Waste My Time

Today in Ontario it’s Family Day. A holiday for most people, and it’s a rather beautiful day I might add. I managed to get a fair bit done, and I’m pretty happy with myself for that, but not everything was completed. Oh well, that’s what tomorrow is for right.

The main thing on todays to do list was to write out everything that needed fixing with my home. This was somewhat difficult to complete as I went to my parents place to complete the list. My mom didn’t want to come to me, so I went to her. In the end we managed to type up most of the issues thanks to me making a rather confusing list last minute. That took most of today to complete.

Prior to arriving at my parents, I finished setting up my Home Management Binder. I still need to input some information and fill out a few papers, but I’m still waiting for the bills to come, so in time that will be filled out.

This evening I’m just going to chill and watch some TV shows. Hopefully I can get back into some sort of routine.

Things have gone from bad to worse. Never mind the whole issue with Cogeco that I was dealing with, that looks like a piece of cake with what I’m up against right now.

Apparently my State Farm Insurance agents secretary fucked up big time and I’m the one who’s going to be thrown under the bus for it. She forgot to change my address on all my policy’s (car, house, life) so my car insurance policy has been issuing me credits, because it still looks like I’m living at home and I would have overpaid my insurance. (My rates went up when I moved out of my parents house)

I received 1 credit back in Jan that I cashed and I received another credit just a few days ago. Thankfully I did not cash the second credit. Instead I called to inquire how much my State Farm car insurance would be and that’s when I was informed that I should never have been issued the credits in the first place. Sorry was all she said to me. I was fuming.

So, not only do I owe all the money back, but I owe it back pretty damn quickly. It’s not like they are giving me some time to get this money together, oh no, they want it back pronto because they realized that they made a mistake. Too bad they didn’t contact me when they realized this mistake.

Now I’m left to scrabble to get this money together and you can bet I will be leaving State Farm because of this issue. There’s no reason for me to stay there anymore, only reason I was with them was because of the discount I received while living at home. Sure I receive a credit for having a life, car and house policy with them but I’m sure I can get a discount anywhere if I move all 3 of them and that’s just what I plan to do.

The next few weeks are going to be filled with so many headaches.

Have I mentioned I’m starting to hate owning a house.
2012 has been a shit year and it’s only Feb.

I’ve been pretty MIA since I moved into my new place and I have no idea why. I wish I could blame it on being super busy, but that’s not the case. I think I’m just trying to settle into some sort of routine and I’ve still yet to figure it out. Also I have nothing interesting to post. I’ll try to make this post somewhat read worthy, but don’t fault me if it’s boring.

My first mortgage payment came out yesterday as well as my critical illness and disability insurance and boy are those automatic withdraws going to totally mess with the schedule I’ve got made for bill payments. I’m a little OCD when it comes to my money, and how I pay my bills. Instead of the withdraw being 1 every 2 weeks (like I thought), they are 2 separate transactions, so now I have 4 automatic withdrawals a month; instead of 2. This would all be well and good if I didn’t have a limit as to how many withdrawals I’m allowed before being charged, but I do. So needless to say this has somewhat annoyed me. I spent the better part of last night trying to figure out how to work around my 10 withdrawals a month. I still need to call the bank and find out if a transfer counts against my 10 because I do 2 transfers a month. 1 to my savings account and 1 to my yearly account and if they do count I’m going to have to put all my bills onto my credit card which is not something I really wanted to do.

Cogeco is still causing me issues. I called them back the other day after stopping into their little hole in the wall at the local mall. I want some sort of paper that states I have a credit on my account and what it’s for because I have this gut feeling that something is going to get messed up. I was unsuccessful at obtaining a copy of anything, however I was able to see my account so I know that I have my 2 months free of cable and phone, it’s just the credit I’m worried about. Currently it shows up as a $30 credit and I requested a credit for my cable, so I’ve been told I have to wait till I actually receive a bill in order to know how much the credit should be. This just sounds totally ridiculous to me so I’m pretty frustrated with it all.

