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tafeanornMonday I couldn’t start right in on Ellis because I had other responsibilities. Princess Smith and the Clockwork Knight is the next book due out from Sabledrake Enterprises, and will be released sometime in November. So I spent the day laying that out and getting proofs ready. I needed some artwork for that, so I renewed my subscription to ClipArt.com and spent much of the day downloading artwork from them. The layout went well, and everyone here as well as Rob, the author, liked how it looked.
Tuesday I finally got back to Ellis and dicked around for a long time before I figured out what exactly I wanted to do with the Bestiary section. And, since I had been playing around at Clipart.com, I decided to include artwork for the beasts. It took a long time (I didn’t finish until Sunday), but it looks really good.
That evening, I took Becca to a meeting at Deaconess Children’s Services, a local non-profit helping families and children. She had an interview to begin volunteering. She was a little shy at first, but was in a surprisingly good mood, and pretty well aced the interview. She was supposed to start helping with dinner food prep the following Thursday.
Thursday, there was a huge fire on the same block as Gary’s Games. It destroyed four little restaurants and damaged the Taproot Theater. It now turns out that the fire was arson, but we only found that out recently. KC, my co-worker, came in to see what was up with the fire and we had a long talk, both about the Ellis layout and about Gary’s Games’ web presence.
Saturday I worked on Ellis in the morning, and then we went out Halloween shopping. Becca has turned 15 over the week, so she got taken out to Mexican food for lunch. After a short nap,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
chubling came over for a bit and we strategized for an online RPG she’s playing in. Wallace & Gromit’s new movie for family movie night was a big hit and very cute, with better pacing than the last few.
Sunday, I got a private message over Facebook from Kelly, my neighbor across the street. He was having his roof done (I had only found that out Thursday morning as they delivered the industrial-sized dumpster) and was offering me use of the dumpster. We wound up having a long conversation during which I mentioned that I was having my roof done too.
Then we started comparing. He’s getting his done for less than $4000. That was quite a shocker. It actually made me want to cry. But then I was able to point to things that I’m getting that he’s not. His roof was being done by an independent contractor (just one or two guys) and his 10 year old son, who was wandering around cleaning things up. He only had one layer of roof to remove, while I had three (one more than the current building code allows). I’m getting top quality shingles (even that other bid that I got, the one for just materials, listed a price of $8k for the same brand of shingles with only a 30 yr. warrantee). They’re putting in new vents and flashing, and dealing with the difficult flat roof. All with a lifetime warranty, and we plan to keep this house as a rental for a long time.
And I guess that flat roof section is really the key. It has been troublesome the entire time we’ve owned the house. While it didn’t leak while we were there, it always sagged, and it being “fixed” was actually a condition of us buying the house. And by fixed all that really happened was that a support post got put in, rather than any actual repair to the structure. There is definitely something not right going on in there, the real question is just how much bad, how structural is it and how difficult will it be to fix. So I really want someone with experience and the resources to be able to fix whatever is under there.
This is all me trying to justify my decision, but I think it’s still a good one. While I would love to get a roof for $4000, I do want a good one that I can ignore for a long time. But on the other hand, for the price I’m paying, I could buy four cheap roofs. Even if they each only lasted 15 years, that would still be a lifetime’s worth. So I don’t know. It literally makes me sick to my stomach to think about it too much and to wonder if I’m really wasting that much money.
Other than that, Kelly and I had a great chat, over an hour standing outside on the very chilly morning. After that, I went inside and finished up Ellis while the girls worked on Becca’s zombie Halloween costume.
Tuesday I finally got back to Ellis and dicked around for a long time before I figured out what exactly I wanted to do with the Bestiary section. And, since I had been playing around at Clipart.com, I decided to include artwork for the beasts. It took a long time (I didn’t finish until Sunday), but it looks really good.
That evening, I took Becca to a meeting at Deaconess Children’s Services, a local non-profit helping families and children. She had an interview to begin volunteering. She was a little shy at first, but was in a surprisingly good mood, and pretty well aced the interview. She was supposed to start helping with dinner food prep the following Thursday.
Thursday, there was a huge fire on the same block as Gary’s Games. It destroyed four little restaurants and damaged the Taproot Theater. It now turns out that the fire was arson, but we only found that out recently. KC, my co-worker, came in to see what was up with the fire and we had a long talk, both about the Ellis layout and about Gary’s Games’ web presence.
Saturday I worked on Ellis in the morning, and then we went out Halloween shopping. Becca has turned 15 over the week, so she got taken out to Mexican food for lunch. After a short nap,
chubling came over for a bit and we strategized for an online RPG she’s playing in. Wallace & Gromit’s new movie for family movie night was a big hit and very cute, with better pacing than the last few.Sunday, I got a private message over Facebook from Kelly, my neighbor across the street. He was having his roof done (I had only found that out Thursday morning as they delivered the industrial-sized dumpster) and was offering me use of the dumpster. We wound up having a long conversation during which I mentioned that I was having my roof done too.
Then we started comparing. He’s getting his done for less than $4000. That was quite a shocker. It actually made me want to cry. But then I was able to point to things that I’m getting that he’s not. His roof was being done by an independent contractor (just one or two guys) and his 10 year old son, who was wandering around cleaning things up. He only had one layer of roof to remove, while I had three (one more than the current building code allows). I’m getting top quality shingles (even that other bid that I got, the one for just materials, listed a price of $8k for the same brand of shingles with only a 30 yr. warrantee). They’re putting in new vents and flashing, and dealing with the difficult flat roof. All with a lifetime warranty, and we plan to keep this house as a rental for a long time.
And I guess that flat roof section is really the key. It has been troublesome the entire time we’ve owned the house. While it didn’t leak while we were there, it always sagged, and it being “fixed” was actually a condition of us buying the house. And by fixed all that really happened was that a support post got put in, rather than any actual repair to the structure. There is definitely something not right going on in there, the real question is just how much bad, how structural is it and how difficult will it be to fix. So I really want someone with experience and the resources to be able to fix whatever is under there.
This is all me trying to justify my decision, but I think it’s still a good one. While I would love to get a roof for $4000, I do want a good one that I can ignore for a long time. But on the other hand, for the price I’m paying, I could buy four cheap roofs. Even if they each only lasted 15 years, that would still be a lifetime’s worth. So I don’t know. It literally makes me sick to my stomach to think about it too much and to wonder if I’m really wasting that much money.
Other than that, Kelly and I had a great chat, over an hour standing outside on the very chilly morning. After that, I went inside and finished up Ellis while the girls worked on Becca’s zombie Halloween costume.
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no subject
Date: 2009-11-04 01:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-04 06:31 am (UTC)My apologies!
no subject
Date: 2009-11-04 03:12 pm (UTC)I knew you were trying to help and that is exactly how I took your comment. I had actually written both this post and the one before it at the same time, I just broke them up and spread the posting of them out over two days.
As a person, I'm quiet. I keep my feelings and emotions locked down and held closely to the chest. I worry a lot and let silly things that I can't control get to me.
I wanted, especially with this series of posts about an up and down month of my life, to reflect those feelings as honestly as I could bring myself to do so. I want to break out of this stoic, Ward Cleaver -like stereotype of person who is always calm and collected, and try to be more adult and emotionally expressive.
So in a way I should be thanking you. Thank you for taking the time out to read my post. And thank you for seeing the emotion that I was trying to express and empathizing with it (as well as trying to help us out).