Yardwork

[Wolfador]

my mower broke when I went to cut the grass after just getting back from out of town (so the the grass was fairly tall) had to cut the grass using the weed-wacker. Luckily its only about .25 acre.

 

[eg1]

Originally Posted by GQgeek

If you paid lower taxes you might be able to afford someone to do it for you. Just sayin'.
I can afford it, I'm just a cheap ******. I can't wait until my son is old enough to ditch this job on him.

Originally Posted by holymadness

Houses are for chumps. Lawns, doubly so.
Apartment-dweller, I take it?

 

[GQgeek]

Originally Posted by eg1

I can afford it, I'm just a cheap ******. I can't wait until my son is old enough to ditch this job on him.

Apartment-dweller, I take it?

Just harassing you because i'm sure you voted ndp or lib.

But you shold really pay some neighborhood kid so he can have some pocket money to experiment with drugs.

 

[Nosu3]

The reel lawnmower is on its way. Now I just have to get some shears for the dandelions.

 

[holymadness]

Originally Posted by eg1

I can afford it, I'm just a cheap ******. I can't wait until my son is old enough to ditch this job on him.

Apartment-dweller, I take it?

I grew up in the suburbs and found they became intolerable after I turned twelve. I also have horrible and vivid memories of wasting my weekends scraping and painting fences, mowing lawns, pulling weeds, and shoveling driveways.

Aside from the lower cost, I see no advantages to living in a home rather than an apartment, and plenty of disadvantages.

 

[CouttsClient]

Originally Posted by holymadness

I grew up in the suburbs and found they became intolerable after I turned twelve. I also have horrible and vivid memories of wasting my weekends scraping and painting fences, mowing lawns, pulling weeds, and shoveling driveways.

Aside from the lower cost, I see no advantages to living in a home rather than an apartment, and plenty of disadvantages.

Privacy is the most significant issue for me. I simply cannot stand sharing walls or "common areas" with people. I purchased close to 800 acres about a month ago to sooth the need for space

 

[JayJay]

Originally Posted by FLMountainMan

I'm a freak about yardwork. I love it. Honestly. I even do my next door neighbor's yard. Grab a beer and a cozie, radio and headphones, and go. Love it to death. Not that this is a good thing, but I typically spend more per year on landscaping than on the interior of my home.

Also - I don't get why so many people have a gym membership AND a bunch of powertools. I have a push mower, a slingblade, handsaw, etc... Do everything by hand and get a great workout.

Same here, I love it. Many of my neighbors have lawn services, but I wouldn't think of hiring one. I much prefer to do it myself. I love being outdoors, and it provides a nice workout.

 

[holymadness]

Originally Posted by CouttsClient

Privacy is the most significant issue for me. I simply cannot stand sharing walls or "common areas" with people. I purchased close to 800 acres about a month ago to sooth the need for space
People will find a way to be assholes whatever their living arrangements. My childhood home was very architecturally avant-garde compared to those around it and the neighbouring residents went so far as to try to prevent it from being built at all. They even collectively offered my parents a bribe to leave the neighbourhood midway through its construction. When it was finally built, they hired a lawyer who went to the city's land registry and found that its square footage was insufficient for the size of the lot, but that only meant that the contractor was on the hook to build us an addition for free.

For all the privacy we had in a SFH, we somehow always managed to be affected by lunatic neighbours, petty border disputes over hedges and fences, and other peoples' kids and dogs running through our garden. Eight hundred acres is probably enough to prevent most of that but it's far from the norm.

 

[FLMountainMan]

Originally Posted by holymadness

I grew up in the suburbs and found they became intolerable after I turned twelve. I also have horrible and vivid memories of wasting my weekends scraping and painting fences, mowing lawns, pulling weeds, and shoveling driveways.

Aside from the lower cost, I see no advantages to living in a home rather than an apartment, and plenty of disadvantages.

This is why people are different. I can't imagine living in an apartment. I love my yard, love the privacy. I hope to never have to live in an apartment again.

 

[holymadness]

My feeling is that the privacy of the single family home is illusory; people living in high-rises are far more isolated from their neighbours than suburbanites.

In any case, we're far from the topic of yardwork. A nice yard can be great for having barbecues, relaxing in the sun, smoking, gardening and so on but it's not worth the maintenance. I'd much rather have a balcony or rooftop terrace. All the advantages and none of the drawbacks, unless you desperately love grass.

 

[Reggs]

I hope I never have a yard. My dad did yard work when I was a kid and he hated it. When I managed some responsibilities for it, I hated it. I never even used the yard when I was a kid. I cant imagine what I would do with one now that I'm an adult.

 

[BP348]

I like cutting the grass but the wife doesn't like the way I edge or weed eat so she does that part.

I've had my mower for about 10 years and it's about done so I'm thinking I'll buy a new mower this year.

I want to try and grow some tomatoes in pots and a small herb garden this year.

 

[GQgeek]

Originally Posted by holymadness

My feeling is that the privacy of the single family home is illusory; people living in high-rises are far more isolated from their neighbours than suburbanites.

In any case, we're far from the topic of yardwork. A nice yard can be great for having barbecues, relaxing in the sun, smoking, gardening and so on but it's not worth the maintenance. I'd much rather have a balcony or rooftop terrace. All the advantages and none of the drawbacks, unless you desperately love grass.

Yeah, but you can't have a proper home theater in a condo. I know bc I've had noise complaints filed against me.

 

[eg1]

Much grunt-work this weekend associated with opening the pool. I hate the pool for the first three days we open it every year.

Wife and kids love the pool, though, so on balance it is worth it.

 

[Michigan Planner]

I enjoy doing yardwork. Even when I was a kid, I never had to be asked to go fire up the lawnmower or even go pull weeds.

For the first two years in our house, I cut the lawn, edged, cleaned up all the trimmings, etc. I enjoyed doing it, but for the size of our yard (about .75 acres minus the house footprint and driveway), it just wasn't worth the time or effort to do it myself so this year I've hired a crew to come in and do all that for me and I'm glad that I did. This way, I've got much more free time to work in the flower beds, trim trees, tend my vegetable gardens, etc... the stuff that I really enjoy doing.

I do have a few points of pride for my lawn: When we moved in, the backyard was in awful shape from the previous owner's two dogs and some bushes that had gotten too overgrown for the space, there were many bare spots and a lot of weeds. Two years later, the backyard is in pretty darn good shape and is actually pretty lush now and I fixed most of the issues with minimal cost. And then in the front yard, I've been out there working a few times (planting flowers, cleaning up debris, pulling weeds) and have had two occasions where complete strangers walking past have told me that the landscaping looks much better than when the previous owners were in the house.