| Progress and News Continued |
Dec. 13th: My friends, there isn't anything I hate telling you worse than
we're not going to be open by Christmas. No, the place is crawling
with people working to have us finished, but, simply put, it's just too
little, too late. We had a long talk with Dave (job supervisor) this
afternoon, after a day of franticly working to get loose ends tied, and
we agreed 2006 wasn't going to be the year of our opening. BUT, with
our spirit fully intact, we look forward to a new year, a year that will
definitely (I shouldn't say "definitely") be OUR year!
As long as we're open before February 18th, 2007, the first day of the
Chinese New Year, we will still open during the Chinese Year of the
Dog! Really, in the grand scheme of things, that's probably not that
important, but it is a neat idea. After all, 2007 will be the Chinese Year
of the Pig. A PIG, for Pete's sake! I was born in a dog year, making
me a dog year person! Very appropriate, I think! It's funny, but Tina
was born the following year, which makes Tina, well, it makes Tina a
pig baby! Am I the only one laughing?!!
Okay, back to the matters at hand: The thing Tina and I feel worst about
is letting all the nice folks down who were depending on us keeping
their pet for them over the holidays. We had already talked with
several people about reservations, with the agreement that they would
make reservations elsewhere, just in case we couldn't be open. As
little as two weeks ago we felt with all our hearts we were going to
make it. Then doubts started creeping in. But, beginning this week,
road blocks began showing up that really made it tough to believe we
were going to make it. Looking on the bright side, though, which, by
the way, is the way I operate, having the time to be fully finished, not
trying to rush our opening, will guarantee that the grounds will look and
operate the way you want them to for your pet. We will be bursting with
pride the NEXT opportunity we have to have your pets as our honored
guests. I truly mean that, too! Seeing to it that your pet is happy,
comfortable and feels at home is all in the world we're concerned with.
Like I may have said before, that concept beats at the heart of
Beechwood Trails Pet Lodge! Watch for our Grand Opening!
Dec. 15th: Even though we've come to admit to ourselves that we
won't be open for Christmas, still, we're not going to miss it by far! The
guys took a much needed day off today, well, all except for one. Drew
said they were going to try and get the final inspection done by the end
of next week. That's hard to believe! Now, that doesn't mean
everything's going to be finished, I guess just the portion
Houndquarters provides....I guess. But like I said, it won't be long. Our
house is close to the same stage, and will be very close to being
finished by the end of the year. Flooring is going in now, the power will
likely be turned on next week, then the HVAC guys can install the heat
pump. Tina and I, along with my parents, will be putting the final coat of
paint on the interior. Since we got a little carried away with the rock on
the exterior and the interior, we've decided to finish the painting
ourselves to save a buck. Gee, rock sure costs a lot. Oh, we had our
cupola installed on the detached garage and our awesome looking
Greyhound weather vane mounted on top! You know, I was the only
one there this morning concerned with having the directional arms
pointing in the correct direction! Yeah! Like I told them, if you're going
to do something, do it right! I have a problem with folks who aren't
concerned with doing things right. I started to run to the house and get
my compass, then I remembered from our survey plat that the stretch of
Capps Ferry Road in front of our property runs straight north, south. I
told the fellows to just line it up with the road, which was in full view from
the top of the garage, and it'll be perfect. I mean, I could just see it, a
year or two from now and I'm talking with a neighbor about the
weather. Curious as to which way the wind's blowing he looks up at
our weather vane and sees it's blowing in from the north. Then I have
to tell him to never mind what our weather vane says, we were too lazy
to set the directional arms correctly and all it's there for is looks! Okay,
I'm through now. Anyway, the weather vane looks great, just like the
Greyhound Bus dog! The dog figure for the weather vane that will be
mounted on the lodge's cupola will be a Golden Retriever. Well, after a
very long day working at the lodge, Tina and I are pooped and are
ready to hit the hay. Have a great weekend!
Dec. 22nd: Things have wound down now, with Dave and the guys
leaving town to go spend the holidays with their families in Ohio.
Today, the only folks working was the sheet rock crew, finishing the
drywall in the office section. Dave and his crew won't be coming back
until after New Years, but we will be doing some of the work we have to
get done using local folks. Our electricians have been terrific, and they
will be back next week to finish their work. Our fencing company,
Smith Fencing, will likely be back next week to finish up. These guys
have bent over backwards to make sure all our outdoor pens are
secure enough to keep mice in, that is, if we were of a mind to board
mice. Our house is looking great! The guys working on the house, I'm
not sure, but they may be taking off Christmas Day! They're that
serious about getting their work done! I have to mention the company
doing the tile work for our house. The Company is Handyworks Home
Improvements. The owner, Doug Baily, and his guys are unbelievable
at laying tile, and making suggestions for those little things that end up
making the job just look fantastic. There are those days that I'm not
sure they even went home at night! No kidding! They're there early in
the morning, and some days they work so late that they're working by
lights running off extension cords running to the temporary power
pole!
