I'm my momma's daughter! (Her claim-- I'd say she's proud)

I'm big on getting what I pay for-- why would anyone be any different. ESPECIALLY if I pay more than $20 for something, it better be of quality. I'm cheap I know- once again, like my Momma and Granny and Grandmommy, I can pinch a penny till it sequels. So here's me putting the vice on a penny.

As you all know, Andrew and I bought a house in May. Naturally we had a home inspection before we signed the contract. We knew the repairs that needed to be made and were willing to make the repairs and felt we had a good price on the house (which I still think we did). Once we started working on the house we found MANY things that weren't mentioned in the inspection that were very noticable (2 floor joists not in tact with the floor above them over an inch from the wall!). Things just kept adding up and I became VERY frustrated, so I sent out inspector an e-mail asking for my money back. Here's the e-mail: 

You preformed a pre-contract inspection on a house in Centre, AL for my fiancee and me on May 1, 2010. Based upon your inspection (and our willingness to repair the items listed in your assessment), my fiancee and I made an offer which was accepted. We closed on the house May 19, 2010 and have since found many things we believe you should have included in your inspection. Here is a list of what my fiancee and his father have since found. Neither are trained in construction or home inspection and noticed these things:

1. Although it was stated in the inspection report that the floor joists are 2"x12," in reality they are only 2"x8".

 

2. Floor joist sawed in two for toilet drain without any cross-bracing

3. Second floor joist, which is next to the first and supports the weight of a wall directly overhead, sawed in two without any cross-bracing

4. Floor in full bath swagging due to sawed floor joists (very noticeable with +1 inch crack beneath baseboard).

5. Visible damage to drywall in master bedroom and adjacent bedroom.  When drywall was removed, exposed major termite damage. We had to replace several studs and drywall.

We hired you to fulfill a service that we could not provide ourselves, and entrusted you to ensure us that (with known repairs) we were buying a safe home. A couple of mistakes, I can understand, and frankly was going to let them slide, but we feel the number and severity of mistakes is unacceptable. We would have included the repairs in our offer, and saved thousands of dollars. For this reason I am asking for a refund of the $225 we paid for the home inspection. We are very disappointed in the service you have provided.

Thank you for your time,
Beth Wayland

I sent it this afternoon around 4:30 pm and I'll be darned if I didn't get an apology letter stating he was mailing a check to the house tomorrow!! Luckily I have a WONDERFUL fiancee and an AWESOME soon-to-be-father-in-law and they fixed everything and we didn't have to hire a contractor. YESSSS... Added to the honeymoon fund (or the house fund is more likely). We have landscaping stuff to do this fall!

Wedding planning is going strong-- we have 31 days!!!! Oh lordy! We had engagement pictures shot about a week ago and hopefully I will have some to show you soon...

So fresh and so clean!

I had my first wedding shower this weekend!!!  Oh boy, if you've never been on the receiving end of one of these bad boys... well I just wish you could! It was so much fun! I was a little nervous about being the center of attention-- those of you who know me are well aware that I'm not a fan of the whole idea of all-eyes-on-me.  Honestly, I don't think I was the center of everyone's attention at the same time.  I guess that's the trick. I got to see people I haven't seen in a long time and eat yummy girly foods (OMG THE FOOD!!!) and how can I forget the presents!!! I think I'll do this again... and again... and again... you get the point-- lots of showers to come!

Random List of Updates v.1

1. I am NOT as diligent about this blog as I thought I would be when I started writing.

2. You know the house that we were going to change a few things and would be "us"? Yea, now we (by we I mean mostly Andrew) have painted every room except the two bathrooms. Don't worry, they will be painted as well soon. Andrew and his dad have fixed termite damage (apparently if an inspector can't see it, it doesn't really count) in two walls, put up bead board  and a chair rail in the kitchen, and are in the process of raising the bathroom floor about 1/2 inch (see number 3), and removing the toilets from the two bathrooms to paint and then have new flooring installed. Have I mentioned I love my fiancee more than anything?

3. Whoever built our house needs to be shot (in the foot- it's not punishable by death... yet). So, in our full bathroom, the floor behind the toilet has about a 1/2" gap between the wall and the floor. Andrew went under the house yesterday and noticed that when they installed the toilet, the sewage drain was going to go through the middle of a floor joist. So.... they cut it in half, because (insert sarcasm here) as I am SURE you know, that's the best way. There are many things we can add to our "fix later" list. This is not one of those things.

