Been Shopping

Well, I took Sunday off, then Monday, now I’ve not worked 3 nights in a row. There really isn’t that much left to do on the front porch, but it will never get done at this rate! Tonight I have a chance to work on it again, but we’re going to Ashland this weekend, so I won’t have another chance until next week. Ugh. I’ve now decided that what I need to do is finish up the front porch, but just get the columns done in the back. I think they may be able to drain the downspouts in the back to the original drain, which is well under the deck between the bathroom window and the dining room doors. It will be quite a feat in exterior plumbing, but I think it’s possible. Hope so, because the alternatives are all pretty ugly…

I started looking at gutter companies in the yellow pages. I’m going to have to decide which companies to get bids from, decide what materials they use, decide what style and what color. It’s a lot of work. Probably one of the biggest decisions is whether or not to get the hooded gutter to help keep the leaves out. With those two giant maple trees, leaves have to be a consideration. I really wish there was someone to help with this, but there isn’t. Jenn wouldn’t feel confident enough to deal with such a process and would have a hard time getting away from work. Dave would need to charge me a surcharge, which I don’t want to pay.

I also started looking at wood burning fireplace inserts. I figure I need to at least get one ordered within the next couple weeks. Some coworkers of Jenn said they really like their Quadrafire, which I found gets good reviews despite complaints about noisy fans. I also found a brand called Avalon, which is suppose to work very well even without a fan, which would be a priority. Others high on my list include Country and Vermont Castings.