Redmond/Sammamish Blog

July 11, 2007

WED 11 JUL 2007

WELL, HELLO AGAIN! By Carmen Barr

I can't believe I have not added an entry in my blog since February. I apologize. I have been busy with Real Estate, kids, home improvements and life in general. My husband Jeff is a very good blogger. He adds more than one entry a day. It is not that I don't have anything to say because there are a lot of things to blog about but for me is more a matter of setting aside time exclusively for writing. I am determined to do it every night (I'm crossing my fingers).

Have you ever done any major improvements to your home? I'm talking about the big ones, where you gut everything out. When we (my husband and I) started to think about doing some improvements to the house , mainly to keep up with the regular maintenance that a house requires. At first, all we wanted was to replace the existing carpet in the living room, dining room and family room for hardwood floors. But like dominos, one thing leads to another. For example, we realized that since the floors were going to look so beautiful, that we needed to paint the rooms but not before adding the light fixtures that I have always wanted to have in the living room and family room and... well, since the electrictians were going to cut the ceiling to add the new lights why not ask them to install new wiring for speakers around the house and outside, and how about changing all the hardware of all the cabinets and doors to stainless steel, and the curtains...oh, I guess we need to get new curtains too because they won't go with the new color of the walls.  Where does it end? You know what I mean...my husband is afraid that once everything is done, I am going to want new furniture to go with a freshly painted home with new shiny hardwood floors (that's actually my plan :-))

Talking about furniture, when we decided to do the hardwood floors, we needed to empty out the living room, dining room, family room and the kitchen so we rented a pod which is a big container that a truck brings and puts it on your driveway so you can put all your furniture there while your house is being remodeled. These pods are amaizing, what a great invention! It was fun to watch how they put the container on the driveway.













So I emptied out the room where the new hardwood floors were going to be installed. The Hardwood guys came and installed the new floors. Actually that's the name of the company The Hardwood Guys. I was very impressed with them. They did an awesome job. They were on time getting to my house. They worked hard and left everything clean. My floors look good!

I was disappointed with Mr. Electric from Sammamish. I called them because I have driven by their shop and they have lots of vans outside. Anyway, I made an appointment for Thursday and by midday, they called me to reschedule the appointment because the person they were going to send to do the estimate at my house, became ill. Hey, I understand, it happens sometimes. I told them unfortunately, I couldn't take another day off from work so he was able to find someone else and was sent to my house.  I appreciated that. I was very impressed with the person that came to my house. He was very knowledgeable and helpful. He told me that I would have an estimate for the work I wanted by 10:00 am next morning and if I approved, they could start the work as early as Saturday morning.  Wow, that's service! ...Not! I didn't get the estimate on Friday. I called them up to make sure they had my email or phone number correct. Saturday I called again... nothing. Monday I called them twice. They promised me they were going to get in touch with the person that came to my house to do the estimate and, again, I didn't hear from them all day long. Now, I'm upset. I lost 4 good working days that I could have scheduled somebody else. The painter cannot start until I have the electrical work done. Darn it!

Too bad for Mr. Electric. I have found someone else.