Saturday, July 17, 2021

Saturday, July 17, 2021

Tonight's picture was taken in July of 2007. That day, we got aboard Peter's brother's boat and motored around the Boston Harbor. Mattie LOVED boats and he would tell you that he was saving his money in his piggy bank for a boat. NOT a toy one, but a real one. He was holding onto his cousin's hand as we were speeding along! Captain Mattie in action.

Quote of the day: Today's coronavirus update from Johns Hopkins.

• Number of people diagnosed with the virus: 34,064,168
• Number of people who died from the virus: 608,870

Last night we got home from being at the house all day after 8pm. When we got home, I noticed Sunny wasn't wearing his collar. The collar has his dog tags on it, with his name, our phone numbers, his pet microchip number, and his dog registration number for DC. In addition, the collar now has a GPS tag on it, so we can track him on our phones at all times. Given his disappearing act on Tuesday, Peter bought a tracker, and I am thrilled. But when I saw the collar missing, I panicked! Fortunately we had the dog this time, but were only missing the collar. So I looked on my cell phone last night, and I could see that the GPS picked up the collar in the backyard. 

Sunny has a routine! As soon as we turn into the neighborhood, we roll down the window and he literally puts his snout outside and starts heavy breathing and sniffing. He is a riot. 

The painters are working in our house both today and tomorrow! So there is no peace. We went to the house this morning to meet the HVAC consultant. Naturally we need a new system! Big surprise there!

But in the process of all these MASSIVE issues, I have been text messaging our realtor. As I think she is a lovely person and has a good heart, and wanted her to know the problems we have been facing. 

Today she told me something that STUNNED me. The day we were closing, we were all sitting around a big conference table signing paperwork. I got up to go to the bathroom, and apparently the former owners confronted Betsy, as they wanted $2,000 more from us because the previous owner pre-paid the maintenance for the pool through September. Given that this was a last minute request, Betsy told the owners that it was TOO late to even ask us for this payment. However, he was SO insistent that she paid the $2,000 out of her own pocket for us. It speaks to her character, as I met her years ago and liked her back then too. 

Today's finding is this.... the plumber installed a water filtration system in our basement. However, he never told us that he needed access to an electrical plug. So instead of solving the problem legitimately, he took the short cut. So there are wires stringing across our furnace. A problem we now have to call an electrician in to solve. 

We bought a house on a cul-de-sac. Ironically all the houses in this circle are up for sale! So today, I went in to see our neighbor's house! I wanted to know if it was in equally bad condition. For the last month, I have seen many contractors working in the house, so out of curiosity I wanted to see what it looked life. The house is in excellent condition with MANY upgrades.

The house is being sold by the same agent we bought our house from. So when I saw this agent today I gave her a mouthful about the house I bought! She was deeply sorry to hear this, but then she shared with me that the previous owners wanted to short change her on her realtor commission for the sale of our house. Why am I NOT surprised! It speaks to the character of these people, and given the state of their house, I know quite well exactly what I am dealing with.