This summer I switched cell phone carriers to a T-Mobile prepaid account. I started out with a cheap phone and a new phone number just to test the service and eventually ended up buying a Google Galaxy Nexus phone to use on the account.
I was to quickly discover that they must reissue prepaid numbers pretty quickly after accounts are canceled because it wasn’t long before I started getting solicitation calls. I also got some phone calls and text messages from people looking for someone who must have had the number previously.
I put call blocker software on my phone to block the errant calls and text assuming the calls would abate, but they never did. In fact I continued to get calls from different telemarketers. Since my old number was still sitting unused in Kim’s Verizon account, I finally got around to porting it over to my T-Mobile account last week.
That seemingly simple task wasn’t without its share of frustrations, but in the end I got the number ported over. I spammed out the old/new number to a few people via text that I thought might want to call me, but for anyone who didn’t get the text my cell phone number is back to the old cell phone number I had before starting my T-Mobile account this summer.
In addition, this fall spammers got my default email address, and after a month of a barrage of spam I decided to eliminate that email address. So if you’re trying to email me at the timd… address, change the single “m” to two “m’s” and I should get it.
Our weather finally went from above average temperatures to below average temperatures, and we had a little snow as well on Thanksgiving day (that fortunately didn’t stay). We’re now in a bit of a warm spell that I’m taking advantage of by taking some leave from work to try and work on some more outside projects.
The project I really wanted to finish was the house garage gable siding. A few weeks ago I ordered tan J-channel to finish the project and picked it up last week.
As you recall from my last entry they stopped making J-channel of the color I already had, so I had to make a decision as to the next closest match. A few weeks ago I brought a section of the old J-channel with me to Menard’s to match with the next best color and after I picked the replacement color the guy at the Menard’s contractor desk used the section of old J-channel to determine the size. He measured it, declaring it 1 inch J-channel and wrote up an order.
Having received the new order of J-channel, I started working on the siding on the garage and it just wasn’t my day. I whacked my thumb with a hammer right away, removing a good chunk of skin on the back of my thumb. Then immediately thereafter I promptly whacked my thumb with the hammer again…
It took much longer than I would have liked just to get the last strip of white J-channel in where it will transition to tan but that done I pulled the tan J-channel out of the plastic bag it came in to start installing it prior to putting up the shake siding.
However, I noticed right away that it was much bigger than the J-channel I had. Comparing it to another section of the old J-channel it was clear that the old J-channel was 3/4″ J-channel; not 1″.
In the following photo the original 3/4″ J-channel is the top section; the bottom is the 1″ J-channel (held by my hammer-bashed thumb).
So that project screeched to a halt. I’ve got plenty of other things I could do, but that’s the project I really wanted to finish in warmer weather so it’s really frustrating.
It’s not the first time Menard’s screwed us on ordering, so I should have known better than to trust them. After all, they didn’t order us enough tan J-channel for the amount of shake siding we ordered to begin with, leaving us in the predicament of having to try another color.
However, I assumed that having a sample they could at least match the size. It was clearly a bad assumption…
So now I’ll have to re-order the proper size J-channel, and as the colored J-channel they ordered us is a “no-return” special order, fight with them about returning the incorrect order.
On a similar note the floor trusses Menard’s ordered us (of the wrong size) are also likely going to have to be destroyed as I’ve had no takers on my Craig’s list ad.
Not that Menard’s is the only home improvement store to screw us over. I’m also still trying to resolve a problem with Home Depot that I thought was taken care of.
If you recall over a month ago I ordered recessed lights from Home Depot. I ordered 15 boxes of lights, but they only shipped me 11 and inexplicably believed the order was complete.
After I contacted them they acknowledged the mistake, but instead of just shipping me the missing 4 boxes of lights, they asked me to re-order the missing 4 boxes. They charged me (again) for the 4 boxes of lights (with a discount for my trouble) and were supposed to refund me for the 4 boxes missing from the first order.
But over a month later I’ve yet to see a credit from them, and a week after I contacted them about the missing credit I’m still waiting for it to appear. They’re playing the old “check’s in the mail” routine.
Of course both charges have now appeared on my credit card bills. It would seem that they’re all much more efficient at charging customers than they are at issuing refunds…
We’re trying to finish up our house refinance which stalled because the mortgage underwriter didn’t like that we had a drywall seam in the ceiling (where the load bearing wall was removed this spring) and because we don’t have flooring in much of our living room and dining room area.
I patched the ceiling a month ago, but we still haven’t decided what to do with the floor.
Some of it our carpeting was damaged when our dishwasher overflowed over a year ago, and we removed some of it in preparation for other flooring that was to be part of our house remodel but got distracted with other projects.
Our grand plan after we removed the load bearing wall in the house was to move and remodel the kitchen, and we delayed replacing the floor for that project. Now we need to put something on the floor regardless, and we’re leaning towards simulated wood vinyl flooring.
It sounds tacky, but it actually looks pretty decent, and we think it’s a much better choice for our pets who would slip, slide on and possibly scratch real wood flooring (as well as do the other things pets inevitably do on floors). The vinyl flooring also has a polyurethane backing which makes it softer to walk on.
Because we’re stalled on our refinance we still haven’t made any progress on insulating our new building, and with the freezing temps we’re once again forced to run the radiant heat system.
This fall I had to rebuild the insulated enclosure around the manifolds that I had dismantled this summer.
The radiant heat system didn’t seem to be working properly when I started it up a month or so ago, but since radiant heat systems are slow to come up to speed so I didn’t think much of it at the time. However, now although the boiler is running properly it doesn’t seem like it’s heating the water throughout the entire system as well as it should be.
I don’t know what would have happened to the system while it sat idle this summer, but I thought that last spring (even after the low loss header installation) that the system was working better.
It’s entirely possible it didn’t work any better last spring either and I just didn’t notice.
Since I’ve got no ideas other than a possible bad or weak boiler pump, I’ve ordered a replacement.