Fixing the Roof While the Sun…

So I’ve got these rotting boards on the outside of my house that have been making me nervous. They leave the house exposed, and I’m imagining mold and insects and all kinds of other stuff coming in. I want to fix it.

But they don’t make these boards anymore so I’d have to switch to something that doesn’t look the same. And if I do that, I can’t really just patch it cleanly. I should really do the whole back wall. And if I do the whole back wall, I should really do the whole house. And if I do the whole house…

That’s right, I’ll have to do ALL THE HOUSES IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD.

And then ALL THE HOUSES IN THE WORLD. (except maybe yours…)

Anyway, this led me on kind of a goose chase (is there a goose chase when the goose isn’t wild?) because I thought I remembered Al Gore in the 2000 debates talking about fixing the roof while the sun is still shining. But I looked it up and I found the quote from Bill Bradley instead. Is this really true? It’s such an Al Gore thing to say!

We should be fixing our roof while the sun is shining. We should now be passing national health insurance. We should now be making major investments in our urban schools and schools across this country. And we should commit, as I have, to reduce child poverty by 4 million in the first four years, and eliminate child poverty in 10 years.

Oh my God, yes we should be doing all those things! And we’ll finish them by 2010! Wait, ugh…

So anyway, in addition to this siding issue, the people I’m talking to about estimates do windows too, and I’d love to upgrade my windows so that they’re cleaner, easier to open and more energy efficient. Why not do the whole damn operation at once?

But then, if I have new siding and new windows, won’t I start to see other ugly things like my porch and my roof and my yard and think I should upgrade those too?

You might as well just by a new house.

(my son said that to me when I mentioned my dilemma)

I don’t know. I guess I need to do at least some of the repair work. If I do it all, I’m going to have to seriously cut down on my cookie expenditures for a while.  Is it worth it?

What do do???

Any and all advice welcome.

(Oh, did I mention that I’m even considering putting a sliding glass door in my bedroom so I can just slip out there in the morning and drink coffee on a someday-to-be-built deck? How lovely would that be?)

((I’m selling my soul to the devil, aren’t I))