First and last time I clean the leaves in my yards MYSELF!

[VEFF]

[Note: yards is intentionally spelled with an 's' since I was referring to both my front and back yards...]

Since I took off this week, I thought I would do the leaves myself.
I didn't want to leave the house anyway, since I have painters over and I wanted to monitor their work and give special instructions.

I thought it would be good exercise too.
It was, but I don't think it was worth the $300 I saved.
I'd rather save it elsewhere - I am painting my garage myself and did the laundry room myself.
I saved a lot more than the cost of the leaves by lucking out and getting a cheaper driveway paver and cheaper hardwood floor refinisher since both the original, more expensive, contractors were backed up and were going to take too long for my liking.
They EACH saved me at least $500 (in the case of the driveway paver, one other contractor was $1,680 more + tax)

As I sit here, I am sore but happy to be able to relax.

[Ian]

How many leaves do you have? My yard is covered in trees and they're not that bad. Then again, I have the leaf blower from hell so its sort of fun.

[eliminator]

I hear that the upcoming HL3 will have that leafblower as a new weapon for Gordon !

[VEFF]

How many leaves do you have? My yard is covered in trees and they're not that bad. Then again, I have the leaf blower from hell so its sort of fun.

Well, I hadn't cleared anything all fall, with the exception of the landscaping company - they had done them once (not cleared, just blown out of the way) and charged me since they could't mow otherwise (I just have them cut the lawn weekly).

My yards truly had a ton of leaves.
A BIG part of the problem is that the lawn is a bit too high (landscaping company probably should have come one more time this season to cut the lawn) and that the lawn and leaves were still moist from the rain las weekend.
Combine those two and some VERY tall trees, and you can imagine.
The property is 100x125.

I actually borrowed my parents' leaf blower * (12 AMP 122 MPH Craftsman - I know nothing about leaf blowers, so that could be crap, average or good for all I know ), but there were times today when a good old fashioned rake worked better for the afore-mentioned reasons.


* I am thinking of going back to condo living (probably a nice townhome with at least two bedrooms, two baths and a garage) due to:
- being relocated to the center of the state for work starting January
- wanting less maintenance
- the house in some ways being too big for just me (my gf and I have been talking again recently, but nothing is certain. She wishes I would have been like I have been recently while we were dating).
- wanting to get rid of the mortgage and go back to saving more money each month than I am now. I got used to saving a good amount of my after tax salary because my previous place (condo) was paid for and the taxes and maintenance were low.
It is a long story why I moved in the first place........

I haven't made my mind up yet.
The realtor came by about 9 days ago. I should actually be able to make a little after taking into account the commission, money spent on a bunch of renovations and closing costs etc, which isn't bad considering I only closed on the house in June...

[Spazmogen]

Isn't home ownership fun?

Hell, I built a workbench last week, raked leaves twice. Looked after the kids too.

I never did find the time to grease up the snow blower & change out the plug & oil, grind the rust off the snow shovels and paint them. Or bolt the vise and bench grinder down to the new workbench.

The wife and I did our own version of "Cleansweep" in my basement during that same week off. Everything went into the garage and seperated into 3 piles :keep, landfill & Savation Army.

Less than 1/3 of the stuff went back to the basement.

I can hardly wait for the snow plow to go by and block my driveway again.

The 1st big storm of the winter is less than 18 hours away. Which means Ian is getting it right now.

[VEFF]

Strangely I don't think I'll mind the snow removal as much.
When I lived in my condo I actually used to clear my spot myself, even though the bobcat would come by (eventually) and we goit a LOT of snow last year.
It was ONE of my main forms of exercise.

If I decide to keep the house, I wil simply get a decent snow blower.
I only have one car, so half the drive could (if I wanted it to) remaian
un-plowed.
It is an AWD sedan and the drive is wide and basically flat/horizontal.
The best part is that we have no curbs on my street

The driveway is large though, but except for the biggest storms, I am not too worried.

Well, I have to hit the road now.

[Ian]

If I wouldn't have to worry about old ladies falling down and suing me, I'd never plow my drive way. Just throw it in 4wd and drive on into the garage.

As far as leaf blowers go.. forget about electric. If you're like me and have 1' of leaves in your yard, gas is the only way to go. It works so good I can blow the dog poop into my neighbors yard.

Spaz, what storm are you talking about? We're not expecting anything (rain or snow) until like Friday.

[Spazmogen]

Spaz, what storm are you talking about? We're not expecting anything (rain or snow) until like Friday.

THIS ONE.

Maybe its a Lake Effect thing. We gets lots of snow from a West wind off the Great Lakes.

"30 TO 40 MILLIMETRES OF RAIN SOUTH OF
THE LINE AND 15 TO 20 CENTIMETRES OF SNOW NORTH OF THE LINE. "
The "Line" is the 'freezing' band. I.E. where it's 32F or colder.

That's about 8"-10" of snow.

Where I am, I have: Michigan, Superior (and Georgian Bay) and St. Clair lakes to the West & North West. Erie to the South & Ontario to the East.

I'm surrounded by water.


MAP