Having a service come over and clean off our roof, was over $800.00. It is done now and yes it was a major amount of work, but with a little help from my girls and working hard myself the job is done and it looks great. Cost? $32.15 in moss out spray and a few stiff muscles.
I did not get a bid on taking the ivy off the house, but it is done and between hubs and I we just worked a few hours a day. Hubs still has to dig out a few big roots with a grub hoe, but he will get this done this week. It is dirty messy work, but certainly doable.
 |
| The pond that was not started last year it is a mess. |
Hubs and I started to clean up the front yard last night. We had a truck full of debree and Hubs will empty it after he gets done reading the paper at the veterans home. We have at least one more full truck load of ivy mess to haul. Hubs and I plan on getting out today and getting that done.
The littles are here today, Hubs went over and got them at about 7:30 and brought them back in a wagon. They had a beautiful basket with red geraniums in it for a mothers day gift for me. It also had a pair of new garden gloves sticking out. I just love flowers and working outside.
As the littles like to be outside we will get most of the ivy cleaned up and move the (&^%$) canoe while they play in the yard with us.
We have the scouts coming this weekend to do yard work, as they are trying to raise money for camp. I am going to have them clean the pond pictured above and get that running. We also have some weeding and stepping stones that need to be raised, window wells to clean out. We will see how much they can get done in three hours.
I have decided to get heavy screens cut for all the window wells as cleaning them out is such a chore. We will need two large and two small. If we can keep the leaves out it will be such a blessing.
Once we have cleaned everything up, we will commence with sanding and replacing several rotting trim boards. Hubs cut boards to match the chalet pattern and we put them on our small shed. We will pull the ones off our house and cut them together with our jigsaw. I think there are about 8 trim boards that will need to be replaced. But it is always a work in progress. One of the painters that cam told us about a product at Home depot that we are to spray our house with and then powerwash the whole thing. Anything we can do to save labor brings our costs down and saves us money. IS it work? Yes but we are not dead yet.
The shop had a huge amount of things come in yesterday and I did no sewing. I will get nothing done today except some police uniforms, so I will have to spend the next three days in the shop. Mostly bridesmaid dresses and general work.
What are you going to get done today? Do you have any projects you are working on or need to work on? I think someone has messy pants and it isn't me. Gotta go.....
Have a great and productive day staying positive while you are in the negative.
Kim
I applaud you and your family for all the hard work. What a tremendous savings that was for you. So happy it is done and you an get the stupid insurance off your back. They are getting so ridiculous about stuff.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of the scouts working for money - what a great cause to support and get help from.
I am doing yard work today as this is the first sunny day in many. It always looks pretty when all mowed - but so much more to do!
Have a great day.
Thank you,other than hard work it was not a bad experience and it sure is nice to drive up to the house and see the clean roof!
DeleteWe are all about doing things ourselves, for the same reason. Hubby is taking vacation next week and we will doing things around home. There are some maintenance things to tackle.
ReplyDeleteI just wish Hubs could or would do more. Even when he was healthy he was rather unwilling. I was just supposed to work harder and pay for things.
DeleteI read your blog from yesterday and now this one! Dang you can pump out the work. I know I would not be willing to de-moss our roof. Thankfully moss is not an issue here!
ReplyDeleteI don't mind tackling chores but the roof is not one of them I am willing to do or let TheHub do. It is three stories high on one side of the house, 2 on the other and pitched very steeply. I figure hiring out cleaning the gutters is cheaper than planning our funerals.
Our roof is not steep, and it is less than a story to climb on from the deck or the garage. Once you are up there it was easy to get to all parts of the roof. There was one really steep section but I could access that from the garage roof which is flat and walk able. If it had been really steep and over one story I never would have attempted it.
DeleteJust food for thought I am at the point in life that I really weigh things out. Asking ones self can I work more and make more $ in an hour to pay someone? What are the health consequences? (Is another month of debt worth it?) I have a neighbor who in his 60's was helping roof his sisters house ( he was in construction but had cut down) and he fell off and was paralyzed at the waist and another aqaintance who fell off a roof breaking multiple bones hospitalized for months, not worth it financially or personally so I know my thoughts are influenced by this. (The man paralyzed was a minister and his faith has amazed us). Heights are where I draw the line, even for my adult children.
ReplyDeleteI am at that point also. Is it worth my hourly wage to hire it done. Our roof is not steep and but I don't know if I would do this again. If my health is not the same.
DeleteGood for you. People all the time ask me why don't we pay landscapers to do my yard. I am perfectly capable of doing it myself. Hubby and my son do our snow removal. Hubby, my son and I just pulled out a bunch of bushes that we had quoted for $600. We did it ourselves. We also had an electrician do our meter conversion, upgrade our breaker box and do a few other things for $3000. We can't do that stuff and we needed a permit and inspection done. We do what we can, we pay for what we can't.
ReplyDeleteI actually enjoy yard work. But electrical is something I would hire out for sure.
DeleteI am lucky to have my husband, who retired a couple years ago from a career as a maintenance supervisor. He knows how to do almost everything. He won't get on a roof now. He likes to keep busy, and does electrical and plumbing and carpentry work for other people. Sometimes for free, sometimes for spending money past the allowance I give him every week, and sometimes in trade for items he then sells at his flea market store. He's also looking for another house to flip. Even HE is not as busy as you!
ReplyDeleteYou are very lucky Val. My husband is not handy, and he is quite lazy. I hate to say that but he is. Lazy and slow, always has been, he plays the violin well him and Nero as Rome burns. He thinks he is a hard worker and works constantly.....
DeleteYou inspire me. I think society has forgotten how to do things for ourselves. Most people automatically hire out household jobs - even the simple ones. A little (or a lot) of sweat equity goes a long way. I will admit, though, that there is no way I would have tackled that roof job!!
ReplyDeleteWell I am telling you if I had the money I would hire out many things. I just cannot afford to. I will never get out of debt if I keep hiring jobs out that I can do myself.
DeleteHi Kim, My husband and I are pretty much in the same position as you and your husband are both health wise and financially. We are working around our back yard a little bit in the last few weeks because it's been neglected. I would LOVE to hire someone but on a fixed income, nope can't do it so we've been doing it a little at a time. It's getting done just slower and now that the heat will be arriving this Thursday we will probably have to put off until November before we can get back out there..
ReplyDeleteWe do have some savings and once our house is paid for there will be plenty for us to hire out, but I am also afraid to spend large sums of money, due to the fact that we have been so poor our whole lives.
DeleteMy roof has a steep pitch and has two stories with high ceilings. I doubt I could get up there and certainly could not do any work. Since I cannot afford the work, it does not get done. I think you are extremely lucky not to hurt have yourself. I have known too many older and younger people who have fallen from roofs, through roofs, and off ladders. When my husband insisted climbing high, I just made him increase his insurance...lol.
ReplyDeleteIt was a risk, but I was very, very careful.
DeleteIt's probably doing the work yourself that keeps you going. I do a lot of the work around our home myself because the Redneck works nights and sleeps days, and I'm fine with that. Besides, I recently had a pile of junk that needs hauling off, and I offered $100 to someone to do it. I only did it because I haven't gotten my own trailer yet. The guy said okay, but only after he's 'not busy'. That was about two months ago. It's about a one hour job to load the stuff and drive it to the dump. I know this guy hasn't been busy. People just don't want to WORK for money. Keep on going, girl!
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to get people to answer the phone and then to actually come out and do something. Then the prices are so high! It is ridiculous.
Delete