before and after pictures will come soon. Say a prayer...