Merry Christmas, everyone!
Dec. 27th: We hope everyone had a great Christmas holiday! Tina
and I were happy to see this morning that the lodge had once again
become a busy place. Although the builder won't be there until after
the 1st, the HVAC crew, the electrician and the plumbers were busy
trying to get their work finished. I would imagine they've been told to
have their work done by the time Dave and his crew comes back next
week. Or, at least, that's the way we're guessing! Seriously, if
everyone is trying to get their work done this week, that would leave
very little to be done. The house was quite busy today as well. I truly
think it's possible by the middle of January that we'll be very close to
maybe having a guess that we definitely might be almost done! Is that
clear enough?
Dec. 31st: Happy New Years, folks! Please keep your fingers
crossed for us that this next month will be our time, and it will see the
opening of our dream. May we all have the best year we've ever
had!
Jan. 4th: Dave and the guys (the builders) got back on the job
yesterday. I didn't say anything about it yesterday, because I was
painting rooms in the house until after dark. Man, I need to remember
to stop painting when it gets too dark to see! When I got there this
morning, I spent the first few minutes correcting mistakes before Tina
got there and noticed! That could have been bad! This morning, Dave
and crew were back working, and the boys from Smith Fencing were
installing our perimeter fence. It is being built to foil even the slickest
fence climbers. Believe me, Jason and Brad from Smith Fencing are
going overboard making this a super secure place. Okay, enough
about that! Now, does anyone have any painting experience?!! I
recruited my dad to help Tina and I paint rooms today. Thanks Dad! I
think Jerry Slay is beginning to worry that we're going to hold things up
and not get the interior of the house painted by the time the flooring
needs to be put in. Woops, Gretz, our big male greyhound, is playing
chase with Jingle, our New Guinea singing dog. It's so funny to see
this cute little, fox-like girl running through the house with our
greyhounds. Okay, back to the project. Johnny Wells and his guys
poured a good bit of our driveway for the house yesterday. It looks
great! We'll be using asphalt for the remainder of it, and will do it at the
same time Harry Pierce comes to put the finish coat of asphalt on the
lodge driveway. In fact, I need to call Harry and get him lined up for
week after next! It's getting close, guys!
Jan. 12th: What were my last words? I guess I should learn to not
make statements like that. We had a little turn of bad luck....as if this
was our first. We had our plumber (not the original plumber) there
yesterday morning to hook up all the drain pipes and sewage pipes to
the septic system, and wouldn't you know it, the drain pipes exiting
from under the building slab are lower than our septic tank! Our
multi-thousand dollar septic tank! Now, the county has suggested we
need a new septic system for the drain system alone. Now we're
waiting to find out what's going to be done. You will know as soon we
know. Hopefully it won't take too long.
Jan. 15th: Tomorrow Tina will speak with Douglas County's
Environmental Department and see what our next move should be,
while I work away at the house. This same man and I spoke Thursday
about the problem, and he kind of pointed his finger at a particular
company (person)....the same person we have our finger pointing at.
Now we need for that person to step forward, take the blame, then get
us back moving. We really don't want this to get ugly. There's a
simple, quicker solution, albeit slightly more trouble and probably more
costly over the long haul; and then there's a more costly, much bigger
deal of a solution, one that would require removing more trees and
probably a higher initial cost, but one that would be closer to
maintenance free for years. I'm never much for the quick easy route,
but, in this case, that's the way I'd probably lean. We're extremely
ready for this to be over with, and get our place open! Well, we'll know
more tomorrow!
Jan 20th: To be honest, we don't know much more now than we did
the last time I wrote. Still, we feel we know who should be responsible,
but there are four companies, in all, in our opinion, who can share in
the responsibility. I had a nice talk with one of the main players Friday,
and he made himself quite clear that he doesn't feel it's his problem.
Well, not wholly, but we feel that they can definitely share in the blame.
When we got home from a day of painting at the house, Tina and I took
our site plan, our Houndquarters building plans, and every other piece
of information we could get our hands on, that just might give a hint as
to where the problem originated. Ol' eagle eye, Tina, quickly spotted
two things that, to us, tells us what we need to know. Monday, first
thing, our attorney will hear what we've found. It appears, according to
the plans, that the contractor should have checked the position of the
sewage system to make sure the building would drain properly.
Second, the plans don't give any indication as to the depth of the
trench drains. They're quite deep, and should have been clearly
marked as such in the plans, so the surveyor could have given the
proper elevations for the building and the septic system on the site
plan. Can it be more clear? We'll find out Monday how we should
approach this. Now don't get the feeling the whole thing has been at a
standstill! Work has continued, and everything is looking great, but, of
course, we can't get the Certificate of Occupancy and open our doors
without a properly operating drain system. Hopefully we can get things
moving toward an end this week! Now, Tina and I can now see an end
to the painting of the interior of our house, so if you're dying to help,
you'd better holler! A couple of more rooms and some trim, and we'll
be ready for what carpet we're having installed, and that, and the
wrapping up of a few electrical bugs, and we'll be just about ready to
move in! We can't wait for this whole thing to be finished. We're now
officially over the four year point from when we first started working on
this dream. Actually, it began when our vet told us we ought to open a
kennel, while working on the Alabama Kids as new found, abandoned
puppies back in late 2002. That was all the push we needed to pursue
what we had talked about for years.
