You've Heard of Angie's List... This is Traci's List of The Worst HVAC Contractors in Austin

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I love my house, I love my house, I love my house...I have to keep telling myself that because recently I haven't liked my house very much. We've had ongoing drama with HVAC issues, no heat, a short evacuation due to safety concerns and more than our share of inept HVAC contractors. Oh and not to be forgotten frozen pipes once we finally got heat back.

Angie's List is a database of contractors with high approval ratings from customers, great track records and successful jobs. Traci's List is the exact opposite. With the exception of Bluebonnet HVAC, this list reads like a Who's Who of the Worst contractors in Austin.

Let's see if I can summarize quickly:
So for a few weeks we've had colder weather. That doesn't generally hit Austin to any real degree until the middle of December. From the moment we switched our energy-efficient programmable thermostats to heat it was Game On. We would sit downstairs bundled up (ok just me) in a snuggie, while upstairs would quickly reach sauna levels. I'm talk 83 or 84 degrees upstairs and 67 downstairs. We have a warranty company who takes our money, sends crappy contractors and doesn't believe a word we say so we hesitated to throw more service call fees their way until it truly got unbearable. Then I placed my call to Allied Home Warranty and the games began. I'm not sure what their screening process is for contractors but it needs to be re-evaluated. I won't even get into the 6 visits in two months we had back in the summer on this post but suffice it to say they would send one group out to install something and another to fix the problems that one caused, over and over and over. But back to our current dilemna...it all started when the temperatures dropped, a pregnant wife put her foot down and refused to be cold anymore, and we began to fight over the one and only snuggie in the house.

12/29/09: All Texas Air Conditioning's first visit. They spent over an hour trying to find the issue, determined nothing was wrong and bailed when it started to rain hard since he needed to get his company truck out of the dangerous weather. Not sure if he's from the desert but rain isn't generally considered worth hazard pay here in central Texas. Funny enough I continued to have a 15 degree temperature difference between upstairs and down, a weird clicking in my furnace and needed my snuggie at all times downstairs.

12/31/09: All Texas Air Conditioning---where do I even start. The contractor arrived with his son and grandson in tow. I'm not sure if either one is in the business (especially since the grandson was all of 10), but since they spent several hours here and all they managed to do is replace a thermostat that was working fine, break a suction valve on my outdoor unit while replacing 2 lbs of freon, get stuck in my attic for 1/2 an hour (still not sure how that happened but he was starting to sound panicky), and then left telling me everything was fine, I'm just going to chalk them up to incompetence and recommend that you NEVER call them!

1/2/10: We have roaring heat upstairs, no heat downstairs and our HVAC is literally running 24/7 shutting off every 10 mins for about 30 seconds. So I call our not so beloved warranty company again. They tell me to call Texas Heating and Air. I do but get a "there's nothing more we can do for you, everything works fine" response. They call the warranty company and ask that I (probably as a troublesome client making crap up) get assigned to a different contractor. The warranty company sets me up with Dave's Heating and Air. I call them to confirm they can come out, but upon mentioning my warranty company, am told that my warranty company sucks, they don't pay their bills and Dave's Heating and Air really doesn't like to deal with them. But since I'm in a pickle they connect me to Dave himself, who reassures me he'll have a guy who's very familiar with my type of systems out first thing Monday. Monday arrives but no contractor and when I call to verify what time they'll be here I'm told that they no longer work with my warranty company. GREAT! Based on that unprofessional bit alone, I'm no longer recommending Dave's Heating and Air, even if I can sympathize with the fact that Allied Home Warranty sucks.  Back to the warranty company, who is surprised when I inform them that they've been fired by a contractor and finally by fate, luck of the draw or God watching over my shivering self, they set me up with a decent contractor - Bluebonnet, who is onsite within a few hours.

