Tuesday, October 17 (Tired of hearing about paint yet?)

I stopped by the house, and the painters were there hard at work. Of all the crews, they are definitely the most hard-working and reliable thus far on the project. They've finished most of the exterior, and I'm really happy with it. I knew I would like it since I've used the color before, but it was still nice to see the "after". Here's a picture of the garage as a teaser of what the house looks like with the new color. The trim is cream, not white as it might appear. Originally, I had planned to use Birdseye Maple as the exterior color, but the sample I put on the siding looked a little too blah. I tried it in the kitchen, however, and it looks fantastic. I'm going to use it on the exterior of the next project; it really took seeing a wall of the color to get the full effect. Ellie, from across the street, said she loves the color and thinks it perfect for the neighborhood. Yea!

As I was leaving the house, I saw a crew of lawn guys mowing a yard down the street. I stopped my car and asked if they did yardwork (duh). Mario walked back over to the house and gave me a bid. He said since the house was so overgrown, he'd have to charge more than normal - $35 for the front, back, and side yards. Done! J says I paid him about $15 too much, but the grass was freaking a foot high in places. J and I actually have argued for years about how much lawn persons should be paid. I say if you let your yard go to shite, you should not make someone using a manual lawnmower mow your front/back yard for $20. That's just not right. He says if they're willing to do it for that price, then it's all good.

Him: He's good with the price, I'm good with the price, everyone's happy. No one's forcing him to mow the yard.
Me: But what if he has no choice but to mow the yard or not have money to feed his children?
Him: Waaah, waaah, cry me a river.
Me: Shut up, jerk.

I'm summarizing, but that's pretty much how the conversation goes every time.