I want to write about Christmas at my new house. I wanted to post pictures of pretty garland, a gorgeous nativity scene and my life. Yet, for now I’m feeling compelled to write about something else. I’ve never put anything like this in writing so I don’t know if I will have the words to explain the magnitude or magnificence of it.

A HUGE miracle happened this month to me.

I called on the Holy Spirit because I was desperate. I have never called on the Holy Spirit before. I had forgotten that I received the Holy Spirit at Confirmation over 20 years ago. And I figured since I had the Holy Spirit that I could give the Holy Spirit away to someone who needed it…someone who didn’t have the Holy Spirit. And that night a miracle happened, even many doctors weren’t able to explain what had happened. But I knew what had happened that night and I will always be grateful.

I’m assuming that someone who is reading my blog must need a miracle because it is 4:25 am and I walked down from my bedroom to post this. If you are looking or praying for a miracle, go to the Holy Spirit.

*I couldn’t even explain how grateful we are for the miracle we experienced. But this is a time to be joyous :)

Topics: Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Companies Need to Embrace Social Media

This is my response to Mike Schaffner of Forbes on his blog post about The End of Social Media. Incidently, Mike Schaffner looks a lot like my Dad. Mike thought it would be fun to be the first to declare the end of social media. Yeah okay, Mike.

Well first, I would say that Twitter is alive and well as I clicked on a link that was tweeted to come to your blog!

I think I would have preferred if you pointed out the improvements each social media site has made and as a result attracted many companies. BestBuy customer service is top notch because Best Buy has several twitter accounts @Twelpforce and even the CEO of Best Buy, Brian Dunn tweets. I think Best Buy recognizes that people are social and they need to be heard. Best Buy has fantastic customer service and as result their sales are up.

I think it also would have helped for you to point out that Twitter has added “Lists” to help people organize their friends lists. This instantly eliminates spam instantly. Lists allows me to group “my experts.” At any given time, I can ask a question about serious topics like mortgages, home ownership and parenting or less serious topics like movies, cooking and wine AND I GET EXPERTS to talk with me and advise me.

I think I would have liked for you to address the need for companies to train their associates to handle customer complaints through social media. I had a huge fiasco happen with my Home Depot order which was never delivered. The Home Depot @HomeDepot twitter responses were positive. I was suppose to receive money from the manager at my store, as this tweet mentions: http://twitter.com/HomeDepot/status/6211064778

I never heard from the store manager and when I let them know, they acted as if they never spoke to me, even when I pointed to that tweet. So having a presence online maybe effective, but it really depends on how the employees are taught to give customer service.

I’m curious as to why Business Bloggers think they need to be first to calling the “end of social media sites” or the end of Web 2.0. We’re still at the beginning of Web 2.0 and I can’t think of an easier way for customers to let companies know their thoughts about their products and service.

Topics: Brooklyn | No Comments »

New Fence Install in the Snow

We bought Veranda Fencing because we loved the composite material and the way it looked. It’s natural color made it feel less obtrusive than a stark white colored fence. It was pretty easy to install with some friends and family to help.

Here’s Lee with screws in his mouth. I’d never attempt that.

The house you see in the picture belongs to our neighbors. It’s 2 stories (ours is three).

Don’t worry I helped. Really, I did.

The only downside to Veranda Fencing is that it is only sold at Home Depot as far as we can tell. And we had a terrible time with Home Depot not delivering the materials on the scheduled date so we had to put it up while it was bitter cold and snowing.

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Snowing in Brooklyn

It’s the first big snowstorm in Brooklyn. This morning, we got up early and put up our fence. It was just starting to flurry as we finished and I started to serve the stew.

As home owners this year, we had to shovel the walk, the driveaway and our stoop. I highly recommend taking out your grass seed spreader and placing your calcium chloride (better than salt since it doesn’t crack the sidewalk) in it to spread it. Easy and fun!

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Foreclosures in Brooklyn

Several people have written and asked me if I tried to locate a foreclosed home in Brooklyn. Of course! Everyone is looking for deals in Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Bensonhurst, Park Slope, Carroll Gardens & Downtown Brooklyn. Most of the foreclosed properties are from Carnasie or other run down type areas, rather than Bay Ridge, Prospect Heights or Park Slope. You can see 2008’s foreclosure statistics for Brooklyn here. There were only six homes in Bay Ridge that made it to the foreclosure stage.

