Not Always Perfect Math

The numbers don't always come out perfect. :)

I was shopping for a plane ticket for my mom, who is visiting me this winter. I usually try to get those international tickets well in advance because I can find better deals. Well, this year, with mom's physical therapy, she couldn't commit to coming until just a couple of weeks ago.

The average price for that ticket, at this time of year, is usually around $1,300. About a month ago, it dropped to just under $1,100 for a day or two, but I didn't have the permission to buy the ticket at that point. And since then, the prices jumped back up, and stayed there.

Finally, when I was ready to buy it, the quotes I got from some ten companies were around $1,400, +-$25, and I purchased it two days ago. Just a couple of hours later I was talking about it to a Bosnian friend who is also looking for a ticket, and while still on the phone she looked it up on Travelocity. The price at that moment, for a flight with just one connection different, was just $927, with all the taxes and fees! Oh-oh.

I quickly called the agency, but they already closed for the day. Tried to email them by replying to the confirmation email they sent me, but that was a no-reply email address. I even attached the Travelocity page with that price. Called the credit card company to try to cancel the transaction, but since it hasn't yet posted, they couldn't do anything about it. So, what to do? I couldn't just buy the second ticket and hope I could cancel the first one tomorrow. I was a bit upset with myself for not checking all the sites on that same day again, even though I was on Travelocity two days before, and all other sites still showed the old price.

Tomorrow morning the first thing out of bed I did was to go and check Travelocity site - the price was back to $1,400+. :( Oh, well. I can't win always. I already planned on spending this much on the ticket. But it sure would have been nice to spend 50% less.

Perfect Math

I love it when financies math works out perfectly.

The new furniture I bought was on a 24-month 0%-interest loan. The first payment (full amount divided by 24) starts in mid November.

Few weeks ago I also got a raise at work, and by the time that first payment is due I will have received one full month worth of that raise.

So, just in that is a perfect timing. But, what is also perfect is that the amount of the monhtly payment is EXACTLY equal to the monthly raise, just 20 cents difference!

I should not even notice these 2-year long payments. Ha!

Home Projects

It amazes me how one home project just leads into another. It never ends. And if I have the material and tools, I might even discover a project that I didn't think of before. :)

First, the furniture arrived today! It looks great. The mirror was a special order, so it may not be here for another month and a half.

I was hoping to get everything with the flooring/room done before the delivery guys come, but it just wasn't happening. The wall needed few touch ups where the wall decorations previously were. That's done. I just got a special replacement bulb for that track lighting - still needs to be installed. The transition under three doors is yet to be done. I needed to buy material, get the tools, cut the metal track, measure and cut the laminate t-transition, scrape a strip of linoleum, remove the padding, drill the concrete, install the track and lock in the transition. Cutting with a hand saw was tedious, but not too bad. Drilling the concrete was quite a workout. Both for me and for my 12V drill, which needed recharging after every 3.5 holes. It was a good break for me. Today I finally finished one door, but the other two are all ready for drilling.

I also moved the mattress back into this room, and the box-spring I decided to put in my brother's room, now that he has moved out. It has an IKEA bed-frame, with slats, that never worked quite right, were pulling apart and falling under the frame. My brother never installed one metal peace, not related to slats, so I first finished that. Then I tried my best to re-affix the metal edge on the inside, that had loose screws from damaged holes in the wood. Put the box-spring on and the mattress, and now the bed is more comfortable. While I was at it, I also gave the room a bit of cleaning and tiding up of boxes, papers, electronics, cables, and other stuff my brother left behind.

This was just a continuation of the clean-up-after-brother-moves-out project. Few days ago, I decided to deep clean his/guest bathroom. After everything else was wiped clean, I got to the shower, which really needed scrubbing. I made the tub and the tile clean-er, but the caulk still had black mold areas behind it that were not coming off, no matter how much cleaning I did. So, a natural solution for me was to scrape the old caulk and re-caulk it. It took me few evenings before all the caulk was off, and I was left with no fingerprints from using the scalpel blade for scraping. In few spots the grout between the tub and tile got cracked and fell out, so I'll first need to re-grout those areas and then re-caulk everything. That was put on hold until the bedroom is 100% done.

Next project: gutter guards.
After that, I'll probably need to replace the toilet tank in that guest bathroom, which has hairline-cracks all along one side. That's an accident just waiting to happen.
And after that, I really have to make a decision on and replace the garage door, which, for the last year, had needed a manual push up every time they open.