In other house news, I still have yet to decorate. I’ve got a bunch of stuff laid out on the floor in the spare bedroom but I haven’t really figured out where I want things to go, other then in my office. That will probably be the first room to get done since I spend at least an hr and a half every night in here. My goal is to get my cork board and desk calendar hung before the end of the month. It’s really frustrating not being able to use them.

Oh, Please excuse the question, but What is a funded proposal? Sorry! A girls gotta make some extra cash any way she can.

January 2012 is officially over and I’m pretty happy with how my goals went. I’ve been working really hard to accomplish them for I feel that they are important in my life.

Financial:

• Put $100 aside each month to start an emergency fund. The money is sitting in my paypal account so when I do a mass withdrawal of it then I will transfer the funds over to which ever account I’ve decided to set up as my emergency fund.
• Keep my bank account above $1,500 (as to avoid being charged the service fee). This has been done, and should be rather easy to maintain. If I get anywhere below $2,000 in my account I might start to freak out.
• Decorate my new house for under $3,000. So far everything that is inside my new house is items that I already own or have been gifted to me. I’ll keep track of whatever I buy. I suspect that this won’t be for a while as cash is pretty tight.

Personal:

• Lose 50 pounds by December 31st 2012. To date I am down 14.4 pounds.
• Take some photography classes // use my Camera more often. I attended 4 camera classes during the month and they were okay. I got them on sale, so I’m glad I did not have to pay full price. I did learn some things. I haven’t actually used my camera other then to take house photos.
• Cook at least 5 new meals a month and blog about it. I only cooked 3 meals this month and 2 I blogged about. I made Garlic Brushetta Bread, Gnocchi and cooked Vegetables.
• Set up a Household Management Binder and actively use my Day Planner and Calendar.  I’m still in the process of completing the Binder. Most of the papers are inserted and my day planner is with me all the time.
• Visit my grandparents at least twice a month, or invite them over to my place. I’ve seen my Nonna (moms mother // she’s not included in this goal as I see her daily) often, and I saw my grandparents (dad’s parents) once in January.

Friday was my walk thru. Was I super excited? You bet! Was I expecting things to be done wrong? You bet! Did I find things done wrong? Of course, but thats the fun in buying a cooker cutter house that you try to make your own.

Anyways, here’s a rather quick tour of my brand spanking new townhouse. I missed photos of the main floor powder room bathroom, and I didn’t feel the need to take photos of the laundry room, linen closet or spare bedrooms.

So, when you first walk into my house via the front door (which I will probably never use) you see the living/family room. Stairs to go upstairs, downstairs and the garage door can be seen. There is a bathroom basically to the left of the front door and a closet besides the garage door.

Standing in the family/living room you can see the front door, basement stairs and upstairs.

Standing in family/living room corner you can see the front door, garage door, closet door, and kitchen.

Standing in family/living room near the basement stairs you can see the eating area and back patio door. Eventually there will be a deck out the back door.

A better view of my kitchen sans appliances.

When you walk up to the second left, you are basically greeted by my bedroom directly on the right. So standing in my bedroom door you can see; on the right is my upstairs bathroom and a 2nd bedroom.
On left we have the Laundry room and a linen closet, and straight ahead is a 3rd bedroom.

Inside my master bedroom there’s a rather large window and a walk in closet to the right.

There are also 2 other closets and a door that leads to the upstairs bathroom

This is the view standing in the bathroom door from my bedroom

And this is the view standing from the 2nd floor hallway door looking into the bathroom

So there you have it.

There are some minor nicks and marks and scratches that should be all repaired by Mondays closing date, however there’s one issue that I might be living with for a few days. The wrong door knobs were installed, but I’ve been assured that it will be corrected. Another major mistake that I guess is to my benefit that I will live with is my staircase. It’s 100% wrong. I opted for the standard staircase which has round spindles and a round post, and instead I received square ones that you can see in the above photos. Apparently the square posts and spindles are considered an upgrade (a $600+ upgrade I should add) so even though I prefer the round spindles I can live with an ugly square staircase. Really I’m not that concerned. I’ve been told they are easier to clean; less dust will settle on them and I’ve also been assured that I will not be charged for the upgrade. That was my main concern so once that was addressed I realized it’s pretty stupid to have them come and remove them and change it all out.