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Things you would buy if you had a little disposable income

KingGrump

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My son used to mosquito magnet until he hit puberty. Must be the smell.
I can hang out in VT for weeks and not get a bite as long Mamie is around to take one for the team.
 

Dave Petersen

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I wants a pergola. Have for years. Our deck reaches solar temps in the summer. But I keep waffling about what exactly I want to do - keep the redwood deck and put a wooden pergola up? But the dang thing needs to be refinished constantly (see: intense sun). Replace it all with synthetic, which is supposed to last longer? So wasteful. Mix and match? Dunno how that would go ...

Also, my husband is a total mosquito magnet. I'm the only one using the deck.

So, no pergola yet.

This is what we did -- we have the same heat issue. It doesn't match the deck, but it matches our fence. I purchased it at The Home Depot. It requires no painting, but it is pretty dented up (metal) from all the hail storms we get.

We still don't spend any time on the deck in the summer since Omaha weather can be brutal between the heat and humidity, but it does keep the house cooler.

image.jpeg
 
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SBrown

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This is what we did -- we have the same heat issue. It doesn't match the deck, but it matches our fence. I purchased it at The Home Depot. It requires no painting, but it is pretty dented up (metal) from all the hail storms we get.

We still don't spend any time on the deck in the summer since Omaha weather can be brutal between the heat and humidity, but it does keep the house cooler.

View attachment 11263

Is it super loud when it hails?

My in-laws built a pergola here out of beetle kill pine, and it is gorgeous. I'm not sure what they finished it with, but it's unstained.

I sympathize with the refinishing ... we have a tigerwood deck, on the west side of the house, which is half covered by a roof and half baking in the sun. It needs stripping and staining every single year ... well, half of it does. It's gorgeous when done, but we've tried 3 or 4 different finishes, and nothing lasts more than a season. So now we are just letting it gray out. It's a hardwood, so it should be ok. (Plus, it happens to be a fashionable look these days.) You can't really do that with redwood, though.
 

Dave Petersen

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Is it super loud when it hails?

My in-laws built a pergola here out of beetle kill pine, and it is gorgeous. I'm not sure what they finished it with, but it's unstained.

I sympathize with the refinishing ... we have a tigerwood deck, on the west side of the house, which is half covered by a roof and half baking in the sun. It needs stripping and staining every single year ... well, half of it does. It's gorgeous when done, but we've tried 3 or 4 different finishes, and nothing lasts more than a season. So now we are just letting it gray out. It's a hardwood, so it should be ok. (Plus, it happens to be a fashionable look these days.) You can't really do that with redwood, though.

Everything is loud when it hails so we don't particular notice the pergola being loud. Below photo is our last hail storm from this past May. We have had 3 new roofs in the past 8 years - time to get out of here!
IMG_4964.JPG
 

SBrown

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Everything is loud when it hails so we don't particular notice the pergola being loud. Below photo is our last hail storm from this past May. We have had 3 new roofs in the past 8 years - time to get out of here!
View attachment 11265

We get a few hailstorms here, probably not quite like Nebraska, but I'm pretty sure everyone on our street has gotten a new roof (at least one) due to hail except us. There is one house down the street that I think still has its original shake roof, too -- they were evidently very high quality shakes back 40 years ago. We had at least four insurance guys check us out, and it was always, Well, you need a new roof but not because of hail damage. Finally I gave up waiting for the hailstorm that would do it, because I decided that it would probably do way more damage than I really wanted, and we just a couple of weeks ago paid for our own new roof. :( No one does that here! lol.

(That said ... I'm still waiting for a hailstorm, because we didn't buy quite as expensive of a roof as I wanted. Eventually I'm hoping to get another one, and will supplement the insurance check a little bit.)
 
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TS
Tricia

Tricia

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Our pergola is wood and needs to be stained about every 4 or 5 years. We stained it 3 years ago and will probably do it again next yer or the year after.
IMG_9650.jpeg
 

nay

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:nono:

I can be bitten three times in three minutes. Hell, one minute.

I don't know about this not having mosquitos here though? Admittedly, I live in a place with quite a bit of water around it, from golf courses to rivers to creeks to reservoirs and so on, and otherwise I go to the mountains a lot (where they also exist due to water) but I know multiple people who have gotten West Nile and the like.

