Thursday, December 18, 2008

Lilac festival changes

One of Rochester's big events is the Lilac Festival, which happens in mid-May every year. It has a parade, lots of craft booths, yummy fair food, live music, and cheesy little kid rides. Of course the highlight were all of the deliciously smelling lilac bushes - I think they had 50+ varieties that grow in the park. Last week I even bought a room spray in lilac because it reminds me of the festival.

Bryan and I have made it to 3 Lilac Festivals in a row. I thought it would be fun to show how we have changed.

2006 - Bryan's first trip to Rochester, a mere 3 months after we started dating. I was going out for the inspection on my house, and he decided to tag along and come see the city. In hindsight, we clearly both knew at that point we'd end up getting married. We went, prepared for cold, and they had record highs in the 70's that weekend. Bryan is going to kill me for this picture, since he's +20lbs or so here.

From Lilac festival 2007



2007 - Our second year together, and he has lived in Rochester for only a couple of weeks at this point, newly in nursing school. We took Lani and Cassie, and Lani took this picture (hence the morbidly obese guy in the background - what else can you expect from a 6-year-old?). Again, it was remarkably sunny and warm.
From Lilac festival 2007


2008 - We returned from our honeymoon just in time for the last day of the festival and to see Ingrid Michelson. We had come from 80-90 degrees and sunny, to 40 degrees and rainy in Rochester, so we weren't too happy. We faked a smile for this picture though :) One week later we left Rochester for good. I just won a grant in Rochester, so maybe I'll have to make one of my 3-4 annual visits in mid-May this coming year.
From Lilac festival 2008

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

More funnies

Bryan sometimes says to me sarcastically, "I bet you're going to put that thing I just said on your blog now." I think he secretly enjoys it. The one this morning was too good not to post.

Me (staring at the empty plate of brown crumbs on the table): Is a cupcake all you had for breakfast?

B: No. I had two cupcakes.

Monday, December 08, 2008

How the orthodontist ended up (and BB management is awful)

Many months ago I ranted about my orthodontist in these 2 posts. Someone recently commented that I never gave the ending of the story. Shame on me, because it is a good one!

For those of you who missed the story and didn't click on the link, I waited a very long time at 2 appointments while I had braces, and I was getting them off 6-12 months earlier than they had predicted. I called them wondering if there might be a discount. I know you pay for straight teeth, but my treatment was significantly shorter than they had estimated.

While I was down in Florida for the wedding, I got a call the day before while I was on my way to get my wedding dress pressed. It was the bookkeeper at the orthodontist's office, and she told me she talked to Dr. Kaufman about my case. He decided to WIPE OUT THE REST OF WHAT I OWED. I asked her to say it again, since I didn't believe it! It turned out to be be about $1,900 that I didn't have to pay. Awesome!
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On a completely different topic, I have to make it known how much BB Management is an awful company. We decided to move closer into the city once our apartment lease was up. I happened upon condo conversions that weren't selling, so they were renting them. I was wowed by the granite counters, SS appliances, pergo floors, and new carpet. The owner who did the flipping had left some things undone and the units have been vacant for awhile, but we were assured that all would be fixed when we moved in. BB Management doesn't do walk-throughs with new owners (we should have said no then), but they told us all was fine. Here is what we found when we moved in:
- the place was filthy
- there was a HOLE in the OUTSIDE wall where there was supposed to be a built-in A/C
- 2 of 3 drains didn't drain
- the hot water on the kitchen faucet and the cold in the tub didn't work
- we weren't given a key to the deadbolt, a key to the mailbox, or the garage door opener
- the heat doesn't work in the master bedroom
- the linen closet shelves are missing
- 2 pieces of granite backsplash in the kitchen aren't attached at all
- the fan cover in the bathroom is missing
- grout was missing in the bathroom floor
- the electrical outlets were missing the covers in the living room and bedroom
- and more that I'm forgetting

The management company basically told us that we were overreacting and that all of this was "just cosmetic." They claimed it wasn't their fault, it was the owner at fault. I'm confused, since on their website it says "we make sure everything is ready BEFORE you move in." It was also now our job to schedule all of the repair guys and let them in since we are the tenants. Um, yeah. We couldn't live in the place because we couldn't heat it due to the HOLE IN THE WALL. We said we wanted out of the lease, and they threatened to sue us for the entire length of the lease. We spoke to an attorney who said we could win in court, but unfortuantely we don't have the time to do all of that. The time off of work would have cost us too much.

We were able to move in 4 days late, with most things fixed (still no bedroom heat). I met the neighbor when we moved in, and she said she had the same AND MORE issues with BB Management. Same with the downstairs neighbor. Had we known this info, we for sure would have sued them. It is clear the management company is knowingly negligent and they know the condition of these condos. They were flipped quickly and the owner ran out of money, so he cut corners wherever he could.

My one consolation in this is that my sister was using BB Management as the marketing company for her place. I didn't know this, nor did she know I was working with them. She figured it out when I told her about the whole situation. She has now canceled her contract with them, and she said they weren't doing anything to market her property. Looks like their crappy service has already cost them one client.

We are in the new place now, and the up side is the location. We're locked in for a year, and we're hoping that things calm down now with BB since we are in (the neighbor said she almost lost her mind when they moved in, but 2 months later it is much smoother). Wish us luck!