WHAT CENTURY ARE WE IN

I was going to start this post now but I am in a very angry mood at the moment and will need to walk away and come back when I am a little more composed……..

6 hours later:

I understand privacy policies with businesses. We have them at my work and I know how annoyed people get when we won’t let them have access to someone’s account. I am the toughest one at work and won’t capitulate to demands of non-account holders when staff come to me to approve it. Yes we know you are the wife and you pay all the bills. Doesn’t matter… and I get that.

In planning for our move I am taking on the responsibilities for our accounts everywhere. Hydro, phone, cable, credit cards.

Unfortunately these were all set up with only my husband’s name over 30 years ago when we lived in previous century. If I recall correctly there were dinosaurs roaming freely at that time. Now with computers and the internet we are able to manage things more easily but in some cases we are still archaic. I would do it all online except that we are keeping our old services active past the date we move as we will put the old house on the market later. We need services until we sell in the old home but new services in the new home.

Let’s start with phones.

Called phone company. Account is in BB Guy’s name but I am a contact. I can change the account and add an account but I cannot close the original account. They were very good to deal with except that the new phone will stay in his name or we will lose the lower rate for being a long time customer. We cannot have it in both our names. Cable company. Same thing. I have set up the new account but it is just in my name. Again I will lose any long time customer benefits. This is not fair as I have been part of the original account since 1982 but not in name as my name didn’t matter at the time.

Home electric bill. Online I am listed as the account administrator. Have been since 2008. I cannot do anything over the phone however. Only online. This would work except we are not cancelling our current service. We just want new service set up. Since the house we are buying has been vacant for a while we also have to supply them with a purchasing agreement to prove we are “new people” and not who the place is listed under now.

I was going to just set it up in my name and add BB Guy as the contact but since I am not a current customer
DIDYOUHEARME…NOTCURRENTCUSTOMERFORTHELAST31YEARS….I will have to pay a security deposit for an account in my name. That is where she lost me. I was not very polite and as someone who works in the service industry that is totally out of character for me. I WILL NOT PAY A SECURITY DEPOSIT WHEN WE …. YES I SAID “WE” HAVE BEEN PAYING THE CURRENT ACCOUNT FAITHFULLY FOR 31 YEARS.

Lets move on to a credit card. All I have to do is change the mailing address. Online again because the primary cardholder is whatshisname… (are you sensing the tension?).

Cardholder name and card number…right from the statement…. nope….. it doesn’t match….How can it not match when it is the information they are sending us and they specifically say that you need to have the statement handy to complete this.

Honestly I just don’t have the patience for this stuff. I do have my own credit cards and do have a credit history of my own but all this stuff that we have to move was set up over 30 years ago and housewives were not recognized as contributing members of a marriage.

Of course we want anything new to be set up with both our names but the companies won’t do it because they use credit information for one primary person only…. well if that is the case don’t come looking to me for payments if the accounts were ever to go in the toilet. Oh wait… I am liable for the bills if something were to happen… Hmmm funny how that works.

(BB Guy came home early from work to deal with all of this and everything will be set up on time. The Hydro guy stated someone 16 years old or older has to be at the house for them to set it up. BB Guy replied “ NO PROBLEM, MY WIFE JUST TURNED 16” Groan… at least I had one laugh today)

PRETTY WEEDS

Sad to say I have not been keeping up my garden for a while.

Happy to say some things just come through year after year.

Wild phlox always comes through from the greenbelt next door and they are so pretty and fragrant I usually wait until they are done before I clean up the beds.

The rhododendrons are about 15 feet tall. They bloom no matter that I don’t deadhead them. I couldn’t reach if I tried.

Even taller than that is the climbing rose. It is at least 20 feet up into the maple tree in the green belt. Again very fragrant. It is at eye level on the second storey of our house.

I will miss  my garden when we move soon. I planted 99% of it myself. There have been some spectacular displays over the years. Even sneaking through the fence those phlox are pretty.

Where we are moving there are some controls over what you plant etc. It will be hard to color between the lines.

Compromise.

SPENDING A LITTLE–SAVING A LOT

While reading Jen’s post at Muddy Boot Dreams this morning she got me thinking about some things we are changing in our lives soon.

