Mortgage Monday: Water, Garage Doors, And Security

Last week I spent some time working from home but, just like the days that I decide to “take off”, it was for the simple reason that there was work that needed to be done at the house. Actually, I wasn’t doing any of the work, I was there so that could answer any questions that may come about from the minor projects around the house. Namely, over the two days at the end of the week we had Martin complete an inspection of our filtration system, Shank install the garage doors, and ADT check a few of the sensors that we have had to adjust lately.

Surprisingly, all of these appointments went about as smooth as possible beginning with the garage doors on Thursday. The old doors were exactly that and with the one destroying itself a few months ago, it was something that needed to be done this summer. Now seeing the new doors in place, the features that Shank includes, and hearing how quiet the new motors are, we are really glad that we made room in the budget to get this done. Of course, it helps that the person installing them really knew what they were doing and had the full swap out (doors, motors, tracks, sensors, etc.) done faster than I was expecting.

Friday morning the door bell chimed at about a quarter to eight in the morning. While I am all for being on time or even early to appointments, it isn’t as pleasant when ADT has already screwed up the scheduling (I made the appointment for and confirmed it with customer service at the time for the 12-5 window). This on top of the fact that the technician expects our full attention as we are in the middle of our son’s morning routine. Just one of many issued that we have had with that company so far. After a few unexpected (and without warning) triggers of the alarm and a few moments of puzzled contemplation regarding the use of adhesive, the work was completed and the rest of the morning could begin.

Martin Water was the third and final appointment of the week and as they were the ones who maintained this system previously, it was a pretty straightforward process. And it was great that they took the time to go through the steps that I need to follow to properly maintain the system. I was shown once before when we bought the house exactly what needed to be done but I can’t say that a whole lot of information was retained that chaotic week.

So, it may not be a big dent in our overall plans for the week but we were able to at least get things started while making sure a couple of the other things in the house don’t become future projects. And while ADT may be lacking at times the important thing is that the security system and monitoring are still solid. As for Shank Doors and Martin Water, don’t hesitate for a second if you are in need of their services… their prices and the quality of their work is exceptional. That is all… for now.

Holiday PITA

Not that kind of pita!

The holidays this year have made my work schedule a bit of a mess. Beginning last week I have been in one day, off two, in one, off three, in one, and will be off two more days before resuming a normal work schedule. With days off in the middle of the this week and last, many people have also simply been out for a week and a half straight making it difficult to really get a lot of things done and through the entire revision process. So while there is plenty of work that has gotten done lately, much of it at this point is simply fueling a backlog that is going to have to be addressed as soon as our schedules return to sanity.

But some schedules never change, some habits remain, and routines are pretty self-explanatory. While things were both busy and slow at the office, blog posts still had to be written, and lodge work seems to never end. Actually, since things have been turned over to me, the work is now in the exponential stage. Don’t worry, it should plateau sometime this coming year or next.

OF course, this is why I take work home with me. What started simply with blogging from home has how become a pretty substantial office where I can handle just about everything from the office and a number of things from the lodge. The lodge home work is something relatively new, at least to its current extent, as I brought home a couple of binders with me to finish a few things up before our meeting on Thursday.

That’s another thing that has to be done. Both my home office and the lodge office are both a bit disheveled, disorganized, and a downright mess. Much of this work will definitely be more streamline once these two spaces are given a pretty substantial overhaul. Looks like a few exciting weekends are in my future trying to get both of these spaces up to speed. Put it this way, they’re both in such a state that they’d be good spaces for one of those foofy television design shows.  

While there is a lot of work to be done it is all fun for me most of the time. Sometimes work can be a PITA but everything has PITA potential including the things we enjoying doing most like blogging. And don’t forget that we can each be a PITA too... I know I am on several daily occasions. Sometimes at work, sometimes at home, you never know when the PITA mod will strike.