To Gutter or Not to Gutter?

Can you believe that a house was built and no one said a word of putting gutters on it? Especially a house here in Texas where we get alot of heavy rains especially during the winter time.
Had I known, I would of course had them put on and let it be part of the mortgage.

So, after two winters of watching how the rain came gushing off the gable and into the one valley, pouring out into my garden and spewing the nice bark that the builders had put there out across my drive until there was nothing left, leaving a deep rut in its wake, I decided enough was enough.

Not to mention that on either side of my house is a ditch between my neighbors and I and they do have gutters but with my house not having one, that ground is so saturated it squishes to step on it.

So, time to get gutters on the house.

I knew I could not even begin to get my garden set up much less plant anything with all that rain gushing down.

Now comes the task of what kind to get or rather who? I looked around at the neighbors and it seems everyone around me has so many downspouts, near striping their homes. I had inquired about them with one local company and they came out without even letting me know they were coming and did an estimate and then left it in my door.
Just great, brilliant, so there was no talking to the guy to ask questions or anything and the write up was very vague without any detail.

So a few months ago, I was looking around in Home Depot and found out that it is not just a store with building supplies and garden stuff. They will come out and do work on your house too! Wow!
I didn't know they did that too! Where have I been? What a find! So I contacted them and they set a time and came out and met with me and went over the house with me and I pointed out the trouble areas that I knew for sure that I wanted the gutters and where I wanted the downspouts to keep the water out of the garden. What a friendly guy!
I was not quite ready for the gutters yet, financially, but it was good to get an idea of how much it might be. He said he would call me in Jan to see if I was ready for them and I agreed.

January came and I was not quite ready so told him in a few weeks. I didn't hear from him and then I could not find his paper to let him know when I was ready!! EEK!

But through trial and error, I was able to recontact Home Depot and they sent out another guy that week and we went over it all again and he walked around the house and showed me a few things.

He explained that the soil is like a sponge, when wet, it expands and as it dries, it shrinks back up. He told me that over time, the soil would be pushing up against the foundation and in fact the patio slab too. He also pointed out that when my patio slab was poured, small niches were not put into the concrete so that if it would crack, it would be the hope that it would crack there and evenly. Since it did not have any of those, if it did crack, it would be jagged and ugly.
He also showed me how the back yard was getting eroded away where the rain fell from the roof and in time, it would continue to do that.

I explained the areas where we wanted to keep the water out and so he made some notes and recommended the 6 inch gutters due to the amount of rain that we are getting here.
Of course that meant this would cost me more than the original quote had been as he also recommended we get some gutters on a portion of the 2nd level. I had to agree considering the angling of the roof. Plus, the gutters were needed all the way around
Going with 6 inch gutters allowed for less downspouts as they are not required to be as close as the 5 inch gutters. So it would also mean I would not have all those downspouts striping my home.
Save some money in that regard.

Two days after, another representative from Home Depot came by and did a pre-installation inspection as I even got to pick out the color of the gutters. Cool!
So he did some more measuring and then went over a few things and gave me some numbers and explained he would be my contact for this. In a few days, I would be hearing from the builder himself who would be doing this and setting up a day for install. This guy told me that once the other got going, it would go very quickly. :) I should look for this to be done in a week!!!

WOW!! How awesome!

Also, what was nice was that if I referred anyone to Home Depot for roof or gutter work, etc, there is a $100 referral reward. :) Also, after the gutters are installed, I could go and put myself into a drawing for a $5,000.00 Home Depot Gift card! Very nice!

Even better was that Home Depot offered a credit card at 0% interest for 12 months. Very nice.
Of course like all those companies that do offer 0% interest for a period of time, you have to be sure and pay off whatever balance you have before that time frame is up. What will happen if you do not is that all the interest during that time you were supposedly getting it for 'free', will be all put back on and you will end up paying for it. Always be very careful and make sure you can pay it off before the time frame is up or get socked with that back interest and then have a high interest rate more than likely of at least 21%.

That's the trick to those so be very careful.