If all goes according to plan we will be in a new home by June 12 or 13. We have made some decisions that will save us money. This is a good thing since my commute to work will be quite long and will consume a lot of fuel for sure.

We are not keeping our home phone. We will be using our cell phones exclusively. For my BB Guy this is nothing new as he is on his phone from morning til night already for work. His is paid for by his work.

For me it will be more of a challenge since I rarely use my phone. I cannot have it on at work so for most of the day it is off. I check for messages on my lunch break. Usually anyone who wants to phone me calls the house.

My cell phone plan includes 10 free long distance numbers. Perfect. I couldn’t even fill the list and soon there will be more people living close by that I will no longer need long distance for anyways.

Monthly savings = about $50.00

Next item is our daily newspaper delivery. When I was at home full time I read the paper every day but since back in the work force I no longer take the time to read it instead getting my news online. My BB Guy does read it though. He agreed that when we move we will no longer get the paper. It is a waste of paper and a messy nuisance.

Monthly savings = $30.00

Since we are moving to a place with very little lawn to care for I will be taking this task on myself. I don’t mind mowing a small yard but could not take care of our 1/4 acre lot we are currently in. With the many garden beds to mow around an electric mower was not an option and with my short little arms I cannot start a regular pull start mower. The electric start mowers never ever work for long and like a barbecue started soon become useless. Since my BB Guy is often not here there was no other choice but to hire a lawn fairy for our big lot. We will get a small, light rechargeable mower. No electrical cords, no pull start cords, no buttons. It will also be a mulching mower so no grass to dispose of either. Good for the environment and for the wallet.

Lawn fairies do not come cheap and with the fertilizing, moss control, mowing, weedwhacking etc. the monthly bill could be in the $250.00 range most months.

We are empty nesters now as well. Our electric and gas bills will be cut in half at least. Showers, laundry and dishwasher runs will be fewer (okay we are still showering regularly but not for half an hour at a time) . I think there are enough savings here alone to justify not switching to those disgusting CFL lightbulbs which for the most part are useless for lighting.

We are also seeing the end of a few other payments that total far more than what I will be spending on gas to go back and forth to work. In the end we are coming out ahead financially even though we are upgrading in our home to a larger, 7 year old one from a home that is about 40 years old.

What have you done to keep more money in your wallets? Share your tips.

THE MOST AMAZING TRIO

I have never heard anything so beautiful in my life. These 3 are amazing. I actually had shivers running down my arms.
Battle: Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen) | The Voice Kids 2014

HOUSE BUYERS BOOGIE

Obviously to those who read my blog regularly I have not been around.

Between the 10 hour shifts and everyday things that need to be done we are buying a house and getting ours ready to sell.

What a production. We have made an offer on a house and pending subject removals we have a deal. I will share more about that when it actually happens.

We are also clearing out 31 years of living from our current home. OH….MY…. GOSH…

We have been bad. We have not kept things up the way we should have. I said to my BB Guy… why do we fix things up now and clear things out when we didn’t bother to do this while we lived here? We should have been more diligent in our home.

Take care of the home you are in. Fix the little things as they come up. Doing a couple chores now is easier than having a list of 20 things to down the road when time is an issue.

Get rid of the the junk, clutter and stuff you don’t need. It is exhilarating. It is an eye opener.

Anyways… stay tuned for some upcoming news as to whether we complete the deal or not. Next step is the home inspection of the new house on Saturday. We hope there are no surprises.

MY GUITAR PAL – A GREAT IDEA

I want to share with all of you a wonderful program that has been created by my brother-in-law, my nephew and others talented folks called  

MY GUITAR PAL.

MY GUITAR PAL is a great start-up and will become so huge but like the term start-up indicates the word needs to get out there.

“At My Guitar Pal we are aiming to create the best online guitar courses available for players of all levels and styles.  We will do this by providing not only great instruction but also the best and clearest user experience available.  Not only have we created a tonne of great content (600 + HD videos and counting, spanning 23 courses), but we are also nearing completion of our unique course system which allows for both progressive step-by-step learning and self-directed learning.  We have taken lifetimes of experience as career musicians and instructors and translated a tried and true teaching methodology to a web platform that we are confident will be the easiest and best place to learn to play.”

