What a fucked up way to treat people!!  Whatever you do, don’t let these guys do any of your chimney needs! Or anything else on their list!!  I have heard of scams so I was cautious, but these guys are scammers!! They wanted to rip apart my chimney to “fix the original install”.

I called NFC Chimney & Masonry, who installed the fireplace insert and has cleaned it every year.  Scheduled a cleaning…and these BOZOs show up, saying that they bought out NFC’s chimney services.  That was RED FLAG #1, they never told me that on the phone or even half way through the “cleaning”.

Now, I don’t mind paying for a chimney cleaning and inspection, it keeps the house smoke free and makes me feel like the house isn’t going to burn down, especially if I leave the house with a fire going!

This is how I found out this guy is a scammer:

Last year was a mild winter, so we didn’t use the fireplace insert as much as we normally do so I didn’t have it cleaned at the end of the season.  The first fire of the season was nice…it burned for about a week.  Then it got warm outside (about a week before Christmas) so I let the fire burn out. I cleaned ashes from the insert, closed the flue and waited for the next cold day.  It was a complete surprise when the next fire filled the house with smoke…thick, heavy smoke, pushing through the gasket on the door! Almost like something was clogging the chimney.  So I called my chimney guy..or so I thought. He was able to ‘have his guys come over in the morning’.

As soon as this guy pulled up, I knew something was off, but at this point, I still thought he was NFC.  The guy was still eating his breakfast while he was talking to me…not just hold on a sec, but he damn near was spitting food while he spoke. Then his guys climb up on the roof and take the cap off…and he says “Oh SHIT! this is bad”, so they proceed to tell me that there is so much creosote in there that they were surprised that there wasn’t a fire.  I said that’s not cool, I had it cleaned last fall, he said it hasn’t been cleaned for what looked like 5 years. I said, you guys came out last fall…that is when I got details of the acquisition and why (details I really don’t give a rat’s ass about). He said there was too much damage done and they would have to replace the entire liner, maybe 7k.  Considering that it’s only 5-6 years old, I was immediately suspicious and told him that he’s crazy, that it’s only a few years old.  I said, I just won’t use it!!  One of the guys comes down from the roof and says, “I know why it’s blowing smoke”! He said that the people that installed it cut it about 12 inches short and went from a 6″ liner to a 4″ liner and it was cemented in.  McNamara tells me he can fix that for about 1k, but he would have to tear apart the top of the chimney because of the cement. again…told him, just not going to use it!

He left his official proposal in my mailbox a couple days later…it says

“If you want the liner repaired call me”

Are you fucking kidding me?? How could anyone take this seriously?? He dug out some nasty-ass piece of paper out of his truck and wrote like a 6 year old. <sarcasm>Sure, I’m going to give you more money</sarcasm>

I asked a few people for a decent chimney sweep…also asked on facebook!  Once I got a few names, I did some research and checked reviews…new ones , as well as some of the older ones.  This name came up more than once…I liked his website…liked all the fire safety certs he has…like that he is a local guy!

Lou Curley
https://www.facebook.com/loucurleychimney/
http://loucurley.com/

I called him and asked him if he could come out and do an inspection. He was nice enough to squeeze me in! As soon as he walked in the door, I knew I called the right guy. I explained that I had just had it cleaned, but the house is still filling with smoke even though the ‘draft’ seems to be fine.  He went up on the roof, did the inspection up there, came back down, pulled one plate off of the back of the insert and found the problem.  The combustion chamber for the stove was clogged with creosote.

You can’t really tell by this picture, but the creosote is about 6-8″ thick.

Once that was cleaned out (with nothing more than a paint brush and a shop-vac), you would think it was a brand new fireplace insert!

Been burning ever since! thanks to Lou Curley!

#donttrustAffordableMasonry

I am going to put it all out there because all of this affected me on a daily basis while trying to keep everything going with forward momentum and trying to keep a positive upbeat attitude. Some days just SUPER SUCKED!! I am grateful for Jennifer for so many things, but mostly for getting me through all of this even on the worst of days and letting me feel whatever it was that I needed to at that moment!! (moment to moment)

After our anniversary weekend, we immediately started ripping out all of the paneling and everything behind it to go down to the studs. SO we could insulate and hang drywall.

A few weeks into this project, my Aunt Dot passed away. I have alot of happy “family” memories that included her and Uncle John. Aunt Dot was my grandmother’s sister and Uncle John was my grandfather’s brother…they were the first generation of sisters marrying brothers. grandaughters of Aunt Dot and Uncle John, Kelly and Dawn married John and George..so it skips a generation.

But anyway, when we came back from the funeral, Scott let us know that Magic had passed…she was different that day but we didnt think much of it. She was 16 with a liver shunt and in Jen’s care for MOST of her life..so I would say she had a long happy life!

