What's up today (bullchiting) thread.

You'll feel good for the accomplishment!

As far as the physical wear and tear, well..............

 

Actually feel pretty good. Slept like I was dead.

 

So my FIL takes his mowers (Cub Z turn, and Honda pushmower) to the shop to have them serviced, nobody there at that moment so he drops them off by the shop door (this is a lil country repair shop at a farm, back in off the road) he calls them some time later to tell them what he wants done...starts talking about the Honda, they are like "what Honda?"...apparently someone helped themselves to the pushmower before anyone got back to the shop! They would have had to do a little work too, because he said he kinda had it pinned between the overhead door and the Z turn! Dirty rotten thieves...I hope they chop their toes off with it!

 

To be fair, there's two windows upstairs and that top half storey looks downright cozy

It's an old home getting new siding, maybe they really couldn't afford more windows. And when it was built, it wasn't a common thing to think about such things like we do today, if you could afford to.

I guess that's the price of growing up with such things on your doorstep, you can learn to take it for granted until you have to adjust to something different. For that reason, some of the most sought after neighborhoods (today) in our capital city were considered closer to slums only several decades ago. Out of the city, nearly everyone worked directly or indirectly for the fishery and close to, if not, the majority had an ocean view, and most of the rest were walking distance away. When the tourism industry really took off here, I think it made a lot of people open their eyes to just how many gifts we have.

 

low lives.....

 

Pulled the minnow traps today. When I checked them, I easily had 8-10 dozen volunteers for walleye. I kept about 2 dozen and released the "undocumented" back into their own habitat. No need to sponsor that many.

 

It's not like a couple of 4 x 4 slide by windows would break the bank......

Just under $180 each; and there is shipping available.


Whatever.

 

You can't trust anything unsupervised anymore.

Dirty bastards

 

They'd cost more than that by the time they got here. And then you would need more materials to re-frame the wall to accept them. If not doing the work yourself, the price will be double, at least.

Hard to say the reasoning, but could be anything. I know when I replaced my siding, I had to keep the old windows, even install a couple second hand windows temporarily until I could afford all new ones, and a year or two later, I had to remove the siding from the top half of the house, adjust the structure to accept the new windows, and replace the siding, which couldn't all be reused due to the windows being different. A little more expensive in the long run, but the old siding, and a couple of the oldest windows, needed to be replaced ASAP and I just didn't have the money to do new windows at the same time. Now, I have the credit to bite the bullet and produce an extra few hundred bucks if it makes sense to do so, but I did a lot of work to my house as a youngster without the income security or credit to do anything but scrimp and save, and start patching things up piece by piece. And if I'd waited till I had more money, the house would have needed even more repair, if not gone beyond worthwhile repair.

Some people are on the other end of their career, senior citizens living on pension, and availing of government grants to repair their homes. That likely doesn't include opening up the view at any extra cost.

And, given the age of the house, that lean-to addition could likely be a utility porch housing the washer, water boiler, etc, and may even be where the bathroom is located, which you probably don't want a huge window in. A lot of older homes had such a piece built on when those features replaced outhouses and wash tubs. A new house wouldn't likely be built that way today, but it can be expensive to reconstruct an old one to change it around.

In any case, that little house still looks massively better with the new siding, and you can also see the view to some extent from the side windows. If the owner had the money to do major renovations at once, they possibly would have bit the bullet and built a whole new house. I know I would have.

 

I think it is a matter of not having an appreciation for what you have right in front of you. If I had a view like that, I would make it happen.

 

Fawn in my back yard this morning. A few days old and already oblivious to dogs and people.

Ironically it took shelter in the cage that I set up to protect a white oak sapling from the deer.

 

I like the positive thinking, and I don't mean to be argumentative, but say you're 78 years old, living on a fixed income which barely covers your living expenses, with no realistic way to earn any extra money worth speaking of, where are you coming up with a couple thousand dollars? Unfortunately, that's exactly the situation some people are in. Turn off your heat or do without groceries? Government grants which barely cover the necessary repairs are the only way many seniors are keeping their homes warm and dry.

