Good Day...

You know that it's going to be a good day because...

I've put the washing out;

done the dishes;

and caught an escaped rabbit in the garden;

All before 10a.m.


Sam x

Dodgy Salesmen pt2

Well we had our second double glazing salesman turn up. I'm sure he was meant to be here at 10.30am but he turned up at 10.10am and Mr Bucket missed out as he'd popped out on a quick supermarket visit.

So it was just me and the kids.

It wasn't actually that bad, as soon as he sat down I basically told him that we didn't want:

1. A sales board.
2. Photos taken of our house.
3. DVD played to us.
4. Phone calls to his Manager.
5. Buy me now deals.

I told him straight that we'd had them the previous day, weren't interested and if he couldn't do it then the door was behind him and we could finish now.

I think he got the point - I won the bet easily and with time to spare. He was out the door within 25 minutes, woohoo!!!

Funniest moment was when he tried to get Bucket jnr on his side by saying "are you sure you don't want to watch my dvd?" and Bucket jnr answered "we don't want any dvds" (which he said quite a few times as it just got funnier and funnier to him). 

We went with the big companies thinking they were too established to try tricks like this but I think we're going to ring round a couple of local firms now. Sam xx

BEWARE - dodgy salesmen at work

We're going to replace a couple of double glazed windows in our house, one has been in since we moved in and has a bit of a draft.We called a couple of double-glazing companies for a quote...

OMG!!!!! (sorry for the text speak)

Mr Bucket and I agreed that we didn't want the sales pitch; no best deals and if any one of the companies that came round said we had to sign "TODAY", then they were out the door.

Our first appointment today was for 2pm, I saw a man parked outside at 1.55pm and then the same man decided to knock on our door at 2.05pm. Hmmmm, not a good start. I LIKE punctuality.

He came in, sat down and asked us what we were looking for. We told him and then let him know that we were going to have a few other quotes before we made a decision. He asked which companies we were looking at - I didn't see anything wrong in telling him as I thought he was just being curious, so I told him the names of the other 3 companies.

One he didn't know as it was local, one was at the top of the game and all he said was 'they're very expensive' but he then went on to criticise (and that's putting it very lightly) the last company. I didn't say anything, just looked as though I was interested but privately I was thinking "what the hell is he playing at???!!! - you just DON'T DO THIS!!)

By the way, he hadn't measured anything at this stage.

He asked us if they could put an advertising board up - we said "No sorry, it's in our deeds that this is not allowed". He looked a bit shocked.

He asked us if they could take before and after shots - we said "No, we don't want that". He looked even more shocked, a bit pale even.

He then called his Manager (have no proof that it was actually his Manager) and told him what we had said. We got a bit fed up by this stage and I think "playing silly buggers" might have been mentioned by us. I even offered to talk to the supposed Manager (twice) but he didn't seem to hear me although I was sat right next to him.

After his phonecall, we laid it on the line and said we "just want the windows measured and a quote". He finally got the message.

And he finally measured the two windows and patio door.

Just when we thought we'd gotten past all the silliness and sales pitch he asked us to play a dvd - what a load of 'look what we do' twaddle - I'm sure I yawned twice. Didn't this bloke get the message - all we wanted was a quote!!!

When the dvd finally ended he put some figures together - approx £10,000.

What????? How much????? You have got to be kidding!!!!

Ok I didn't say the above but I DID think it. When he asked me what I thought I calmly said "it's a bit higher than we thought but thank you". See, still being very polite even though I just wanted him gone by now.

THEN he rang up another Manager (different name) and after a short conversation said that if we signed today and ignored everyone else they could bring it down to £3800.

We almost exploded then, you could see the steam rising from our heads and I'm sure we went purple.

I think he got the message as he said a quick thank you and goodbye to me, ignored Mr Bucket and actually raced to the door. I've never seen anyone leave as fast as that before, it was hilarious - still laughing about it now.

But on a serious note I think we were lucky, our meeting only took 40 minutes from start to finish. We had a really good internet search afterwards and found that this same company could take up to a couple of hours and more.

I don't think we'll be using this company now but we've got another appointment with another company tomorrow and I've got a bet on with Mr Bucket that we can have them out the door within 30 minutes. I'll let you know, Sam xx

Busy, busy morning...

I've been a bit of a speed demon today. Lately I've felt a bit slugglish and haven't done too much but now I'm TOTALLY fed up with the mess (we're a bunch of collectors and clutterers).

So I wrote a list and I've only got 2 more things to do (there were more than 2 to start with, just in case you were wondering).

I've been whizzing round tidying, cleaning, even adding a couple of extra things to the list - one of them was tidying up Miss Bucket's bedroom (only tidying, we have a big day of chucking coming up soon I think). After all my nagging to tidy her room, she finally asked if I could help.

Although in the middle of this I had to do something else...

Has anyone heard of Hama beads? If you haven't, they are little beads (come in several sizes but ours are quite small) that you put on a board template which could be in the shape of a flower, dragon, frog. This is then ironed and it all sticks together.

Well, in the course of tidying I knudged the board with the beads on and I hadn't yet ironed them.......yes, a load of them went flying and I had to spend a long little time putting them back.

Miss Bucket's beads are small and my hands are big - not a good combination and I had to resort to the tweezers to try and pick them up, one by one. I very carefully took them downstairs and ironed them, although I think my iron was a bit hot and some look a little crazy.

I'm hoping she'll accept my idea that it makes him look a little more scaly.

A cup of tea is now called for before my next job, which I'll be doing this afternoon - PIZZA, homemade of course. Sam xx

Tidying or making a mess....

Today was a bit of a clearout day, you know the sort when you delve into the deep, dark corners and find dust bunnies waving at you. Today was one of those days.

I've been sorting a few bits out and trying to tidy up. Getting rid of things that haven't been used or played with in ... months?? years???!!

Our sitting room now seems to be sorted, there is space to walk once again and definitely enough space to swing a cat (a cuddly one of course).

But then I walked out of the sitting room, into the hallway and then kitchen and what did I find??? Bags of rubbish and lots of other things in the way. All I seem to have done is move 'stuff' from one room to another.

NO!

I know that I've chucked some of it away, the bin bags prove it. But it also seems like I've just made another mess, in another room, to be cleared away.

Is this like some kind of logic puzzle - you can clear the stuff from each room but you'll never be able to finish completely. I hope not but I'd better make sure that I've enough bin bags, just in case. Sam xx