New England B.S. Thread

My house had a decorative stone island in the center of my driveway that I had to drive around to get into and out of the garage. I could do it, but I nicked a wheel on my STi once and that was all she wrote for it. The shame is it was apparently excellent craftsmanship and it housed a very fancy Alaskan pine tree. That being said, it was absolutely miserable to work with and even worse when it came to snow removal.

The other head-scratcher was that while I have an attached garage there was no door between the garage and the house. There was a bump-out closet in the back corner of the room which was the ideal place for a door into the garage. However, once I yanked down the closet I realized the top plate of the wall was less than 6' above the floor. A family friend said he could fit a custom door into the space but it would only be about 5'-10" tall so that was a non-starter. I ended up hiring a contractor and having the whole rear half of the garage re-engineered to cut the top plate to make room for the door. At the time my contractor didn't understand why I wanted a 36" wide door rather than a more customary 32" door for a secondary entry but it makes getting things in and out of the house that much easier.

The shame was when we started working together (he did a sill replacement before the door) he was in a very down part of his life. Needless to say the work ethic and the quality of work was second to none and we were so pleased. When it came time to do the bathroom from studs we brought him in no questions asked. At that point he had met someone and was going through a lot of changes in his personal life (he had been widowed right before the garage door, his wife had run the business) and once he met someone new everything went downhill. The work wasn't as good as it was before. It was "good" but not to the same level. There were things that he was pushing onto my rather than doing himself, etc, etc. We had planned on having him do our staircase and by then even getting him to return a phonecall was a challege.

It was truly a shame as he had done excellent work for myself and for my in-laws. I would have hired him for all of the work we did since but it just wasn't a good fit anymore.

 

Okay, update and good resolution to the electrical theft drama.

Yesterday after a whole bunch of nonsense, and increasing incredulity at the complete lack of awareness/logic/responsibility-taking from so many people involved, GF and I realized that it seemed like sellers' agent/broker/lawyer didn't actually understand the extent of the missing items.

As it turns out, yes, old boy was gaslighting the shit out of everyone, his own lawyer included, initially making out like he only removed one special digital outlet, and then when we discovered the charger circuit missing as well, claiming he removed that "for safety" because he didn't want to leave bare wires hanging out where the charger had been supposedly hardwired (it wasn't, but whatever). GF called this kind of behavior "trickle truthing" which I take it is some kind of legal professional jargon.

When GF reached out to their lawyer to clarify the extent of the theft, including photos etc, less than 24H later poof there's suddenly an offer to settle at an entirely appropriate amount, as it should have been the second we identified the issue.

What a shit show and a waste of time. They probably piled up a grand plus on legal fees too with all the stupid games.

There are four people right now with giant lightbulbs over their head and a sudden permanent understanding that old boy is a fucking loser.

 

Sometimes it is best not to tempt fate. I knew my house was gonna be a huge job and a half, pulling almost every room down to the studs due to old wiring/lack of insulation/junk windows/walls that sucked, etc etc. I put off a lot of stuff that I wanted or would like to do for that reason, plus other nice little surprises happened like the pipes busting from an old house issue and completely stupid runs. We lived with the kitchen being shitty for 11 yrs since we knew that wasn't something that could be done over a 6-12 month period.

Though buying the pool in 2011 was a wee bit of a treat of course..

Mine was built in the 1930s. Good enough bones but some dumb stuff regardless.

I had a plumber do a couple of jobs here before and my goodness did he ever typify the quick in-out that you mention. To replace a tub faucet this guy whipped out a Sawzall and cut the surrounding wall (tile included) when access to the faucet was also available from the breezeway which was just breaking through regular drywall. Path of least resistance..for him.

 

The island just sounds like a bad idea from the word go, especially as you mentioned in snow/ice season. Yikes.

Definitely went through this up and down part with someone before, the deck builder..grrrr

 

What a fuckin bellend. Tempting to smack him I'm sure.

