jessteronimo

Construction Catastrophes

Things your contractors could do to screw you in a home remodeling project:

• They could randomly decide to put windows in your home addition where none were on the blueprints--then refuse to put it back the way it was supposed to be.

• They could cut and install doors opening backwards.

• They could start the project 3 months late, thus putting the main construction in the winter time.

• They could grossly understate the budget in the quote and then proceed to charge you nearly $3o,000 more than you expected, forcing you to come up with alternative financing to finish the project.

• They could run the gas line exhaust into the home, nearly asphixiating you and your family.

• They could mismeasure the placement of the bay window and move it 2 feet to the right, bumping it awkwardly up into the doorway.

• They could seal the family cat into the roof trusses, leaving you to find it 3 days later.

All of these things have happened to my sister during the addition onto her home. Thank goodness I'm not a homeowner!

Preparedness

I have a computer at work that is slowly dying. I've been able to resuscitate it a few times, but it will soon give out entirely. During its dying process, we've been able to back up the contents and move them off the computer so that when it really won't turn back on, it won't hurt so much. This whole experience made me think of my own computer, my cell phone, and my purse--three of my possessions that are so packed with important information that it would really hurt me if they failed. So I'm making a commitment to myself to take precautionary measures to reduce my pain should something happen to them. And I encourage you to do the same, regularly.

Fight Junk Mail

Do you get slammed with piles of junk mail each time the postman arrives? Do something about it. Check out this stamp: http://greenupgrader.com/1505/return-to-waster-junk-mail-stamps-at-etsy/

I don't believe that my household receives an inordinate amount of junk mail, but my company--that's another matter. In the marketing world, direct mail is one of the most expensive avenues for advertising. Companies keep doing it because, well, it works, apparently. But if you hate it as much as I do, returning their mail with some message of protest seems like the most effective way to stop the waste--or at least stop you from getting it (one step at a time, eh?).

Having worked in the internet industry and computing for years, you would think that a paperless office would be ideal to me. But I'm not one of those raging paperless freaks. I like to write, and I believe there are reasons to print something out still. But I think being conscious of the problems of waste is the best course. As one of my fellow coworkers points out, it's a cycle. Man takes nature and uses its resources, then returns it to nature to start over. The problem is that man is taking too quickly. We need to slow the cycle down. And junk mail forces us to process it, which is annoying and time wasting. I don't know that I'll order the stamp yet, but I'm going to start asking that it be returned to the sender, sans nasty note . . . initially.

More ideas: http://green.yahoo.com/blog/huddlergreenhome/23/junk-your-junk-mail.html

Efficient But Useless

"There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all." -- Peter Drucker

(Found on my friend Andrew's blog: http://stochasticresonance.wordpress.com/. Check it out, you agile programmers and nerds...or just curious folk.)

Hang Up First

When ending a conference call, make sure that you really hung up...and stayed hung up...before discussing the call, or the people who were on the call, or anything else you wouldn't tell those people to their faces. (The same principle applies to your phone's MUTE button, by the way; consider yourself ON AIR during the entire call, until certain finality.)

I was on a conference call today. After it ended, I got a call back from the same person who initiated the conference call. I answered it, of course. "Hello?" No response. I could hear people talking. "Hello?" I said again. They didn't hear me. And then I realized what was being discussed. Yep, you guessed it. They were talking about me. They didn't know they had called me back. I sat with my phone on mute and listened to them talk about me. Very enlightening.

This incident underscores my life-long preference for my super power of choice to be mind reading. It would really help the decision-making process.

Spelling Rules Simplified

Thanks to my sister in law for sending me the link to this site that teaches English language spelling rules in a really digestible way:

Spelling Rules

Yes, I am a nerd. And one particularly attached to language. (But you knew that, right?)

I especially like the very last couple of lines. So true!

Change of Address

One of the first things we did to get ready to move was submit a change of address card to the post office. Then we got online and updated the new address on all our important accounts: the bank, my work benefits, the DMV and IRS, several bill companies,  Amazon, and Netflix. We went down the list of all the people we receive mail from and notifed them of our new address. I sent an email to all my friends and family to let them know our new location.

The previous residents of our home had a different idea. They'd already moved out when they changed their address with the post office. And they apparently didn't tell anyone else they'd moved. Besides still getting mail every day for them, we've even had people stop by. But the most surprising event happened yesterday, when we got a magazine in the mail in a nondescript, concealing black cover. You would think they'd notify the dirty magazine subscription company of their new address. *chuckle chuckle*