When a contractor does work for you, if they are honest, they will say, "I'll start the job next week, get a wall opened up, then I'll disappear for a couple weeks - you won't be able to find or contact me, so don't even try. Then, without telling you, I'll show up, do a little work, then disappear again. Twelve seconds after I complete the work, I'll be expecting payment in full."
We had a handyman here yesterday to install 7 ceiling fans and hang 3 bathroom medicine cabinets. He got 3 of the fans hung, got all three of the medicine cabinets hung, then went home. He said he would be back this morning at 8:00 to finish the work. Steph got a text from him at 2:45 am, saying he has to postpone the work for today... he is in the hospital. He said he could come back Friday afternoon or Saturday. No idea why he is in the hospital.
Mo the guy from Lennar who is handling the closing on the house came yesterday around 9:30, tore the trim off the door that is to be replaced... and left. He is waiting for someone from the door manufacturer to come pull out the door and put in a new door. Then, he will schedule wall prep, painting, tile work, and exterior stucco and painting to be done. Apparently, each of those things is a different set of workers.
No word from Mo today. I am mildly confident that the door will get done. At some point.
In the meantime, we are trying to keep one of us here, just in case a worker needs to get into the house. Yesterday, that was Joan. Today, it will be me. Unless we hear from Mo that no one is coming today. We have errands to run, grocery shopping to do, and need to bring more stuff from the motorhome... things like a jacket - it was 54º when I got up this morning... it was downright chilly when I took Rufus for a walk this morning. It is supposed to get up to 84º today, so pretty pleasant.
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The day got away from us. Two trips to Lowes. One trip to American Furniture Warehouse, that turned out to be a waste of time, because: "Our computer system is down." We got authorization to return the coffee table and end tables we bought, because they just don't work with the space. We took numbers on some other stuff and spoke with our salesman - he'll get the order placed when their computer system "comes back around." He's been there 5 years and hasn't seen anything like that. So, without the computer to check in our return, we hauled that stuff in the Equinox for naught. It's still in there tonight.
Maybe tomorrow? I tried to buy a battery for the Equinox... if someone has it in stock, they are charging about $100 more than the going rate. I called Sam's Club, got put on hold, got transferred to a "Central Automotive Center" that turned out to be in Central America. The two closest Sam's Clubs don't have the AGM battery this vehicle needs. After wasting over an hour on the phone, I found the Sam's Club in Surprise (only another 15 miles out of the way when we go to the motorhome tomorrow) has a couple... no, they won't hold one. Seems that the hot days and chilly nights are hard on car batteries. Steph and Dan used to have an Equinox - they had to replace the battery every 18 months (or less). We're doing better than that, so far.
I got to be a scooter boy today: when we went to the motorhome (to pick up stuff to bring back), I rode Joan's Xmax back to the house. If one of us needs the car, the other will have the scoot so they don't feel "trapped" without wheels. It was 26 miles, all but about 2 of that on the freeway. The Xmax handled those highway speeds without breaking a sweat.
Joan spent about an hour getting vehicle insurance switched from Texas to Arizona. I wasn't surprised that insurance is a bit less in AZ than in TX. Too many people in Texas driving a car with no license or insurance. Scary!
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They are coming out of the woodwork. No, not bugs. People that want to bug you. Or sell you services for pest control... landscaping... pavers... home security systems. I guess they feel people just moving in are going to be needing all those services. And they are probably right. We made arrangements for all that before actually moving in. That doesn't stop them from putting a business card in the door.
Speaking of moving in: when Rufus and I were out for our evening walk, we went around the corner and down the block... I saw 4 other people or couples that were coming or going from their garage... and just like us, their garages were full of stuff to be moved in, with cars sitting outside. One couple looked like us last week: standing in front of the house, looking back at it... with a completely empty garage (obvious they haven't started their move-in, yet). The houses in this development are being completed in waves: think of "the wave" in a stadium. Most of the homes north of us are done, or nearly so. We are as far south as this development goes (the reason we have that view of South Mountain, and the reason we picked this lot) - from here, the new builds are moving to the west. Right now, there are about 2 blocks of homes in the building process... and a few vacant lots beyond that.
Steph has been tickled that we can hear a rooster and a donkey when we are outside the house. There are a couple small older farms south of us. They apparently haven't sold out, yet. I've been told that the land this development was farmland just a few years ago. A mile east of us on the road we take to get to Loop 202, there is still a cotton field. And new housing developments on either side of that. This part of the Valley is changing.
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