Mehling.org: House Archives

September 01, 2003

Nice F-ing work

Last year I hired a guy to do some work on the house. Born-again fellow, living in OC for the summer, before returning to Arizona. Seemed nice enough. He did a couple jobs for me... installed some recessed lighting in the kitchen and replaced our nasty 70's style "light tube" with a real skylight. His cleanup skills weren't particularly diligent so I had to go around after him and cleanup the odd mess or two... until yesterday.

I hadn't been in the main attic since he did the skylight work last year, but yesterday a buddy and I were installing some additional phone, network, and AC jacks in the house. This required some work in the attic over the main house... Danny left a little surprise for me.

F! I can't tell you how much it pisses me off when people can't complete their job. Just do the F-ing work you were hired to do and take some pride in the complete job. Darick was kind enough to hand stuff down to me and Tedd helped me carry TWO massive loads outside. Now I gotta figure out how to get rid of all this junk.

Of course, there's not really anything for me to do, the guy lives in Arizona... needless to say, I won't be giving out any recommendations. Grrrr. I particularly love the nasty rusted nails hanging out of these 2x4s! What? Did he think I'd never go in the attic again?!

Posted by ben at 08:00 PM

Comments (2)

January 07, 2004

Return to Reality

Well, we've pretty much recovered from the massive time shift. Starting to look around at the rubble that is our lives at the moment. You know all the junk you collect while traveling? Receipts. Dirty laundry. Gifts. Luggage. House needs cleaning. Bills need to be paid. The list goes on and on.

On our return home, we found out about some, um, stuff that happened while we were away. Our pet sitter (one of Tedd's friends from the neighborhood), early in the visit got locked out of the house.

She panicked and asked our neighbors for help. In the process of pulling a ladder down in the garage they *nailed* my car on the trunk lid w/ the metal ladder. About an 18" gash down to the bare metal.

*Sigh* I was too angry to speak, and I've only looked in the dark. For all I know they nailed my car elsewhere or even better Hol's new car. Once they got the ladder down, they climbed to the second story to see if they could get in a window. Of course all the windows were firmly locked, but they tried anyway -- now we have a nice 4" gash in our guest room screen.

*Sigh* Excellent. Keep in mind our windows and screens are nearly 2 months old! We needed new ones anyway, I guess. Finally the pet sitter figured out she could read our number in the UK through the kitchen window. She called us. We told her where the spare key was in the garage (probably should have mentioned it before, lesson learned -- the hard way). The key is in one of those "tricky" fake soda pop cans. The neighbor couldn't figure out how to pop the top off, so he just ripped it in half.

*Sigh* How could I even be upset at this point?

Of course they were only trying to help, right? What can I say? Nothing, I'll just keep my mouth shut (except here).

Update: OK, now a different neighbor has reported to Holly that the ladder fell when the neighbor tripped, and tripped so bad that he bled and ended up visiting the hospital. Gah.

Posted by ben at 10:00 PM

Comments (1)

June 30, 2004

Operation Backyard: Day 1

Hol and I finally got tired of waiting to do the backyard. We got destructive this afternoon and started hacking things apart. The current (lack of) plan is to rip up the yard and put in some sod until we actually figure out what we want... of course it may take us so long to machete our way through our tiny jungle that we'll have a plan by then. First pic is just after we started trimming, second pic is of how far we got on day one.

Posted by ben at 10:30 PM

Comments (1)

July 01, 2004

Operation Backyard: Day 2

Day 2 in the jungle. We bagged yesterday's stack of shrubs and started on the funky puffy grass. Apparently the flagstone to grass ratio used to heavily favor the flagstones, now it's all the grass. We ended up (thanks to Hol's quick thinking) using a hand saw to cut back the grass. She's obviously her father's daughter -- this is a Dan solution if I've ever seen one. We'll probably get some more work done over the weekend.