4.  I'm ready to have this house how we want it-- in a safe livable condition!!!

5. As many (hopefully most) of you know, our house is in Centre, AL. My job in is Birmingham, AL. There is about 90 miles between the two. One heck of a commute if you ask me. I have been looking for jobs closer to the house (Gadsden, AL and Rome, GA mainly). About two weeks ago I had an interview in Gadsden for a nursing position in surgery.  I got a call back earlier this week and will go for a peer interview on Thursday!!!

6. Wedding plans are moving along. According to the Bed Bath and Beyond registry website (and now my calculations) we have 62 days! We have so much done! We will get engagement pictures taken sometime this month-- still nailing down those details.

7. How awesome is registering for wedding gifts?! It's like shopping but a million times better. 

8. My wedding dress came in a couple of weeks ago, and my first and probably only fitting is this Saturday! 

9. Maybe I will update this more often?

Maybe if I say it on here I'll feel accomplished!

Tomorrow I am taking Mom to go see our house.  She's never been to Centre and I think she is underestimating the size. We're armed with paint samples (to make sure the color will look ok on the walls). Native Henna (kitchen) and Clear Blue Sky (our bedroom). We also have a wallpaper taker-offer, some cheap washcloths I bought to use as rags, and.... I can't remember anything else, but I'm sure there was something else. Oh well.

We have about a million projects going on right now. We're planning a wedding (duh-- which is a lot harder than I thought), adding details to said wedding (we're making flowerpots-- they're coming along well), working on a house, ok so it doesn't seem like a long list, but I swear I've never been busier. We've got MOST of the big parts of the wedding covered. We have locations (ceremony and reception), my dress, my ladies' dresses, flowers in the process (we're doing these ourselves and they will be GORGEOUS), a caterer, a cake, and hopefully a DJ.  We still need invitations (which we have picked out just not ordered) and suits/tuxes for the gentlemen. Oh crap, Andrew and I need to order wedding bands don't we... next time he's here we'll take care of that.

I was looking at my calendar earlier, and through swaps, covering for people, and my regular schedule, I work the next three weekends. I worked a double last Thursday. All I can say is my hard work will pay off! My next few paychecks are going to be AWESOME. Also, I get to go to Katie and Will's wedding!! AND I get to drive all the way up there with Kayla! I'm such a bad friend. I usually go weeks without talking to my bestest friends. 

I'm going to post before and after pictures of our house and projects-- no worries ;)

Ode to... Job?

Although there are many times where I think, "Why on EARTH do I work nights?" for reasons like (1) I have to sleep during the pretty part of the day. (2) I have to sleep when everyone at home is awake. (3) I can't think of another down side... Days like today remind me why. (1) I don't have to deal with the constant stream of doctors/ medical students/ random people flowing by my babies' bed spaces. (2) It's sooooooo much more quiet. (3) Get paid more (gotta be honest-- that's a HUGE motivator). (4) I get to see family and friends AND go to work (where I see other friends). Oh I love my job.

Is it REALLY necessary ?

Ignore this if you don't like complainers... I need a minute. 

I'm thinking about changing my e-mail address. Seriously. I have two. One is my personal email. I put this one on forms that require (not request- if you just request you ain't gonna get it). I semi-understand why I get junk on this one. But let me tell you, once you're engaged, these junk emailing robots of people WILL find you. I blame the Southern Bridal Show. 

I have a photographer. I have a caterer, a location, a dress. I do not WANT a videographer (yes Microsoft, that is a word). Each day I delete at least 85% of the messages in my Inbox (you created this word why are you underlining it red?).

The other is my work email- I DO NOT give this email out to ANYONE. I'm pretty sure my mom doesn't even have that address. Somehow it STILL gets junk mail. Luckily our mail service at work filters out most of my junk mail, but for the sake of who knows what, we still get emails saying, "Hey, we blocked this message. Click here if you actually want the message we don't want you to have." Regardless of if you click there or not, you still can't have the email. Good job Children's-- for real no sarcasm, I swear.

