Posted on 05/28/2004 7:00:28 AM PDT by grellis
Sounds like you have everything under controll!!!!
OH, you can say that again! You can even get a year's family membership at the zoo for the price of one amusement park ticket. Battlefields and military bases are some of our favorite excursions ... room to run around, and plenty of weapons to see!
At least enough that I can sleep at night (when the baby will let me :-).
We're very fortunate, because if there's some disaster and we have to sell out here, we can all move to my Dad's farm, and have a house, farmland, woods, ponds, and relatives. Dad is only there about 3 months of the year, and he'd be thrilled to have us living there. The kids could hunt, fish, and grow their own food, and learn carpentry and blacksmithing from the Amish.
That would actually be my first choice, instead of our current suburban-corporate lifestyle, but God hasn't planned it, yet.
Raccoons tear your shingles off, so rain gets into the attic. They also chew up the drywall to nest. Among other potentially expensive destruction ...
I'm awfully surprised that you were the first to catch that, after nearly 40 posts. It has been an ongoing problem dating back to when we first bought the house in '93. We rented out the upstairs and had no idea that we had raccoons at all. Our tenant never mentioned hearing strange noises because she figured--I'm not kidding--the house was haunted. In '97, when we were still renting out the upstairs, part of our roof collapsed. We had the entire roof replaced ($4,500). The roofer said at the time that he reattached our attic vents and screens because "varmint unknown" had dislodged or destroyed them. What the roofer failed to mention at the time was that the roof damage itself was done by said varmint. In '99 we converted our home back into a single family home ($7,000). As soon as we moved our bedrooms upstairs we knew we were NOT alone. A momma raccoon was raising a litter in the attic--again, she had dislodged the vents and ripped apart the screens. We had her trapped and removed, reattached the vents, replaced the screens, only to have her offspring move in, every autumn, like clockwork. Good money after bad. We are having the roof vents removed entirely and having a "ridge" vent installed. Absolutely raccoon-proof. The plus-side is that it will greatly increase air circulation in the attic as well as on the second floor, which will reduce our AC use this summer.
BTW, our idiot roofer could have done all of this back in '97 when we were having the roof replaced. Yet another lesson learned...research your local contractors very carefully. The lowest bid may very well cost you more in the end.
Your dad's farm sounds like Heaven!!!
In a way I've got the best of both worlds - hubby's got the corporate job, but we've got a couple of acres out in the country and live close to both the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.
When we first moved here last year we took a trip over to Assateague Island....it's $10 to get on the island (Virginia side) but the pass is good for 7 days. A year long pass is $15........needless to say, we spent the extra $5 and go very frequently.
Personally I didn't question your quote on the attic for a couple of reasons. The first because I know how dstructive rodents can be.
The second I know how much labor and materials cost for any kind of fixing, renovations or replacement. That's why we do absolutely as much of the labor we possibly can when it comes to the house.
That was my kitchen growing up! My mom taught most of my friends and me how to play cribbage, rummy, tons of different games. Taught us how to mix a mean Manhattan when we were old enough (in her mind, not the governments). Good times, good times!
I stopped putting up with my MIL's cr@p long ago. It didn't take me long to realize that she has a favorite son and I didn't marry him. Fine with me, the favorite son recently divorced and the overbearing MIL played a part in that. Every few years we visit the in-laws in Houston, sometimes they see us here in Michigan, we all see each other at a family reunion in Chicago every summer. That's all the meddling and rude behavior I need.
Sorry to butt in here.........but I know exactly what you are talking about and what you are going through. I feel the same way about not bringing any money into the household. And my husband in no way says or does anything to make me feel that way. And he even at times gets a bit annoyed with me because I won't spend anything on myself.
I'm nore than likely to spend anything extra I've got on something for Jax or else in the grocery store!!!! It drives him nuts that I won't spend it on myself.
Damn varmints!
Re: Wells
Economical depending on where you live. My family on the Eastern Shore of Maryland have wells that seemingly last forever and are shallow to dig. I'm in the New Mexico mountains where 300-600 feet is not unusual (at $18-20 per foot to drill and case), and seem to last 10-15 years. Plus the flow rate can vary between 1-15 gallons a minute.
Where on the ES of MD? I'm on the ES of Virginia.
Saw that in your tagline after posting. They're in Easton and Trappe, although my Mom lives closer to St. Michaels. We've been there for a long time, and I loved growing up there as a kid.
PS: We forgive you Virginians for shooting at our skipjacks during the Oyster Wars of the 1800's. :)
You're not butting in at all! I know many of us mothers who have given up working to stay at home with the kids deal with this issue daily. Its very, very difficult to reassess self-worth, primarily because, IMO, most of us never give ourselves the credit we deserve. A good exercise for all of us would be to write out a month's worth of tasks we do. Call a dry cleaner or laundromat, find out how much a load of laundry costs. How much do babysitters make hourly? Bookkeeping? Cooking? How much would a round trip cab ride to the grocery store (library, cub scout meeting, etc) cost? Write it all out, add it all up. I bet most of us earn our keep and then some. The hardest thing is admitting it to ourselves.
I'm familiar with the area.
I'm not a Virginian by birth - have only been here a year!!!!
Had to get the heck out of Delaware....didn't want our daughter growing up there.
OK... don't get me started on Delaware. :)
Enjoy the land of pleasant living.
Yes, admitting it is a very hard thing.
My husband has been on me about at least getting a part-time job........not for the money, although I know it would help...........but for my own sanity. He thinks I spend far too much time alone with Jax in school. He encourages me to go out for lunch or a beer during the week - just to see other folks.
speaking of the hubby.........he just called me from the airport in Atlanta - his class got out early and he was able to change his flight. He should be home around 9pm, instead of th 1am we had been expecting. Yippee!!!!!
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