Dec. 22nd: Okay, I'm being very careful not to mention the names of
players in our little controversy, until, of course, our attorney tells us it's
okay to. Nothing yet has been resolved, but our attorney, who has a
wonderful way of getting his point across and pointing out folk's
stupidity, is about ready to pen a letter to "them". Tina wrote an e-mail
to this fellow yesterday, letting him know how unhappy our whole
experience has been dealing with them, then she talked with him on
the telephone today. He said he was sending us a letter, that he didn't
want to say what he had to say in an e-mail....whatever that might
mean. So, sitting back this evening, waiting on a letter to, possibly, be
"overnighted" to us, "he" surprised us with the e-mail that he said he
wasn't going to write! In his e-mail, he dances ALL around the facts,
never addressing the points Tina made in her e-mail, then said he
"offered these suggestions, in hopes, of helping us to resolve this
issue." Sorry, it doesn't help. I don't guess there's any reason to
continue our discussion with him. Remember when I said, "we really
don't want this to get ugly" in my writings on the 15th? Well, I"m afraid
"ugly" may be the only route left to take. Have you ever tried to explain
something to someone who, basically, just doesn't have a clue? Our
terrific attorney may about ready to clue him in.
Jan. 30th: Sorry for being so quiet lately. I am truly at a loss for words.
We haven't seen the builder's crew since Friday, and our gate has
remained locked. Boy, if we only had the chance to do it all over again,
things would have been done completely different. We are contacting
the company this evening with an e-mail, telling them we are NOT
happy, and we had better see things jumping in short order. I hate to
make threats. They sound so childish. But they're pushing us into a
corner where there's nothing left to do but come out swinging. We're
so close, but they are acting so unprofessionally, we may as well be
miles from the finish line. All I can say at this point is, they'd better not
use us as a reference. I have been in the contracting business for
many years, working for more individuals than we can count and many
national and international companies, and upon those occasions that
we made mistakes, we apologized, took our lumps, remedied the
problem and moved on. By doing so, we kept our pride, kept our
customers and kept our reputation. Not once did we try to weasel out
of it and try to push the cost onto the customer we were doing the job
for. Not once!
Feb 2nd: Still going round and round, folks. I believe we're near a
solution, though, but there's still a little more discussion yet to be had.
No one has admitted they should have caught the error, but I do believe
they, at least to themselves, have realized we're right. Work still
continues on the lodge, and everything left to be done shouldn't take
that much longer, even considering the new septic system made
necessary by their error. Another thing, on our "Favorite Links" page
we have a list of the companies that have stood out and have done
their jobs well. This isn't a complete list of companies that have taken
part in our project, because there have been those companies that just
couldn't be listed here because their work or their ethics, just didn't
measure up. I don't care how well you do your job, if you aren't together
in the ethics department, as far as we're concerned, you'll never work
for us again. The companies we have listed are not only good
companies, but the people also stood out, and are folks we can call
friends.
Feb. 4th: Let's hope this week things will step off in the right direction.
We got the CO (Certificate of Occupancy) on our new house and will
be moving in over the next week or so. Tina sent an e-mail to the one
who needs to make a decision on whether or not they'll accept
responsibility for the problem at the lodge, and, hopefully, we can wrap
this up soon....very soon! We'll need to hear something positive from
him very early this week, that is, if he wants to keep things from quickly
moving in a negative way.
Feb. 5th: We got some hopeful news this evening by e-mail from the
building contractor. He said they were going to be getting back to
work on the few things they have left to do. That was the good news.
The news we wanted to hear, well, besides what he told us, was what
they're going to do about our septic system problem. That went
noticeably unmentioned. But, on the good side, he's just the building
contractor, not the overall company responsible for the construction.
Who knows, it may be that he's leaving it up to the big guy to handle. I
mean, after all, it's the main company's blue prints that failed to
mention the depth of the trench drains, causing the engineer who
created our site plan to miss what the depth of the septic tank or the
height of the building pad needed to be. That one little omission
caused ALL of this! Folks, we would have been open for business
today, if his blue printest (one who draws blue prints) had put in all the
information needed for proper drainage. Blue printest? I'll bet you
didn't know they had words like that, did you? Don't bother looking it
up, just take my word for it.
