Sometimes I wish I had an owner's manual for my house - or a seasonal checklist or something. I only think about taking care of things when I notice that they're broken. Preventative maintenance would probably save me a lot of money! I finally resolved the groundhog problem by paying a mudjacker to fill in the empty space below my porch and stairs. The bill was $500. The animal control guy never came back so I guess that means I'm off the hook for his $150 fee.
I still want to rip out the lilacs and the wooden borders on my flower beds but I'm not sure about the timing. I desperately need to get the gutters repaired. I called a guy about that on Thursday but haven't heard back from him yet. I also need to have the house painted and patches of wood rot fixed - a painter come out yesterday to give me an estimate which he is going to email to me at work. I should probably get the deck cleaned and sealed (is that what they do to keep it from splintering?) and I've known for 3 years that I need to get it braced. Maybe after all of that I can look at landscaping.
Landscaping can't be put off for too long, though. I have so much erosion going on around the house that I worry about my foundation. Still, I wouldn't want the leaky gutters to wash away my pretty new landscape and I don't want paint to get on it. I don't want paint on the deck, either. Sooo... gutters, paint, deck, landscape? Sounds like I've been talking to people in the wrong order.
Meanwhile, I'm stumbling my way through lawn care. I raked up a ton of leaves and twigs today. Tomorrow I'm going to mow and put something down. Not sure yet if that will be fertilizer, weed killer, grass seed or all 3. And now I have moles making lumpy tunnels in my yard. I'm choosing to ignore them. Yeah. I can't deal with that; too many other things to worry about!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Man, it does sound hard. I've always been so supportive like, "You should totally own your own home!" But I've never had to do all that work...I didn't even realize what it was JB was doing outside all the time.
It's hard work! I might have to rethink my policy on the moles. My lawn mower was bouncing around like crazy yesterday. I put down fertilizer/weed killer but the bag said not to put it down if you expect rain in the next 24 hours. I wasn't expecting rain but apparently the weather man was. It was POURING this morning! I should've put down grass seed. Darn it.
Post a Comment