Reapraisal for the house

[duh]

Ok, I took the dead plants out of the house and chucked them in the compost pile.  Took the trash out of the shed.  Put everthing away in the shed.  I had let it get disorganized.  I've ordered the lumber to fix the front of the shed.  That comes in on Wednesday.

I put down a runner on the worn part of the rug between the livingroom and the kitchen.  And I priced the rental rug shampooer.  Expensive.

Ok, I've washed the house and the shed outside.  It didn't work as well as I hoped.  It appears that the iron in the clay has permeated the vinyl siding.  Grrrrrh.

[duh]

I still need to get a mask for when I cut the treated plywood.

And I need to get the white exterior paint.  But I'm tired already.  So I'm going to take a short break. 

[duh]

Ok I painted all of the locus saplings with eraser and cut half of the lawn in the front yard.  I'm whooped.  Hopefully tomorrow I can finish off the grass and start painting the deck. 

I've organized the shed so it doesn't look like Detective Monks favorite garage but as close as a normal person might get to it.  Everything has a place and everything is in it.  I may still take the vacumn out and vacumn it but I probably won't shampoo it when I do the inside rugs. 

[duh]

Question do I paint the bathroom and the kitchen before the repraisal?  Or do I just scrub them good?

[bestofour]

I'd say clean it.  The person who came to our house wasn't interested in cleanliness.  It's not like when you're trying to sell it.

[duh]

what were they interested in?  I'm really curious as I bet you can guess.

[Penny]

I know here, when they come to appraise, they look more at the structure of the house, the roof is really important, the over all condition of the outside, as well as the inside (no holes in the walls, broken windows, ceiling falling apart), as well as the property, and where the house is.

[bestofour]

That's pretty much it.  I was like you and concerned because the laundry room needs to be painted and I want a new floor in there but he didn't even mention that.  He talked about no water in the basement, our new roof, windows, insulation, condition of the wood floors, stuff like that.  It's more about the overall condition - not about things that can be changed like paint or wallpaper or floors that don't really need to be fixed.

[barleychown]

I agree. They are looking at the bones of the house, not the flesh.

[duh]

Well I'm ok then.  Structurally there is only a few cracked vinyl siding pieces.  I can probably talk someone into fixing them for me for a reasonable cost.

[Penny]

Thats great then.,...and the siding would be easy to pop off and fix, especially if you had the spare ones already there.

[bestofour]

Start looking at siding and see if you can find matching pieces.  We had to do that when we replaced our windows.   We didn't find exactly the same kind but it's not noticeable at all.  Call a handyman and get a price.  It shouldn't be much.

[duh]

Well it took 2 hours but I removed the old mailbox post, transfered the mailbox to the new post and got it in the ground.  Now it's not as solid in there as the old post was but I will fix that with alittle time.  90% humidity, the temperature was cool enough but the humidity was a killer.

[Penny]

Can we see a pic, Tammy?

[duh]

When I go out and figure out why the box won't open I'll try and remember to take the camera.  Right now I'm not sticking my nose outside.  it's plus 90 and counting.

[duh]

Getting the projects done would be easier if I didn't have to take care of the lawn, weeding, and other ongoing maintenance. 

[bestofour]

It will be winter soon and the grass won't be such an issue.  At least that's what I'm counting on.

[duh]

Well I hope to have the appraisal before winter sets in. 

And if I don't keep it up it becomes very difficult to do.

[duh]

Well today the painting began.  And as usual I'm disappointed.  I wanted to stain it a red color with a semi-gloss finish.  What I got was something that looks like orange water.  Goes on about the same way and all it does is darken the deck as if it were wet.  And when it is dry it isn't much improvement at all.  For this I spent 50 dollars and how many hours of labor before I'm through with the project.  Grrrrrh, this means it will all have to be done again next year.  Plus I've noticed that to do the outside of the deck I'll need to get another ladder because mine is way to short.  There goes another hundred.  Someone shoot me.

So far I've managed to paint the top of the deck and one section of the railings.  That took 1/2 gallon of this stuff.  So by the time I get to the underneath of the deck I'll have to go buy more.  But I'll buy the correct stuff for that since it won't show except when your underneath the deck.

And while I'm doing this for the next couple of weeks the yard and weeds are going wild of course.

[Jessica]

They gave you a tinted waterproofer I would guess.  That is what we use on ours and it looks like orange water.  Sorry that you didn't get what you wanted.

[duh]

Is that what it is.  I wish men would learn to listen.  This is a total waste of time.  I think I'll just dump the rest of this and get what I want.  And if I can't get what I want I'll paint it all white.

[Tina]

No dumping, Tammy. Whether it is the color you want or not, it will help preserve your deck much longer than paint will. You can always coat over it with a color that you want.

[Jessica]

Yes, Tina is right.  It will seal your deck up nice.

[bayou girl]

and, you don't want to dump.  you are on a well.  think hard about that fact.

[duh]

Poor choice of words on my part.  As you all know I'm only good for about one to one and a half hours of work a day.  So the idea of spending that time doing something that I don't want isn't a happy one. 

What I want to do is stain the deck with a redwood stain and then a poly top coat.  I may use this waterproofing as a conditioner since I've already started but just on the inside. 

I've already talked to my neighbor about the other gallon of water proofing, she is going to take it off of my hands.