You may recall that some time ago I wrote about the importance of monitoring your sites for downtime.  At that time, I mentioned that www.montastic.com looked like a good option.

Well, I’m pleased to say that montastic.com works fabulously!  

Perhaps you recently visited this site and noticed that it was down.  I didn’t know about it until I received an e-mail from montastic.com.  I had registered just two sites with them, but I received an e-mail on the other site, too.  (Seems something happened to my .htaccess files and killed all my sites.)

So, I highly recommend you register all your sites with them asap.

Rochelle

It has now been two months since I wrote anything not related to my flood.  I never intended to turn this blog into a flood update site, but it worked well since it was the only form of communication I had following the flood.  I used it to keep readers up to speed, but also for my family and friends to know that we were ok and what we may have been doing on any given week.

Using this blog for flood updates served its purpose but I am now returning the focus of this site back to niche stores.  I may post the occassional update or video relating to the flood, but it will no longer be the sole focus of this blog.

Phew!  Glad I’m back to business.  Well, sort of.

I haven’t touched my niche stores in two months.  I’m very antsy to get back to them, but I’m also finding that being away has made it that much harder to get back into the habit of working on my sites.  When I’m away from my computer I think of all the things I could do.  But now that I’m sitting down to my computer (my wonderful new Mac) I seem to have writer’s block.

So, has this happened to any of you?  If so, what have you done to overcome it?

Rochelle

Last night I realized it has been almost two months since I did anything related to my niche stores.  Almost three weeks ago I thought I was ready to get back to it, but then found out there was a LOT more work for me to do at my house.  I have spent almost every day of the last three weeks working my butt off getting it cleaned.  I had no idea how dirty a house is behind the drywall…

I do look forward to bringing this blog back to its purpose: focusing on niche store strategies.  Within the next few weeks I expect to be able to do that.  For now, I fear I still have work that needs to be done.

Fortunately, I am just about finished working with the insurance company.  We got the estimates last night of what they will pay us to repair/replace damaged property.  My husband has been expecting them to screw us over, while I’ve been willing to see what they do before I go looking for an attorney.  I’m happy to say that they have treated us extremely fairly.  The one issue I was ready to dig my heels in over was the floor tiles, but I handled it well (instead of telling them they HAD to pay to replace them) and they are now going to replace them.  (For those who care, our tiles had fabric under it, which is apparently an upgrade feature, that wicked water under the tiles and kept it there - I was able to prove that there was water there, which could become a mold problem, and the insurance company agreed to replace the tiles.)

Right now, I need to finish spraying the house, which currently has no drywall up yet, to kill any mold or yucky things.  I should finish that today.  Then we will have the air quality tested to make sure there is no mold.  Once we get a passing test we will be able to put the drywall back up, install new cabinets, carpet, and tile, and paint.  Not necessarily in that order.

Since our house is torn up we decided to do some remodeling.  We are removing a wall between our kitchen and dining room, making it much more open and inviting.  We are also going to add a LOT more cabinets in the kitchen, which was previously hurting for storage.  I’m really excited about how this will turn out.

In addition to the above, I also fired the contractor I had initially hired to do the drywall work.  Three weeks ago I visited the house and found a beer can left in there.  No one but the contractors had been there, which told me they were drinking on the job.  That doesn’t fly with me.

When I spoke to the contractor and told him I was no longer using him, he pretty much didn’t believe me.  I asked for him to give me a final bill for the work his people had done.  His bill came to $2,100.00, which was ridiculously high.  In addition to overcharging me for work that was done, it charged me for work that was not yet done (he wanted me to pay for drywall being put up, which was not done).  I said I was willing to pay $350, not $2,100 (which included materials that I wanted him to remove, instead of me paying for and keeping).  I’m happy to say he accepted this.

So, to all who may have to deal with contractors for whatever reason, don’t think you have to accept their bills at face value.  Question things that deserve to be questioned.  If you are unsure if a fee is fair, talk to another contractor, which is what I did, to learn what the fair value really is.

That’s all for now.  I look forward to getting back to my niche stores, as they have been badly neglected lately.

Rochelle

It’s official.  I’m now a Mac person.  One of the things that fell victim to Tropical Storm Fay was my custom Velocity Micro computer.  This week I replaced it with a Mac Pro.  There were a few things that convinced me to change (aside from a friend who is a Mac convert and will never look back to Windows):  The fact that I can still install and run Windows and Windows apps, and the simplicity of a Mac system.

Woo hoo!  I’m loving my new Mac!  Switching to a Mac is something like heresy in my family, as I come from a long line of IBMers.  So far, though, there is no comparison.

So, I’m spending a few minutes this morning installing Windows programs onto the Mac so I can continue using the software that can’t be installed on the Mac.

Any advice from you Mac users to this new convert?

Rochelle