Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...

Well, I'm back from vacation and I'm already cheesed off. I think the day after we got home I was already ready to just go somewhere else. It just goes to show that you can't run from your problems. ;)

I think I'm in such an angry mood right now because I just vacuumed the entire house, and housework just makes me angry. But as I'm zooming around my house, getting tangled in the hose of my vacuum cleaner and bumping the canister into everything in the room because canister vacuums are dumb that way, I'm composing hate mail for my builder and--simultaneously, I might add--rehearsing what I might say if I ever get to be in the same room with him again. All this fury because they sent us a letter in the mail stating that the balance for our house was $7600 or something like that, minus $1500 for the home warranty that the supervisor is taking off to offset costs. That would bring us to approximately $5200. Excuse me for a moment..... I must go pray for some serious forgiveness because a steady stream of profanities is blazing through my head as I type.

Okay.

THERE IS NO WAY IN THE WORLD HE IS TAKING OFF THAT HOME WARRANTY. To cut costs????? So if our basement starts leaking this spring, what? We're up a creek (in our basement)?? If we're $7600 over budget, so be it. But let me put it this way.... The last time I saw the guy (the night we moved in) he was physically figuring out numbers right in front of us, even though he had time to do this elsewhere before meeting with us. His original figure was around $8k, and by the time he left us at that meeting the figure was down close to $2500. Now why is it back at $7600 (or 5200)? I was angry with him then, and I stalked off to my closet to get away from the man.... So he sends me a letter through his secretary stating this is what he owes?

I feel like they should write this off because, frankly, I've been ticked off at them the whole time we've been building the house. Is this a good reason to have a balance written off? Well, I think so, for the sheer fact that I guarantee our supervisor got his full cut and the company got their full cut. They haven't even done a full walk-through with us like I would think should be pretty darn standard. We're still missing the crown molding over the stove. We've got trim pieces laying in our bedroom that belong upstairs in our bathroom. And the kickplates for two of our cabinets aren't there, and it's pretty ugly. Not to mention the glass door missing from my mullion door in the kitchen. Also, the heating and cooling guy was supposed to come out a month ago to readjust the balance in our house because the upstairs is cold and the downstairs isn't (hmm). And, after all, their sign is still in MY yard. I'm gonna go burn the thing cuz there ain't no way in *a bad place* I'm recommending them to anyone else. If I was iffy before, I'm not anymore

I know when I see the dude in person, I won't have the gall to say this to him. I let these thoughts seethe in my head until they make my chest tight and my head hurt, but when I see the supervisor I'll weenie out because deep down somewhere, I'm still overly polite..... and, sheesh, most of the times I really hate that attribute because I really could use it in situations like this.

It wouldn't be so bad if we had been informed along the way. "John, how we doing on the budget? I have to pick out *blank* today, and want to know if I'm over." The reply: "We're looking okay." Does that cut it? I also never got a selection sheet from them stating where to go and what to pick out. He plays dead, giving me this incredulous look like, "Why should that matter?" and apologizes for not giving me a sheet.... after everything's been picked out by yours truly. The justification was that no one is perfect--I'm not perfect, you're not perfect, yadda yadda yadda--but I'M NOT GETTING PAID $20k TO BE PERFECT.

I'm gonna go thud my head into the wall for a little while. Gaaaaaaaaaaaah!