March 2007 Family Update

The polls are in as of 2pm pacific time: 33% said it was a boy, 67% said it was a girl.
I know you are all waiting for the results for the baby…you’ll have to wait until the end of this update. No cheating, but I will give you a hint:

John Lennon said it best:

“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”

(if you know what song that’s from, then you already know)

The days seem to go by so fast when you stop and look back, but when you are living them they can seem like forever. Now I have to remember what has happened in the past three months.

The Jobs:
With all that is going on, like making a baby, Skye has been plugging away at LBCC and USC. Three months into the semester, the majority of what Skye has been doing is rehearsal upon rehearsal; fine tuning for her choirs for their upcoming concerts.

Here is her “normal,” schedule, if there is a normal schedule. Mondays are the longest for her. She is at LBCC from 8:30am to 10:00pm. Tuesdays and Thursdays are at USC for her Choral Lit II class and Concert Choir. Wednesday and Friday, she is at LBCC. When at LBCC she is directing her Viking Choir, Southland Choir and Madrigal Choir, teaching voice classes and new for this semester, music directing the musical, “Charlie Brown” for the college. Next weekend we are going to Yosemite with the choir for their spring tour.

Skye’s Concert Schedule:
Friends and Family Concert: March 18th
Charlie Brown, the Musical: March 29th, 30th, 31st, April 1st, 5th, 6th, 7th
Spring Concert: May 13th

If you need more info for these performances Skye’s contact info can be found on the link below:

http://mrtv.lbcc.edu/academic/academic_faculty.cfm

Further south in not so long beach, Huntington Beach…

The PGA Show in January was a success. Thankfully the booth graphics showed up, the press conference when off without a hitch

We are coming out with a new ad.

A few of the guys from my “round table of the minds,” have already seen the rough version of this ad. (Thanks for your input). This is what the president chose. It should be out in most golf publications mid April for the May editions and onward. To not get as many chuckles, I hope it isn’t placed across from a Viagra Ad.

Construction on the House:

Okay, are you ready for the almost whole story? We are still not living at the house yet. But now we’ve got a dramitic story to tell. I’ll recap what has happened so far…

December 2005 – Officially bought house
January 2006 – We have plans written up by our Architect
March 2006 – Architect finishes plans; we submit them to the City for approval
Mid-June 2006 – City approves plans
July 2006 – Interview contractors
August 16th, 2006 – Sign contractor, construction begins…
October 31st, 2006 – First deadline comes and goes.
November 17th, 2006 – Second deadline comes and goes.
December 24th, 2006 – Third Deadline comes and goes.
Mid-January 2007 – We move out of house…

Here’s the story… Originally when we interviewed with the contractors in July, of the many we interviewed with, we felt most comfortable with a company called D and K Builders. I did my research on them and they came up spotless and with great comments from past projects. They were the ones we called back in August to sign the contract with. When we did sign the contract the guy we signed with, let’s call him “Frank”, had the contract listed as “Ellison’s Construction.” He said Ellison’s Construction was the same company as D and K builders but for smaller residential remodels. I checked their license and it seemed to check out.

Fast-forward 5 months. Frank and cohorts started asking for more money to finish the project. We brought on a construction consultant to equal the battlefield. Our consultant spotted out a few problems at the work site. Outside walls and roof were not yet water-tight, asbestos was found throughout the back bedroom, hallway, bathroom and trash-pile in backyard. Workmanship was poor at best. We moved out of the house to stay healthy. Our consultant drew up a project time line and list to be completed by Frank and his workers, they agreed…then they stopped coming and answering phone calls.

I decided to use my mad Google skills and start doing some major background checks. I found out that Frank had filed a DBA (doing business as…) for Ellison’s Construction in August of 2006. I put two and two together and called the phone number listed on the California Contractor’s Licensing Board. To my surprise we got a hold of Ms. Ellison who had no idea what these guys were doing under her license number. It turns out Frank stole her License when they worked together a couple of years ago and filed the DBA for Ellison’s Construction under his name to cash the checks. To shorten this story a whole lot, Ms. Ellison has agreed to finish Frank’s project; she will go after Frank and cohorts with her attorneys. I think Frank is looking at jail time; it’s called Karma. Below are some pictures of what has been done. It’s starting to look nice. We are still looking at a move-in date maybe by the beginning of April. We are still at Lynn and Richard’s house and they are being most patient with us both. We really appreciate it.

December 2005

September 2006

October 2006

October 2006

December 2006

Christmas Day

March 2007

Trips
A couple of weekends ago Lynn, Richard, Skye and I went to Anza-Borrego to finally get the H3 dirty! We did a couple of hikes on Saturday and we took a guided Geological 4×4 tour called “Erosion Road” on Sunday. The guide was a little too full of himself but in all in all it was cool.

The Baby
The news everyone has been waiting for…

85 TO 90% chance – The Baby will be a Boy!

I’ve put together a webpage that has more stuff on it. You can go there and check out more pictures and things.

http://www.counterpointproductions.net/family/

Giving Mom a High-Five!

Well, I guess I’ve spent enough of your time. Thanks for reading along. I’ll update you all again in a couple of months or sooner. We are going to have the ultrasound 4D pictures in April or May. We should be back in our house by then. We wish you all well.

“Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.” Jack Kerouac.

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 12th, 2007 at 12:03 and is filed under Family. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.