Interesting Moments.

First, three companies came right before Christmas to give us estimates on a new heating/cooling system. Husband and I are not complete idiots and if you remember from my earlier post, we live in a house considered smaller than small. The first company comes - highly recommended by a coworker. Man goes through entire house and leaves. No estimate has come, husband calls, estimator says that he will fax one over and it never shows up. Second man comes, I will not let him take tour of the house. We sit down for an agonizing chat where he puts all of my answers on his colorfully printed brochure like form. Then he asks the question "How much can you afford?" What an idiot. I told him to write up a proposal. We got the proposal $22,000 plus!!! We are still shaking our heads and laughing over that one. As we put in a new system 15 years ago in our last house - heating system, brand new ducts and it cost a lot less. Even allowing for inflation $22,000 is a bit steep for a hovel. The third company has come out and will not give an estimate. They however are coming on Monday to test our ducts with a smoke test. I'm not holding my breath.

We asked a plumber to come by years ago from a prestigious firm and he came and left. Told us that too many people were sick at the office and someone would be back when everyone felt better. Must have been killer flu as we never heard from them again. Anyway we hired a new plumber who unfortunately got ill and had to retire.