OK, so today Dale and I screwed up our courage to go tell our builders how we’re feeling about the delays on starting our house. Well, that was the plan.

I convinced Dale to give our realtor a call first. We’ve not been too thrilled with her lately either. She was actually referred to us by Dale’s mom, who used to be a realtor herself and is still connected to the business. She hadn’t been very proactive about calling us to see how things are going, nor has she been pushing issues with the builders. We’ve kind of felt like she’s thought of us as the kids of a coworker, and not as clients in our own right. Still, I wanted her to know our plans.

That turned out to be a good decision. Our realtor agreed with our views of the situation and offered to call the builder’s rep herself. We happily let her do that as Dale and I went to Target to buy socks. Lots of socks.

See, Dale and I have been living out of the laundry basket for about a month now. Since we never sorted all our socks after the last time the whites were washed, we were just scraping together pairs each morning. Well, we reached the point where we were absolutely sick of upending the laundry basket onto the bed each morning. So, rather than say… fold and put away all the clean laundry, we just decided to buy more socks.

Ok, ok. We’re not really that pathetic, but Dale’s been complaining that his new sneakers made his socks bunch up under his heels. I pointed out that all his white socks are ancient wrecks that are stretched way out of shape, and several pairs sport interesting holes from Maggie’s sock-stealing days.

I was also running low on whole and healthy socks. I cut up at least two to wear under the brace at night after I’d sprained my ankle. Today’s pair, dredged up from the floor, each had the same nearly-worn-away spot just above the heel.

Yep, new socks were a must. So, we went and bought 27 pairs between the two of us.

After we got home, I decided to start laundry and get those new socks washed. They went into the first load. Then I washed the sheets, more dirty laundry, more dirty laundry, and a full load of all our old bastard socks. The mood was upon me, and doing the laundry just wasn’t enough.

I had to CLEAN! And clean I did. I did the dishes, even hand-washing the ones that I couldn’t fit into the dishwasher. I started sorting the junk off the coffee table. I sorted, folded, and hung ALL the “old” clean laundry. Then I put the nice clean sheets back on the bed. Dale helped me with this, but I think it was more because he wanted to watch Spritel play Bed Shark.

Spritel looooooves it when we make the bed. You know how you stand at the foot or the side, grasp the edge of a sheet, and snap it out to cover as much of the bed as possible? Spritel loves to get under the sheet when you’re doing that. Then he charges around under it attacking your hands if you’re willing to play.

Pumpkin’s version of the game is more typical. He gets on the bed and attacks the moving lumps under the covers. You can imagine the fun of making a bed with Spritel and Pumpkin going at each other through the sheets. It is quite cute, really.

After the bed was done, I dealt with each basket of laundry as the loads finished. I think I did 4-5 loads, though the last one (the reject socks) are still sitting in the dryer. Sue me.

With the laundry out of the way, the magazine mess all over the bedroom floor was much more visible, so I tackled that next. I even pulled the dresser away from the wall and discovered half a dozen of Pumpkin’s pompom balls back there. Needless to say, Pumpkin was thrilled.

Despite my fatigue of late, I was in a real cleaning frenzy. After cleaning the crap out of the bedroom, I was disappointed to realize it was after 2am, and much too late to vacuum. Dammit! I want to vacuum! I settled for gathering up all our trash, but Dale was kind enough to take it out.

While Dale and I were out at Target (and later at Lowe’s) our realtor had called to let us know that the builder rep was upset that we wanted to cancel our contract, and that he wanted to talk to us. I called twice and left messages after Dale and I got home. The sales guy called back around 8pm. I told him how we felt about everything, how disappointed we are in the builder, but that we don’t blame him (sales guy). He kept trying to convince me that things would be different now and that we should meet with the construction supervisor. I finally gave the phone over to Dale (forced it upon him, really) because I didn’t know what to say anymore.

Dale ran through the same spiel and got the same one back. Eventually, he agreed to meet with the construction boss tomorrow (noon) but that the sales guy should keep treating the situation as if we are going to cancel our contract. I can’t go to that meeting as I’ve got a doctor’s appointment, but I’m sure Dale will contact me before making any decisions.

Damn, I want to go vacuum!