I'm southern Colorado (by about 100 yards) - it's really amazing how much drier it is here from the top of the Palmer Divide south. We have a few in a typical year in Monument, like "hey, I saw a mosquito!", but then the birds and bats eat them. Can usually sit outside at dusk/dark without any issues, although last year and this year have been wet enough to maybe light a citronella candle.

My relative perspective is growing up in Virginia, and say going out at night on the NC coast. The latter at times being cases where you can't see past the swarms. I can't imagine 'screening in' here, but everything's relative and other humans generally protect me by being more yummy.
 

Monique

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No mosquitos? That's crazy talk. I got bitten tonight at a school track with no nearby water and wearing deet repellant. I won't even start counting the number I got camping this weekend. While wearing deet and picardin.

Yeah, my husband the magnet took a walk the other day having sprayed his entire body like a madman. But not his face. Got three bites on his cheek and a few on his neck. Ugggggh I hate those beasts. Not least because it makes my husband not want to walk the dogs, and I can't do it right now.
 

SBrown

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I'm southern Colorado (by about 100 yards) - it's really amazing how much drier it is here from the top of the Palmer Divide south. We have a few in a typical year in Monument, like "hey, I saw a mosquito!", but then the birds and bats eat them. Can usually sit outside at dusk/dark without any issues, although last year and this year have been wet enough to maybe light a citronella candle.

My relative perspective is growing up in Virginia, and say going out at night on the NC coast. The latter at times being cases where you can't see past the swarms. I can't imagine 'screening in' here, but everything's relative and other humans generally protect me by being more yummy.

Got it -- I was addressing your "in Colorado" statement, though, and probably conflating things.

Yeah, no this isn't Minnesota or Alaska or the East Coast or Central America or.... :) But there are pockets, for sure. Worst mosquitoes I ever experienced were in the Utah desert -- on the river, to be sure, but my poor mother got something like 60 bites on her, um, uncovered skin in the 45 sec it took to use the groover. Other than that, we had to be covered head to toe. That night they just kept dive-bombing my tent, I will never get that whining noise out of my head; it was like a Hitchcock film. Luckily a cold front blew in about 3 am and that was it.

So far we haven't had too many this year, knockonwood, but it's been dry. Often the town comes through and sprays, it can get that bad.
 

SBrown

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Yeah, my husband the magnet took a walk the other day having sprayed his entire body like a madman. But not his face. Got three bites on his cheek and a few on his neck. Ugggggh I hate those beasts. Not least because it makes my husband not want to walk the dogs, and I can't do it right now.

Has he ever used those clothes with the repellent built in? I don't even know if they really work. When DS went to Africa a few years ago, we bought him some of those shirts.
 

Monique

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Has he ever used those clothes with the repellent built in? I don't even know if they really work. When DS went to Africa a few years ago, we bought him some of those shirts.

I'll make the suggestion. His preferred clothing is an Old Chicago's tee and cargo shorts, so it might be tough to convince him to dress for mosquito. He's just as stubborn as I am. But maybe ...
 

Dave Petersen

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We get a few hailstorms here, probably not quite like Nebraska, but I'm pretty sure everyone on our street has gotten a new roof (at least one) due to hail except us. There is one house down the street that I think still has its original shake roof, too -- they were evidently very high quality shakes back 40 years ago. We had at least four insurance guys check us out, and it was always, Well, you need a new roof but not because of hail damage. Finally I gave up waiting for the hailstorm that would do it, because I decided that it would probably do way more damage than I really wanted, and we just a couple of weeks ago paid for our own new roof. :( No one does that here! lol.

(That said ... I'm still waiting for a hailstorm, because we didn't buy quite as expensive of a roof as I wanted. Eventually I'm hoping to get another one, and will supplement the insurance check a little bit.)

We need new trim around the windows as well. Contractor should start any day now.
image.jpeg


Pretty common site in the city -- perpetual repairs. Took this photo about an hour ago from my driveway.
Note the broken shutters on the house on the right.
image.jpeg
 
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nay

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That night they just kept dive-bombing my tent, I will never get that whining noise out of my head; it was like a Hitchcock film.

That reminds me of camping on a beach in Delaware when I was a kid with Boy Scouts - squarely in the catalogue of well intentioned but unwise ideas. The no see ums were small enough to get through the tent mesh. It was a massacre. The trip was called off after one night.

