07-21-21

 

Well, I had intended to post a blog entry every week (hopefully). Yeah. That worked out. Not.

In truth things have been insanely busy, and equally stressful. I have been trying to do some things around the house that have needed done for some time. Some worked out, some did not.

One of the “did not” projects was this @#$%^&^$#%^ area between the sidewalk and foundation by the back door. This little area has been a pain in my ass for years. 

 

When we get a heavy or prolonged rain (like we have had for most of the spring and early summer), this area fills up with water. I got the brilliant idea to fill it with concrete – and it was a mistake. With my experience (a big, fat zero) with doing something like this, it looks like it was done by a total amateur. It was. After spending a bit over $100.00 for concrete mix, and renting a mixer, then busting my ass all day, it seems this just makes things worse. So now, I must figure out how to get it out of there.

 Sigh…

I spent another fun day running up and down ladders to clean out the gutters that were full of crap from all these $%&^*$%^&&* trees right next to the house.

Words from experience: If you are looking at a house with lots of big, beautiful trees all around it….. Run, don’t walk… away from it as fast as you can!

 I will NEVER, EVER buy a house with this many trees this close again! I like trees as much as the next guy, but not within the distance of a Tom Brady touchdown pass from the house.

I’m also working hard on clearing out as much unneeded junk as possible. I took out my old telephone pole in the backyard a couple months ago, in anticipation of selling this place. 

 

It’s been cut up and added to a pile of other stuff. I have Junkluggers scheduled to come out and give me an estimate on hauling it off.

 

After much discussion (and a few leaks during all the rain mentioned earlier) we made the decision to go ahead and have the roof replaced. I’ve contracted with Lowes – for just under $8000.00 – and it will be done somewhere around the middle of August. I did not want to spend that much, but hopefully it will be worth it when it comes time to sell this place.

Speaking of which… I was looking at Zillow a couple days ago, and they estimated the value of the house (using photos, satellite imagery, and public records) at around 146K! It IS a seller’s market right now, with all the insanity from COVID, which is good for us as far as selling goes. But we need a place to move to, of course. It’s going to be an interesting year or two. I hope we can get out of here sooner than later, but we will just have to go with the flow, I guess.

I’ll wrap it up for now, and hopefully pick up the pace again. I might even do a “Behind The Scenes” video sometime in August.

Later!