Missing Wachovia

My family has been a part of Wachovia in some way for nearly my whole life.   It was First Union that enabled us a way, in 1986, to move back to the east coast from Southern California.  My dad took a job there in the video department (I’m sure that’s not the technical name, but that is what I have always understood it to be) in the spring of ‘86 and we made our way back home to Charlotte.  I remember coming down to the studios, and I think I was even allowed to film some kind of school project in their facilities.   I remember the faces, who were always so friendly and cheerful when we came to visit, and great co-workers for my dad.  When I went to the bank branches around town with mom, I remember the green lollipops that I would get with white First Union writing.  I remember the night my dad got the call informing him of the coming merger with Wachovia.  My dad had moved on from the bank at that point – sort of – he had started his own audio visual business with the bank as his major customer.  It took a bit to get used to the merger and accept the new name, but the basic good business remained.  I worked with my dad at a couple of Wachovia events over the years, and got to know some of the events people and meeting planners.  It is hard to think of them now as the future is uncertain.  I remember when we got married, Evan had an account with SunTrust, and I had him join my account at Wachovia instead of vice versa, because of course I couldn’t bank anywhere else.  When we moved to Knoxville, there wasn’t a Wachovia in town, which took me completely by surprise.  We had to open a new account at a new bank, and I was really looking forward to the day that I could go back to banking at Wachovia.  Now I am not sure how that will happen.  I remember telling a women that I met recently that works at First Citizen’s Bank that I was from Charlotte, to which she said, “Oh I bet you’re one of those Charlotte-banks-at-Wachovia people.”  And I am proud of it, even today.

Slate is down.

After a weekend’s worth of work and a late night round of scrubbing and sealing, our kitchen floor is finished and the appliances are back in place. It wasn’t a bad process, it just takes a long time because you have to wait in between steps. Putting down slate was definitely harder than regular ceramic tile. I had a few pieces shatter just as soon as I took them out of the box, and it has a lot of cracks and bumps in it that made it hard to get up all the grout. But overall we’re pleased with the results. Thanks everyone for the encouragement as we work through this!

Here’s the original flooring.

We pulled it all up, to reveal the black tar and sub floor underneath.

We put down adhesive and then the tiles.

And then a lot of grouting and sealing work later, ta da!

More Pics

We are planning on putting down slate tile in the kitchen. Here’s a shot of what it might look like… let us know if you like it or propose another option!!

Evan hard at work in the “office”

Old Hall:

New Hall:

Old Kitchen:

New Kitchen…in process:

Signs of Progress

Here is the kitchen with brown appliances:

We are putting in new ones and the first to come was the dishwasher.  We did our first load of dishes on Sunday night.  They came out very clean, and it only took two and a half hours.  Our new dishwasher is EnergyStar and we did not realize the EnergyStar cycle takes forever!  Ha ha.  Evan also put up our new microwave, and rigged up our new sink.  The sink won’t be in it’s final resting spot until our new countertops come, but it’s fully functional.