On the other hand, I admit you're probably right in this case, and you certainly are in many others. I know who owned that house last I knew (inherited from dead mother), not sure if it's been sold. And sometimes, people who inherit houses can't bring themselves to drastically change them from the way their deceased relative left them, even if they really should.
And, crazy as it sounds, that house has one of the poorer views in it's neighborhood.

The other side of the coin are people who should have the nicest trucks and houses around, but would rather spend their money on things like cigarettes, beer, etc, and consequently have run-down shacks and beaters. There's a construction worker on my road who's a prime example.

I suppose I can understand it, if you grow up knowing nothing besides having the water constantly next to you and go on to make your living on it, you may not feel the need to have a wide open view of it at home, same as a professional driver probably won't be in a hurry to look at a big truck when they get home from 10 hours on the road. Or when my dad, who works at a poultry plant, once told his roommate who was wearing shorts, "I seen enough chicken legs today"

I'll digress slightly and maybe vent a little. I can relate to losing appreciation for such things in a worse way. I always loved this area and from a young age, called it home despite sleeping elsewhere at least 5 nights a week, and swore one day I'd be home full time, and so help me, I'd never leave again. I loved to see other parts of the world, but this was the place I identified with and couldn't picture fully adjusting to any other. I was very glad to see the ocean, the forest, the rivers, and the ponds. I thought it was the most beautiful place on earth. Well, eventually I grew up and finally managed to start fixing the house I'd sworn for so long to save. I put in countless hours, often doing things with my hands that many would outright refuse to do without a machine, to compensate for my limited money enough to slowly make a functional home. Every step was an accomplishment to admire.

Long story short, more than 2 years ago, I had an altercation with my uncle, and though a little less frequent now, I still have many days where I wonder if I shouldn't just figure out a way to move. Everything changed. Apart from ruining all my memories of my then-recently deceased grandparents to the point I still can hardly bear to think about them at all, other than physically losing the roof over my head, my uncle may as well have handed me an eviction notice, because he took my home and turned it into just a house. The surrounding area I once couldn't get enough of became a disgusting sight. All the (sometimes literal) blood and sweat I'd enthusiastically put into this place became a waste of time I'll never get back, the biggest mistake I ever made. I didn't want to keep doing it, but I did because I felt I had no choice, and it was real work instead of a labor of love. Since then, I've come to think that I did have a chance to change things, but passed it up.

Halfway between then and now, I got the promotion, and transfer to our location a half hour away from here. My former dream came true, the house was almost finished enough to be a useable residence, and with my extra income I could easily finish the rest of the necessities pretty quickly. But I didn't want to leave work, I wished I could sleep in the building and sometimes was very tempted to sleep in my vehicle. I felt like throwing up or struggling to breathe as I approached home. I didn't want to go for a walk, I wanted to go inside and distract myself from where I was. I should have been ecstatic to finally be moved in, but instead I had to force myself to remember to be grateful I had a dry building to sleep in. I wish I could say I didn't contemplate quitting my job, handing the keys to my house and truck to dad, and using what cash I had left to catch a ride to the mainland with nowhere to stay once I got there, and gamble on whether or not I could somehow scrounge up a future, or not. But I'd be lying. I didn't see the beauty in the ocean or the trees outside my door, I instantly saw my uncle in it.
For the first time, when I traveled, I not only took an interest in the different areas I visited, I could envision making a new home there and trying to forget my former one entirely, maybe at the price of distancing myself from the family I have left. As you guys know, I'm an avid photographer, and the hope that things might change is all that's kept me from deleting my thousands of pictures taken within a 20 minute drive of my house.

