Christmas 2011

Christmas was interesting this year. We had...a good time. We really enjoyed seeing our family however....there was something that happened that would put a damper on anyone's day let alone Christmas.

We flew home to CT on Friday morning and spent the day in the city until we went home on the train with my dad.

After meeting my dad at his office he took us to lunch at an Irish pub. I had the fish and chips, Brian a reuben and my Dad had the Chicken Pot. The food was good and we definitely enjoyed the time together. After that we dropped Dad off at work and went to see the tree at Rockefeller Center and went into the Lego Store

The tree was small this year...

Not nearly as crowded as years past

Rockefeller Center built out of Legos

Welcome sign made out of Legos

Wall of endless Lego pieces

Atlas made out of Legos

Star Destroyer from Star Wars made out of Legos

Death Star from Star Wars made out of Legos

Dragon made out of Legos

The Enterprise and other ships from Star TREK made out of Legos

Friday night Mom made yummy Eggplant Parmesan and off my parents went to pick up my brother. This was the first time I had seen him since my Gamma's funeral and the first time we had both been at the house  since...Junior Year at college? Anyway, that night Brian went to bed relatively early and Mom, my brother and I stayed up late working on a puzzle.

Saturday was Christmas Eve and we had plans to go hang out with his family but first we had to go to Frank Pepe's in New Haven. It wasn't as good as last year but it was very good. As usual, his Uncle went all out on Christmas decorations and we ate the most amazing Sicilian Pizza that night.

Frank's Pizza..that is a medium we ALMOST finished it

Uncles Christmas tree

Outside of Uncles house

Sunday morning, Christmas morning, is when things became sad.....You may have heard in the news but the house almost next door caught on fire and 3 children and 2 grandparents died at 5am on Christmas morning.

For the article here: Stamford Fire....Mom this might be too much of an update for you.  Pictures taken from our front steps:

No zoom or anything. The rest of the day we had extremely rude people driving by, taking pictures, getting in the way of things and using it as a way to kill time on Christmas morning. We had news trucks parked out in front of the house and in the roads at least until Monday morning when we left. We do not know the family other then they moved in about a year ago, however the whole community is feeling the loss. My mom and I are completely freaked though we handle it in completely different ways. She doesn't want to talk at all....I need to tell everyone and anyone. We did not light Christmas lights in the outside or inside to show our respect. My mom has always been iffy on things catching on fire (she doesnt leave small appliances plugged in in case it were to cause a fire) so who knows how this will affect her. And I know I haven't slept well since.

Sunday, while we were dealing with the above my best friend Todd came over to help open Christmas presents. He is Jewish and it was a lot of fun to show him how his idea of Christmas is actually not what happens, at least in our house. After presents we went to see The Muppet Movie which was amazing. I think I even want to buy it. We had our usual Prime Rib for dinner and Brian made the gravy. So good!

We flew home Monday afternoon and are trying to get settled back into a normal routine while closing on the house bright and early Friday morning.

The House: 12.17.11

Well...I don't really have any good news but I don't know if I have any really bad news. I just don't know.

After we let ourselves into the house (it was locked this time but we found the key) and looked around we went back to the model and found the sales lady and her boss there. I think they knew what was coming. Her boss started to try and defend the head builder but as we continued to explain what has been going on he became more and more quiet. Her boss thought 90% of the problems were cosmetic and no big deal. He is right that they are 90% cosmetic and shouldn't take long to fix however most of them shouldn't have even happened and we don't feel like we can trust them to fix them they way they should be fixed. They haven't been able to fix anything correctly and/or without breaking something else so far so how can we trust that they will fix the cosmetic issues the right way this time? The sales lady's boss did agree that the wood floor was the bigger issue just because of timing and we completely agree. If this wasn't a holiday it also wouldn't be as big of a deal since they would have 3-4 more working days if we didn't have Christmas. However we do the final walk through in 3 days, leave for Christmas and close on the 27th. 3 days is enough to fix the cosmetic things but not enough with the floor. We are not sure if we are closing on the 27th. They may be deciding to redo the floor completely which we are hoping they do. At this point they have put it down wrong and fixed it wrong (floor is almost completely hollow). We don't trust them to try to fix it for the second time. I am not sure I trust them to put it down again but it is easier to put a wood floor down then to patch it. If they do put a wood floor down we could close on the 30th which means we have 1 day to get everything out of the apartment and have the apartment cleaned.  We would much rather close on the 30th and have the cosmetic things fixed and the floor done properly then close on the 27/28th with things not fixed properly. Every agrees that the head builder is going to have fun on the 22nd for the closing.

They have put carpet down. Brian, Al and I think that is premature since they still have to work on the stairs (stairs need a lot of work), fix sheet rock and paint and we dont really trust them to do that without wrecking the carpet. Sales lady's boss thinks it will be fine since they will put a tarp down but given past history...Brian and I aren't so sure. These people have proven themselves to be incapable of being careful and being detailed so we are not sure that the tarp will be enough. We shall see. Al is working on the 22nd so his friend Dave (also a builder) is going to come with us. We have told Dave and have been assured that Dave will be very vocal about what he finds wrong. I will be testing every outlet, Dave will be making sure everything is level  and we will be making the Head Builder wish he was more thorough when the house was being built.

Someone vandalized our driveway and it is not chalk

Center view

Right hand side yard

Diagonal view front right

Left hand side yard

Diagonal view front left

Left hand side yard from back

Diagonal view back left

Backyard from left, we will have to seed the easement ourselves

Center view from back

Right hand side yard from back

Diagonal view from back right

Back yard from back right

Nursery, notice the carpet

Just one of the MANY cosmetic issues they have to fix

Guest Bath

Closet, the metal thing needs fixing

Guest room

No baseboard in bedroom

Trim is up but needs work

View from entry way

Half Bath

Utitilty Room

Dining Room with the wood thats hollow and spongey

Stairs

One example of what needs work

Living room

Kitchen and breakfast nook

Kitchen

Another cosmetic issue they have to fix

Have to finish trimming the cupboards

Need to repaint

Those drawers are still in the wrong spot

Living Room

Kitchen from the living room

The pieces of wood should be touching each other

Master Bedroom

Master Bathroom

More touch ups

Linen closet in Master Bath

Walk in closet

Our security system is supposed to be there

Loft

A very good example of why the stair case needs a lot of work

No pins in the door

Brian's Office

Closet

Office Bathroom

Attic

That is supposed to have a phone line there too

The brown wood should be white

The calk isnt even so the wood looks damaged

The hole is still not filled in

Oh we also learned that we might not be able to have HTC cable which we were told we could since the very beginning. Having HTC is one of the main reason's we liked the house and the only reason we got the security system. Hopefully we will find out on Monday that we can have HTC