Oh sure sergeant, Laurie is supposed to "man handle" those collection bags? Sounds a little gender-biased to me;o) I think she could "lady handle" 'em too, ha! Can't comment on the blade, but you can do a nice job of picking up leaves with the deck/bagger system. Just realize you'll have to make a few passes over the same areas because the deck will plow a lot of the leaves aside until you get the depth of leaves down to where they'll pass under. If you can get paper bags large enough that will fit in as liners in the collection bags, you've got it made. Otherwise, trying to dump the leaves from the bagger sacks into the paper bags separately will be a two person job and a lot will spill onto the ground in the process.

Love this post! But, I'd like to highly encourage you to forego coloring your own hair. IMHO, the $125 is well worth it to get beautiful hair color & cut. It really depends on how often you have to get it done. I only color mine around 4 times a year. You may even be able to find a stylist who will do it for less. All the advertising makes it look so terrific, but you can usually tell the difference with people who color their own.

Hello. Respectfully, So coming from a housekeeper who has worked for 7 years now and is certified , yes it would take 6 to 7 hours, all those people saying it is not going to take that long is inaccurate, I do not clean homes for some the suggestions I am seeing as comments, take those with a grain of salt look at her workflow and then you look at her attention to detail ! And for the person who recommended finding ANY task for her to do so you can spend time with your son and see if she will help, I wouldn't recommend that unless you have told her upfront about any additional tasks upon hire otherwise you wont have a Housekeeper to help you when you move to a larger house in the fall. Clear expectations is key, building that relationship is key. Yes your home is small, but if you also have clutter that has to be moved and dusted, and then sanitized AND disinfected- allows for good quality control to ensure your items stay clean week after week and and they put them back in the appropriate places, you want her to do laundry because you dont feel like it then that is something specifically that needs attention and care depending on how much laundry you have, if you have a certain way you want it put away and giving it the proper time to dry other wise in 5 hours or less in addition to cleaning you will be getting back wrinkled laundry or laundry not washed or dried properly and that will be a problem and she has to figure out where your things are, moving furniture to clean behind them and around them and put them back, and anything else you would like done must be told upfront not after they have begun cleaning it will cause frustration later down the road when you add more tasks on that she may or may not been hired for. Those hours are sufficient because she is a first time Housekeeper in YOUR home unless you personally know her it will take that much time starting out to get your home organized as possible and then the transition for her will be smooth and she will stay longer in the future, especially if you plan on moving to a bigger home, those hours are a good foundation to build from in your next home. They will look at that if the house is larger, I am sure you wouldnt expect less time for let's say a farm house with 3 to 4 bedrooms and a sun porch that needs cleaning or an entire deck or patio that wraps around the house. The size of a house never determines the QUALITY of work you will receive if a person is focusing continuously on the quantity of the homes items. Just some tips to help you. God bless and take care.

I like our Canadian Health Care System and have never had a problem with wait times. Some doctors do charge you a yearly fee for calling in prescription refills or for Doctor's notes. My Doctor doesn't but a lot of my friend's doctors do so. Ontario is trying to get the Doctors to also open clinics for those who haven't a regular family Doctor. My Doctor runs a clinic with another Doctor as well as taking appointments in his office. Often Doctors are overworked because they have too many patients because we are so short of Doctors. They finally opened a satellite medical school at the University of Windsor to train Doctors. I know some cities where women have to wait for mammograms but I have not had that experience here in Windsor. Windsor has also just opened an angioplasty (sp) centre in Windsor so patients don't have to go do Detroit or to London for one. Patients from Windsor are often sent to Detroit for emergency procedures that cannot be performed here. OHIP covers those services. What I don't like about our health care system and I think it should be against the law is that Doctors have the right to refuse you as a patient. They are paid by the Government so no patient should be refused. My sister needed a new Doctor and went to see a new woman Doctor that was taking new patients. My sister is a good patient, follows Doctor's orders to the tee but she has a lot of things wrong with her health plus she is a senior. After seeing my sister's medical chart this Doctor refused to take her as a patient. That is just not right. What ever happened to the Hypocratic Oath. I think Ontario is also on the road to allowing pharmacists to prescribe medications for things like rashes, etc. I often talk to my pharmacist first before my own Doctor about my symptoms. Also in Ontario we have Tele-Health. We can call toll free and talk to medical personel about symptoms we may have or concerns. They will then direct you to the next course of action whether to call an ambulance or to go to the ER or to see your Doctor the next day. I feel comforted to know that I can call someone in the middle of the night if I don't feel well and I also used the service often when caring for my Mom. When I know I am going shopping in Detroit I purchase medical insurance before I go. Normally I would buy insurance that covers me for a year but I don't go to Detroit as frequently as I once did. OHIP will cover some of the cost of a hospital emergency stay in Detroit but not all of it. We have a Health Tax that we as employers and employees pay and it is deducted from our wages much like Employment Insurance is and submitted to the Goverment by the Employer. Also you can deduct medical expenses on your Income Tax and there is also a Trillium Prescription Plan that is run by the government but I don't know too much about this or if it is still active. I think we are fortunate as Canadians to have free health care like we do. Unfortunately the way things are going I think we will be paying for a lot more services than we do now. Anne