Just because I'm all riled up now, here's a list of things that irk me/get on my nerves:

• When words get underlined as misspelled when I know good and well they are spelled correctly (see me talking to myself in parentheses up there?)
• When my font keeps changing while I'm typing (See, even posting this is adding to my list)
• When I get emails for male enhancement-- I KNOW I've never marked on ANYTHING that I am anything close to the male gender so WHY OH WHY do I receive these emails? Not just for the pills either... yea.
• When you want me to call you back, leave me a message. ESPECIALLY if you are not a dear close friend of mine. Them, I'll call back just to see what the scoop is ;) I'm nosy-- It's a flaw. I'm working on it.
• This expands on the previous: I have been receiving a certain phone call lately. If you don't answer, it is a recording stating, "Hi, this is not a sales call. You have an important business matter with our company. Please call Victor at blah blah blah. Again, this is not a sales call." No "Hello Ms. Wayland/ Beth/ Elizabeth/ You Ridiculously-Hard-to-Get-in-Touch-With-Person" Well ok, that REALLY makes me want to call you back. I kept (and still to this day am) receiving these calls. Once I answered, because after all, they are persistent if nothing else. Guess what was on the other end of the line!? "Hi, this is not a sales call. You have an important business matter with our company. Please call Victor at blah blah blah. Again, this is not a sales call.*click*." Oh yes, the same recording. Now I'm really not calling you back Victor/ butthead. 
• These two I inherited from my mother: Why isn't a 2x4 2"x4"? or a 7 foot door 7 feet? (When she's queen of the world, she'll fix those.)
• A 7 year old does NOT need a cell phone. They just don't. I didn't have a cell phone until I was 16, and then I only had one that my mom, dad, and I SHARED. Yep.
• Many more about hospital related things that I can't and won't post because a.) I love my job and b.) I don't want to get fired. :)
• I work nights. Every other week. I know it's hard to keep up with, but PUH-LEASE don't wake me up during the day on my work week. Calling me at noon is like me calling you at 2 AM. Thank you Regions Bank Mortgage people for listening and being so incredibly willing to do this. Boo to our Realtor who just couldn't figure out that I wake up at 3:30 PM.
• How is inside Andrew's house the ONLY place I don't get cell phone service?
• Why don't iPhones come with instructions? I mean, it isn't extremely hard to figure out, but there are some things that unless some nice person tells you, you would never know.  (i.e. Did you know you can rearrange the icons by touching one and holding down until they wiggle? Did you know to make this stop you have to click what I call the menu button? No idea what it's really called-- no instructions. Yep, I'm the loser who used YouTube to understand my iPhone.
• I got a splinter (in my pointer finger) from the deck in our new house.
• Now I've gone and got all distracted watching the Biography of Sarah Jessica Parker-- oh DishNetwork.

So here goes...

I've never really done this before, but it's worth a try. I'm opening new chapters in my life (daily) and I've been trying to think of a way to let my friends and family in on it- without calling about a million people every other day.

Here's a couple of HUGE updates (sorry if you didn't know about these yet :D)

1- I GRADUATED FROM NURSING SCHOOL!!!! Yes, in August 2009 I FINALLY got out of school! I lived in a bubble (aka the School of Nursing-- SON-- at UAB) for 2 years. It was INCREDIBLY hard, but I made some incredible life-long friends and entered a workforce I love-- definitely worth it.

2- After graduation (see #1), I began working in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at The Children's Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama. I love what I do. Everyone asks me, "how do you do it?" To me it's simple: I provide care for infants in their most fragile states. I save lives and I provide comfort. At the end of the day, I helped a family.

3- I also bought a brand spanking, fresh off the line, 2010 Ford Escape. It is b-e-a-utiful and I love it. It's the color in the picture- "sterling gray metallic" with black leather interior (probably not a good choice for Alabama summers, but it's got a sunroof so it's OK!!).

4- I got engaged to my best friend. I'll post that story later. His name is Andrew; he's from the teeny tiny town (sorry, but it is) of Gaylesville, Alabama. They have a blinking red-light at the major intersection in town- it's pretty cool.

5- This is the big one. We closed on our very first house today!! It's in Centre, Alabama "the Crappie (that's a fish) Capitol of the World". We have improvements to make it our own and boy do we- not that it NEEDS work, it's just that right now I just see it as someone else's home- especially after meeting the people who actually lived there (I'm so glad we did though)! It just needs a dash of me (and Andrew). :)



P.S.- It took me over an hour to figure out how to make this post actually appear on my page. Somehow it got scheduled for 12:04 AM.... This is going to be an adventure, please bear with me.