1/4/10: Bluebonnet HVAC discovers several disturbing things. One-a suction valve on the outdoor unit has been tightened so far it busted allowing all the freon in my entire system, along with a good bit of oil, to leak out. Hmmm that must be the same valve son or grandson tightened when adding my 2 lbs of freon. (No wonder my heat pump wasn't working at all). Then when I called him inside to check out the click click click we kept hearing for the last month, he spent all of 10 minutes upstairs before coming down and telling me the furnace circuit board is bad and the safety cut off for the gas is not working. He had to shut the entire system down since gas blowing but not igniting is a MAJOR safety concern.  Can you imagine how happy I was that my family was sleeping in a house that could have concievably blown up anytime in the last few weeks.  Nope mama was not happy at all!  Best yet, during Austin's first freak freezing cold 12 degree spell in years, we're not going to have any heat. Better prepare to invade the in-laws again.

1/7/10: Bluebonnet HVAC puts my original downstairs thermostat back on the wall since the new thermostat ( installed in October by an inept, rude, cursing, blame the client for everything contractor -- Southern Comfort H.V.A.C. Inc --another who makes Traci's Worst List but is recommended by Allied Home Warranty) was continually calling for the Heater to come on. They replaced the suction valve on my outdoor unit which, for those of us who steer clear of HVAC training and education, apparently keeps all your freon from leaking out causing your unit to not work. We lost 10 lbs of freon after the former inept contractor added 2 lbs and then tightened the valve to the point it busted and fell apart...and then they just left it.  Seriously thank goodness for Bluebonnet. Jeremy Cook knew what he was doing, was responsive and didn't ever bail in the middle of a job due to the big bad rain storm or a tricky problem. And finally after weeks of wondering if it would be easier to sell our home and move into an apartment...we have decent, normal, safe heat!

• Bluebonnet HVAC: THUMBS UP!!! You can't go wrong with these guys!

• Austin Air Rescue:  Undecided. They seemed good and identified the problem but then refused to fix it since an incompetent contractor had messed it up. Allied ended up sending in Bluebonnet to save the day. (anyone seeing a pattern here...)

• All Texas Air Conditioning: THUMBS DOWN!!!  DO NOT CALL.
• Southern Comfort H.V.A.C. Inc: THUMBS DOWN...ridiculous, even cursed me, called me a liar, slammed my door and lied to the warranty company...too bad I take a crap load of pictures and had proof they were wrong. Not to mention they made three visits here and fixed nothing, broke a fan motor, fried a defrost board and eventually Allied Home Warranty sent in Bluebonnet (yep same Bluebonnet) to fix things.
  
• Dave's Heating and Air: THUMBS DOWN...these guys are good, but they make my do not call list do to the unprofessional approach of dropping a client in need after promising service. That's just bad business in my book.
  

Ok that was no where near as short as I intended but it was seriously two weeks in chaos and that's kind of hard to summarize....LOL.  

Twitterholics, Facebook Fiends and Social Media Mavens

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Ok I admit it, I'm a social media fiend. I love twitter, facebook, linkedin, and blogging, and all together these types of applications are known as Web 2.0.  There are so many great applications out right now that can make keeping in touch, or promoting your business so much easier. I've mentioned this guide to several of my friends and wanted to share it here for anyone looking for a great getting started guide for Twitter and business.

How to use Twitter for Business Guide by HubSpot

I'm working on several presentations for work and Web 2.0 and how to use social media for business is playing an integral part in each one. The age group with the biggest number of uses on facebook is 25-45.  Financial gurus who know are forcasting that Twitter's stock is fixing to go through the roof and the number of uses to quadruple. 

So if you are looking to dive into this new era of marketing and advertising I highly recommend checking out the guide above, trainings on Hubspot, and other free trainings like Googles Marketing Professional designation. These are resources that take nothing but your time and will drastically broaden your horizons on communicating with a wider audience.

Enjoy and Happy Friday!

Gluten Free Goodness

Going gluten free had a lot of positive health benefits for our family, but man does it make shopping, cooking, and snacking a whole lot tougher. A few weeks ago I got an email from a great company called GoPicnic asking if I would be interested in reviewing some of their specialty snack boxes. They have vegetarian, kosher, and best of all GLUTEN FREE (GF) boxes full of great tasting treats. I immediately shot off a response offering to taste test anything they could send that was GF. Eric is also avoiding corn, but even then, 4 out of the 5 boxes they sent me were perfect for a quick after work snack, travel food, or best of all since he flies all the time, food to eat at the airport.

