Sunday, February 20, 2011

Slutty confessions



It started out with a few different men. I’d have them meet me at the house after work, before the husband was home from work. We’d meet in different rooms, and sometimes, do it in the garage. But now it is out of control. Today I even called in sick at work so I could have the whole day to engage in this behavior- today with eight different men!





I had you going, didn’t I?? 








The old Zinsco panel                                                                                                             The shiny new 200 amp panel


These men are contractors. Friday was electric day.... the electrician is replaced the circuit breaker box, outdoor meter & mast. . The utility guys came & shut off power to the house for the whole day for this fun project. The City inspector came by to approve it.   My 53 year old house is begging to be brought into the 21st century.  Electrical here, roof there, new heat system & the freaking garage door belongs in the Smithsonian!!

So I am working it!  

All of thiese items are big ticket items & so we are consulting Consumer reports & checking things out. One guy spent over an hour talking about details & stuff he does. Did a printout with the formal estimate on the spot. Another guy scribbled a number on his business card & split. It felt so cheap & meaningless!
















Old mast



                                                                                                                                                         New mast a few feet taller. 

So now that the electrical is updated, we can move on the the heat pump, unless the new insurance people demand we replace our roof now. That triggered a blitz to get 6 roof estimates in 1 week.  One contractor gave us a list of homes we can go look at specific roof types in person. 

Looking at a few inch glossy photo of shingles on a brochure does not cut it. Show me the real deal in natural light, please. 
What is it with me? If you put out random samples on a table I will always pick the high end one. The one I can't afford. 
Plus there is always the issue of Pandora's box, once the old roof comes off, there may be plywood that needs to be replaced & once the old roof is off, not like you can halt the project & shop around for replacing underlayment. 
I'd be crazy to think some additional thing will not come up, in the middle of the project. As with the electric, we could not just replace the box where it was, we had to do this & that additional to bring it up to current code. 

The difference between my house & the "This Old House" home repair show, is my house does not have that unlimited budget. So I will continue to be seeing men in my house, often when the husband is not home-- roofing contractors, and Ductless Heat pump people.

They had me at 2/3rds less heating bill cost.

 Whisper "$1500 Utility rebate" in my ear....









4 comments:

nonnie9999 said...

i have some major repairs to do here, but i keep putting them off. it gives me nightmares just to think about dealing with them.

Anonymous said...

It has been a frigging circus -- I will be really glad when it's all done.

I don;t know what kind of stuff you have to do, but if it is utility related some rebates are about to go away.... so you might get crackin' based on soon to vanish rebates

~ Fran

D.K. Raed said...

very funny play on words ... whoever said meeting men on side wasn't profitable ... rebates and getting rid of that old Zinsco Rat's Nest ... well done!

Hah, I know just what you mean about always picking out the most expensive stuff ... shows you have good taste ... the trick is to find something that looks similar to what caught your eye, but at an affordable price ... great trick if you can pull that off.

D.K. Raed said...

all that risque electrical jargon obviously sent your mind into the slut gutter (in a fun way). I just luv the way electricians throw around words like nipples, male and female adaptors, risers, wire nuts, nut caps, and bauds! Is there any other building trade with such bawdy words? Is this what happens after accidentally poking around in too many hot sockets? arghhh!