Had to have a shingle replaced. Looked up one day after a storm and it was gone. No leak in the house so got it in time. Oh well.

Item: Google maps.

The pictures have been taken so long ago that they need updated. Also could they please let us know when the street view pictures are being taken so we could make the place look presentable. Here is a picture of my home. Look it was a Wednesday morning before the recycling trash was picked up. I have to look at the other services at some point and see how they do. I really would like to know how to get the picture updated.

(Image  © 2012 Google)

The next is the satellight view. Oh alright I don’t have any moaning about this one. Although it needs updated. I really like how you can count the pavers in the back yard, they are about 6 inchs in size. You can count them seven in total.

(Image  © 2012 Google)

In the end I really would like to know when Google will be taking new photos. I think it would be kind of neat to put maybe a big G in my yard or something like that so when people look me up they get a better surprise.

Note copyright of pictures belong to Google.

Right Side of house moan

Ah the walkway. I finaly was getting around to the walk way. I thought they were siz inch blocks in the ground. Boy was I wrong. They are 2 foot by 3 foot by 2 inch think poured cement. I removed them and filled in with dirt and planted grass seed. Now I have to figure out what to do with 7 cement blocks. I really don’t want to throw them away, I’m really sure how or where to take them even if I did want to get rid of them.

Here is another photo take while I was buying the house in 2006. This side you can see how things look. This year 2012 I had the outside of the porch redone and redid the mulch around the bottom. As you can see I’m still in the middle of the refresh of the side and back. Eventually I’m going ot have a rain barrow on this side, that’s why the gutter is not set back up yet.

The left side of the house.

I found the old photos I had of the house that were taken during the process of buying it. Here you can see how this side of the house looked in 2006 and how I’ve made changes in 2012. The outside of the porch was completely redone.

When I first moved in a family memeber gave me an old electric mower they had. It worked great for about a year then while I was cutting the grass the motor went. It was a neat sight with the smoke and the ozone smell as the motor fried its self.

Any way. I had to buy a new mower. I went bought a mower which came with a one year warranty and I paid for the extended three year warranty. Things were good.

Nine months into owning the mower the grass rack broke. The metal welding of a joint broke while I was taking a full bag off the mower.

Darn….

Well wait I got two warentees on it so I called up the number. Got a hold of the person and expaliend the problem. They come back to me saying I need to take it to the store I bougth it from for them to look at the mower, they wanted the whole mower not just the bag. So got off the phone and before I go and drag everything to the store I called the store direct. I expaliend the problem and they told me that the bag is not a moving part and since it is not a moving part the warranty would not be convered. WHAT? I have two warranties and neither will cover the bag? Your kidding right? The guy told me to call the 800 number and talk to the warentee people who already has told me to take the entire mower and bag to the shop.

What the heck is going on?

So at this point called the 800 number and had a open ticket that they could look up and so on. At this point talked to the person on the phone, expaleind everything up to this point and they come back and said I didn’t guy the bag with the mower so it wasn’t covered. What? I told them look when I opened the box for the mower it had the bag with it. I did not buy it seprately. I would not have paid an extra 60 for the bag when it came with a bag. I already spent almost 500$ for the mower to begin with. So again I had the serail number and the part number that needed replace I gave her the transaction number off the sales receipt and told her look it up and she would see that I didn’t buy a bag with the mower and if she actually looked at the packaging of the product she would see that the bag came with it. I looked it up on their website to get the exact item number I bought. All though this I kept saying I couldn’t beleive that even with two warranties I couldn’t beleive this was not covered.

At one point I asked to speak to a manager. They were put on and I expaliend yet again what happened and everything that happened up to this point. Remember this is person number four that I’ve now talked to. Sometimes it really seems like some companies just want to run you down. They know that there is a certian point where a person gives up on trying. I have a very thick head and when I think I’m in the right I have no limits until I’ve been shown I’m wrong, at which point I thank the person and stop since, that’s it.

So. I explained that if they are not going to either show me exactly where it says this part is not covered in any of their warrentee paperwork that I would have to return the mower since they can not show me in writing. You see they can tell me what is covered but they can’t show me what is not? It’s not like there are billions of parts, and besides there has to be something writen down  somewhere that tells them what is covered. Right? How else do they train people, word of mouth. So show me the paper work. They couldn’t. So if they can’t show what was agreed to then who is to say I’m right, who is it to say their right?

So after the nice talk to the manager they verified my address and sent me a new grass bag catcher.

When talking to the people that you have the warranty though I do the following:

1) Never get upset.

2) Always ask for clerification, even if you understand what they are saying.

3) If they turn you down always ask for their answer in writing for your records. You want to know the person’s name, employee number and on the company stationary the reason for the decline in the warrentee. I have to tell you the look on the persons face is priceless when I ask for this, or to have them fax it or email it.

If they do not want to do any of the items above items it’s up to you, you could still walk away. But if they refuse to put anything in writing be aware that there may be something they are not telling you. That something may be the fact that they should cover it and putting it in writing that they will not cover it can get them in hot water if you decide to call the manager or even the owner of the company or if it’s dealership the main company that they are a franchise of.

I ALWAYS get everything in writing when dealing with things like this. The best part is that if they refuse to put it in writing I ask them to put in writing why they are not going to put it in writing. That always gives the strangest looks. Of course I don’t expect it but still. So when they refuse I put it in writing and sign and date it for my records.

Also be smart as to what and how the wording is done also on what they give you. Ask question on what there definition of things are. I’m serious.

When we bought the house it had the old electrical fuse box. The above pictures show the old 100 amp fuse panel which just made it so that the previous owners didn’t have to update it to be able to sale the home. But there were problems with it when I had the home inspection done. They had the wrong size fuses in use. Instead of 15 amp, which the lines were rated at they had 20 in place. Another thing was the polarity was reversed in the house. The guy who was doing the inspection marked about a dozen wall plugs with red tape to signify the lines needed worked on because of this problem and just told me to tell the electrician all of them are bad, great!

So I had to have a new box put in, got a nice 150 amp breaker box with room to grow. At the same time I had him put in a few new lines to what would be my man cave for the computers and TV that would eventually, and I mean hopefully will show up one day.

The one thing that I can be thankful for is that the house had copper wire in the house you have to be on the look out for very old homes that have aluminum wire instead.

Also I had CGIF plugs installed all over the place. Got to make a safe home.

I feel for this lady. Your house is in a drought area. But you have to keep your lawn green else the Home Owners Association gets after you. The article doesn’t really go into it to much but if she was warned and had 9 months to take care of it all I can say is she knew about the problem and when she moved into the area she knew the Homeowners association and I’m sure the rules were shown to her.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/18/tagblogsfindlawcom2012-legallyweird-idUS107193641920120718

Now what should could have done? I don’t know what the rules are for her but what about painting the yard green?

http://portlandrealestateblog.com/realestate/2009/07/painting-the-town-green-painted-grass-update/

Or having the yard replaced with synthetic grass

http://realestate.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=21208657

You know we all don’t have to try to grow the stuff if the area you live in is in a bad drought.