If you are looking to try these meals out I HIGHLY recommend the family pack of gluten free snack packs. Here are a few of my favorites. My son, husband and myself all took samples and tasted items in the boxes. We all loved the cookies, the trail mixes, and the beef jerky. My three year old didn’t care for the sunflower crunch, but I loved it. None of us liked the cheese in the boxes, but we’re all a bit spoiled with nice, fresh deli cheese. Outside of the cheese we devoured the boxes.

But you don’t have to take my word for it. The great people at GoPicnic have teamed up with us to give one lucky reader a sample pack.

Read how to enter below and spread the word about this great gluten free giveaway!

Contest Rules: VISIT www.gopicnic.com, and then come back and tell me how you could use some of their boxes! Camp, back to school, travel, how could these meals make gluten free, or dealing with allergies, more convenient for you.

EXTRA ENTRIES:
To receive these extra opportunities for entries, you must fulfill the first REQUIRED entry. But for extra entries, you can:
* Tell your own story about how going gluten free has turned your life upside down.
* Tweet the contest with the following text “Traveling the Tightrope Gluten Free Giveaway—GoPicnic Makes Gluten Free Life Convenient: http://su.pr/42dSBp”. Leave the Twitterlink in your comment.
* Blog about the contest - add a link to Traveling the Tightrope and the Sponsor GoPicnic
* Add Traveling the Tightrope widget (on the right under the blogroll) to your site OR add Traveling the Tightrope to your blog roll.
*Become a Traveling the Tightrope follower.


One person will be randomly chosen when the contest ends on Friday, 21st at midnight CST. I will contact the winner directly through email or the blog link that you leave when commenting.

Sorry Jessica Simpson, I should have listened to you

I never thought I would say this, but I should have listened to Jessica Simpson. From the time I was fresh out of college and living in Dallas, Jessica Simpson has been seen at all hours of the day and night promoting Proactive. I'm not a huge fan of star studded infomercials, and will actually watch far more of one if it has "the common man" I can identify with, but here I am 6 years later saying my official apologies!

A PR company contacted me and offered me a trial version of Proactive in exchange for blogging about what I thought. Sounds good to me, I thought! I'll try it out, and it surely can't be any worse than the really bad skin I was having at the time. Actually it was a great move on my part! Within a few days I could see a visible difference. My skin really did get much clearer, much smoother and my pores shrunk. Most of all I didn't see the crazy out of no where breakouts I was seeing before that. Of course I slipped and forgot to use it for a few days and IMMEDIATELY saw a resurgence of my evil acne, but the good news is that getting back on the bandwagon, got me back to my results. If you're looking for a good solution for yourself, a daughter, or a friend, this really did work for me, and I have generally tried everything in the book.

I was originally put off by the $20 price tag to try something unknown, but now having seen the results, and knowing I'm not going to be spending far more than that a month on cleanser, toner, moisturizer, cover-up, and still be frustrated, I will be much more likely to continue ordering.

My only issue at all is that I hate putting anything that's not all natural on my face. But having said that, Proactive got results when the all natural items I tried didn't, so I guess in this case the proof is in the pudding. I'm sure that my search for an all natural solution won't stop here, but until I find it, I'm quite happy with not having to wear makeup these days!

Thank you Proactive for giving me the chance to try this out!