A never ending list of home projects.

New Master Bedroom

What kept me busy for the last month or so was renovation of the mater bedroom. Well, I didn't knock any walls down, but it was still a lot of work.

I've been shopping for the bedroom set for the past four, yes 4, years. I had an idea in mind of what I wanted, and none of the stores in Austin had it. And I wasn't going to buy anything on-line that I couldn't first see and touch. I almost gave up completely. It wasn't high priority, anyways. Then, a friend of mine started dragging me with her (not that I needed any convincing) to different stores as she was shopping for some furniture, and I started looking more seriously into bedroom sets. It had to have four characteristics: reddish wood, sleigh, padded, and lower height head-board, drawers with rails on the side (not under), and nightstand with more than one drawer. I finally found one set with all those, a platform bed, which wasn't my ideal, but I didn't had strong opinion about that. It should be delivered next week.

Well, since I currently have very little furniture in that room, I decided to also change the flooring before the new furniture arrives; pull out the carpet and install the laminate flooring like I have in other part of the house. And, I was going to install it without hiring a professional! My policy is that if I can do something myself, with a little help from google and advices from people who are in the know-how - I am not going to pay someone else to do it.

I gathered all the material and the tools, cleared out the room, and started ripping out the carpet three weekends ago. The tackstrip took a really long time to remove. The floor required some leveling, so the next few days there were several more trips to Home Depot for supplies. It was all ready for the installation by the second weekend. Or so I thought.

On Friday evening, I laid down one row and one column of laminate to measure first and last board. Then I realized there is a high spot on the concrete that is causing the laminate to dip. I was only fixing low areas. So, in the morning, I went and got a concrete sander, and started grinding that spot. Oh, the dust! I had all the protective gear, but, after maybe an hour, I had to call it quits. What was done, was done. By the time I cleaned up all that dust, it was 1.30 PM on Saturday when we (my brother came to help) started actually installing the floor.

The first row was fine, The problem started with the second row. It was just not going in the way the instructions said. After 4 hours, we were still on 2nd or 3rd row. I was mainly measuring and marking for cutting, and my brother cutting and installing, as we thought it needed strength. We were frustrated. I was already exhausted. I sent my brother to take a break, and I wanted to give it a try. It just wasn't working. Then he had a breakthrough! When he tapped on the board while it was still at an angle, it started locking in! Yay! We finally started making some progress. At 11 PM we were 1/3 done. I was insanely tired. The next day was all rest.

My brother came over again a couple of evenings that next week, and all the laminate was installed by Thursday. I was already tired of this project, so I was dragging on with installing the quarter round, sanding, caulking, filling the nail holes, painting, cleaning up. But, today I finished it all, and finally moved back all my stuff into the closet. I'll wait till the furniture is delivered to move the mattress and actually move back in.

Master bedroom reno - check done!

Mom Update

After 53 days with the cast, it came off. I am just shocked how non-personable the doctors are in Sarajevo. The doctor just looked at that final x-ray, shook his head, and all he had to say after mom asked if he is taking the cast off, was "Well, I guess". Really?! No advice. No words of encouragement. No pep talk. Urgh!
I guess you get what you pay for. It was free for her.

She met with a physical therapist few days after, who was the first person who actually took the time to talk with her. It was a very pleasant surprise to have a doctor who is not rushing and yelling at the patients. But, that doctor is just for assessment, so she'll meet with her only once every couple of weeks. She started the physical therapy two weeks ago, and it's once a day, for probably two months.

The first day of therapy was...very traumatic. After some warm-up with electric probes, they took her to a "torture" room. The young fella started cracking those knuckles like she was in therapy for a month already! Mom can stand a lot of pain, but she nearly fainted again. It was a deja vu of the day they were breaking her bones to adjust them two weeks after the attack. Really man? How about some easing into it? Urgh!

She got another therapist the next day, and insisted with sticking with him. He was much more considerate. Now, after two weeks of therapy, she can still barely move her fingers. We were planning on her coming for a visit in December, but she is so discouraged by the progress, that she doesn't think she'll be ready for travel by then. I think she will, but it's hard for her to see that far right now.

And all of this for a necklace. By the way, the police had caught the attacker, by her friend's description, and called my mom and the friend to come identify him in the line up - just like in the movies. But, even after she did point him out, they had to let him go. Such is the judicial process. Now they have to get the court order, and then hunt him again to lock him up. Urgh!