August 9th, 2006 - Step Two Completed

How To Double Your Way To A Million In 28 Steps

Probably the most trouble I have had with my home are with the gutters. I have had the original contractor come out and work on them, another guy that added some fancy flashing to make sure the water didn't splash over and finally a handyman that knew what to do and solved all the problems.

My gutters are complicated. First I live about 20 feet from Wetlands and the rain off my roof has to go into an underground system to not contaminate the Wetlands. That wouldn't be bad except when they built it all they didn't put anything to stop leaves and stuff from going down underground. By the time I put in some screen plug things it was to late and some stuff got down inside.

Things backed up and water started coming in my basement. We called the RotoRooter guy to see if he could clear it out but he couldn't get his Rotating cleaner tool in very far. It was blocked.

Price to fix $1,000.00

The problem was, arrangements had already been made to pave the driveway and walkway and the date couldn't be changed. The pipe went under both. I couldn't afford $1000.00 so I decided to dig up the pipe myself. My wife and I dug it up and found the problem. When they backfilled the foundation they dropped a huge rock on the plastic piping and crushed it. Not in one place but in two. I replaced the piping and replanted the landscaping and shrubs and everything looked fine.

Later in the year it overflowed again. So I was going to buy a ladder and find out what was going on up there. I bought the ladder and discovered that trying to go up three stories was not something for me. I was never afraid of heights before but once I was up there I discovered that I wasn't going to be cleaning the gutters. Not only did the height bother me but the wasps decided to make me their living target. I promptly gave up and decided the wise thing to do would be to get someone else to do it instead of finding out just how much my insurance would cover long falls to a hard ground.

This brings me to the completion of Step Two. I traded the first penny I had for Two Pennies with the handyman. He was hesitant but once I mentioned it was an experiment he was interested. It turned out he was a design engineer but had retired from the rat race and was doing something he found less demanding, so the idea of an experiment peeked his curiosity.

Step Two was now complete. Check out the time line for more information.

Regards,

Xinfinitum



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