Friday, October 17, 2008

Can I Have a Do-Over...Please?

This blog post could also be titled, "Save a little, spend a lot."

Instead of paying someone to come aerate and topseed our lawn, we decided to do it ourselves. I called around, found a machine that I could fit in the back of our minivan to rent, and bought the grass seed and fertilizer.

After participating in many Scout fundraisers involving aerating, Ryan tackled the project with no problem, and I felt very satisfied afterward having saved us at least $100-200 off of what we would have been charged had someone come and done it for us.

The next morning, I took the machine back. I had to do a u-turn to get into the rental place, and when I accelerated onto the highway, I heard a loud smash. It turns out we put the aerater back into the minivan with the handle pointing to the back window (as oppposed to the way the rental place had put it into my van the day before with the handle pointing toward the seat). As a result, my acceleration sent the aerater straight through the back window of the minivan.

So...an additional $330 later, we have a new back window, and our aerating project became a very expensive do-it-yourself adventure. You win some, you lose some.

8 comments:

Delsa said...

That just made me so sad I can't comment.

Heidi said...

Wow! We put things in the back of our van all of the time and I never once even thought about this possibility! So sorry!

Lori said...

If it makes you feel any better we had to replace our back window once because Dan backed the van into a partially opened garage door...ouch!

Lori said...

If it makes you feel any better we had to replace our back window once because Dan backed the van into a partially opened garage door...ouch!

Rebecca said...

Man! I hate it when things like that happen when you are trying SO HARD to save a little cash and then it backfires. I'm so sorry!

The MacQueens said...

AAAHHH! So sorry about your van! But it was nice to see you at the temple last weekend! Good luck with the rest of your pregnancy. :)

Shawna B. said...

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! You deserve better than that! I do admire your attempt to be do-it-yourselfers and save a little cash. Just sorry that things backfired!

KJA said...

Ouch! I hate when that happens and since we are big do-it-ourselvers, I know what you are feeling.