A day off, I think not!

Whew, I'm tired.  Today I was off from work.  "From work" are the key words.  Today was long and arduous, and I didn't even leave the freaking house. 

I painted in the garage for 3 hours, and I got most of the ceiling done.  It's about 800 sq ft of ceiling.  I still have 3 walls to do, but there's shelving bolted to the walls, and with my grace (ha!) combined with my mechanical abilities (ha!), I decided to wait to paint the walls until my husband moves the shelving off the walls.  Painting was from roughly 7:45am - 10:45am.  Shower (actually shower #2 of the day since I showered when I got up and then got paint in my hair and on my face due to my awesome gracefulness while painting).  Load of laundry. Unload dishwasher. Make grocery list.  Make bed since the furnace dudes were coming, and the furnace is off the master bedroom, which means I have to make it look like I don't live in complete squalor.  Pick up the closet (the furnace is actually through the master bedroom closet) since underwear strewn about where the furnace dudes can see just looks tacky.   

Memo to self: Furnaces belong in garages. 

Still haven't eaten breakfast or lunch. Decide to put dinner in the crockpot and just finished putting everything in the crockpot when the doorbell rings.

Furnace dude #1, who arrived at noon, was decent, answered questions, seemed thorough.  He was in his truck working on pricing after he checked out the furnace, and the doorbell rings again.  I thought it was that dude since he was in his truck at the time.

Dude at door is not Furnace Dude #1.  Different dude holding an electronic clipboard.  UPS guy in streetclothes? Jehovah's witness gone electronic?  Nope.  Tax assessor.  Surprise! He thinks they got something wrong with the house value and want to check it out.  And measure the house.  Oh freaking lovely.  Had to be today when I was home, didn't it?  Of course. 

Assessor dude starts measuring the outside of the house and doing stuff on his clipboard.  Finish up with Furnace Dude #1. I start folding laundry and mostly put it all away when the assessor dude wants in to measure.  Start talking with him.  The elected assessor (this dude is just staff) in our county is crazy.  Really, he is, and it's been common knowledge for the past year.  He's a complete nutjob that they're trying to recall, and I want to sign the petition because he has no right to be in office.  I bring up that his boss is a nutjob.  He completely agrees.  We start talking about the nutjob elected official.  (Later I find out that this staffperson is suing the county for $1 million due to being demoted by the elected official.) Furnace Dude #2 pulls into the driveway, which cues assessor dude to leave.  Thank goodness. 

Furnace Dude #2 is nice but long-winded and pushes the sales pitch.  He just takes more mental energy to deal with. 

I learned about getting multiple bids in the last house.  Not really for price, although that's a definite consideration, but more that you can tap many different experts' opinions on what is going on, and I tend to learn small (or large) morsels from each expert I deal with.  I ask lots of questions and solicit opinions. I like getting educated about these things, but it can kind of be exhausting. 

Furnace Dude #2 arrived at 2:10pm, which was 10 minutes late (although he called to say he would be late), and he had that long sales pitch.  Plus Furnace Dude #3 came a bit early (3:50pm instead of 4pm).  It was kind of awkward when Dude #3 was at the door while Dude #2 was still giving his presentation.  However, that got #2 out the door and after 1.5 hours, I was kind of done with him anyway. 

Thankfully Furnace Dude #3 was quick.  He only took 30 minutes.  Hallelujah!  After all that painting + the tax assessor + the previous two furnace dudes, I was pretty much tapped out.  Oh yeah, and I still hadn't eaten all day but was lured by the captivating smell of the crockpot.  Don't let me get too hungry, or I get really cranky. 

Husband comes home, and I'm ready to pass out from hunger and from being exhausted from entertaining 4 men all day.  It's hard to keep up with 4 men in one day, 5 if you include my husband.  ;-)

Now to figure out what furnace to go with.  Consumer Reports and calculator, here I come!