Posted by ben at 11:00 PM

Comments (0)

July 05, 2004

Operation Backyard: Day 3

Spent an hour or so this evening ripping out the rest of the funky puffy grass. It almost got me in the end, but I persisted. I thought I might have been a goner, but I was able to reach my trusty handsaw (Thanks Hol!) and finish the job. Buh-bye weird decorative grass stuff.

Posted by ben at 10:00 PM

Comments (0)

August 01, 2004

Operation Backyard: Day 4

Spent another several hours in the yard this evening. Almost cleared all the ground cover and other junk. It's a damn good thing our yard is so tiny. All that remains is the larger trees in the back. We're thinking of getting quotes on removing those rather than trying to do it ourselves. I'm not so concerned about the labor involved, but it's actually harder for us to dispose of the stuff afterwards... especially 7-8 good sized trees.

Got a few quotes back for a block wall installation... We only have two choices thanks to our HOA: wood fence, one design OR 'slump stone' wall. Slump stone? It even sounds lame. That and it looks like it's in the $5k range. OUCH. Apparently I should have considered a career in fence construction.

At least there was some reward at the end. Yummy orange peel tofu and egg-fried rice. Thanks Hol. ;-)

Posted by ben at 10:00 PM

Comments (1)

February 19, 2005

HOA Newsletter Excerpt

Of the various interactions I've had with Home Owner Associations (in OC) about 75% suck. They always seem to cross the line from 'maintaining the common areas' to meddling in peoples lives. Since both Hol and I feel the same way we are forever looking for fun little tidbits of foolishness in the community newsletter. This month's was particularly amusing:

Board Summary continued...

Resolved to advise a homeowner that claiming discrimination due to nationality is unfounded and that the Board of Directors will not entertain such allegations and to advise the homeowner that the decision to paint the curb red in front of his house was made by a committee many years ago and that one car length of the existing red curb will be painted gray.

You can't make this stuff up! Only in Irvine.

Posted by ben at 03:20 PM

Comments (0)