 I ask that you please share this as much as possible, with family, friends and bloggers. You never know who they know that may be interested in what MY GUITAR PAL has to offer. 

You can follow them on Facebook and Twitter too.

CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR….OR SALE

We are planning to move. Not downsizing other than the yard. We just don’t have the time to take care of the large yard and garden we have now.

We know what we want and what is a deal breaker. We have come close a few times to finding something that meets our criteria. It can be either a house or a townhouse.

• large rancher – with or without a downstairs. All that matters is that the garage/entry, kitchen, master bedroom and laundry room are all on the same level.
• somewhat private
• modern

We have viewed a few places. I do a lot of research online before choosing a place to see. I make up my mind very quickly.

The first place was a townhouse in a gated community perched on a hillside. It was very large with two levels but all the main stuff is on the entry level. The master bedroom had two huge walk in closets. The view from both levels was fabulous.

Then someone made an offer on it before us. I was very disappointed but then the deal fell through…because there are 2 conflicting engineers reports. Seems like there was some cracking in the adjoining unit and the first engineer said the hillside erosion was the reason. The second engineers report said it was just building material failure. We were not willing to take the chance.

Keep on looking. Okay. Not too far from the first one I found this one. It is a house with a small yard. I figured the yard upkeep was doable. Beautiful windows, nice kitchen with an interesting stainless steel backsplash. Hmmm maybe.

Oh wait… what is that? Big cracks at the ceiling. Even bigger cracks in the slab patio outside the lower level. My husband didn’t like the slanting lot and I had to agree but the real kicker was the awful odour of natural gas outside. Not coming from the house but not sure where from. Well another one bites the dust.

So many that just are not suitable. They are too small, too close to their neighbours, too old and dated. I start to get panicky and start to look further away than we had planned.

I found a beautiful place. It is on a golf course. I located some virtual tours and the house is great. I was decorating it in my head but the reality of my husband and I both having to drive an hour to work and an hour home again knocked this one off our list. For a brief moment though I thought I would do be able to do it.

Time to move on….just not moving in.

Oh look what we found. Beautiful. Big. Modern. Close enough to work. What could go wrong?

Power lines! This beautiful home is right next to the giant power lines. I know!!!!! Just not something we can overlook. Even if we put something on that side of the deck so we didn’t really see the tower what about the health issues associated with these towers? So many conflicting reports on their safety. Just too close for comfort.

 So the search continues. We are not in a hurry but in my mind I really am. I want to move and I want to move soon. It is hard to be disappointed each time. There have been a couple more I have viewed but didn’t include them here because they wouldn’t have been suitable like these would have been if not for the deal breakers at the end. 

So we will keep looking. I am not going to settle….yet. 

I am joining in with Little Red House for Mosaic Monday. 

Stop by there to see what is going on today. 

 

INSPIRATION ON AN ISLAND

Many of you know I love basketball. I especially love university, college and high school basketball.
I enjoy the growth and positive outcomes for many of these kids. I enjoy the camaraderie and spirit. It is a different game when it isn’t an overpriced pro league.
The teams from different schools travel a lot and do all kinds of fundraising to pay for their travel costs.
I have bought the chicken, the pie shells, the poinsettias, the wrapping paper and yes, even the manure.
But imagine you live in an isolated community. Who do you play against? Who comes to your school to challenge you in a game?
Haida Gwaii is off the British Columbia coast and is a group of islands commonly referred to as the Queen Charlotte Islands. You will get here by boat or by plane. For them to travel to play any other teams it can mean multiple, long ferry rides. If the weather turns bad it means longer stays in hotel rooms as well. 

These boys needed to raise about $40,000 – $50,000 to play this year. It is worth it. There has been a basketball scholarship for one of the players, Nathan Vogstad, to go to Simon Fraser University.
“It is showing they can make it to university too. It is not impossible being on Haida Gwaii,” says Vogstad. “If you work hard enough and keep going to the gym, you can do it too.”
Hats off to this small community for supporting their basketball team so they can compete against other teams and improve their games and their futures.