21. Margarita!!

Started off the day with a visit to Dave at Superior.   I know you're probably tired of hearing about my siding drama, but it's not clear cut, and the decision I make will affect the look of the house AND the financial bottom line.  Right now I'm concentrating on the front porch area, because the rest of the siding on the house is covered with asbestos shingles and I'm not ready to tackle that problem (don't worry - I will hire a contractor for that job).  I don't know the condition of the wood underneath the asbestos so if it is 100% shit I will have to buy about 5,000 lineal feet of the wood.  So you can see that one or two dollars per foot can make a huge difference.

On the other hand, I don't want the house to look like I just added the siding in 2010.  I'd like it to look as close to the original as possible.

The best option for looks is to have the lumber milled to match the original.  I have a price for this of $5.50/lf.  Another option is to use novelty siding, one of the two profiles shown in the picture.  My board is at the top so you can compare the shape.  The first profile is too square, in my opinion - and I see a lot of people use this to repair older homes.  The second profile is better, but still missing a little "hump".  I can get this for $3.00/lf.  This will save me about $300 right now but if I end up needing a large quantity on the rest of the house, I'll save a bundle.  If it doesn't butt right up to the existing, I might get away with replacing certain areas and not others.

Dave and I discussed these options, and then he had a brainstorm - he knows someone who works at another milling operation, that specializes in siding and trim - and might be able to mill my custom profile, in cypress, for somewhere between the two price points mentioned above.  I thought that was nice of him, considering his company wouldn't be making any money on the deal.  Maybe I'll take him to lunch or something.  He will call me when he knows if it can be done.

Aside from that meeting, I called and made an appointment with a company who will check out the furnace and give me a quote on replacing it if necessary.  I did not like the look of the existing furnace, and to have something under a wooden house, connected to gas, with a flame in it...  well, you get my drift.  I think it's worth a little investment there.

This is an almost new weed eater I picked up for free a couple of weeks ago on Craigslist.  The guy said there was some problem with the head and he didn't want to bother to work on it so he went and bought another one.  Some people, huh?  I didn't post about it because I figured it would take some fixing and didn't want to brag.  But I fired it up yesterday, and just can't seem to see what the problem is.... ate some weeds and it worked like new, better than the one I already have!  I hate the heads that use the string all wound up, I prefer the kind that uses 6" pieces that you insert individually, so I spent $24 on one of these heads at HD.  This will be Grandview's first piece of lawn maintenance equipment.

Then I headed out to the thrift stores, where I hit the mother lode.  Well, that might be an exaggeration, but take a look:

I picked up a metal detector for $9, which will be fun to have at the beach.  The first place I'm going to use it though is under and around the house - the place has been there for almost 100 years, surely somebody dropped a goody or two along the way.  I used one once before - paid $100 and never found the piece of jewelery I lost in a field.  After digging up a bag full of soda cans I put the thing back in the box and returned it to the store.  Hopefully I have more interesting results with this one.  It works - even has a good battery in it!
 

Next to that you can see a beach umbrella.  I already have one, but hey, it's a beach house, right?  I'm already devising a way to zip-tie it to my wheelbarrow so I can have a bit of shade when I'm weeding out there.  On the right is folding step-stool-ladder thingy.  I have one of these at my house and they are invaluable when painting, changing light bulbs or when short friends need to get something from the top of the fridge.

Found my coffee pot, a paper towel dispenser and some glass canisters for coffee and sugar.  I'll have splenda available but I never touch the stuff myself.  I had been looking for a set of plates - hard to find a full set with no chippies.  This one is a set of four - I'll probably add to that when I see something else I like.  One cool 50's style serving bowl.  Four hand blown blue-rimmed margarita glasses.  note to self:  look for a nice blender.  Also picked up some more towels - pink ones for the beach and some others.  A couple of other misc. items - it was all a great score.









Including the awesome fluffy hotel-style bathrobe pictured below I spent $37 on everything.

Balance forward:  $263

$24  weed eater replacement head
$37  mother lode of misc

Remainder:  $202