Monday, July 12, 2010

Block, Chainlink, Wood, or Rock?

Today was ok. Not too busy. The boss is still out of town so I can wear jeans and the annoying coworker is on vacation for the next 2 weeks so I don't have to listen to a critique of my every action.

No more rain yet. It's like the clouds are just there to decorate the sky. I noticed that another neighbor is having a well dug. I know that group of houses was on a 5 person well share. I have heard that wells around here can only manage 3 people at once. They must have gotten tired of running out of water. I should find out how much a well costs these days. 3 years ago it cost $35k. Maybe it's gone down in price. I can always hope.

I have been trying to think of fencing alternatives since I found out that a block wall of the size that I want costs $40k and up. That's half the price of a guest house. I thought about a rock wall since I have a lot of rocks but most of my rocks are small and concrete is expensive. The same thing with using soda cans or dog food cans, mortar/cement is expensive. I could also make my own adobe blocks or make a sandbag wall. All are possibilities. But then I saw that the used building supply store has 8' long x 6' high used wood fence panels for only $10 a piece. That would certainly be cheaper than my other ideas. I would still have to buy corner posts and concrete but if I scale down my plans, I think this is doable. I have a few more details to work out like will they fit in my truck and can I manage a panel by myself. I think I will have to ask my neighbor for help.

Anyway, I am just brainstorming. I don't have the money to start any new projects yet. But when I do get some money I will be ready to go.

2 comments:

Dave said...

Daizy, I don't think you can consider any big projects as long as you have priority #1 being the payoff of your mortgage. You don't seem to have the money or income stream to handle more than one of these costly items.

If you choose to go forward with more than one of them, then something else will have to give, whether it is paying down the mortgage later, working longer, or forgoing one or more of those capital expenditures.

And you don't want to do some kind of early retirement or draining of your emergency fund for an extended period of time with the bills for these expensive items hanging over your head.

Daizy said...

I'm just making a to-do list of things I want when the mortgage is gone. The bad part is that when the mortgage plan hits a road block, like with my tenant not being able to pay, I am tempted to start a new project because it feels like the mortgage will never be gone. I'm not to that point yet but if I keep adding months on to the end of my plan, I'm going to want to do something to make my life easier now...and by that I mean home improvement project like a new fence!