Trickle truth is when you basically pry it out of the person a bit at a time. Sometimes they figure if they give a little everyone will let the rest slide.

 

Once you get started.. you never stop.

Replaced the dishwasher yesterday, a toilet the weekend before, built a chicken coop and enclosure, whole bunch of gardening stuff..... I can go on.

But in the end, who am I to stand between a girl and her dream home. It can be tiring though lol

 

I have developed a new pet peeve.

We eloped about a month ago. I have an oddly spelled last name and told her if she wants it she can have it but I wouldn't advise signing up for a life of people misspelling your name. I also feel like it's kind of a strange old practice. She felt that it's also a lot of unnecessary work to change things so she kept her name and all our family and friends know that. If we were having kids I get that the consistency could be helpful, but we aren't and people are also aware of that.

Since, we keep getting people assuming she took my name, often even her own family forgets, or ignores it and addresses things using only my name. Or, people admit they knew but think she changed her mind in the end for some reason. It doesn't bother her but it kind of annoys me.

 

I find it a losing battle to be too invested in what other people do, say and feel. You married the love of your life. In my humble opinion THAT is what is most important and what I would focus on if I were you. Your reasoning is sound. Explain it to the people that matter and smile, nod and move on from the people that don't.

 

Having an oddly spelled last name, if I had it to do over again I'd think about changing mine at marriage to my wife's name " Summers"
In the long run would have made it easier for both of us...and for her elementary school students

 

A lot of people have trouble with Aud's last name, she just defaults to Mrs M lmao

 

I thought about that, but didn't want to go through the trouble of changing everything and explaining it to everyone.

 

To be fair my name is fairly easy to pronounce and I've had a lifetime of people pronouncing it wrong. I've corrected people and they still pronounce it wrong.

I still haven't changed my wife's name in my phone. We've been married almost 10 years and I've told her I'm not so sure I'm ready to make that level of commitment.

 

Guy I used to work with they both decided on a new last name. His was hard to spell so they chose something like River as their mutual last name change.

You have the opposite problem. Easy last name but your first name is a whirlwind

 

I know a couple that got married and when they were introduced for the first time it was as Mr. & Mrs. Black. Which was not the last name that either of them had at the beginning of the day. They didn't tell anyone that they had changed their last name. Everyone found out when the announcement was made.

 

That's fking brilliant.
I was still active when we married, so, not really an option. But, that would've made so many things better...

 

When my grandfather came over from Greece, our last name was longer. He shortened it at some point to make it less obvious that he was a Greek immigrant - my grandmother told me he was afraid it would hurt his career advancement as he started moving up the ranks at GE. It originally ended in a very typically Greek "-ios" and he dropped the "o".

With that change it became one letter off from a very common British last name with the same pronunciation. Everyone guesses the common one, and I've had a couple issues come up where people make that assumption and I have to dig into it and correct it. I get it, there are very, very few of us with my spelling, but it's still frustrating.

My wife is mostly French-Canadian, and her last name is super simple, 5-letters, obviously French, and the variations are generally pronounced a little differently so misspellings aren't typically an issue. Probably would have been better in the end if I did just take her name.

 

Seen some of you post some frustrations trying to sell stuff on Facebook or Craigslist. Today I had my wife post a display cabinet on Facebook. Immediately had a response from a guy who said he will take it and come today with cash. When my wife says ok he responds with - for my safety I will send you a 6 digit number, you can send that 6 digit number back to me so I know you’re real.

 

She responded with- I don’t know why you would need that. I’m responding to your message. He just said it’s for his safety. Told her not to respond to him. Probably nothing but sounds kind of fishy to me.

 

Happy wife happy life, my man

Baffles me how that many people mispronounce simple names, like they ain't even trying.

Haha..my wife's name is still the same. A Cupcake.

 

Friends of mine recently wed and combined their last names. Caswell and Ulin became Caslin. Very cool if you ask me.

My wife still had her first husband's name. I told her I don't care if she changes it or not..she did though.