The mantra for us this year is — we don’t have any money to spend. So of course we are taking vacation trips for reunions, graduations, and today, going out and spending on toys for the home.
The first toy I’ll mention is a ladder. $99. We have been in this house for 10 years and never bought a ladder — a neighbor down the street offered to let us borrow theirs. But a couple of weeks ago we learned the neighbor was planning on selling soon, so that means we won’t have that ladder to be able to borrow. The trees growing in the gutters needed taking care of, so we purchased a 16-foot extension ladder, which allowed us to reach all the gutters around the house. Betsy found a “gutter scoop” on a display for sale for $5, and that proved very helpful in cleaning out the gutters — once I climbed up the new extension ladder.
But the major purchase, also $99, was for the high pressure washer. We put seamless vinyl siding on the house 10 years ago, being sold on the never need to paint again promise, as well as the extra insulation it provided. The only care, we were told, was to hose it down once a year for the grime that accumulates over time.
Well, the hosing with a regular hose didn’t really do much. We learned that especially 3-4 years ago, after an especially cool, wet summer, where the northern exposure started to get spots of green on it. The hosing didn’t seem to work, and even the attempt to brush and soap had limited effect. Also, trying to reach spots high on the wall with the brush was hard, and fatiguing on the arms.
So I had the idea to rent one of those high pressure washers that they use to clean a deck before they restain. But when I went looking the price on purchase of a unit wasn’t so bad — and after using the unit to clean part of the house, I realized another reason why it was so efficient. With the amount of time it took me to clean a section of the wall, and the need for repeat scourings, there would be no way I would be able to get everything clean in one rental period. Owning our own unit would allow me to repeat the process, and spread it out over my available times — instead of having to commit a huge block of time for the rental period and do nothing else besides that for the time.
I expect to get a lot of use out of it over time.
At The Rainbow 