Jack the Handyman, literally a Jack of All Trades, came over yesterday to lighten my bank account considerably. Lordy! Three hundred and fifty dollah to repair a foundation crack aggravated by some previous owner’s half-baked DIY patch job and ingress by water, to sand and paint an exterior door that Satan had bought with a white primer and never actually painted, and to climb up on the roof and repaint three sun-blasted gables, along the way prizing out some badly applied filler that was shot and replacing it with a new, longer-lasting product. Though I’m low on cash at this time of month, I didn’t feel too bad about his fee: he worked from around 10:00 a.m. until after dark, mostly doing hard physical work that takes some skill and know-how.
The damage on the west side of the house was a little alarming, and kind of odd given that the yard there is so xeric almost no water is applied to the cacti and there. We figure either rainwater is backing up against the foundation or someone in the past had a garden that they watered copiously. Since the pitch is away from the house and too little rain falls to eat into the concrete, it’s probably the result of someone’s ill-advised flower garden. At any rate, it looks like he did a decent job of repairing it, this time with concrete patching compound, not stucco.
Southwesterners love stucco.
I loved a number of posts around the web this week. Check out some of these:
• At Canadian Finance Blog, you’ll find a hefty dose of common sense about the commonly accepted buy and hold strategy.
• Speaking of common sense, here’s another shot of it at Sustainable Life.
• At I Pick Up Pennies, Abby reflects on the aftermath of her brush with Guillaine-Barré syndrome, and her mom, writer Donna Freedman, also recalls that horrifyingly difficult time.
• Mrs. Accountability has a nice post on ways to use up veggies, my fave being (yes!!) stir-fry. In a similar vein, over at The Digerati Life, SVB reflects on the long-term economy of sticking to healthy foods.
• At the Ultimate Money Blog, Mrs. Money considers whether she can (or should) quit her job.
• Money Crush warns of the expenses that can accrue after you move into a new home, unless you keep a strong grip on things.
• Bargain Babe is running a video series on one of my favorite topics, drugstore beauty products.
• Hot diggety! Frugal Scholar has a recipe for Texas Caviar, a truly delectable treat.
• At A Gai Shan Life, Revanche is discussing her wedding plans with the family, and wonders if it’s OK to be married in a “borrowed” wedding dress—actually an offering from a friend.
• Evan, proprietor of My Journey to Millions, contributes a good post on reviewing your will to Bargaineering.
• Budgeting in the Fun Stuff got into Free Money Finance’s March Madness contest—FaM entered too late to make the cut (gotta stay alert to this thing next year!). So go on over to FMF and vote for BiFS!
• And if this round-up had an editor’s choice, it would definitely be Steve’s outstanding post at Brip-Blap, “Why We Need Immigrants.”
Thanks for including my post on using up veggies. I especially love stir fry when I have an overabundance of veggies needing to be used quickly because I can make a large batch, refrigerate or freeze and use to take for lunch the next couple of days. Great roundup!
Appreciate the link. 🙂
So you read other blogs than just mine! I feel so cheap lol
Thanks for the guest mention.
Thanks for including me!