Making Trades

First off, let me just thank all 'yalls for your input on my - What-Should-We-Do-With-Our-Tax-Refund-Money survey. I'm happy to report that we got our return last Friday. (Thank you e-file with direct deposit! Quicker than quaker!)

But over the weekend a trade opportunity made the decision for us. We have in our possession a '99 Honda F4 motorcycle. And although I love the thing to death, Mike hates its ergonomics. He bought a cruiser last summer and has since wanted to sell the F4. Anyway, to make a long story just a little bit shorter, our friend and carpenter showed interest in purchasing it.

And on Sunday Mike offered him this trade: the bike for the porch.
*Materials not included. Labor only.

And he agreed! Labor on the porch plus extra... Mike did not elaborate to me on what the "extra" might be, but I don't really care. I thought that was a really awesome deal! Everybody wins.

On the same day, TJ was over too and took with him our sketchy permit sketch. He's going to turn our scribblings into a permit ready work of art! Thank goodness, because we were at a loss at how to draw the roof line and what materials to list out.

Now, if we can manage to get the permit stuff in by next week - I'd imagine that we could be through conservation by April 1st. And I imagine we have to go through conservation again. Crazy - for something so small as a porch. Then, we could begin construction shortly after. That would be nearly perfect timing - with spring in the air...

So all that money will be put towards materials. In addition to the porch itself, don't forget that we'll also have to re-do the siding on the front of the house. We plan to get rid of the gross blue junk we have now and put up clapboards - not the wood kind, but the kind that look like wood but never need any maintenance or anything. More on that when I find out more on that. =)