Feb 7th: Nothing new with the lodge happened yesterday, but I do
want to mention a very nice couple I met as I returned to do some detail
work on our new house. As I pulled up, I saw a pickup truck and a
couple standing in front of our house. I got out to meet them, and they
told us that this was their dream home, one they'd been looking at in
the plan book for a long time. The lady said she passes down Capps
Ferry every day, and has enjoyed seeing our house being built. Like
us, they'd even gone as far as to contact the architect, whose business
is in Marietta. I gave them the grand tour of the house, and I feel pretty
sure they grew even more excited about the prospect of building this
home on their lot in Coweta County. We talked for a good while, and
when I learned of their daughter's love for dogs, and like ours, her love
for taking in strays, I told them all about the lodge and gave them a
card to give to her.
Feb. 8th: We got some very exciting news this evening! The building
crew is supposed to be back working tomorrow morning! I
know....you're asking what was decided about the drainage problem,
right? Well, against advice we've been given, Tina and I have decided
to go ahead and get our septic system guy to put the new system in,
and we've been told we will be reimbursed after the job is done. Yeah,
you're thinking we're a perfect couple of pigeons, right? Well, maybe,
but we just couldn't let things sit any longer. In the e-mail we received,
it said that the remaining work has been lined up to be finished very
quickly, and we may be able to get the CO (Certificate of Occupancy)
by the 15th. Well, knowing that there is still a lot of work to be done, the
new septic system, the paving of the parking area, and any
landscaping that will be done, well, it may take a couple more weeks,
BUT you can be guaranteed we're doing our very best! Folks, you just
don't know how many gray hairs Tina's grown over the past few
weeks! Me? I'm way too young!
Feb. 10th: The guys are back at work! Tina and I have talked with
Tommy Biggs of A.S.P.C.O. Septic and Plumbing out of Bowdon, and
we have him lined up to come in and make the changes and additions
to our septic system in order to make everything work as it should. You
know, neither Tina or I even had time to go talk with Dave (job super)
today, because this was the day we chose to start the big move into
our new home! After you've been married as long as we have, if you've
never learned to get rid of things you don't use any longer - like us, then
when it comes moving time, you've turned what should take a few days
into a two week, back breaking event. With the help of my wonderful
family and a couple of friends, we knocked an awfully big hole in it
today. Another three or four days of moving, and we should have the
job mostly done. The "kids", for the most part are taking it very well.
The two who are very confused, as you would expect, are Jingle and
Lita, our two wild breed dogs. The Greyhounds, Whippets, the
Alabama Kids and Pete figure home is where the super dish is, but
Jingle and Lita just flat don't understand why their world is being
carried off in cars and trucks....oh, yes, we're moving Alabama style....I
mean, what's family for?
Feb 21th: Sorry we've been incommunicado for so long. The move to
our new house turned into just a little more than we EVER thought
possible. We didn't finish moving until the 17th, well, Tina points out
that we made a small haul on the 18th, so that means our move took
well over a week to complete. Many stupid things were done during
our move....we packed all our pots and pans, most of our clothes and
other semi-important things, so deeply in the PODS storage unit, it'll
probably take decades to uncover them. Seems like the perfect time to
go on a diet. Man, the haul-it-yourself style of moving has its
drawbacks, trust me. Never, and I mean NEVER, move into a house
with a smaller basement and a smaller kitchen than you've had for the
past 18 years! But, on the other hand, one of the nice things, and
taking advantage of the bare trees outside, as I type this, looking out
the window to my left, I can see the lodge perched high atop a hill, with
a our beautiful valley between us, about five hundred feet away. The
septic system problem will be fixed this week, providing the rain gives
us a break, and then only another week or two of work left before we're
ready to open. We're getting excited, folks!
Feb. 24th: We still haven't made the changes to the septic system. In
an effort to change the minds of those in the position of enforcing
policy, with concern to the extent of the changes needing to be made to
our system, Tommy Biggs (septic tank guy) made a last minute pitch
on our behalf to see if he could get the changes to be made lessened,
more simple and smaller, yet still adequate for the job. Nope, it didn't
do any good. So after missing a week arguing our case, Tommy will
make the improvements called for this coming week. This week I'll fly
into action (with Dad's help) and build our reception counter in the
lobby. I don't know if I mentioned it earlier, but the guys from Best Buy
installed our sound system, and now it's up to me to upload tons of
music I've been amassing in this computer to an MP3 player. The
player will run 'round the clock playing nice, peaceful music for our
guests. It's so amazing, that all those songs can fit into something no
larger than a deck of cards. Tina and I are still settling into our new
home, working every spare second trying to find a place to stash
things. I've noticed something way out of balance during this move,
that I don't guess I noticed, or it wasn't there TO notice, the last time we
moved into a new home back in 1988. Carrying boxes into the house
from the PODS storage container, I've counted the number of boxes
that have Tina's name and those that have MY name! So far Tina's
boxes number over 300, with half of those labeled "Tina's shoes", and I
have two boxes, TWO, no larger than shoe boxes that contain all my
worldly belongings! Something just doesn't seem right to me! Don't
worry, I'm just joking.
