Our first major job

A few weeks ago, we got the bright idea to tape our fliers to mailboxes. So, we did 2 neighborhoods in one day. The next day the Post office called and said that we can't do that. It is Federal property and that is not allowed. Ok, I can understand that. But if it is Federal property, why do we have to buy the mailboxes, and upkeep them. Why don't they replace a faulty mailbox when needed? Funny, just like the government, I pay for something and they own it. So, we learned from that and didn't do it again.

We did get one phone call out of all the fliers we got out. A woman wanted her gutters and downspouts cleaned. Now, my first thought was, "ok, this is easy, clean the gutters out, wash out the downspouts." Boy was I ever wrong! HA! HA! HA!

Chuck went over to the house. Looked at the job, priced it out at $75 and came home to tell me all about this. Turns out I was VERY WRONG! She wanted the outside of the gutters washed, under the gutters washed and all around the downspouts washed. WOW! Chuck tells me that they aren't that high off the ground, we can get to the easily and it won't be that bad.

The Monday after we got the pressure washer we headed over there. Buckets, pressure washer, trailer with lawn mower, chemical and goggles. We get started and all of the sudden the hose blew right off the fitting. What the heck? What happened? Well, that put a damper on the job. We had to head to Home Depot and get another hose, gee whiz.

Get back to the house, try a different chemical, nope, didn't do the job, and then go back to the other chemical. The house cleaner was the best, but brown hands and nails are not what I prefer. We scrubbed the front of this out, and I mean scrubbed. Washed, scrubbed and rinsed, repeat.... Turns out the gutter paint in the front of the house was stained from not being cleaned for a few years. And you could see exactly where the water would run over. She wasn't happy with that, but the next step is bleach, bleach is white, gutters are cream. Do you see something wrong here?

Finally, we get one side done. Off to the smaller gutter on the side of the house. I looked at it and shook my head. It was literally brown with mold. I thought that it would never come clean. I was wrong, it was easier to clean than the ones up front. The downspout came out cleaner too.

At one point the owner came out and asked about how things were going, "Well, I want to make sure that the downspouts come out nice." She was more concerned about them and not that much about the gutters.

After about 3 1/2 hours, we got done, cleaned up everything, put everything back where we found it, made sure the dirt and chemical was cleaned up. I loaded up the truck and the trailer, Chuck collected the pay. I was too tired to do anything else.

We stopped to get water and then off to the place where we bought the mower, a blade came loose, so we had to get that fixed.

I have to admit, I was never so happy to see a shower in my life! I was gross and sticky. I wanted to be cleaned up, scrubbed up and washed up. Chuck had Eric help him unload the trailer, and help him back it up. One word of advice, never let Eric give you direction in backing anything up!