Manorman’s Weblog

Helpful Maintenance Tips – Re-Caulking Your Tub

Need to re-caulk your tub?  Check it out…

Validation of My Mulch Gripes – We’re in the News!!

Click HERE to check it out.

Mulch Alert! Mulch Alert!

Caution…Caution…Caution – -

Read this post before you buy a load of mulch.

Last year, I paid a sh*t load for mulch and got a mulch load of sh*t. 

Don’t let it happen to you.

Every spring I’m ectastic, as the snow is finally gone, the birds return and in their full singing glory, and the tulips begin emerging through the barren mulch beds – barren mulch beds – one of the few ugly sights of spring. 

Although spring represents new beginnings, fresh starts, and re-births, it also drags along withit the ugly hangover of winter, with the naked trees, the cold, hard soil, and the dreary and baren mulch beds.

Each spring, the first step I take to re-vitalize my yard is to lay down fresh, new mulch.  I used to purchase it by the bag, haul dozens of the 50-lb bags from the store back to my house, position the bags strategically around my yard, then walk around the house and tear into each of the nearly impenetrateablebags as if were Christmas morning and spread the mulch around, while leveling it withmy foot.  Invariably, there would be a drastic difference in the mulch depth throughout the beds, such that my mulch beds were rarely the envy of my neighbors.

I eventually abandoned the bag approach to mulching and opted instead to purchase a large load of mulch and have it dumped in my driveway – the center of my driveway.  However, after losing access to my garage for 2 weeks, over-exerting myself nearly to the point of exhaustion, and having to offer up portions of my mulch mound to my neighbors for free just to get rid of it, this approach shared the same fate as the bag approach.

So, last year, I went witha new approach to mulching.  A shady character greeted my on my driveway and offered to mulch all my beds that day, for just about 10% more than I would have paid had I hired my reliable landscaper, and about about 40% more than both the bag and load methods of mulching.  Due to purely a convenience factor, I obliged and wrote the gentleman a large check.  Why not, mulch is muclh, right?

WRONG!  This mulch was infested with insects, mold, and some relentless vine-like weeds.  In just 3 weeks, all of our flowers had died, the beds were covered in a yellow mold, and the vine-like weeds had strangled all of our shrubs and literally choked the life out of them.

The $1,200 worth of mulch then cost me another $800 to have it, and the dead flowers and bushes hauled away, as well as another $2,000 for new flowers and shrubs, plus another $1,000 for quality mulch, which was eventually layed down just in time for the 4thof July – 3 months later.  The $4000 worth of mulch glimmered brilliantly under the lovely fireworks show.

It turned out that my mulch sellers were not local at all, but rather on a pilferage pilgrimage up from Louisiana with a truck full of lousy mulch that they were selling to poor saps like me who were willing to pay a premium for instant delivery.

So, word to the wise – know who you are buying mulch from, and get a reference from them.

I wish I had MindMyManor.com last year!

MindMyManor.com has entered a float in the Naperville St. Patrick’s Day Parade!

On Saturday, March 14, we will defend our 2008 title of “Best Float in the Naperville Parade.”  We fully expect to repeat, since this year’s float will be even more spectacular than last year’s.  Our only difficulty thus far has been in how to tell people that there will not be enough room for them on the float.  Last year we had 18 peaople.  This year, we’ve increased capacity to 25, but have twice that number express a desire to come along for the ride.  Perhaps it’s the candy we dole out, or maybe the green beer that awaits us at the finish.  Or, maybe it’s because they’re all such big fans of MindMyManor.com.  Regardless of the reason, we are fortunate to have such solid neighbors and friends to join us on the newest journey.

MindMyManor.com is in the News!!!

On Friday, March 6, 2009, The Daily Herald, Chicagoland’s most circulated suburban newspaper, ran a front page, wholly unsolicited story about MindMyManor.com.  We want to thank the reporter, Anna Kukec, who compiled a thorough and fair story.

Click below to see the e-version of the story.

• Naperville Couple Launches MindMyManor

Welcome to the Wonderful World of Minding Your Manor

There’s exciting things happening for me in the world of home maintenance and repair.  This is because I just received moments ago an email from our webmaster that MindMyManor.com (www.mindmymanor.com) is now finally up and running.

This journey to get this website created has been a long, arduous and expensive one.  What started as a mere concept last spring has morphed into a pretty cool website - a one-stop shop to connect homeowners with home maintenance, repair and service providers, where providers are consumer reviewed and rated, and where services can be scheduled online, estimates can be given online, and projects can be broadcasted out to numerous providers at once as an auction/bidding contest.

The impetus for this site was the frustration and anguish I personally experienced when hiring, coordinating, and scheduling quality home maintenance, repair, and service providers.  I tried numerous website portals which tout many of the services included in MindMyManor.com, but none were all-inclusive and none were as easy to use.

Check-out the site and give us your thoughts.

www.mindmymanor.com

Remember, your home is your castle!

ManorMan