Just letting you know that our SEGA meet & greet is at Petsmart
tomorrow from 1:00 to 4:00! Please come see us! We can talk about
the lodge, or we can get you excited about entering the wonderful world
of greyhounds! Either way, come visit with us!
we're not going to be open by Christmas. No, the place is crawling
with people working to have us finished, but, simply put, it's just too
little, too late. We had a long talk with Dave (job supervisor) this
afternoon, after a day of franticly working to get loose ends tied, and
we agreed 2006 wasn't going to be the year of our opening. BUT, with
our spirit fully intact, we look forward to a new year, a year that will
definitely (I shouldn't say "definitely") be OUR year!
As long as we're open before February 18th, 2007, the first day of the
Chinese New Year, we will still open during the Chinese Year of the
Dog! Really, in the grand scheme of things, that's probably not that
important, but it is a neat idea. After all, 2007 will be the Chinese Year
of the Pig. A PIG, for Pete's sake! I was born in a dog year, making
me a dog year person! Very appropriate, I think! It's funny, but Tina
was born the following year, which makes Tina, well, it makes Tina a
pig baby! Am I the only one laughing?!!
Okay, back to the matters at hand: The thing Tina and I feel worst about
is letting all the nice folks down who were depending on us keeping
their pet for them over the holidays. We had already talked with
several people about reservations, with the agreement that they would
make reservations elsewhere, just in case we couldn't be open. As
little as two weeks ago we felt with all our hearts we were going to
make it. Then doubts started creeping in. But, beginning this week,
road blocks began showing up that really made it tough to believe we
were going to make it. Looking on the bright side, though, which, by
the way, is the way I operate, having the time to be fully finished, not
trying to rush our opening, will guarantee that the grounds will look and
operate the way you want them to for your pet. We will be bursting with
pride the NEXT opportunity we have to have your pets as our honored
guests. I truly mean that, too! Seeing to it that your pet is happy,
comfortable and feels at home is all in the world we're concerned with.
Like I may have said before, that concept beats at the heart of
Beechwood Trails Pet Lodge! Watch for our Grand Opening!
Dec. 15th: Even though we've come to admit to ourselves that we
won't be open for Christmas, still, we're not going to miss it by far! The
guys took a much needed day off today, well, all except for one. Drew
said they were going to try and get the final inspection done by the end
of next week. That's hard to believe! Now, that doesn't mean
everything's going to be finished, I guess just the portion
Houndquarters provides....I guess. But like I said, it won't be long. Our
house is close to the same stage, and will be very close to being
finished by the end of the year. Flooring is going in now, the power will
likely be turned on next week, then the HVAC guys can install the heat
pump. Tina and I, along with my parents, will be putting the final coat of
paint on the interior. Since we got a little carried away with the rock on
the exterior and the interior, we've decided to finish the painting
ourselves to save a buck. Gee, rock sure costs a lot. Oh, we had our
cupola installed on the detached garage and our awesome looking
Greyhound weather vane mounted on top! You know, I was the only
one there this morning concerned with having the directional arms
pointing in the correct direction! Yeah! Like I told them, if you're going
to do something, do it right! I have a problem with folks who aren't
concerned with doing things right. I started to run to the house and get
my compass, then I remembered from our survey plat that the stretch of
Capps Ferry Road in front of our property runs straight north, south. I
told the fellows to just line it up with the road, which was in full view from
the top of the garage, and it'll be perfect. I mean, I could just see it, a
year or two from now and I'm talking with a neighbor about the
weather. Curious as to which way the wind's blowing he looks up at
our weather vane and sees it's blowing in from the north. Then I have
to tell him to never mind what our weather vane says, we were too lazy
to set the directional arms correctly and all it's there for is looks! Okay,
I'm through now. Anyway, the weather vane looks great, just like the
Greyhound Bus dog! The dog figure for the weather vane that will be
mounted on the lodge's cupola will be a Golden Retriever. Well, after a
very long day working at the lodge, Tina and I are pooped and are
ready to hit the hay. Have a great weekend!
Dec. 22nd: Things have wound down now, with Dave and the guys
leaving town to go spend the holidays with their families in Ohio.
Today, the only folks working was the sheet rock crew, finishing the
drywall in the office section. Dave and his crew won't be coming back
until after New Years, but we will be doing some of the work we have to
get done using local folks. Our electricians have been terrific, and they
will be back next week to finish their work. Our fencing company,
Smith Fencing, will likely be back next week to finish up. These guys
have bent over backwards to make sure all our outdoor pens are
secure enough to keep mice in, that is, if we were of a mind to board
mice. Our house is looking great! The guys working on the house, I'm
not sure, but they may be taking off Christmas Day! They're that
serious about getting their work done! I have to mention the company
doing the tile work for our house. The Company is Handyworks Home
Improvements. The owner, Doug Baily, and his guys are unbelievable
at laying tile, and making suggestions for those little things that end up
making the job just look fantastic. There are those days that I'm not
sure they even went home at night! No kidding! They're there early in
the morning, and some days they work so late that they're working by
lights running off extension cords running to the temporary power
pole!
Merry Christmas, everyone!