Homes that are foreclosed are sold on the Court Steps (yes, outside the Brooklyn courthouse – even in the cold weather). I’ve gone and watched the procedure a few times. It’s creepy. Not only is it creepy because you would be buying someone else’s lost dream, but it’s creepy because there are about 10 – 15 different men working for contracting companies who are trying to cease a cheap property AND THEY ARE HEARTLESS.

In one situation, a young woman about 20 years old and her Mom were there. Their home came up and this young girl bid. The contractor’s representative bid against her and raised the price. Then he walked away. He just felt like bidding for the heck of it – he wasn’t even interested in the property. Then her father (who was divorced from the mother) bid because he lived on the third floor. And the girl fought back tears as she went back and forth bidding and her father raising the bid. At one point the father told the auctioneer that the girl and her Mom didn’t have the money and the auctioneer called the girl inside the courthouse to make sure she had the money to pay if she won the auction. The house went for under $500,000 but it was worth less than $400K.

The contractors and businessmen had legal size sheets of the foreclosure listings. You have to pay for them. We paid for them, but there are free sites online that list Brooklyn foreclosures like this one You are also able to go to the basement of the Brooklyn Court House and look up the information about the house if you like (we did).

Years ago, it was also common for bank’s websites to list bank owned properties – REOs. Yet, if you call banks today to ask about these properties, most will tell you that the banks don’t want to hold onto these so they foreclose as soon as possible.

Topics: Brooklyn | 2 Comments »

Apartments in Brooklyn

Many people have trouble finding an apartment to rent in Brooklyn. Some people are looking to share apartments in Brooklyn because the cost is high.

Everyone says, “Check Craigslist” but let’s get real – everyone checks there. Ok so here are alternatives to Craigslist:

• Try the Brooklynian Forum – there are so many apartments listed for Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Greenpoint and Williamsburg.
• Brooklyn Sublet lets you find places to sublease. This is great if you need to stay at a place for a short amount of time like 30, 60 or 90 days. Lots of places in Boerum Hill and Red Hood.
• Bay Ridge Community Website has apartments for rent in Bay Ridge
• For Rent – find apartments for rent in Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and Staten Island

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Seeing the blue skies of my life!

I live close to this bridge now – the view is always amazing here.

I am so thankful to God.

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To My Best Friend

This blog post is written to my best friend who explores my blog on her cell phone.

If you know me, you probably know Karen as she has been my sidekick since high school. During my sophmore of year, she moved to my block. I didn’t realize that she had moved to my block right away. She recants a story of watching me walk my dog on New Years Eve.  Being 15 was hard for me (as it is for many) and Karen was just what I needed to keep me laughing.

Initially, Karen scared me. She wasn’t girly at all and had a very tough exterior. It was the 80’s and her leather motorcycle jacket scared me. Hell, she scared most of our all girls Catholic high school! We initially started talking on the bus ride home and she surprised me when she told me that she moved across the street from me. Of course, Karen and I went to school together and came home together.

In the last ten years, Karen became part of my family. She’s everything that you would hope for in a friend. Although she doesn’t cook, she loves to wash dishes. Plus she knows some great take out places

So cheers to my best friend. I’m lucky to have you and I expect to be giggling through old age!

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Hope in Furniture

When we moved into this new house, we decided to start with new furniture. The former owners installed a brand new kitchen the year before and we no longer needed our charming curio cabinet.

The curio cabinet was from an unfinished wood store and came with plain handles. Lee painted it and put modern brushed metal handles on it. Now that in itself isn’t really a story because I forgot to mention that Lee painted the cabinet six times. I had a shade of hunter green on a decorative piece that I wanted to match. Lee kept bringing the piece out to the backyard to paint it and then brought it back up the stairs and into the house for my approval. After three tries, I told him it was fine. But he saw the look on my face and continued to try other shades of green. After the 4th and 5th try, I continued to tell him it was fine. But he kept going until he matched that shade.

