If it's man made siding it could be hardee board. I looks like wood, but is basically cement.

bt, lot's of ~ma for the AS. She sounds like a wonderful woman and I hope when you get together it is everything you wished for. And I liked your anwers to the dating site questions. Particularly the one about romance. That's an awesomely baited hook there. Although, if things go well with AS it would be well to fling anything you catch with it back into the dating pool. And, she is one lucky lady to be getting you.

Hee. Well, I certainly can't complain about the impression I've made so far. Apparently she just about fell off her chair when I got in touch and said I was an actuary. Good start.

I really was satisfied with the comment I came up with about romance. This points to one of the (few) concerns I had with using online dating sites. I want a relationship, but my romantic side also wants a love story, not just a transaction analysis. I want to be able to tell my children how their mother and I met and fell in love. I want something that makes our story unique. The experience of scrolling through a list of women like it's a menu still doesn't sit entirely comfortably with me. Efficient, yes, but not a love story.

But now I'm into the messy, exciting, nervous-making process of getting to know someone. Now we're just possibly writing something lasting, I feel so much more at home.

The experience of scrolling through a list of women like it's a menu still doesn't sit entirely comfortably with me. Efficient, yes, but not a love story.

I don't think that's true. I mean, maybe if that were the end of the story, but it never is.

I mean the story of me and Mr. H could just be "met him in a bar," but it's not. It's "Saw this good looking guy in a bar and said 'want that.' But he had a girlfriend, so we became very good friends. Boyfriends and girlfriends came and went, but we stayed friends until one day Mr. H needed a roomate. He called up to see if I wanted to move to Dallas, and I thought 'why the hell not?' so we're living together and still dating people and it's not really working out with any of them, so one night we're commiserating over martinis at a gorgeous jazz club, and we say, 'He's too needy!' 'She's too uptight' 'He's not very bright!' 'Neither is she!' 'I need to date someone like you' and then the 9 fingered piano player struck up 'As Time Goes By' and 3 months later we were engaged." And of course, there are all sorts of little diversions and additions to the story, but essentially it's "met him in a bar..."

So yours will be "found her on the internet..." not to be confused with "found her on the internet."

I don't think that's true. I mean, maybe if that were the end of the story, but it never is.

Oh yes, but there are some key points in the narrative of a relationship, and how you met is one of them. Meeting Bec, for instance, made for a good story. Hell, the whole relationship made for a good story, if not a completely happily ending one. It's just a concern of mine, not an obsession, of course. I like the story we're making so far (as Brendan discovered to his regret, when I did the 'AS likes carrots' thing on the trip home).

Anne, so sorry about your grandmother.

I'm sorry, Anne.

Plei, what were you talking about before--thick siding boards? Wood? Do you have clapboards, rather than cedar shakes? Could you jimmy one off, and take it to a lumber yard, so they could see what you're talking about?

It's the insanely wide, insanely thick wood lap siding that you see in a lot of houses from the 1960s. I'd guess that at the thickest, it's about 3/4", and they're damn near a foot wide. I have some that are off already, in our precious stash of "please don't let us need more than this for patching" from when we put the windows back in where the POs had removed them. Contractors and painting professionals may have a stash, but I've never seen a match in the lumberyards, and I used to spend a lot of time in the lumberyards, before we burnt out on working on the place.

The smart thing for the idiots to do would have been to match the original, but they were trying to update the whole look, methinks. Get it to look like crap 50s/60s construction instead of crap 1920s construction.

When people have major things done, do they get loans? How does it work? A cheap kitchen remodel job is still about 20k, and I'm probably lowballing. Do people save that much somehow? How do regular adults do this? My parents did, and still basically do, everything DIY, and almost always with ready money.

{{Anne}} My condolences to you and your family.

Heather, that is a sweet, schmoopy story! It made me sniffle.

bt, tell Brendan to start baking a carrot cake so he doesn't get overwhelmed.

You can get a home improvement loan, but I don't recall the workings of it, but yeah they do. I also know of people who've gotten a credit card for home improvement projects. They then buy the stuff on the card, and once that project is paid in full, they either get rid of the card, or start a new project.

home equity loans.

refi - and add X to the morgage. but you only do this once you have so much money in the house. most H EQ loans let you pay interest only foever, until you refi again ...

and round and round the circle goes....

That is how we will get a master bedroom. and grow the kitchen . but there is an area of inbetween.

This plan works if you don't plan on moving

or you are in a crazy realestate market.