(Post 115 of 263. Thanks again to those who participated in the Fundrazr. As I mentioned in the post announcing Bast’s passing from COVID, I thank everyone for your generous donations to the original Fundrazr campaign, which resulted in sponsored 263 posts. I will continue to honour the commitment to write those 263 posts, but I will not commit to more. The link above is to a new campaign to help Bast’s family.)
So close and yet so far away. But doors! Improved internet and cable service! And dust! So. Much. Dust.
(Post 114 of 263. Thanks again to those who participated in the Fundrazr. As I mentioned in the post announcing Bast’s passing from COVID, I thank everyone for your generous donations to the original Fundrazr campaign, which resulted in sponsored 263 posts. I will continue to honour the commitment to write those 263 posts, but I will not commit to more. The link above is to a new campaign to help Bast’s family.)
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My contractor showed up with more guys today and said they were going to start on my master bedroom. 😳😳😳😳😳😳 He wants to deliver everything to me by midday Saturday. 😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳 When you live in an area where contractors are notorious for being a bit lackadaisical, it’s pretty amazing to have found a crew determined to deliver on time and on budget, even when you double the original scope of work! Turns out that if you can afford to hire as many workers as the foreman needs to stay on schedule, things stay on schedule!
I’m just glad that I “jumped the gun” and got my bedroom mostly empty last week so it was just a quick dash this morning to get rid of the remaining bits.
My contractor disappeared before we had a chance to speak further, so when I caught him at the end of the day, I asked about changing all the outlets and light switches in the bedroom to three-prong and also replacing the ceiling fan. So we’re doing an other Home Depot run tomorrow. And I somehow managed to catch another ceiling fan sale. I’ve got fan luck!
The other big thing that happened today is that my ISP Izzi came to move the modem. I remain stunned by how much trauma I have left over from my 20 years of dealing with Canadian telcos and that I can’t let it go and just appreciate what I have here without always thinking back to the bullshit I had to deal with in Canada. I mean, I Whatsapped my ISP a couple of nights ago to ask about moving the modem. Yep, just sent them a text message. They replied promptly that they could do that for me, but since they very recently ran all new cable for me, there would be a 300 peso charge. Not a problem, I said. Can you please do it Thursday afternoon? Sure thing, we’ll be there between 12 and 4. Last night, they called to confirm I’d be home this afternoon, and this morning they called to confirm my technician had me on his schedule.
However, when the technician showed up, he said he couldn’t do his job properly with the other work that was ongoing. He had a talk with the contractors, had a look around at what needed doing, and said he would be back tomorrow morning to do the move. In Canada, this appointment would have taken me months to schedule, cost me hundreds of dollars, and there’s no way I could have rescheduled so easily. You can’t live through 20 years of that and not have sequelae. Case in point, I’ve got a friend in Halifax in a nightmare situation with Bell right now that Izzi would have resolved for me within 24 hours.
I’m super excited for tomorrow because it’s going to be partial move-in day! Hard to believe when there is no plumbing in yet or grout in the bathroom and I don’t have my new doors, but my contractor says the office itself will be done. After all, he delivered the most important piece today, my gorgeous new desk, which is fitting for the CEO of a successful and busy scoping company. 🙂
I just entered Bonita in People Magazine’s World’s Cutest Rescue Dog Contest. One of the prizes if she wins would be a 1,000USD donation to Evolución Animal A.C., the refuge that took such good care of her for the ten years between her rescue and us finding each other. I think that the care she got there can best be summarized by the fact that Bonita is food secure. Even living with 200+ other dogs, she has knew her next meal would come and so she doesn’t steal food or scarf it down. She is very lucky that they found her.
Evolución is having financial difficulty at this time. They’ve had to reduce paid staff and are struggling to feed all the animals. They recently put out a call for donations. If you love animals and are looking for a charity to support, this is a good one that will use your money wisely. Here are all the ways you can donate, with PayPal being probably easiest for foreigners: paypal.me/EVOANIMAL
(Post 113 of 263. Thanks again to those who participated in the Fundrazr. As I mentioned in the post announcing Bast’s passing from COVID, I thank everyone for your generous donations to the original Fundrazr campaign, which resulted in sponsored 263 posts. I will continue to honour the commitment to write those 263 posts, but I will not commit to more. The link above is to a new campaign to help Bast’s family.)
I thought a lot happened yesterday. Ja ja ja ja.
The first thing that happened today was that I had to go back out to the tile place to get more tile since the tile place miscalculated how much tile I’d need. Augh. At least, I misunderstood my contractor last night that we’d need eight boxes more rather than eight total. So we only needed four more. The lady at the store remembered me and offered, without my asking, without my even mentioning that they’d goofed with their measurements, 25% off my purchases today since I had to come back. Just goes to show that a little sweetness goes a long way. I bet if I’d gone in angry and demanding a refund on my delivery fee, I would have gotten nothing. Instead, I basically got a box of tiles free!
I also picked up an absurdly expensive toilet seat (Did you know slow close/quiet seats are a thing? I didn’t. It was love at first sight.) since they had Helvex branded ones. I was surprised that Home Depot sells the Helvex toilets but makes you go off brand for the seat. They do that with a lot of products — like if you buy a ceiling fan that needs an extension, you cannot get the extension that goes with your fan and have to MacGyver yourself one from whatever they do have. It’s a very silly store. But I digress! On to the Day 7 progress!
(Post 112 of 263. Thanks again to those who participated in the Fundrazr. As I mentioned in the post announcing Bast’s passing from COVID, I thank everyone for your generous donations to the original Fundrazr campaign, which resulted in sponsored 263 posts. I will continue to honour the commitment to write those 263 posts, but I will not commit to more. The link above is to a new campaign to help Bast’s family.)
My contractor had personal issues to deal with yesterday, so nothing happened. He thinks he can catch up in the evenings, but I’m thinking we’ll need an extra day. At any rate, lots happened today!