September 01, 2003 Nice F-ing work Last year I hired a guy to do some work on the house. Born-again fellow, living in OC for the summer, before returning to Arizona. Seemed nice enough. He did a couple jobs for me... installed some recessed lighting in the kitchen and replaced our nasty 70's style "light tube" with a real skylight. His cleanup skills weren't particularly diligent so I had to go around after him and cleanup the odd mess or two... until yesterday. I hadn't been in the main attic since he did the skylight work last year, but yesterday a buddy and I were installing some additional phone, network, and AC jacks in the house. This required some work in the attic over the main house... Danny left a little surprise for me. F! I can't tell you how much it pisses me off when people can't complete their job. Just do the F-ing work you were hired to do and take some pride in the complete job. Darick was kind enough to hand stuff down to me and Tedd helped me carry TWO massive loads outside. Now I gotta figure out how to get rid of all this junk. Of course, there's not really anything for me to do, the guy lives in Arizona... needless to say, I won't be giving out any recommendations. Grrrr. I particularly love the nasty rusted nails hanging out of these 2x4s! What? Did he think I'd never go in the attic again?! Posted by ben at 08:00 PM Comments (2) January 07, 2004 Return to Reality Well, we've pretty much recovered from the massive time shift. Starting to look around at the rubble that is our lives at the moment. You know all the junk you collect while traveling? Receipts. Dirty laundry. Gifts. Luggage. House needs cleaning. Bills need to be paid. The list goes on and on. On our return home, we found out about some, um, stuff that happened while we were away. Our pet sitter (one of Tedd's friends from the neighborhood), early in the visit got locked out of the house. She panicked and asked our neighbors for help. In the process of pulling a ladder down in the garage they nailed my car on the trunk lid w/ the metal ladder. About an 18" gash down to the bare metal. Sigh I was too angry to speak, and I've only looked in the dark. For all I know they nailed my car elsewhere or even better Hol's new car. Once they got the ladder down, they climbed to the second story to see if they could get in a window. Of course all the windows were firmly locked, but they tried anyway -- now we have a nice 4" gash in our guest room screen. Sigh Excellent. Keep in mind our windows and screens are nearly 2 months old! We needed new ones anyway, I guess. Finally the pet sitter figured out she could read our number in the UK through the kitchen window. She called us. We told her where the spare key was in the garage (probably should have mentioned it before, lesson learned -- the hard way). The key is in one of those "tricky" fake soda pop cans. The neighbor couldn't figure out how to pop the top off, so he just ripped it in half. Sigh How could I even be upset at this point? Of course they were only trying to help, right? What can I say? Nothing, I'll just keep my mouth shut (except here). Update: OK, now a different neighbor has reported to Holly that the ladder fell when the neighbor tripped, and tripped so bad that he bled and ended up visiting the hospital. Gah. Posted by ben at 10:00 PM Comments (1) June 30, 2004 Operation Backyard: Day 1 Hol and I finally got tired of waiting to do the backyard. We got destructive this afternoon and started hacking things apart. The current (lack of) plan is to rip up the yard and put in some sod until we actually figure out what we want... of course it may take us so long to machete our way through our tiny jungle that we'll have a plan by then. First pic is just after we started trimming, second pic is of how far we got on day one. Posted by ben at 10:30 PM Comments (1) July 01, 2004 Operation Backyard: Day 2 Day 2 in the jungle. We bagged yesterday's stack of shrubs and started on the funky puffy grass. Apparently the flagstone to grass ratio used to heavily favor the flagstones, now it's all the grass. We ended up (thanks to Hol's quick thinking) using a hand saw to cut back the grass. She's obviously her father's daughter -- this is a Dan solution if I've ever seen one. We'll probably get some more work done over the weekend. Posted by ben at 11:00 PM Comments (0) July 05, 2004 Operation Backyard: Day 3 Spent an hour or so this evening ripping out the rest of the funky puffy grass. It almost got me in the end, but I persisted. I thought I might have been a goner, but I was able to reach my trusty handsaw (Thanks Hol!) and finish the job. Buh-bye weird decorative grass stuff. Posted by ben at 10:00 PM Comments (0) August 01, 2004 Operation Backyard: Day 4 Spent another several hours in the yard this evening. Almost cleared all the ground cover and other junk. It's a damn good thing our yard is so tiny. All that remains is the larger trees in the back. We're thinking of getting quotes on removing those rather than trying to do it ourselves. I'm not so concerned about the labor involved, but it's actually harder for us to dispose of the stuff afterwards... especially 7-8 good sized trees. Got a few quotes back for a block wall installation... We only have two choices thanks to our HOA: wood fence, one design OR 'slump stone' wall. Slump stone? It even sounds lame. That and it looks like it's in the $5k range. OUCH. Apparently I should have considered a career in fence construction. At least there was some reward at the end. Yummy orange peel tofu and egg-fried rice. Thanks Hol. ;-) Posted by ben at 10:00 PM Comments (1) February 19, 2005 HOA Newsletter Excerpt Of the various interactions I've had with Home Owner Associations (in OC) about 75% suck. They always seem to cross the line from 'maintaining the common areas' to meddling in peoples lives. Since both Hol and I feel the same way we are forever looking for fun little tidbits of foolishness in the community newsletter. This month's was particularly amusing: Board Summary continued... Resolved to advise a homeowner that claiming discrimination due to nationality is unfounded and that the Board of Directors will not entertain such allegations and to advise the homeowner that the decision to paint the curb red in front of his house was made by a committee many years ago and that one car length of the existing red curb will be painted gray. You can't make this stuff up! Only in Irvine. Posted by ben at 03:20 PM Comments (0)		Bookmarks Ben's Resume Ben's Lists Mehling Photo Album Flickr Photo Album Recently Archived Cozumal and Playa Palancar Akumal Desperately Seeking Lodging See you in nine days Sian Ka'an Coba Ruins Tulum Ruins Finally! 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