So how do we really feel?

Recently, we took on this project of helping a friend update and sell a house. That is totally fine and there are no issues with the house or that we are doing this. The problem is that in the course of this, we hired another friend, Adam Cortese of NDC Home Services to do the work on the house and he has screwed us over. Big time.

There really isn't much to it: we gave him a deposit, he said the whole thing would take 2-3 weeks and that he'd begin prepping for paint the weekend that we gave him the deposit. This was on a Thursday. Brooks noticed that he cashed the deposit about a minute after getting it. No biggie, I thought. We were going to stop by the house on Monday and he was going to meet us there to see his work, but then on Monday he texted to say he had not been to the house and would not be going to the house to paint for a whole other week. Which meant that painting on a 2-3 week job would not begin for 12 whole days after the job was supposed to start. So we thought about it just a bit and decided we would paint to get back on schedule during that week that he said he couldn't paint. His response, again via text, was that he had some issues and concerns and this was not how he normally did business. He admitted he had not done any work or bought any materials though. We met again a few days later and he said he was now going to raise the prices on the remaining work. Since he had not done any work or bought any materials this really shouldn't have been an issue. When he came back with his new prices, we had already gotten second opinions on the other work he was supposed to do and thought his prices were higher than the job warranted. He didn't even give us the chance to fire him, but on his own said he'd give us the deposit back. He gave us some BS story about how he had pre-paid the money on his Home Depot account and said we'd have to give him time to earn the money back. In the meantime he had a birthday party for his son, so my guess is we paid for the party and presents. It was also the first of the month so we could have paid for his rent, or maybe a car payment. But regardless the money we gave him for the house was gone and had not been used on the house. He was supposed to meet us last week with the money, but once again, texted to say he couldn't come and told us we could "take the next step."

So we did.

We filed with the small claims court on Friday evening. On Monday I mailed his paperwork per the court's instructions. But, he could either not sign for it, not be home, not bother to pick it up if he is not home or not bother to respond. Which means the next step is to hire a constable to serve him. And then he has 20 days to respond and then we have to get a date scheduled. So this could take a while.

We are both angry/upset/hurt on a few different levels.

1) This was a friend. Why would you do that to a friend? He should have honored the schedule he gave us, should have understood that we were stepping in to make sure the work got done in time for our friend and should have made some good faith effort to return the money to us. Also, even though we weren't terribly close with Adam, his fiance Brandi and I are friends, and she made no effort to apologize on his behalf, or even try to communicate with me or make any good faith effort on her part. My husband would never do this to one of my friends. Ever. But, hypothetically speaking if he did you bet I'd make every attempt to do something for my friend. I'd be mortified. Why doesn't she care?

2) We found out Adam has been to small claims before. And, he even has a misdemeanor for contracting without a license. In both cases, he failed to appear and in the misdemeanor case had a warrant out and is still paying restitution. This makes me think he'll totally disregard our case just as he has the other two. I also feel stupid that we did not look into his business history before hand, friend or not.

3) We have to be good friends to Nas, who put us in charge of the house. Even though it was his money that we put down for the deposit,  since we are good friends and will do the right thing, now it is our money that will replace it. Also, now we had to explain why we are doing the work on our own. Thank goodness he took it all well.

4) I am also mad at myself that I would vouch for this guy or allow people like Adam or Brandi into our lives. I had a really great conversation the other day with a real friend, who reminded me about the positives to being 30. At this point in our lives we have earned where we are and what we have. She also said that we've weeded out people in our lives who aren't worth being a part of our lives. So now I have weeded out Adam and Brandi. I am embarrassed I made the mistake of considering them friends, but also even more embarrassed for them by the way they have conducted themselves.

Brooks is awesome and amazing and I am so happy he is my husband. He is a pretty calm guy but is pretty fired up about this based on principal. $1000 is a lot of money, but not end-of-the-world money. It won't break us or make us fight or make our lives worse without it. It will take some time but we will get it back. Adam stands to lose a lot more - the money plus court costs, loss of business and maybe even a little dignity. If he has any.

Tiger Cub Taylor

I think I see now why people blog semi-anonymously. The can give their kids cute names like one of my favorite blogger does- Pork Lo Maniac and Little Dude and most important write about others without them knowing and possibly being offended or hurt. But, alas, I have not gone that route.

Sigh. So here goes.

I should at first start by saying that Cub Scouts is a great organization, and something my Little Man is super excited to be involved in. Brooks was in Cub Scouts when he lived in Korea, so I think he was excited to have Taylor follow in his footsteps.

Taylor's pack is a decent size and the leaders are all very kind, however, there are some serious geeks. We refer to the Pack leader as the Head Nerd. There is another nerd in charge, whom we refer to as Ghostrider, which is his email name. In Taylor's Tiger Den, there are only maybe 7 kids- 3 of whom are in his class. The den leader is nice enough and seems to definitely bring some organization that the Head Nerds surprisingly lack. Brooks nicely worded this past weekend's events as "campy, " I do feel bad saying nerdy or talking about them that way. Because really, they are super nice.

This past weekend was the Space Derby. I only remembered the Pinewood Derby from my little brother's Cub Scouts days, so this was a new but very fun experience. Brooks and Taylor worked together on building the rocket, Taylor came up with the design and I painted it. I wanted to make sure it at least looked really cool just in case it didn't fly. We got there a little bit early as we discovered that morning that we'd manage to lose the nose cap piece that holds the propeller. Thankfully the Head Nerd took our panicked call and said he'd have a bag full of extra parts at the event. He even helped Brooks assemble everything there. Taylor waited not so patiently for the Tigers turn and then guess what?

It flew! And- it was first!

