Saturday, May 21, 2011

Common Bond

Hi everyone!  It's been fun catching up on the blogs.  Everyone's houses are coming along great!  I don't have much to report.  Since we actually had a few days without rain (hard to believe in Pittsburgh!) I've had the chance to hang out with neighbors a bit more.  Several of us got together last night and it was great!  Just what I've been hoping for.  I am so happy with our neighborhood.  Everyone is so nice, friendly, and welcoming. Our common bond?  We are all getting really annoyed with the lack of work to the outside of our houses.  Our yards haven't been graded.  Grass hasn't been planted.  Our driveways aren't finished.  There's still painting to be done.  Ugh...  The grass is the worst though.  Our dog now refuses to use the hay we put out to do his business.  He's sick of not having a yard, too!  I just really want our house to be complete.  I'm am so envious of all of you that already have grass.  Enjoy it for me!

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

My Fault

WARNING TO THE MEN READING THIS - This post contains information that may make you uncomfortable.  This is a ladies issue...

So I told you about the water in our basement because of the backed up drain.  I, of course, was convinced this was faulty construction on Ryan's part.  Well, it turns out I'm to blame.  It seems that my "flushable" ladies products were the culprit.  REALLY?!?!?!  I've never had this issue in any of my residences in over 15 years, but this house that has been standing for two months?  Clogged.  Nice.  I'm still not convinced it was totally my fault - I mean every woman I've asked is a flusher.  My husband and I went round and round about this - me telling him he was totally ridiculous, him finding articles on the internet trying to convince me.  Well, all it took was a little camera and viola....the argument was won by my husband. In addition, the plumber noted that two lids that are on the lines outside were switched when the landscapers were working.  He said this may have contributed to the problem because of a lack of pressure, or a vacuum malfunction thingy.  I'm not totally clear on it, but if takes a tiny bit of the blame off of me, then I'll take it.  We spent the entire night last night sanitizing the basement.  Oh, what fun.  That was the first time that I spent any time in the basement, so that's a positive.

The other good news?  Our PM responded promptly.  When it was pushed off to Ryan Service, they responded promptly.  That was a good feeling.  We also discovered how uneven the floors in our basement are.  Nice big puddles in one location with no way to the drain, and other parts completely clear.  Something to bring up at our 10 month.  The water never reached the sump pump, so it wasn't activated.  I'm so glad we didn't have the basement finished.  It wouldn't have been pretty.

So use my story as a warning to my fellow flushers :)

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Backed Up

Hi everyone!  I am so out of the loop and have lots of catching up to do.  I haven't been able to read your blogs very much these last couple of weeks :(  First, congrats to 2011!  I haven't read her blog recently but I know she closed last week.  And congrats to the rest of you on your progress.  I'm hoping to have some time this week to read what's been going on with everyone.

So...we have another issue.  When I went down to the basement this morning, I was greeted by a nice big pool of water.  At first we couldn't figure out what was going on - it was too much water to have seeped in from outside.  Then we thought maybe something was leaking.  We just used the water in the garage for the first time yesterday and thought maybe that was the culprit.  But, it seems like it is our drain.  All backed up.  Yuck.  We have a call into our PM so we'll see what happens tomorrow.  Apparently, the same thing happened to our next door neighbor TWICE!  Ugh... Other than that, they've started our landscaping.  No grass yet, but we do have some pretty cheap mulch and some little bushes.  I think we'll probably spruce that up a bit.

Speaking of being backed up...I feel like I am behind in just about every aspect of my life.  Work,  friendships, cleaning, working on the house even getting thank you cards mailed out!  I feel like I'm drowning.   There's not enough hours in the day.  I'm just very overwhelmed right now.  But how?  I don't have kids.  How am I going to do it when I do? My hat goes off to you working moms.  I have no clue how you do it.  Happy Mother's Day.