A diamond in the rough

I'm happy. Really. 

So as I have written several times in this blog, my old lawn mower has given me fits since I began to use it to tackle my big yard. It did indeed run better last week but even so, a triple lot, old age, and a 22" push mower is an ugly combination. In any event,  I rarely make large purchases on a whim, and without careful research (except this house!). I've been pricing and researching riding mowers for over a year and had recently narrowed my choices down to John Deere, and Cub Cadet. I know that many people have a strong brand loyalty to things like tractors, especially John Deere, so I will tread carefully here. Entry level Deere lawn tractors are subcontracted to MTD, and, while well made, are not substantially different than most other small tractors despite being around 20% more expensive. Also, all parts and service must go through a John Deere dealer. Cub Cadet, well made and well reviewed are cheaper to buy and service, and even go on sale from time to time.

Last Saturday, I stopped into Tractor Supply since they sell Cub Cadet tractors and lo and behold they were on sale! The sale ended the next day so I left and stewed about it. In the end, I approached Home Depot and they agreed to match the price and honor a 10% coupon I had received in the mail. Done deal. I rented a flatbed from them for $20 bucks to get it home. It'a an XT1 Model with 22 horsepower and a 46" cut on the mower. My first run at cutting the grass, being slow and cautious, took 20 minutes. No more  telling Cindy I spent the day on the lawn! I still need to use the old push mower for trimming near the house and bushes and I was happy that it started on the first pull. I still plan to do some minor maintenance and keep my old buddy around for awhile.

Old glazing removed and wood scrapped.
 Ready to be glazed. Note the
diamond shaped glass 

A good friend gave us
 this sign. It hangs
on our porch. 

The other project I'm working on is the attic windows and screens. We've finally started to get some warm weather and the attic is heating up. We do have a roof vent but it really helps to put the screens in the two front windows to get the air circulating better. It helps keep the second floor cool as well.  One of my projects for this year is to continue painting the window frames on the house with the second floor on the agenda. I would like to do the attic windows as well but they are pretty much out of reach from any normal ladder. So, my plan is to paint the window frames from the attic. They are right next to each other so I will lean out the one window to scrape and paint the other frame. The windows themselves, and the screens, come out completely so they will be easy. However, the need to be repaired. The first set is on my work bench right now. The screen is destroyed so I removed the remains and the frame holding it in place. I scrapped the wood and filled the numerous holes and nicks. The window was in better shape, except that it needs to be completely re-glazed. I took all the old glazing off the window with a putty knife, and scraped and wire brushed the wood. I then re-glazed the window and am now waiting for the glazing to cure so it and the screen can be painted. Our nickname for the house is the diamond in the rough and this is at least partially because of the diamond pattern in the windows. This diamond pattern makes the window unique and worth saving, while at the same time makes the maintenance and repair a bit more difficult. We love these windows and have carried this diamond theme through the house with our window treatments and bed covers.

In other news, it's graduation weekend at Binghamton University which means the bed and breakfast across the street will be full with the families of the graduates, Something about this pleases me. I like seeing the people check in and enjoy the extra activity on our street. It reinforces my desire to maintain and improve our home simply because we have guests in the neighborhood. I like to sit on the porch and watch them come and go to dinners and ceremonies and feel a certain amount of pride in our town. With graduation weekend comes the annual bar crawl where students walk from the west side to downtown hitting the bars and celebrating. We are far enough removed from the festivities to have little affect from them, but we occasionally get a straggler on the sidewalk and an empty cup in the lawn. A small price to pay for having one of the top public universities in the nation located here.
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