5 weeks later, Holly started having a real hard time standing or walking, but it seemed like she was just weak, not in pain. When we took her to the vet, they prescribed Rymadil, which I believe that this should not EVER be prescribed to any dog!! We spent the next 2 days at the vet ER because 3 doses of that shit almost killed her! We brought her home, she was a very unhappy dog, but she did recover from it and she stayed with us another 4+ months until Oct! She was 14 years old and had a great life!

Right before Thanksgiving, Aunt San (mom’s sister) left us! She was one of my most favorite people on this planet and I will miss her every day!  The Parkinson’s finally took it’s toll! I felt the need to be strong for my only first-cousin Sue, but that day when I went to let my mom know, I found out that she wasnt getting up out of the bed…she told me her ankle hurt. On Thanksgiving, I took her dinner and hung out with her while she ate. Tried to talk to her daily, by phone (which she hated) and over facebook messenger. The day after she stopped talking on FB, Shelly came home and let me know that she was taking her to the hospital in the morning. That was Dec 8, 2015. Over the next few months, we spent most of the time visiting her in the hospital, hospice and nursing homes, dealing with dr’s, insurance, where she was going next, etc. The skin cancer was everywhere…tumor the size of a football on her thigh, lungs, thyroid and in the brain. We lost her in the beginning of April, 2016.  There are days/moments that I still can’t believe that this is real! No matter where life took me, I always knew that my mom loved me…even when I didn’t feel so lovable….miss you MOM!!

I said to Jen this morning, I can’t wait until this weekend is over because everyone is assuming that every change will be bad…even if it’s not.  At least on Monday, we will have a better idea of what to really worry about!

Jen said…blog about it!  So here are my thoughts…and they are ALL OVER the place!

Let me start this by saying, I did NOT vote for Trump! I think he is an asshole! He is a bar-room bully as far as I am concerned! But he did say alot of things that make sense, the things that people wanted to hear about change…and the longest he can be in the position is 8 years. Things will probably need to be re-built in 4/8 years, but like the ACA, it needs to be revisited anyway! Everyone is SO willing to bitch and scream, and march against the issues, but where is the resolution? To make a difference, put ideas of resolution out there! Tell/Show me how to change things!

You asked for real change! That is the concept that got Obama in the White House…now there is a NON-politician in there…this might be the change you have been asking for! I want corruption out of politics, I want the real words instead of the politically correct sensitive words. That DOES NOT mean that I want anyone/everyone to intentionally hurt anyone! I think you can have tact and find words that dont hurt and be honest! I want to see jobs come back to USA, just not sure how that can happen though, because how can that happen until the cost of living goes down…and how can that happen when entry level jobs become career paths?

You cant make a change at the highest level until you work at making a change at the lowest level. find out the beliefs of the local politician, (they all go to local outings) ask her/him what they think of trump (or the like, or your issues) and make your decision on that, because somewhere down the line, they will stand with or spin that answer. And if you end up not liking anything they say, you are probably not the only one…throw your hat in the ring!! isn’t that what would make real change?? I have always believe that budget changes can be made without losing people. Here in Ridley Twp, I see money being wasted…street cleaners driving around not sweeping, code enforcement car driving around looking to catch someone without a permit…last year, I saw a snow plow scraping the street to the point where they created pot holes. Why can’t they find this crew something more productive to do? Turn off those Christmas Lights that are on from Oct to Feb!! Why did they build a bigger/better high school? they still use a big part of the old HS for student related things. Why not improve it, add to it? But no, we needed to look better than the other twp’s!! I could go on and on about money being wasted and my taxes going up EVERY YEAR (even though the newspaper says “no new tax hike”)…that’s about how other twp’s perceive ours…because in the end, I get the tax bill!

I respect my friends that go on these “marches”, but I have chosen not to, mostly because the marches seem to happen AFTER the FACT…why not have these marches before voting season? When things can be looked at from a more fair perspective.

Some of the people in this country lack respect, you can see it in the way kids/people act. I watched a video of this ‘law student’ arguing with a police officer on the side of the road about his rights being offended because it’s not legal to pull someone over for a sobriety test. I can’t say that I disagree with that guy, but I also believe that the best thing he could have done to make a real change, would be to “respect what the officer says” and then fight it out in a court room…where this is supposed to happen. You know, scales of justice kinda thing! I know when people get in my face, it always escalates. So don’t get in that cop’s face on the side of the road, because most likely, he is not doing this because he is power hungry and wants to give you personally a hard time, but because he is hoping to keep the other drivers on the road safe. and that’s his job. Turning on your video camera and provoking/screaming at a cop is not the way to go!!! My point it, Trump is our President, at least respect it! He fought for it, earned it and you can’t change it! But you can fight it at a future date by educating yourself to the things that are happening to you on a local level!
News Media really spin things…everything is/has become propaganda.

As much as I love Joe Biden, he was caught making jokes that were not politically correct…but as far as the country was concerned, that is what made him a “real” person. and that’s what everyone likes about him…that he is down to earth and able to connect with everyone!