My kids are so soft when it comes to bugs growing up here. Heck, my older boys used to cry when we would fly into the Norfolk, VA area at night and there would be all these tall trees along the road. Granted they were like 2 and 3, but still.

I think in my heart of hearts, if I had a little disposable income and 100% control of its expenditure, I'd use it on some sort of expedition to teach them something, anything, about even the tiniest bit of hardship. For illustration:

My eldest comes into the kitchen yesterday, I'm taking a break to cook some breakfast patties and eggs, ask if he wants some.

Eldest - "I'd love some."

Me - "Great, it's almost ready"

Eldest - [Goes to the pantry, pulls out granola, and starts to make himself breakfast.]

Me - "Why are you making breakfast when we literally just discussed your breakfast being ready?"

Eldest - "Why not?"

Me - "Because you're eating the car insurance you are hoping I am going to buy for you."

Eldest - [irritated]

Screw the deck. I would spend money to see them suffer.
 

SBrown

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We need new trim around the windows as well. Contractor should start any day now.
View attachment 11267

We have had storms like that here, but thankfully they've missed us. Neighbors 1/8 mi away had smashed windows, destroyed siding, and completely stripped trees. We had maybe 30 sec of soft, pea-sized pieces.
 

Lauren

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Well...now I want a pergola.

Last summer/fall we built a free standing deck, the deck surface itself is complete, but the yard around it and the details (railing, step, trim) are still a work in progress. I think a pergola would make a very nice addition.
 

Dave Petersen

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We have had storms like that here, but thankfully they've missed us. Neighbors 1/8 mi away had smashed windows, destroyed siding, and completely stripped trees. We had maybe 30 sec of soft, pea-sized pieces.

My Dad owned an auto body repair business while I was growing up, and I worked there in the summers during high school/college. I remember one year a neighboring community had softball sized hail. Unless cars were pretty new a lot of them that came into the shop were totaled out by the insurance companies.
 

Dadskier

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Back to the original question: I want a lake house in ski country that I can use year round. Western Lakes of Maine has always been on my radar.
 

KingGrump

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That reminds me of camping on a beach in Delaware when I was a kid with Boy Scouts - squarely in the catalogue of well intentioned but unwise ideas. The no see ums were small enough to get through the tent mesh. It was a massacre. The trip was called off after one night.

My kids are so soft when it comes to bugs growing up here. Heck, my older boys used to cry when we would fly into the Norfolk, VA area at night and there would be all these tall trees along the road. Granted they were like 2 and 3, but still.

I think in my heart of hearts, if I had a little disposable income and 100% control of its expenditure, I'd use it on some sort of expedition to teach them something, anything, about even the tiniest bit of hardship. For illustration:

My eldest comes into the kitchen yesterday, I'm taking a break to cook some breakfast patties and eggs, ask if he wants some.

Eldest - "I'd love some."

Me - "Great, it's almost ready"

Eldest - [Goes to the pantry, pulls out granola, and starts to make himself breakfast.]

Me - "Why are you making breakfast when we literally just discussed your breakfast being ready?"

Eldest - "Why not?"

Me - "Because you're eating the car insurance you are hoping I am going to buy for you."

Eldest - [irritated]

Screw the deck. I would spend money to see them suffer.

I'll take your money. Send them to my place. I'll have my son take them around the city. It's a education in itself.
 
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fatbob

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Screw the deck. I would spend money to see them suffer.
.

Best thing I ever did that taught me budgeting, value of money,resourcefulness etc was interrailing round Europe post high school. Think parents might have floated us the money for the rail passes but everything else was funded out of savings. We could go pretty much wherever we wanted but certainly couldn't afford taxis and lodging above hostel/campsite grade. If we walked for 30 mins to the camp site the bus fare saved might buy us a beer, if we slummed it sleeping in seats on an overnight train we might cover a day's activities. I think we all might have had a parental credit card tucked away but strict instructions not to use it unless we REALLY had to use it and anyway would have felt like defeat to do so.

Paris -Bruges - Chamonix-Nice- Monaco- Florence- Pisa-Rome-Venice-Zurich-Innsbruck-Vienna-Cologne-Heidelberg-Amsterdam- Birmingham (had tix for a U2 gig)


Good times
 
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