Dec. 27th: We hope everyone had a great Christmas holiday! Tina
and I were happy to see this morning that the lodge had once again
become a busy place. Although the builder won't be there until after
the 1st, the HVAC crew, the electrician and the plumbers were busy
trying to get their work finished. I would imagine they've been told to
have their work done by the time Dave and his crew comes back next
week. Or, at least, that's the way we're guessing! Seriously, if
everyone is trying to get their work done this week, that would leave
very little to be done. The house was quite busy today as well. I truly
think it's possible by the middle of January that we'll be very close to
maybe having a guess that we definitely might be almost done! Is that
clear enough?
Dec. 31st: Happy New Years, folks! Please keep your fingers
crossed for us that this next month will be our time, and it will see the
opening of our dream. May we all have the best year we've ever
had!
Jan. 4th: Dave and the guys (the builders) got back on the job
yesterday. I didn't say anything about it yesterday, because I was
painting rooms in the house until after dark. Man, I need to remember
to stop painting when it gets too dark to see! When I got there this
morning, I spent the first few minutes correcting mistakes before Tina
got there and noticed! That could have been bad! This morning, Dave
and crew were back working, and the boys from Smith Fencing were
installing our perimeter fence. It is being built to foil even the slickest
fence climbers. Believe me, Jason and Brad from Smith Fencing are
going overboard making this a super secure place. Okay, enough
about that! Now, does anyone have any painting experience?!! I
recruited my dad to help Tina and I paint rooms today. Thanks Dad! I
think Jerry Slay is beginning to worry that we're going to hold things up
and not get the interior of the house painted by the time the flooring
needs to be put in. Woops, Gretz, our big male greyhound, is playing
chase with Jingle, our New Guinea singing dog. It's so funny to see
this cute little, fox-like girl running through the house with our
greyhounds. Okay, back to the project. Johnny Wells and his guys
poured a good bit of our driveway for the house yesterday. It looks
great! We'll be using asphalt for the remainder of it, and will do it at the
same time Harry Pierce comes to put the finish coat of asphalt on the
lodge driveway. In fact, I need to call Harry and get him lined up for
week after next! It's getting close, guys!
Jan. 12th: What were my last words? I guess I should learn to not
make statements like that. We had a little turn of bad luck....as if this
was our first. We had our plumber (not the original plumber) there
yesterday morning to hook up all the drain pipes and sewage pipes to
the septic system, and wouldn't you know it, the drain pipes exiting
from under the building slab are lower than our septic tank! Our
multi-thousand dollar septic tank! Now, the county has suggested we
need a new septic system for the drain system alone. Now we're
waiting to find out what's going to be done. You will know as soon we
know. Hopefully it won't take too long.
Jan. 15th: Tomorrow Tina will speak with Douglas County's
Environmental Department and see what our next move should be,
while I work away at the house. This same man and I spoke Thursday
about the problem, and he kind of pointed his finger at a particular
company (person)....the same person we have our finger pointing at.
Now we need for that person to step forward, take the blame, then get
us back moving. We really don't want this to get ugly. There's a
simple, quicker solution, albeit slightly more trouble and probably more
costly over the long haul; and then there's a more costly, much bigger
deal of a solution, one that would require removing more trees and
probably a higher initial cost, but one that would be closer to
maintenance free for years. I'm never much for the quick easy route,
but, in this case, that's the way I'd probably lean. We're extremely
ready for this to be over with, and get our place open! Well, we'll know
more tomorrow!
Jan 20th: To be honest, we don't know much more now than we did
the last time I wrote. Still, we feel we know who should be responsible,
but there are four companies, in all, in our opinion, who can share in
the responsibility. I had a nice talk with one of the main players Friday,
and he made himself quite clear that he doesn't feel it's his problem.
Well, not wholly, but we feel that they can definitely share in the blame.
When we got home from a day of painting at the house, Tina and I took
our site plan, our Houndquarters building plans, and every other piece
of information we could get our hands on, that just might give a hint as
to where the problem originated. Ol' eagle eye, Tina, quickly spotted
two things that, to us, tells us what we need to know. Monday, first
thing, our attorney will hear what we've found. It appears, according to
the plans, that the contractor should have checked the position of the
sewage system to make sure the building would drain properly.
Second, the plans don't give any indication as to the depth of the
trench drains. They're quite deep, and should have been clearly
marked as such in the plans, so the surveyor could have given the
proper elevations for the building and the septic system on the site
plan. Can it be more clear? We'll find out Monday how we should
approach this. Now don't get the feeling the whole thing has been at a
standstill! Work has continued, and everything is looking great, but, of
course, we can't get the Certificate of Occupancy and open our doors
without a properly operating drain system. Hopefully we can get things
moving toward an end this week! Now, Tina and I can now see an end
to the painting of the interior of our house, so if you're dying to help,
you'd better holler! A couple of more rooms and some trim, and we'll
be ready for what carpet we're having installed, and that, and the
wrapping up of a few electrical bugs, and we'll be just about ready to
move in! We can't wait for this whole thing to be finished. We're now
officially over the four year point from when we first started working on
this dream. Actually, it began when our vet told us we ought to open a
kennel, while working on the Alabama Kids as new found, abandoned
puppies back in late 2002. That was all the push we needed to pursue
what we had talked about for years.
