The Inspection

The guy inspecting the house got a spur up his rear and deemed the inspection as inconclusive. He suddenly became annoyed and picked on small things that delayed the completion of the inspection. Ok... you know me, can't accept that. It's fine he is having a bad day, however, I have a mission to complete.


I made a few phone calls to the office and we are going to work things out via fax. The rep at the office was awesome...:) Apparently, this inspector tends to change personalities from time to time. They said he tends to be "like that" sometimes. I remained professional and calm. Getting upset would only make everyone involved angry. They told me to have the tenant sign the form once the electricity is turned on. Then fax it to me. I will sign it and fax it to the office.


The rep was such a sweetheart. She said she will get the paperwork through the process as fast as she can. Patience is certainly a virtue! If you don't possess it, experience will certainly teach you!

Update on Date St.

Things are finally starting to go forward with my rental unit on Date St. :). The exterminator came and I had a professional carpet cleaning done.

The contractor managed to get the toy that was jammed in the garbage disposal out and the sink in the bathroom flowing again! Electricity goes on today and we can try out the garbage disposal to determine if it needs to be replaced. He also replaced the cracked window in the front bedroom and painted & cleaned the cabinet under the kitchen sink where there was mold...Grrrr!

The inspector stopped by and acknowledged the work, which is a really good thing. He will be back today to complete the inspection. By tonight, the tenant can begin moving her things in!....YAY! The completion of this project will be a HUGE load of my shoulders. I did sleep better last night. My grandson seems to sleeping through the night these days :).

Both Monday and Tuesday, I worked 15- hour days. Yesterday was an 11 hour day. Today and tomorrow are 15-hour days. Today & tomorrow's 15-hour schedule won't be too bad. It's only one child and he is really, really well behaved. He has dinner, plays for a while, then I have him lay down to watch a movie till his mom comes. I have him upstairs in the loft where I can keep an eye on him while I do my own evening routine.

A place like this would be such a beautiful thing! It's been a long time since we've been camping....hmmmm, sounds like an idea that 'needs' to be developed into a reality!

Inspiration at Last!

I wanted to share with you all that I have been inspired, by many of you, to pick up my hobby again. Though I am not an "artist" with watercolors, fine markers and other paints, I like to crotchet.

Here is the pair of slippers I made for my grandson, freehand, no pattern. Yes, lol, they look kind of awkwardly shaped, but they fit well. Of course, he won't need them until winter time.

Here is the one of him walking down the hallway from the daycare room...lol! Sorry it's not too clear.

I videoed from my cell phone, then emailed it to myself and downloaded it to the blog. It was fun playing around with it. Never did that before. Feeling pretty proud of myself....:)

The Little One

Well, my grandson is now 10 months old as of this past monday. It seems, over the past few days, he has really mastered the whole walking thing!...lol! He also has what we call the "spider crawl" cause that's what he looks like when he doesn it....:)

Update on the Creatures

I did find an inexpensive exterminator. He even cut the initial treatment from $110 to $60 with treatments every three months for $84. I think that's a really good deal. He said in order to be absolutely sure the creatures are gone, he'd have to treat a few more times. I will stay on contract for about 6 months then I will cancel. Prior to the last tenant, we've never had issues with creatures. I don't want to pay for something I won't need. Should it become an issue again in the future, I can always sign up on contract again.

Ok....I speak to the company, Lloyd's Pest Control. We agree to do the contract via fax. I set up my fax machine and Arthur faxes the contract so I can sign it and fax it back. I'm thinking we are finally on our way to resolution.

Well, the fax comes, but I am out of ink!....Ugh! So, with money being tight, I send my boy to Walmart for the ink. Walmart is out of it. They suggest Staples. So off he goes. That location is out of it too! They were nice enough to call the next location and have them to hold one for us. The blasted ink refill cost $49.00! Ghee! Could it possibly be anymore expensive for a black ink refill?!!

Didn't have time to worry about the cost. In the meantime, I called Lloyds to see what time they close for the day. By now it was about 4:45 pm. They close at 5:00 pm. They said it was ok and that they will still go out to the house. At the time I called the company, my son was trying to call me and said that the fax was interrupting the phone line (my fax and phone are the same line). So, dummy me, I unplug the fax machine and lost the contract that was stored in memory!!...lol! It was the end of the day and I was very tired...lol!

As we speak, the fax in being re-sent. By the end of the day, we should be nicely squared away. Treatment will be done, house aired out and the tenant can move in...:). That is the goal of the day.

Positive thoughts and prayers!

Hanging in there!

Yesterday was a busy, busy day! Looks like today will be the same. Only way to fix it is to "fix" it...lol.

It started out with the rental unit in San Diego. This last tenant, who has been in the process of moving out for the past week, was so filthy. This house has been in my family for four generations. It has been rented out on many occasions. My children and I lived in it for 17 years. The house has never had roaches!

The roaches were so bad in this house until they were crawling in the tenant's bed and in the refrigerator!...yes, alive in the refrigerator! Once she emptied her belongings from the house, it was then that I saw the true magnitude of the problem. Two weeks ago, upon assessing the house for the prep for a new tenant (yes, I evicted this tenant), every kitchen cabinet has massive amounts of roaches..each cabinet. I had my contractor put 12 foggers throughout the house. I took pictures just in case I should have to go to court.

My regular contractor is out of town until the 14th. So, I am using another contractor. The more he inspects the house, the more things he finds broken i.e. both toilet seat screws are missing, the garbage disposal is broken, someone kicked in the bedroom door leaving the door mildly cracked around the door knob, we won't talk about the backyard!

Well, I finally gave in to an exterminator. He said the foggers won't even touch the eggs and they won't kill the roaches unless they have direction contact with the poison.

If all goes well, this should all be over by 5pm tomorrow!