Recessionista

I've been MIA this week while we've dealt with a crazy sequence of events. In the last week my sister's car has been hit twice, once by a drunk driver (thankfully it was parked and no one was injured), a scorpion discovered underneath it when it got towed away (my husband finds it hilarious that I add this to my crazy events of the week, but come on it could have stung me), my son came down with hand, foot and mouth disease, I had surgery, and our house was overrun by nastly little black bugs that I'm constantly waging war on by Windexing the crap out of them. Needless to say, although I could have definitely used an outlet for this crazy week I could never quite find time to post. So I'll skip the week and pick up with a thought I had yesterday! :)

I've grown a bit addicted to twitter lately and yesterday it was all abuzz with the growing wave of Recessionistas. Women who are turning to age old ways to save money in tough economic times are now being known by this fashionable moniker. I've never been a coupon clipper but even I have begun to wonder how much I could save by spending my time skimming the Sunday paper each week. My two year old is a big boy and eats a lot of food! Yesterday he polished off 4 slices of pizza and asked for more :), so our grocery bill is constantly rising. Even with the best of intentions though I rarely find the time, or should I say make the time, to sit down, clip coupons and still remember to take them to the store. Although I'm sure that works for a lot of people it just doesn't quite fit with our busy lifestyle, so I was super surprised and happy when my mom let me in on this little trick!

Walmart will honor all competitors ads. No coupons necessary! I just need to take the flyers with me to the store and they will honor the lower prices. My mom spotted a few Red Hatters working this brilliant money saving technique and they told her that although it's not advertised Walmart has done this for years. I tried it recently at my local Wally World and was happily surprised.

In a time when we are all looking for ways to save I'm always happy to find an easier way to do it!

ETA: Not sure if anyone's seen this, but GRRR, not happy at the lack of foresight from some people! http://finance.yahoo.com/news/INSIDE-WASHINGTON-Rude-apf-15091434.html?.v=1 If you're enjoying that extra few dollars in each paycheck courtesy of the 2009 stimulus, be sure to check this out and make sure it won't bite you next year.

No Pudge Fudge and other faves

So my sister came to town for the weekend (she makes more waiting tables here in Austin than in her college town) and chaos ensued. Late Saturday night as we were heading off to bed screeching tires and slamming brakes made sure it was going to be another late night. Turns out a freaking drunk driver hit my sisters parked car and bounced into my neighbors driveway, barely missing his garage. There were cops, firefighters, lots of paperwork and in the midst of it the rain started coming down.

So what's a girl gonna do in that kind of stress...definitely time to turn to chocolate! So I introduced my sister to No Pudge Fudge Brownies :). If you have never tried them I highly recommend them. There is a flavor for everyone and the brilliant creator even added a single serving recipe that keeps me from eating the whole pan! All you need is the mix and lowfat vanilla yogurt. The yummy fudgey, one minute microwave goodness made the chaos all better until...

We woke up Sunday morning and Alex had Hand Foot and Mouth Disease. BOOO! No dull moments around here!

New Sites to Check Out

I love anything new. Especially things that are designed to make my life easier and/or more organized. Forget the fact that these things typically end up taking me a while to figure out, cause my schedule to be thrown out the door and de-rail my previously organized day. All that aside I really enjoy finding these tools and tricks to making life easier.

A few really neat websites have crossed my desk lately and I wanted to share them. First is Lazy Moms. This site is true to my heart and focuses on tips and tricks to get the daily grind of chores, cooking, cleaning, etc out of the way so you can have more time for the stuff you enjoy. I popped over to check out today's Ten Minute Tip and it was all about taking time to pamper yourself. Who doesn't want a reason to take a bubble bath and relax because the shortcuts they suggest give you the time to do it!

Another cool find this week was Good Food Near You. This site has a search feature to locate fast food and family style restaurants near you and it automatically suggests the best food choice at each one. I was fairly impressed, reading along, and then had to laugh at loud that the food suggestion for Mr. Gatti's in my zip code suggested that my best choice was to stick to mushrooms. Followed closely by tomatoes, celery and cucumbers. Obviously it requires some reading between the lines but overall the site and the application for blackberry seem to be quite useful. If nothing else it will make it easy to get a healthy choice (darn in :)) if my car happens to lead me into a fast food restaurant.

Check these out and let me know what you think! Leave a comment with any other sites that make your life easier or more organized!

Telecommuting Tuesdays

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Boy is the world buzzing right now with a fascinating new way to save your company some money! The articles, posts and emails I've gotten lately touting telecommuting would make you think someone came up with this genius idea yesterday!