How is it that Hillary Clinton is solely responsible for the “bengazi” disaster?? Whatever the details are of the secret mission, how can anyone believe that HC planned this whole thing out by herself…and then set it into motion, ALONE!?! I thought that only our president was capable (in the eyes of the public) of making these kind of plans and decisions alone (NOT!, ever heard of the house and senate?)

I watched the Inauguration, I heard his first speech. Some things I liked, some things I thought, WTF? But 12 years ago, my boss, Chris Allan, who worked for and retired from MD State Archives, made us all read Lincoln’s Inaugural speech before our weekly meeting. As I read it, and I don’t remember the details, I was thinking, he said everything people wanted to hear, but how much of it had he actually changed, because it sounded like smoke being blown up the ass of the American people. I didn’t like how that felt, considering that he was one of the greatest american presidents ever, so it still sits with me!

I am grateful that I am able to change my mind about “issues”. When you are a politician and you feel one way at 21 years old, you are held to that same point of view throughout your life. If I was held to my beliefs as a kid, everyone on the planet would have died of old age by 30.

For our anniversary, Jen had found a wine making kit for me, but I still needed to pick out what wine we wanted to start with…so we went with a simple california cabernet. We started our first batch at the end of April.

Funny story and the beginning of my newest hobby.  When mom was in the nursing home, and nearing the end, there were still some fun moments and some great memories.  Me, Jen, Shelly, Sandy and SG were all there and one of the nurses came in to give mom her pain meds…she walked towards her and said “down the hatch”, and every one of us, including mom laughed, but the nurse didn’t put it together…Barbara Hatch, Down the Hatch. We decided at that moment to name our first wine after that moment.

And our second batch was also a ‘select california cabernet’ and sticking with the Hatch theme, we came up with Hatchback…there were a couple others, but these were the 2 we decided on.

After these 2 cabernet’s, I decided to make a “white merlot”…this wine turned out very nice and Jen came up with the name of this one, Really Jones’n…we both got really emotional…almost like we didn’t get the chance to mourn Aunt San. I would not be the person I am today if she wasn’t in my life. Sandra Jones!

And our last wine for the year was an Australia Cabernet…this turned out to be the one I liked the most (but not because of the name, but the wine itself). We decided after it was completed the this wine is our last “memorial wine” name.  Holiday Magic…our babies that we lost in the last year!

Our next few wines will have fun names! I have started a French Cabernet…any suggestions?

My last post was in April of 2015…with the building of the frame building of the ‘screened in porch’. Well, a million things happened that made it difficult for me to want to put it out there publicly…so I kinda shyed away from my blog.

For the last few weeks, I have wanted to start blogging again, and at the same time, there were technical difficulties that were fixed over the holidays (the site was down for a few weeks).

My “catching up” posts may or maynot happen in order, but I will get pictures up of some of the changes in ourhouse!

• 

• 

• 

• 

I decided that when the Lemon Law case was finished, I would take any money from it and get a pickup.  So when the lawyer called me yesterday to talk about a settlement, I did very little negotiating…I stood firm for the first call, but they came back with a counter-offer and since i really didnt want to have to go to court for this and it was more than the first offer, I took it!

I kinda knew what I wanted…I liked the Nissan Frontier because it’s a 6 cylinder and I think that’s all the power I will ever really need, got rave reviews from Kevin and Bradford (how can I go wrong?).  So I called my cousin, John (he knows more about cars than anyone I know). He told me that the Frontier had had a transmission issue from 2005 to 2008, but nothing since then…so I was sold!  He also told me to go to carmax and get a written appraisal, either carmax would buy my car or I could use the appraisal to negotiate…which is exactly what I did.

This is now my newest toy…I hope to be driving this truck way past 300k miles!

Now I have to go buy something that you can only move in a truck!

You ain’t gonna believe this shit!

We went to Lowe’s to buy something that we could put in the back of the truck…you know, something that wouldn’t easily be moved in a car, so we bought a toilet.

For years the old toilet was faithful, but sometimes didn’t want to finish it’s job…so it was time to retire it!

I pulled the old toilet up when I gutted the bathroom, but since it was an old reliable toilet, I just rebuilt it…all new gaskets, brass screws, wax ring, new seat…all of it!

I have done this job before which means I know I will probably need a second pair of hands, so I figured I would do it on the day Scott was supposed to come over and if I needed help, he would be close by.

Removing the old toilet was quick and clean…it really helped that the brass screws weren’t so completely rusted.  The cast iron closet flange wasn’t as pretty as it could be so I ran down to home depot and got one of these

I took my time putting the new toilet in, and even though Jen was a little skeeved by the job, she was ok with helping me lining it up so that the wax ring didn’t go askew, got it bolted down, added the tank, connected the plumbing and flushed it. Haven’t seen a leak yet (and I have been checking), it doesn’t rock, feels pretty solid….now we just need 30 golf balls to test it.  OK, so no golf balls, but that’s how they advertised this particular toilet!

The drywall hung on the ceiling first

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

•