I have set my laptop up on the island in the middle of the kitchen whilst installation men run through the house installing things. In order of appearance, we have:

  • Roland, from Eagle Sentry, to install the security system – pet-immune motion sensors and window and door contacts, two keypads (one at garage entry and one at front door);
  • Eddie and Jesse, from Eagle Sentry, to perform wall fish operations at six locations, installing 4 cat5 lines into every room except the bathrooms and living room, and installing a wiring closet into our hall cupboard, with a coaxial cable link for broadband internet access.
  • Shirley, from Costco, to measure up our bare windows for a quote for later installation of 2″ wood blinds (it turned out that she didn’t do measuring; another guy would have to come and do this);
  • Unnamed Guy, from Greystone Homes, to install the tub enclosure that they forgot from our options list;
  • Jeff, from Toucan Landscaping, to look at our section of desert mud and block wall, to discuss possible ways of enhancing our back yard experience;

And, not here yet but expected:

  • John, from Bulwark Pest Control, to squirt some organic spider/scorpion deterrent into our walls and surroundings.

So far, it looks like we’re spending the entire day here.

Roland has just shown us how to use the new security system. It’s pretty cool, it even monitors the point where our phone lines come into our house to prevent line tampering. We’re going to have to set up a “bypass” on that zone while we are way to allow the Sprint people to connect our additional three lines.

On the way out we were just testing our new security system in preparation for leaving when the phone rang. It was the guy that Shirley had asked to measure our windows. Since we really, really, wanted to get this done before we left for a week, we arranged to meet him at the house the next morning, early, before our flight back to San Francisco.

The guy’s name turns out to be John Steadman, and he is a really nice guy who briskly and methodically measures up the windows, chatting to us as he does so. Apparently, after the blinds are manufactured, he will be installing them for us, and we’re looking forward to that.

The flight back to SF was uneventful, as a flight only can be when you don’t have a cat under the seat in front of you. I did manage to spill my drink in my lap though. Doh!