Dec. 22nd: Okay, I'm being very careful not to mention the names of
players in our little controversy, until, of course, our attorney tells us it's
okay to. Nothing yet has been resolved, but our attorney, who has a
wonderful way of getting his point across and pointing out folk's
stupidity, is about ready to pen a letter to "them". Tina wrote an e-mail
to this fellow yesterday, letting him know how unhappy our whole
experience has been dealing with them, then she talked with him on
the telephone today. He said he was sending us a letter, that he didn't
want to say what he had to say in an e-mail....whatever that might
mean. So, sitting back this evening, waiting on a letter to, possibly, be
"overnighted" to us, "he" surprised us with the e-mail that he said he
wasn't going to write! In his e-mail, he dances ALL around the facts,
never addressing the points Tina made in her e-mail, then said he
"offered these suggestions, in hopes, of helping us to resolve this
issue." Sorry, it doesn't help. I don't guess there's any reason to
continue our discussion with him. Remember when I said, "we really
don't want this to get ugly" in my writings on the 15th? Well, I"m afraid
"ugly" may be the only route left to take. Have you ever tried to explain
something to someone who, basically, just doesn't have a clue? Our
terrific attorney may about ready to clue him in.
Jan. 30th: Sorry for being so quiet lately. I am truly at a loss for words.
We haven't seen the builder's crew since Friday, and our gate has
remained locked. Boy, if we only had the chance to do it all over again,
things would have been done completely different. We are contacting
the company this evening with an e-mail, telling them we are NOT
happy, and we had better see things jumping in short order. I hate to
make threats. They sound so childish. But they're pushing us into a
corner where there's nothing left to do but come out swinging. We're
so close, but they are acting so unprofessionally, we may as well be
miles from the finish line. All I can say at this point is, they'd better not
use us as a reference. I have been in the contracting business for
many years, working for more individuals than we can count and many
national and international companies, and upon those occasions that
we made mistakes, we apologized, took our lumps, remedied the
problem and moved on. By doing so, we kept our pride, kept our
customers and kept our reputation. Not once did we try to weasel out
of it and try to push the cost onto the customer we were doing the job
for. Not once!
Feb 2nd: Still going round and round, folks. I believe we're near a
solution, though, but there's still a little more discussion yet to be had.
No one has admitted they should have caught the error, but I do believe
they, at least to themselves, have realized we're right. Work still
continues on the lodge, and everything left to be done shouldn't take
that much longer, even considering the new septic system made
necessary by their error. Another thing, on our "Favorite Links" page
we have a list of the companies that have stood out and have done
their jobs well. This isn't a complete list of companies that have taken
part in our project, because there have been those companies that just
couldn't be listed here because their work or their ethics, just didn't
measure up. I don't care how well you do your job, if you aren't together
in the ethics department, as far as we're concerned, you'll never work
for us again. The companies we have listed are not only good
companies, but the people also stood out, and are folks we can call
friends.
Feb. 4th: Let's hope this week things will step off in the right direction.
We got the CO (Certificate of Occupancy) on our new house and will
be moving in over the next week or so. Tina sent an e-mail to the one
who needs to make a decision on whether or not they'll accept
responsibility for the problem at the lodge, and, hopefully, we can wrap
this up soon....very soon! We'll need to hear something positive from
him very early this week, that is, if he wants to keep things from quickly
moving in a negative way.
Feb. 5th: We got some hopeful news this evening by e-mail from the
building contractor. He said they were going to be getting back to
work on the few things they have left to do. That was the good news.
The news we wanted to hear, well, besides what he told us, was what
they're going to do about our septic system problem. That went
noticeably unmentioned. But, on the good side, he's just the building
contractor, not the overall company responsible for the construction.
Who knows, it may be that he's leaving it up to the big guy to handle. I
mean, after all, it's the main company's blue prints that failed to
mention the depth of the trench drains, causing the engineer who
created our site plan to miss what the depth of the septic tank or the
height of the building pad needed to be. That one little omission
caused ALL of this! Folks, we would have been open for business
today, if his blue printest (one who draws blue prints) had put in all the
information needed for proper drainage. Blue printest? I'll bet you
didn't know they had words like that, did you? Don't bother looking it
up, just take my word for it.
Feb 7th: Nothing new with the lodge happened yesterday, but I do
want to mention a very nice couple I met as I returned to do some detail
work on our new house. As I pulled up, I saw a pickup truck and a
couple standing in front of our house. I got out to meet them, and they
told us that this was their dream home, one they'd been looking at in
the plan book for a long time. The lady said she passes down Capps
Ferry every day, and has enjoyed seeing our house being built. Like
us, they'd even gone as far as to contact the architect, whose business
is in Marietta. I gave them the grand tour of the house, and I feel pretty
sure they grew even more excited about the prospect of building this
home on their lot in Coweta County. We talked for a good while, and
when I learned of their daughter's love for dogs, and like ours, her love
for taking in strays, I told them all about the lodge and gave them a
card to give to her.
