Big Gutter Ripoff?

Once again, I did some work this weekend, but didn’t do anything during the week. Ugh. I’m going to look back on this time at some point and think of it as a lost opportunity. Shoot. But, I did get more of the beam in the sun room wrapped. Next I need to sand the fir rafters then cover the end cavities where the ceiling beams meet the exterior wall with more oak ply. I was thinking I could fir out (fur out, fer out?) the ends with the leftover ¾ ply sheathing. But, I’m not sure this wouldn’t push it out too far. I may have to cut some strips with the leftover framing wood. But, either way, I’ll get this done soon. Well, eventually.

I did get some bids on the gutters, finally. The bid for the Leaf Guard gutters was $2700. I did think this was a lot, but since this was roughly what the wood stove cost, I didn’t choke or scream or pull my hair out in front of the guy doing the bid. I thought maybe it was 50% more than conventional or maybe even twice. It wasn’t until I started getting other bids that I realized just how FUCKING OUTRAGOUS this price really is. The $2700 was just for the lower roof, the sunroom, and the downspouts. It didn’t include the dormers, since these seem to have enough overhang that they don’t really need gutters (with dormers would have been nearly $4K!!!). The next bid I got, for conventional gutters was $545!!! I got 3 other bids, which were all within $100 of this bid. That means the Leaf Guard system is over 5 times the cost of conventional!!! That’s just ridiculous! So, as much as I like the idea of gutters that never need to be cleaned, I’m going to get the conventional gutters just because I’m so offended by the concept of paying 5 times the price. It’s fucking criminal! I’m going to go with the company that bid $545. Not just because they were the low bid, but because they were the only company with conventional gutters to actually let me talk to the bidder before the bid. I may have to pay just a bit more than the $545, since I think he may have forgot a downspout or something, but I’ll still probably save enough money to buy us two round trip plane tickets to Europe, for fuck sake!