Friday

June 25

Upon arriving home from a busy work week, I found Daphne swimming in an oversized, inflatable pool on our patio while Mommy read her Kindle. Daphne insisted I "remove your clothes, Daddy and get in the pool". I obliged. Well, I put on my swimming trunks and hopped in.

"Look Daddy! I can swim like a little froggy. Ribbit! Ribbit!" cried Daphne. "Watch me float on my back! Can I water the plants? I want to be a robot! Oh look, Mommy has a birdfeeder! Watch, I count the flowers. 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 3, 6! Yay!" A mile a minute, her jaw never stops a flappin'. I wonder where she gets her talkative nature?

I grabbed a towel, proceeded to dry off, and went to see what the electrical contractors accomplished today. Okay, I probably need to explain why we had electricians here drilling and laying conduit...

At closing, the representative for our builder (who doubles as the builder's business partner) made several "hollow promises" to us. I say that because any time he has opened his mouth and promised us something, the end result is nothing. Let's just cite some examples (without sounding too bitter).

We asked for 3 simple items (favors, if you will) at closing. He assured us that all requests would be satisfied.

(1) Removal of the temporary, construction power pole. Is this really something that a buyer needs to ask of his builder? I called the builder 10 days ago and he promised someone would move the pole off of our property the next day. Guess what? It's still here... We initially called the electric company to claim their pole and found out it was the property of the builder. Just today, Jennie found out it belongs to the electrical contractor employed by the builder. They said, "We'll gladly remove it, but you will have to call the electric company to have it disconnected first." The electric company said that the builder would have to issue a service disconnect before they could unhook the wires attached to the pole. Is your head spinning yet? The electric company is scheduled to disconnect the wires on Monday. The electrical contractor may then move it off of our property any time afterward. By then, we will have lived here 6 weeks! I guess it could be worse, I suppose.

(2) Hook up post lights to base of front porch stairway outside. During our punch list, another representative mentioned that the builder should mount some post lights. At closing time, nothing was installed. In fact, the builder told us that if we purchased the lights ($50 - $60), he would send his electrician to wire them up at no charge. Gee, way to really step up to the plate, buddy. This guy is so smooth that he convinced us he was doing us a huge favor by having us buy the lights. No big deal. Jennie bought the lights 5 weeks ago and we called the electrician numerous times to schedule the installation. The electrician and a few co-workers arrived this morning to do the job. It seems they encountered several snags during the process. Although the builder stated otherwise at closing, no "pre-wired" conduit was present inside the hollow tube in the brick and no lightswitch was present in the house for the post lights. After installing the light switch, running the conduit through our wall, down into our crawlspace, and outside the house, they determined that the masonry contractor accidentally placed mortar over the conduit tube leading into the brick base structure which will house the lights. The electrician acknowledged this has occurred several times with this builder and expressed his frustration. So, now our yard is dug up with conduit exposed and we are at the mercy of our builder sending out his mason to unclog his mortar problem. Can you see why Jennie is beyond upset?

It is getting late and I will spare you the third item for now. I could write for hours about the bad stuff, but what good will it do? Happy thoughts, happy thoughts.

Let me just say that we love our new house and want to put all of these issues behind us.

Until tomorrow,
Dave T.

Sunday

June 20

Happy Father's Day!

Daphne had a terrific and memorable Father's Day! My Dad came to visit and brought her a really nice play kitchen. Daphne helped me assemble it step-by-step and Jennie carefully affixed the stickers with care.

We treated my father and Jennie's parents to a hearty lunch over at O'Charley's restaurant. Daphne ate a little bit of everyone's food and washed it down with some fresh pink lemonade.

On Saturday, Jennie's parents watched Daphne for the afternoon while we shopped for our new bedroom suite. After visiting several stores, I think we found the right set. We hope to order it this week and have it delivered by mid-July.

Our refrigerator was delivered on Friday and our eat-in kitchen dinner table arrives on Tuesday.

Here are a few new photos of Daphne on Father's Day:







Until tomorrow,
Dave T.

Thursday

June 17

Four weeks ago today we closed on our new house...

So, I ask you this one question. Is it acceptable for a builder to still have a temporary power pole in your yard a month after you move in? We think not. But our feeble attempts to get the builder to claim his property are in vain. Oh well, trying to get a builder to do anything after you close is never easy, I suppose.

On a brighter note, our living room couch is being delivered today! And our new refrigerator arrives tomorrow! Yippee! We will no longer have to go out to the garage to get a soda pop or a slice of turkey. The old refrigerator in the garage will slowly become a "beer fridge" until it dies.

Daphne is very excited to see her Grandpa & Nanny this weekend (my Dad will be in town to visit). We will celebrate Father's Day together.

New photos coming soon.

Until tomorrow,
Dave T.

Sunday

June 13

Hmmm... what's new? We are 3 weeks and a few days into our new house. Our refrigerator *should* arrive later this week. Oh yeah, and so will the living room couch. It's funny to see a big empty room with a lone ottoman in the center. Our living room TV was mounted to the wall above the fireplace on Friday. Guardian Systems did a fabulous job! (shameless plug)

A week ago, DirecTV was installed and I am very pleased with the service. On Thursday, we met with a professional landscaper to help our house become as neatly manicured as our neighbors.

Once we get our master bedroom furnished, we may begin having family visit overnight. We are currently living in the upstairs guestroom. It's not so bad -- we are closer to Daphne as she adjusts to her new surroundings.

Daphne constantly points and asks, "what does this say?" or "help me read this, Daddy". She loves to identify items by shape and texture. In fact, she says things like, "I see a fish in the fluffy clouds", "There's another octagon stop sign", or "ahh, look! A round basketball basket".

I will post some new photos of her in the coming days...

Until tomorrow,
Dave T.

Friday

June 4

As promised earlier, I found some new photos of Daphne to post. My little angel spent the day with Mimi & PopPop (Jennie's parents) while Jennie ran some errands and finished cleaning our old apartment. After work, I spackled a small sheet-rock hole in the apartment's foyer entryway which occurred during our move a few weeks ago. Jennie vacuumed and dusted until she was sore and riddled with aches. The apartment is now immaculate and our security deposit should be fully refunded...

We have a busy weekend upcoming! Tomorrow, I have hired two movers to finish the job I started. They are going to carry two armoires and a leather sofa bed up to our bonus room. A buddy of mine and I simply could not lift those heavy pieces of furniture with confidence (after moving all of the other junk). In retrospect, I would have been better off paying movers to bring everything from the apartment to our new home (like I did from the old house to the apartment). Oh well, we learn from our experiences, I suppose!

On Monday, we have a yard guy coming to evaluate our soil and prepare us for possible irrigation and landscaping options. Also, a professional audio/video installer is visiting to mount one of our TVs to the wall above our fireplace. I am requesting that he cuts into the drywall to create an embedded "cubby" to hold our satellite receiver. Oh yeah, the DirecTV satellite guy is installing our new dish on Sunday. Once our refrigerator arrives (it shipped today), we will be in great shape!

Here are the photos:







Until later,
Dave T.