When we decided to put the piece out to the curb for trash removal, we both quietly hoped someone would pick it up and placed it facing outward on the curb. We went inside to get the accompanying green pantry cabinet and a young couple were looking at it. When they saw us, they turned away, but I encouraged them to take my green beauty and told them how much they would love it. The woman beamed as Lee and her boyfriend/husband put the cabinet into their car. I could see her plans for her dishes in her eyes.

Last night, Lee brought home the desk he built for his office. I chose a Pottery Barn corner L table and he build one with a similar design for his desk (pics coming soon). It’s absolutely stunning and when I looked at him to tell him how beautiful it was, he smiled brightly and I could see so much hope in his eyes.It’s both situations, I felt someone’s hope for happiness through their new piece of furniture.

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Home Depot Poor Customer Service Brings this Store Down

We ordered fencing and sheds from Home Depot. The store set up delivery for 11/28/09. During the afternoon, we called the store because we hadn’t heard anything. The associate who answered the phone would not even check on our delivery/order because she said we needed to wait until 6pm for all deliveries to be delivered.

At 5:40 we called the store and after calling the store 4 times, we finally are given to management (associates who answered the phone would not give their name when asked either!) The manager said there wasn’t anything she could do and understood why we would be annoyed that we waited the whole day for a delivery that never came. We explained that we had family and friends waiting all day to install our fence and sheds. She removes the $75 delivery charge and rescheduled for the following Saturday 12/5/08. Losing a day waiting for a delivery is worth more than $75. Not having our family and friends around to help setup the fence is also now a problem.We complained to the Home Depot Care e-mail and to @HomeDepot. Michael told us that we would have delivery for us the following Saturday. DUHHH we already set it up. He then said we would be taken care of by the Home Depot Management.

I asked Michael for the Manager’s name and he didn’t give it to me. On 12/5/09, we were suppose to be delivered to first around 8:00 am. The manager calls early and says that we are second (20 minutes later). The Home Depot delivery men kept calling and saying that it was going to be later. They delivered at 11:53 am. It was snowing and raining at this point. We have an empty garage for them to place the materials. They dump it outside the garage. THAT’S JUST TERRIBLE SERVICE. Then they leave the wood that the materials sits on at my house as well. Every other place that delivers removes all materials from the area.

I complained to @HomeDepot online and they said they will look into it. No one there does anything to resolve our situation. We were promised a delivery on 11/28, when it fell through because of Home Depot’s employees, then Home Depot should have stepped up and taken care of us. We were promised we were going to see some kind of recuperation, but we received late and substandard delivery.

We ordered from Home Depot because the Big Max Rubbermaid house isn’t sold at Lowes. In a time when consumers have a choice, I would think stores and especially their corporate offices would be making sure that customer service was top notch. Home Depot should spend less money on commercials and more on training employees to record delivery dates and offer acceptable forms of customer service.I challenge Home Depot to call my local store and ask employees for their names. The fact that employees are not introducing themselves when they answer the phone shows that training has not been done properly at this store.

Topics: Brooklyn | 6 Comments »

Spotlight: Etsy Sellers: Snowmen Stained Glass!

I have been collecting stained glass for many years. My new home has a huge kitchen windows that overlook our yard. I decided to make that snowman central. I love snowmen and they always make me smile.

From the Glass Awakening Shop:

 From the Kalamazooartglass shop:

 From the Glass Menagerie Shop:

 I do not know these sellers and have not been paid or provided these items. I just know and like purchasing their art and thought I would share.

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Advent is Here – Quick Advent Calendars

A friend and I were talking at work about Advent. It’s now underway and here’s some quick ideas that I loved from around the web:

Print this charming Advent Calendar from ReNest

The Santa Advent Calendar that you make from a quick print out and you add a cotton ball to Santa’s beard each day.

 I like this envelope garland advent wreath by Quiet Fish. It’s charming.

 Aleta at Aleta’s Art has instructions to make an Advent calendar from a mini muffin tin:

Stephanie at the Somewhat Simple Blog has instructions to make an magnetic advent calendar from a mini muffin tin

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