Gutters were installed on the next Tuesday and all done in one shot! I was so impressed! They put in these small wing guards to try to help the gushing water from flowing down the deep valley of my rooftops

They liked how I matched the gutters with the trim and garage door so that it blends in better.

The downspouts were placed just where I wanted and it all came out very well.

There were 3 men total and they worked very fast and were most kind and friendly and mindful of the plants that I do have in the garden.


They did tell me that I did not really need to have the 6 inch gutters as my roof is so cut up but I figured it was better to be prepared and I did have those two areas where the rain did gush down from the valleys. I am also glad I did go with the 6 inch ones as we have gotten alot of rain since then.

Thank you to Home Depot and the men who installed the gutters and downspouts!!
They look terrific!

Carpet vs Hardwood Floors and Quick Spot Cleaning

Personal opinion here on this topic. It has crossed my mind several times and I just wanted to share some of my thoughts with you on it.

When I was having my house built for me, I paid for a big upgrade for extra thick padding and nicer carpet. I wanted to just walk into my house and feel my feet sink down into the carpet! Nice image yes?
Now if I were to really think about it, I would realize that this is pretty difficult to make happen as most carpet does have a firm woven material under the fibers. Yes, alot has to do with the padding but then would I really want my feet to sink down like they do in soft sand or when standing on a foam eggshell mat for a bed? Well that was sort of what was in my mind anyway.

So I chose the thickest padding that I thought was reasonable and they even let me try it out in the design studio and it felt nice. I chose a nice beige/cream carpet so that it would match everything and I knew this was not to be my dream home and that I would want to sell it one day.

What I didn't know was that I was going to end up with not just one, two or three, but yes folks, five cats!! Holy smokes! I am becoming the crazy cat lady! It was surely not intentional but you know how you have a beautiful daughter who gives you those eyes and so you say yes to her having a cat too and then you always wanted a grey tiger striped so you just get one more but while there at the pet store, the evil ladies from the cat shelter, pull out a tiny tawty persian kitten that looks like Gizmo from The Gremlins and hands it to you as it snuggles into your throat and you know you can't put her down so yup, now you are up to 4. Then the oldest orange one dies and you think that's it but then after a year, you really do miss your lovie orange one that used to snuggle and give you kisses like none of the others do so you hunt around and find a 5 week old kitten and of course, you can't just get him alone and be the only kitten so you have to get his litter mate and there you have it, you end up with 5!! Now one relief is that my daughter is going to take 2 of them when she moves out after high school. So I'll be down to 3 happily. :)

Anyway, I digress....

Carpet or hardwood floors...well when you have had cats or any animals, even a dog, you quickly realize that carpet is not such a good choice. Cats tend to throw up, hairballs, too much food...if ill, they could have accidents on your carpet! YIKES! Dogs are much the same really, except for them, they may pee wherever they are simply cause they are overexcited to see you.

Over time, your carpet fibers that once looked so nice, get matted down from walking across that same spot over and over again. If anyone's kids or your own or even yourself or an adult spills something on it, it's down the fibers it goes to the mat and you may have a carpet steamer but it may not always get it out.

Probably the only way to really and truly clean it properly, is to have someone come in and do so professionally.

I have been able to find a nice little handy carpet cleaning machine and it really does work well! It's the Bissell Little Green Pet cleaner:

I adore this thing! It really is easy to use and to keep clean! :) It has helped me alot in cleaning spots on my carpet whether it was the kids spilling soda or a cat gakking up a hairball. But I am still worried over my poor carpet mat underneath.

 

 

So after several years, I have definitely learned that it is much better to have a hardwood floor if you are going to have animals. It will definitely make things more hypo-allergenic since the carpet can hold dust and all sorts of things you can't see whereas the hardwood floors will get dusty too but I would see it more and thereby clean it with a nice Murphy's Oil Soap. :)

 

 

If I want carpet in the future, I'll be using those throw rugs, oriental carpets, ones you can either clean or replace. Yes, I won't be able to sink down into it, but I never really could with the carpets and if I want to do that, I'll just get some nice cushy slippers! :)