Nothing But Crickets and Weensy Washers

For those of you who are curious, I haven't heard back from Restoration Hardware about my beloved chandelier. I ventured to write them and let them know I slightly noticed their pre-sale price jack-up, and that I'd be deliriously happy to give them a check today if they took a true $100 off the original price, the one I've been watching for months.

Nothing but crickets on the other end, even though their customer service policy is to respond to all emails within 24 hours. It's been 72. I wasn't mean; I was what you might call, "good-natured" about it. I'll keep you posted. (Does this count as "tattling"?)

On another note, I find two other things puzzling.

We've moved into a much larger abode than any of us ever thought we'd rest our heads in and call home. (Don't get me wrong; that part's delicious.) In a neighborhood littered with 4, 5, and 6 bedroom homes, you would think that builders would readily acknowledge that people purchase homes like these because SOMETIMES, they have a lot of kids. A lot of kids generally precludes that a large-ish vehicle will need a space in one of the garages. Several of the floor plans in our development include tandem garages, where you park two cars end to end, vs. side by side. All good. A little inconvenient, but still good. EXCEPT, the doors to the tandem garages were not sized with a large people-mover in mind. HELLOWWWW.

Actually, our single car garage is equally as narrow, come to think of it. There is zero possibility of me parking my van in one of these, unless I remember to roll down the windows, pull the mirrors in and proceed with eyebrows up, engage in frenetic side-to-side eye swishings and coordinate precise steering wheel/gas pedal applications. Actually, I only pull in the driver's side mirror now because I figured out how to shimmy my fatty van verrrry carefully til I've gotten the passenger mirror safely in without scraping it. It requires a slight angle upon entry, which is tricky, because then I'm also negotiating with an unforgiving stone wall. You have to know what you're doing in order to avoid a replay of that scene in Galaxy Quest when the kid is taking that spaceship out for it's first spin but eeeeeeerrrraaaaack - scraaaaaaapes the side of the hangar along the way. Phew. I mean, would it have cost THAT much more to give 4 extra inches? Two, even? Please!

Item Two:

In said home, with said offspring population, do we not also brilliantly predict that a high volume of laundry is inevitable? And so then WHY, I beg, WHY, did the builders find the very most diminutive washer and dryer set on the market to install in the amply spacious laundry room? Seriously, I have to get DOWN on the floor on my knees to empty the washer (it's a front loader). I've never seen anything like it. Not at Home Depot; certainly not at Costco. These HAVE to have been meant as stackables for an apartment. I'm not even going to tell you that I can only insert two bath sheets and a couple of washcloths in there, can barely close the door and hope that some kind of motion is going to render them clean. The end result is that the washer operates for most of the day, on most days. I've tried to ease the electricity drain by hanging stuff out on our balcony rather than using the dryer, which of course, being part of the set, is also Barbie Doll size. This presents a whole different problem, as I have to dance lightly around the HOA rules which state, "No Clothes Lines Of Any Kind May Be Installed On Any Part Of Any Property". (The entire HOA document is liberally peppered with the word "Any".)

They are SO NOT green......

I didn't INSTALL a laundry line -- I avoided that by purchasing a laundry RACK, which I dutifully clatter down to it's folded position and haul away inside when our stuff is dry, which here in perpetually sunny San Diego, takes less time than running it through the dryer. So, I hope I'm still within HOA compliance. No one has complained and our names have not come up in the monthly HOA Newsletter, aka, "tattle sheet". (Did I mention that we are forbidden from leaving our garbage or recycling bins out on the street after dusk on the day of trash pick up? People have been reprimanded for doing so. And for letting the stain on their fences fade, but that's another thing.)

Suffice it to say that I'm not impressed with this cutting corners attitude; not by RH and their chandelier pricing and not by builder *save-a-buck* tactics.

Maybe tomorrow's blog will be less cranky and more about Tim, or hey, about an actual CONCERN. (This is what you get when I'm uninspired and Holly peeks around the bedroom door; "Have you blogged yet today?")