"Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny." -- unknown

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results - Albert Einstein

Be less of a consumer
June 13, 2008 - 11:03 am

The remodel turned up early... and it seems he's really the production boss. A few frowns.. a few prods... more than few hammer & screwdriver chisel efforts... some tugging... some wood 'flexing' and perhaps a couple, just a couple, mental cuss words and the old dish washer was out. All in all, that part took about an hour.

Another forty-ish minutes to install the new one -- a tight fit given what the original workers did.

As he left, he said I should be all set and I waited for paperwork to come out. He had none. I asked the potentially dumb question, "So, all of this today would be covered under the install from Home Depot?"

He shrugged, "I don't get too much into the money aspect, but I don't see why not. I mean, I didn't have to rework any cabinetry or anything really at all."

No doubt I smiled a shit-eating smile and said something like good-deal. I fully expected to pay for 2 hours worth of work.. since that seems to be the min anyone in his business charges.

Heck, I even found my checkbook last night and had a check filled out. I write the so rarely... I think it's like check 20-something. I've had the account for over three years.

So... the new washer runs. Not quite as quiet as I thought it would be, but it's softer than the old one. It's got a couple fancy settings that I'll read about and see what's what.

I still giggle that some machines have a dozen options.

It's been an expensive couple of months. More so that I thought at first... More so than it should have been.

A little recap:

1) new toilett
2) new dish washer
3) new desk

I like the desk a lot. Took me forever to build, but then... I wasn't exactly working at it and did a couple things out of order.

I asked the guy about a real home project. My kitchen is tiny you see... a sort of galley kitchen but with a "pass through window" that looks to the living room. The window is large, a pre-made space really... that if continued to the floor would lose some cabinet/counter space, but (I think) really open up the kitchen. The guy today gave me the roughest of ballpark numbers. We'll see. I suppose my first real step is to talk to the HOA and confirm that since it's not a load bearing wall, I can do what I want. Could be the first time I potentially care what the rules are.

This... is on the list. Near the top, but well, given my three items already, it will sit there for a while. I need to squint and ponder at my finances... and develop a budget of sorts.

I need to be less the good American consumer, but old habits are hard to break.