It's been some time since I've felt physically sick on my way home from work, but sometimes I see my uncle around and it all comes back, I feel like an idiot for ever touching the house, I try to tell myself I wouldn't have if I had known certain other things back then, but it's not true. I wonder what might have been if I'd done things differently. I'll never know. I poured everything I had into it, because I thought it would give it back to me. 18 months ago, I worked in town, I had a place to stay in town, and I could have sold it and took my time about finding something else. Things are different now. Then I thought I'd gone too far to turn back, I figured if I sold it, someone else would likely demolish it and build new, and I couldn't bear the thought of all that time going to waste. I feared I'd regret it sooner or later, despite trying hard to convince myself I wouldn't. I guess I just retained enough logic to not let go of a paid-for property without knowing what would happen next.
All in all, like the fixed income senior, my options are limited now, especially since mom has moved in with me for an indefinite time frame, at my invitation. I have a very secure full time job, a nice truck which I do still owe a manageable amount of money for, and a mortgage-free house, with a bountiful garden outside and nearly all the wonders of nature just beyond. Logically, I shouldn't have had to think about selling it and starting over. I shouldn't have to wonder if trading in my truck for an old car will allow me to buy a vacant lot somewhere and go from there. I shouldn't have to wonder if I can get a job in another area and arrange for a place to live nearby, and continue to accommodate mom. I shouldn't still be second guessing every step I take, wondering if I'm not continuing to waste time and money I'll never get back. I can say "I'll make it happen" all I want, but the fact of the matter is, unless I suddenly win or inherit a fortune, the only way I can do it is to either take a huge, irresponsible gamble and maybe lose everything, or stop all progress, buckle down, basically give up having a life for maybe a few years, literally existing just to work and save every last possible cent with the hope that I can eventually have something to show for it before the anxiety and depression of the situation catch up. I Don't like that idea at all, because nobody really knows when our time is up, young or not. I shouldn't have to worry about any of that, I should be grateful I'm fortunate enough to not be in the situation of facing a 30 year mortgage or getting to the point of qualifying for one. And I am, but now it's come with a different kind of price tag.

I've told myself countless times it was my fault, I should never have approached my uncle that day, I knew it would happen, but I was trying to make a point to someone else, and I don't even know if I fully succeeded with it. I should have refused someone a favor for once in my life and told him he'd have to do it himself. I really didn't know what it would cost me at the time.
I've never believed in holding grudges, but I have to admit that if my uncle called for me on his deathbed, right now I think I could say my piece, and tell him where to go on my way out the door. I feel like he effectively stole a couple years of my life, and I can still only hope I'll tell myself "life's too short" enough thousands of times to get back what I once had.

I guess I've been rambling. I've never been able to communicate to that extent to anyone in those 27 months.

 

I respectfully disagree with that first sentence. We don't know the circumstances of the person/people who own the home. We also don't know the layout of the interior of the house. There are real needs, and nice to haves - and sometimes you have to go with the real needs (like insulation, house wrap and new siding to replace crumbling siding). Additionally, if that area is not somewhere that one hangs out, like a bathroom/utility area, there is no practical purpose - and even may be detrimental to the functionality of the interior space.

And, you can go outside at any point, set down a chair and soak in the scenery.

 

Right! Like during the winter sub freezing temps with snow falling sideways......or during foul weather with wind driven rain, high winds, and thunder storms! So much easier to "soak in the scenery" without getting soaked yourself!

I'm not a betting man but I'm thinking everyone would rather rather be inside looking out during those conditions.

Point is, there is a waterfront house getting updated/remodeled. That is the time to install a larger window or two to enjoy the view from the location.

Don't know if you have noticed, but almost every member on FHC will find something in pics that are posted from time to time....it's no big/no deal. Next time someone posts a pic of a hap-hazard unsafe wood stove and associated venting install, maybe we just shouldn't comment about it?

We could go on and on posting theories on the whys and why nots, but geeze!!!!!! It's just an observation for crumps sakes!

 

There could be lots of things hidden under the tyvek - like framing for door/sliders/more windows. There could be a deck going on - eventually. Might explain the tyvek cut short. It's not uncommon to sheath over openings and only cut the sheathing out and install the parts when they arrive.
Speculation is fun but it's not done till it's done.

 

You obviously triggered some people.

 

If there's snow falling sideways, I don't want to be out, nor do I want to be looking out. I want to hide and look at pictures of sunny summer days

Or at least, watching it from inside the cab of a plow truck.