Home Improvement III
(coming soon to a theater near you)
Ahhh. The joys of home ownership… Lisa just put an offer in on a house; Jenny has a closing date this month… They have no idea what they’re in for. :) It seems like every year about this time we start calling contractors for some major work we need to do on our house. Roofing, siding, painting, driveways… The list apparently never ends. It’s amazing what you learn to live with (i.e. orange carpeting in the master bedroom) in order to spend the money where everyone else sees it – like siding. That’s this year’s project. Last year we hired people to paint the house – unfortunately, after they’d already scraped and sanded a good part of the house, we found out that the cardboard siding (ok, it’s probably not cardboard, but it really looks like it) was totally water damaged – even though the house was painted less than three years before. How? Who knows. Long story short, we decided that we’re taking a “vinyl siding vacation” this year. But first, we need to find a contractor. That is the absolute least fun part of any home improvement effort. You’re calling someone and offering them money to come to your home and make a mess. You would think that they would be prompt about calling back, right? Never. At most, we’ve had two contractors call us back ever for any type of job. So much for the “get three estimates” rule! Maybe this job will be better…or maybe I’ll need to be checked into an insane asylum by the end of it. Anyone out there get their house resided recently in the Rochester, NY area? I’m accepting references!
