A few months back, I blogged about us getting a new roof this year. In keeping with the 2006 theme of major home repairs, we’re also getting our siding redone. The people who owned our house before us seemed to alternate between fancying themselves home improvement experts (with less than stellar results, I might add) or just plain didn’t keep up with the upkeep. Our house has western red cedar siding, and the stain and sealant hasn’t been done in who knows when. So in order that it all doesn’t finally just give up and fall off the house this winter, leaving our house naked and shivering in the middle of January, we’re forking out some more dough to have it fixed. A couple of weeks ago, I had three different companies come and do estimates. I almost had a stroke when I looked at the first one, but I thought stroking out in front of the guy while standing on my front porch would be a little rude. Thank goodness the next two bids, while not cheap, came in at less than half what the first guy wanted. Either he was smoking crack or we were going to get a gold-plated house. The other two bids were about a $100 different, and we actually went with the higher of the two because I thought the guy spent more time checking out the house and presented us with a more thorough bid.
The work began today with the carpenter coming to replace some of the window frames. After he’s finished with those and replacing some of the deteriorated siding boards in a couple of days, the siding guys will pressure wash the house and garage. Then comes the caulking and finally the new stain and sealant. I can’t wait to see what it looks like when everything is finished. I’ll post before, during and after photos when the work is completed.
~~
Today is the first day since I began this new book on Oct. 21 that I didn’t write anything on it. Instead, I spent 2.5 hours working in the yard with hubby, finishing up some freelance writing work and sending it in, did the grocery shopping for next week so I don’t have to leave while the siding guys are here, and watched my latest Felicity disc that came from Netflix today. Now that all that is out of the way, I plan to have a very good writing day tomorrow. I hope I can hit Page 200 before the end of the day. I’m hoping the brain break today is good for productivity.
***
Whedonverse Quote of the Day:
Cordelia: “So, are you still…(baring her teeth and making claws) ‘GRRR’?”
Angel: “Yeah, there’s not actually a cure for that.”
Angel
October 1st, 2006 at 12:21 pm
Wow Trish! Good luck with all the home stuff! As old as our house is - I t hink we’ve about decided tearing it down and building new would be better - that’s about what we’d have to do anyway. Might as well do it all at once. Maybe someday. Not that I’m looking forward to the mess.
October 1st, 2006 at 3:52 pm
I know that feeling, Tammy. While I like the cedar siding, I told the hubby the next time we buy a house, we’re going brick.