This post will probably bore anyone who is not a homeowner or not interested in a myriad of details about home improvements, but I try to learn as much as a I can from each contractor who does work on this house.

I've been trying to jumpstart a few projects around here. I had a local contractor come out a mnth ago to replace my front entry door; he took measurements and gave me his price, which I agreed to, but I've been unable to get him over here to do the work.

(The old door is probably 1950s vintage, just a beat up wood door I once tried to paint with latex, which was a mistake. The new door is fiberglass (more energy-efficient with a clear stained glass panel insert in the top. It cost a lot of $$ so I hope it looks good!  I need jobs like this done should I decide to sell the house at some point. That old door is really an eyesore.)

Anyway, when the first contractor ghosted me, I tried calling a bunch of others, and their prices were substantially higher than his, and most couldn't do it anytime soon anyway. I was starting to feel a little anxious since, based on the 1st guy's assurance my chosen door would fit, I purchased the door, and there's a return window I didn't want to run up against.

The door has been sitting in my garage for weeks. Finallly, in desperation, I called Home Depot. They sent a guy out today to measure the doorway dimensions and make sure the door would fit. I started feeling anxious about this since, worst case scenario, I don't have the means of returning this door by myself and as mentioned, the local contractor is not returning my calls.

Luckily, Home Depot guy said it will fit. Now I just have to wait for their scheduler to call me to schedule the install. I won't be surprised if it will be another few weeks, but at least I'll know how long it will be and that they WILL show up.

Their price is higher than the original guy's price, but lower than all the other local contractors I called. I mean, the spread beween the lowest and the highest price was $1,000, just for labor, which seems way out of line.

In other exciting news, I had a plumber here to check the anode rod in my newish heat pump hot water heater. I had a different plumber here over a month ago to inspect and possibly replace it but they discovered they could not remove the rod due to lack of enough clearance between the top of the water heater and the basement ceiling. So I had scheduled for them to return; for over $900, their solution was to saw through the 2 copper pipes on the water heater so they could TIP the water heater to the side enough to allow removal of the rod. Then they would install "unions" on the copper pipes that would allow them to simply unscrew them next time I wanted to check the anode rod.

The junior plumber who was here at the time said if it were him, he would go back to the original plumber who installed the water heater a year-and-a-half ago to complain, becus he had never warned me that I'd be unable to remove the anode rod due to the low clearance in my basement.

I thought about that and ultimately decided to email the plumber (or his wife, who manages the business end of it) and very nicely explained the whole situation and asked if he'd be willing to cover a portion of the other plumber's bill, which I attached.

Maybe a little unusual (at least for me) but i figured the worst that would happen is he says no.

So the original plumber calls me and said the 2nd plumber was really overcharging me and that he could take out the old anode rod and replace it with a "sausage link" style rod (which is bendable becus it has joints) for less than half what the other guy was charging.

And so he did; they cut thru the original rod to remove it. And so I saved over $600 going back to the original plumber, and I thought he and his wife were very smart in the way they handled it; instead of handing over $$ to me to cover the added work that would be needed, he took the job away from the other plumber and got me back as a customer by not being so greedy.

I know that most people don't bother having the anode rod inspected and so in those cases, this wouldn't be a problem, but inspecting the anode rod can lengthen the lifespan of your heater, and since my uber-energy-efficient heater was an investment (not cheap, in other words), I wanted to protect that investment.

When the 2nd plumber took the cover off the top of it, I saw the top of the anode rod only. It looked pretty roached to me, very corroded and all. So I thought it needed replacement after just 1.5 years. Once the 1st plumber removed it last week, we could see the rest of the rod was in very good shape; so next time, he said, you don't need to inspect it for 3 years.

My handyman fixed a loose wheel on my lawn mower. I cut down a dead 8 foot high shrub myself, save for the 4 foot trunk at bottom, so he'll return with his chain saw to get rid of a total of 4 stumps I have around here. He's also buiding me a platform for my frontloading washer/dryer.

Once I get the front door done, i'll try chasing after the mason who said he'd rebuild my stone stairs leading to the back patio. Another one who ghosted me. And I have 2 small holes in my vinyl siding, another guy who ghosted me but still emailed me asking for a review!

I have a chipmunk (maybe more than one) that seems to have taken up residence in a raised bed where I'd planted lettuce! He ruined any chance I had for veggies in that box.  I bought some cayenne pepper today and hope to dissuade it, but I don't know if this will work.