Business Week ran a nifty story that I enjoyed enough to forward to some co-workers (maybe I can subvert the entire office into working from home. Then I'll be the resident expert! WOOHOO.) Shortly after that crossed my desk I got some very interesting statistics about telecommuting.

The guys over at Undress for Success reported
• In response to high gas prices, almost one in four employers are planning to offer a telecommuting option for their employees within the next six months (8/08) and 42% already have. (Mercer’s 2008 Gas Price Impact SnapShot™ Survey)

I'm definitely seeing an increase in those telecommuting. My mother in law now works from home, my husband's field offers a lot of home based telecommuting opportunities, and a few of my co-workers are quietly edging their way out the office door. Although some employers still have a fear of Facebook stalking, slacker employees, most will find that losing the commute allows those of us logging in from home to accomplish far more from the couch than we ever did in the cube. And thanks to instant messaging services like Skype I can stay in touch with colleagues without the commute.

While I'm rambling about Skype let me just say that my husband travels for work and boy do I LOVE Skype for the weeks when he is gone. Our toddler can get a chance to see him, and even though he's hundreds of miles away, the video option (FREE, the whole darn service is FREE) means that he's always here for evening prayers.

Whether you already telecommute or are just trying to figure out how to get a little more flexibility in your day embrace the free services that are everywhere on the web for those of us logging in from home. Some of my absolute faves are:

• Skype
• Fax Zero
• Free Conference Calls
• Google for everything from forms, spreadsheets, tracking websites
• Free PDF Hosting
• Fake Phone Calls (has nothing to do with the business world but is freaking hilarious!)

Victory is Mine...It's a Great Morning Victory is Mine!

Any West Wing fans out there?

I've been trying for weeks to manage some decent, edible gluten free baking. My husband is one of those strange people who have endless willpower to give stuff up if he needs to (drives me batty!) and I feel bad when he eats the same thing day in and day out for breakfast. This is the third round of biscuits that I have tried and boy do I have to give a shout out to eat at joe's.

They were great biscuits, made up quick and the whole family gobbled them down. I was virtuous and only had one along with my protein shake the voodoo doctors are recommending.

I'm not sure I've mentioned my Voodoo doctors here. I have been struggling to lose weight ever since I was put on steroids a few years ago. Nothing seems to work and I have tried everything from Weight Watchers to South Beach. Atkins didn't go over well since I don't really like cheese that much, and Low GI foods work until the sweet cravings hit. My well respected nutritionists advice was to eat less and less until I was trying to figure out how to manage a workout routine on 1400 calories a day. Fast forward a few months and a friend recommends that I get my base metabolic rate tested to see how many calories I'm burning on an average day. Turns out that magic number is 1730 calories so eating anything less than that and I should be able to lay in bed all day and lose weight...and that's so not happening! I got my metabolism tested at an alternative pharmacy and the lady who tested it for me is a naturopath who for a measly $20 per visit can work with people to develop natural remedies to their problems (and that's right up my ally!).

I came home from a 2 hour consultation, several tests and some great recommendations to tell dear old hubby all about it. I could see the smirk before I even got to the cool test where I put my hand on a silver shaped disc and it analyzed my skin to see what I was nutritionally deficient in. Throw in there that they want me to drink special oxygenated water and I realized I had some convincing to do. It was about that point that he began calling them my Voodoo doctors and like all bad nick names it stuck like Elmer's glue.

On a randomly related note, if you like to read and like funny, witty, somewhat snarky books I'm currently laughing my tail off at Jen Lancaster's Such a Pretty Fat. :)

Fabulous Finds for Summer Entertaining

Do you love to entertain? I sure do! :)

1. This week Garden Ridge has 10x10 pop up canopies for $49. I snagged a great white one just in time for a Memorial day BBQ.

2. Sam's Club has great deals on gorgeous glass urns that hold 3 gallons of liquid and has a nifty dispenser at the bottom.

3. Target is now carrying pre-seasoned skewers for healthy kabobs. If you are shooting for healthy choices at your BBQ, these skewers could be for you.

I'll keep updating this as we're out and about and find new ideas, but feel free to post your own as well.