Feb. 8th: We got some very exciting news this evening! The building
crew is supposed to be back working tomorrow morning! I
know....you're asking what was decided about the drainage problem,
right? Well, against advice we've been given, Tina and I have decided
to go ahead and get our septic system guy to put the new system in,
and we've been told we will be reimbursed after the job is done. Yeah,
you're thinking we're a perfect couple of pigeons, right? Well, maybe,
but we just couldn't let things sit any longer. In the e-mail we received,
it said that the remaining work has been lined up to be finished very
quickly, and we may be able to get the CO (Certificate of Occupancy)
by the 15th. Well, knowing that there is still a lot of work to be done, the
new septic system, the paving of the parking area, and any
landscaping that will be done, well, it may take a couple more weeks,
BUT you can be guaranteed we're doing our very best! Folks, you just
don't know how many gray hairs Tina's grown over the past few
weeks! Me? I'm way too young!
Feb. 10th: The guys are back at work! Tina and I have talked with
Tommy Biggs of A.S.P.C.O. Septic and Plumbing out of Bowdon, and
we have him lined up to come in and make the changes and additions
to our septic system in order to make everything work as it should. You
know, neither Tina or I even had time to go talk with Dave (job super)
today, because this was the day we chose to start the big move into
our new home! After you've been married as long as we have, if you've
never learned to get rid of things you don't use any longer - like us, then
when it comes moving time, you've turned what should take a few days
into a two week, back breaking event. With the help of my wonderful
family and a couple of friends, we knocked an awfully big hole in it
today. Another three or four days of moving, and we should have the
job mostly done. The "kids", for the most part are taking it very well.
The two who are very confused, as you would expect, are Jingle and
Lita, our two wild breed dogs. The Greyhounds, Whippets, the
Alabama Kids and Pete figure home is where the super dish is, but
Jingle and Lita just flat don't understand why their world is being
carried off in cars and trucks....oh, yes, we're moving Alabama style....I
mean, what's family for?
Feb 21th: Sorry we've been incommunicado for so long. The move to
our new house turned into just a little more than we EVER thought
possible. We didn't finish moving until the 17th, well, Tina points out
that we made a small haul on the 18th, so that means our move took
well over a week to complete. Many stupid things were done during
our move....we packed all our pots and pans, most of our clothes and
other semi-important things, so deeply in the PODS storage unit, it'll
probably take decades to uncover them. Seems like the perfect time to
go on a diet. Man, the haul-it-yourself style of moving has its
drawbacks, trust me. Never, and I mean NEVER, move into a house
with a smaller basement and a smaller kitchen than you've had for the
past 18 years! But, on the other hand, one of the nice things, and
taking advantage of the bare trees outside, as I type this, looking out
the window to my left, I can see the lodge perched high atop a hill, with
a our beautiful valley between us, about five hundred feet away. The
septic system problem will be fixed this week, providing the rain gives
us a break, and then only another week or two of work left before we're
ready to open. We're getting excited, folks!
Feb. 24th: We still haven't made the changes to the septic system. In
an effort to change the minds of those in the position of enforcing
policy, with concern to the extent of the changes needing to be made to
our system, Tommy Biggs (septic tank guy) made a last minute pitch
on our behalf to see if he could get the changes to be made lessened,
more simple and smaller, yet still adequate for the job. Nope, it didn't
do any good. So after missing a week arguing our case, Tommy will
make the improvements called for this coming week. This week I'll fly
into action (with Dad's help) and build our reception counter in the
lobby. I don't know if I mentioned it earlier, but the guys from Best Buy
installed our sound system, and now it's up to me to upload tons of
music I've been amassing in this computer to an MP3 player. The
player will run 'round the clock playing nice, peaceful music for our
guests. It's so amazing, that all those songs can fit into something no
larger than a deck of cards. Tina and I are still settling into our new
home, working every spare second trying to find a place to stash
things. I've noticed something way out of balance during this move,
that I don't guess I noticed, or it wasn't there TO notice, the last time we
moved into a new home back in 1988. Carrying boxes into the house
from the PODS storage container, I've counted the number of boxes
that have Tina's name and those that have MY name! So far Tina's
boxes number over 300, with half of those labeled "Tina's shoes", and I
have two boxes, TWO, no larger than shoe boxes that contain all my
worldly belongings! Something just doesn't seem right to me! Don't
worry, I'm just joking.
Just letting you know that our SEGA meet & greet is at Petsmart
tomorrow from 1:00 to 4:00! Please come see us! We can talk about
the lodge, or we can get you excited about entering the wonderful world
of greyhounds! Either way, come visit with us!