Hey, Yo, I Beeped You…Why You Ain’t Call Me Back?

Why is it sooooo difficult to get anyone in a customer service position to call you back? I work in the service field and deal with anywhere from 15-50 phone calls each day. Of course, I can’t answer the phone every time, especially if I’m on it, but how hard is it to call the person right back? I’m currently dealing with: a) a kitchen/cabinet supply company whom I’ve been trying to get a call back from for about 6 days now, b) a mortgage lender who said she would call me on Monday after I called her twice on Friday and then just showed up at her office Friday afternoon and happened to catch her (she did not call Monday and I just left her another message), and c) a gas line installer person who said they would call me Saturday with an estimate, but only called me back Monday afternoon after I called them. What’s up with that? I mean, at least just call me and say “I’m not ready yet, give me another day or so” or whatever. It would not be so frustrating if it didn’t seem like everyone was ignoring me. If it was only one person not calling back, I can give the benefit of the doubt. I’m nice that way. But please people, if someone calls you, JUST FRICKIN CALL THEM BACK!

Cabinetastic! or Cabulous!

We picked up our new cabinets on Tuesday.  This involved driving about 75 miles, renting a U-haul, going to the guy’s house, loading up the U-haul, driving back home, unloading U-haul, heaving a sigh of relief.  My living room is jammed with the cabinets until we order a countertop and get started yanking out the old junkies.

We’ve pretty much decided on a Quartz countertop and are working on a few estimates, although I don’t know that there will be much difference in price once it really comes down to it.

Here are a couple of pics:

Trying Again.

Mostly this blog has been about how I never blog, but that ends today!  You heard it here first! Exclamation Point!  I need to really commit to something, see it through, make it mine, so I’m starting here.  I may even tell some people I know that I have a blog!  Imagine!

We’ve been redecorating our kitchen for about, ummm 2 years now.  We painted, then painted again, installed new trim and wallpaper, all over the course of about 24 months, with the last work being done about, oh, a year ago.  We finally got off our asses and bought some new kitchen cabinets.  This is very exciting for a few reasons:

1. Our current cabinets are gross and ugly.  Obviously someone built them sometime in the late 70’s.  I can’t believe they’re still standing.
2. The cabinets we purchased are new, but we found them on Craigslist (love you, Craigslist!).  Someone bought them for their own remodel, but changed their mind and bought something else.  I think this guy works for a builder, so he got a deal, which means that we, in turn, got a deal too.  I think we’re only going to have to buy one cabinet to make this work in our floor plan.
3. We saved a ton of money buying not-retail.  A ton, which means that we can splurge a little more on the appliances we want.

I plan to post some before and after pictures.  I think you’ll be amazed.  And bewildered.  Maybe awed.

New Year/Old Year Insights

What will this new year bring? Ideally, it will bring me a small charming house in the mountains near my family and a new job in the mountains with just enough pay to take care of my husband and I and my small charming house. And food.

But this year has been good to me. I live in a house in a small city-ish place, and my mortgage is low and I make pretty good money and so does my spouse and we can buy food and yarn and internet access whenever we want, so life is good.

My life is always been conflicting this way.  I’d like to live more simply, but I always see things I want/need.  Then I buy things and I have all this stuff that is really in my way and doesn’t get used, etc.  I should really take this year to scale down my stuff and simplify.  Maybe I will.  It’ll be easy, won’t it?

~Originally written on Dec 30, 2008~