I think he even came in first for the 2nd round, but then on the third round it did not move at all. They let him re-fly in the finals, but he was beat out by the den leader's kid. I think Brooks and I were more concerned about his placement than Taylor was. He just thought it was cool that everyone seemed to think his rocket looked cool. In the end, he won a certificate for Best Tiger Spirit and was just really excited to be running around with his friends. Nerdy parents or not.

Staycation!

Labor Day weekend we spent three lovely days at the Fort McDowell Resort in Fountain Hills. It was close to blissful, if you take away the crowd and drunks from the Labor Day par-tay we didn't bother to research before booking. But, no biggie. The room was clean and comfy*, food was good, pool was perfect and kids were happy which is really all we ask for.

We left on Saturday after going to Baby Zeke's 2nd birthday party at the splash pad. Kids were dressed in their swim suits and ready to start the weekend with a little water teaser. A Mexican birthday party is really made up of: a lot of people, a lot of family, lots of food, a pinata, a late start and a late depart. It was fun and Araceli and the kids came down which made it even more perfect!

After the festivities, we headed down the road about 2 hours to Fountain Hills, which is so pretty with beautiful mountains and beautiful homes. Fort Mc Dowell was on the rez, which means there was a casino next door. Initially, I had big plans that involved putting the kids to bed and trusting them in the care of my little sister Bella so we could sneak to the casino with a few bucks. But, the older Brooks gets, the harder he is with parting with his money so this big idea never came to fruition. But we still had fun!

The hotel was sooo pretty! The only downfall of Radisson hotels are the Sleep Number Beds. Brooks really is not a fan; I can usually do fine with the bed set on 35, Taylor prefers his on 0. We hit the pool everyday, including the first night. They had bands playing poolside for the weekend, and I think a radio station was there with a margarita sponsor and a DJ hosting a shortened version of the dating game on the stage. The funny thing was, there weren't really younger people there, more like people our age re-living their youth. We did see one lady try to sneak a huge bottle of vodka out to the pool, then get busted by hotel security. But other than that we had a blast swimming, playing basketball in the pool and Brooks and Bella played volleyball in the pool as well.

The kids did well and love spending time with Bella; she is such a good kid and we really love having her around. This was actually her first time at a hotel, so we wanted to make sure she enjoyed it. We ate a few times at the casino, ordered room service, and went to the three story Fashion Square mall in Scottsdale.

And then the weekend was over and we had to leave. Which totally sucked. My babies love hotels and so do I. The weekend made me think about the many hotels we have stayed at and adventures had at each one. I think once things slow down with the house I will try to blog more about that...

Yes We Can!

We are now thick in the midst of flipping a house. I really don't like that term, I guess it just seems sort of shallow and profit driven and in reality we aren't doing it for money at all. But we are updating a house for Brooks' friend and it is 1) a ton of work; and 2) exciting and entertaining; and 3) totally teaching us something about ourselves.

When Nas first asked Brooks if he'd handle this, I mentioned we could try to do some of it ourselves. Brooks immediately became concerned we couldn't do it as well as a professional and we decided to hire someone to handle the re-model. We went with a friend, which was a big mistake and a huge learning experience. It wasn't a close friend, but close enough we didn't think we'd be taken advantage of. However the past 3 weeks have been way more stress than they were worth trying to rely on someone else. In the meantime since no work was getting done on his end, we decided we needed to get some work started in order to meet the time frame Nas was originally promised, and we have totally realized that we can do anything! I've wrestled with vertical blinds, picked out some sick fixtures and the perfect paint color. Brooks has become a pro with the drill and today we removed one of those big, heavy mirrors from the bathroom  without hurting ourselves, breaking the mirror, or damaging the wall.

The house is in pretty good shape, we really don't have too much left to do and since we've fired the contractor the only stressor left is trying to get our deposit back. But we've laughed a lot and really have had a good time doing this. It has totally taught us we are handy and it makes me smile to see my husband who is good at so many things already, realize he is better at so many more. We've given the kids brushes and let them paint away (and then gone back and re-painted) and now that's it's just us we are relying on, everything has gone surprisingly well.

Just before working on the house, I had started saying  that when we work together, we work well. This experience has totally proven that.

HGTV and the Dubs

Here is a long overdue pic of the new couch. It is off-white leather and fabulous. To all  you Nay-Sayer's who think white and kids don't mix- leather and kids mix quite well, actually. In fact, Mr. Couch has already become pretty familiar with chocolate pudding on a few occasions and still looks showroom new. He is comfy, big enough for our both to stretch our feet out on and watch movies together after the kids go to bed. Totally perfect and I am happy.

Well, sort of happy.

Seeing this nice, new couch in our living room makes our chaise look shabbier then he was already looking. So, I am going to begin a new project hopefully soon and attempt to create a new dark gray slipcover for the chaise. I found the fabric, but since I have no idea what I am doing (although the old slip cover will make for a great pattern), I need to recruit some help with this. Specifically someone with  a sewing machine as I don't want to hand stitch the whole thing and my beloved stitch -witchery will only go so far.

Big project #2 is updating and decorating a house for Brooks' friends who live in Miami. They don't want to fly back to handle selling this house which used to be a rental so we are acting as the middle men to get it done. Today Jazz and I walked around Lowe's and found some pretty cool counter top solutions. This is fun and I feel a little like all the HGTV watching we have done is paying off. I am enjoying finding nice things at a bargain and can't wait to see it all come together. We are re-painting, updating the electrical as well as light fixtures and hardware and faucets, ceiling fans and new counter tops and mirrors. I am truly loving this and wishing we had the extra money and the market was better to where we could either have some rentals or flip some houses.