Showing posts with label annoying things. Show all posts
Showing posts with label annoying things. Show all posts

Friday, August 21, 2009

My Basketball Court (I Hope) and Big Balls

Finally, after a month of trying to get a permit for a slab of concrete for a basketball court, I was finally handed a permit!!!!! I ran out of there as fast as I could because I was afraid they would take it back!

It was the most ridiculous thing. I did not have a Plat of Survey as you all know from an earlier blog post, so Angelo, the concrete guy, brought in some old addition plans of mine and was told they were not good enough. I go there with Alyssa, and they love her and tell me that they'll help me work around the issue. A week later I go there with Alyssa again and am told that my old addition plans will work. They do a little investigation and a house visit and suddenly I'm all good to go in a week. Well, then the fence guy wasn't registered in my area and he had to get a permit to work in the area. Finally, they call me up and tell me I'm good to go. I hand them a check and voila! I have a permit.

Anyway, Angelo came by today and got rid of all the heavy bushes on the back of my property and sectioned off the area for the basketball court... Yay!


Oh wait, no nothing can go smoothly for me. They realize that the alley is much higher than my property and all the rain will come pouring into my backyard, and the building department will never allow it. Of course. What else can go wrong? They have to make the basketball court almost a foot higher than my grass so it can be even with the freakin alley. Whatever, I really don't care at this point. And besides, it's big enough that no one will accidentally fall off.

Anyway, I've been asking Jon to pick out a basketball hoop for a week now, and last night was the time he decided to do it. Last night, right after Jessica's six friends came over for a movie night. 4 bags of popcorn and a family size bag of rainbow licorice later I realized that even though the house was totally nuts, I must get Will and Alyssa to sleep (almost 9). Will went to sleep quickly, but Alyssa.... I mean she fell three times, got 2 bumps, you'd think she'd fall asleep really fast. Unless it was the licorice and popcorn keeping her up.....

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Yesterday morning, Will walked into my bedroom with two big balls in his arms and said,

"Hey Mommy, look at my big fat boobies!"

I laughed of course then said,

"Will that's not really nice to say."

And he said,

"Why because you have them?"

And I said, "No, because you have them." (not sure why I said that, I guess I just didn't know what else to say)

And Will said, "No I don't, I just have nipples!"

Me: "Yeah, well, I guess you're right."

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One more thing, remember Will at the dentist in June... throwing up a little over a tiny x-ray of his tooth? Well, even though they wanted me to go to a pediatric dentist, I decided that I wanted them to do it. And yesterday, Will let them do the x-ray and did not throw up! It was very exciting, although truthfully we still have yet to fill the giant cavity (the dentist wants to gas him, to chill him out) in a week. But getting the x-ray was a big deal for him, so we went to celebrate at chuckie cheese. After about 2 torturous hours of chasing Alyssa around the place, I decided it was time to go. Now some moms let their kids pick out those stupid prizes. (Ali.. I saw the plastic vomit! ha ha ha) Not this Mom. We always take our little ticket counted receipts home in my wallet.

Today, in honor of having a possible cemented basketball hoop area in my backyard, I decided to take out those ticket receipts and get Will the giant ball... 1200 tickets! Now for all of you Wipeout fans out there, this big ball was a big deal to Will. Because now he can say, while holding his new ball, "Good Night and Big Balls!"



Thursday, July 23, 2009

A Basketball Court..... maybe


So, the hubby and I decided that we need a basketball court in our backyard. I was almost as excited as the kids!!! We (me and the kids) have been wanting one for a long time. I got it all priced out... we were all ready to go. Then the guy who was going to do it (Angelo) asked me for our Plat of Survey. Hmm... yeah, where is that thing? I looked everywhere. We keep all the "house" stuff in one folder and it just wasn't there. Angelo took a set of plans we had written up 7 years ago when we thought we were going to do an addition to our house. It had a small image of our Plat of Survey on it.... maybe that would be good enough to get a permit so they could start working. Of course it wasn't. I went to Town Hall to get a copy of it. Guess what? They don't have one. So I went to meet with the head inspector to figure out what my options were. While I waited for her, I saw an information sheet that listed all the reasons one would need a permit. I must live in the most strict neighborhood there is. And truthfully I probably "needed" a permit about ten times already.

This is the list:

YOU NEED A PERMIT FOR:

all electrical and plumbing work
air conditioning and heating work
lawn sprinkler systems
hot water heaters
dog runs
steps
porches
patios
fences
driveways and sidewalks
garages and sheds
replacement windows and doors
roofing
gutters and downspouts
alarm systems
tuckpointing

YOU DON'T NEED A PERMIT FOR:

painting (oh really, thanks. i can paint my house without your permission.)
changing ceiling tiles
carpeting or floor tiles
installing hardwood floors
changing cabinet faces, counter tops
changing existing light fixtures
normal installation of household appliances

That is totally ridiculous! They want us to pay $60-$250 to do these things. There might be 8 things I did without a permit, unless you work for these crooks people. Then I of course had a permit each time. I mean, I'm surprised they don't charge us to change a freaking light bulb!

Anyway, the first person told me that I could hire a surveyor to make me a new Plat of Survey for $300-$400. Umm... yeah, no thanks. The second person, who was in love with Alyssa, told me to call this other guy and see what he can do for me. Yeah, well he was very nice when we spoke, but hasn't called me back all week! I call him everyday now. Either we'll be best friends or he'll have me killed one of these days. I figure if I keep leaving him messages he'll have to call back eventually.... right? Just say yes so I'll feel better......