When the grass is too long to mulch, it's often so long that it would create a large volume of bagged clippings. In some areas, disposing of a large amount of grass clippings is a lot of trouble (i.e., the local municipality requires clippings to be in brown paper yard bags in order to be collected at the curb). In a situation like this, side discharging is a better option than bagging. Hope this helps.

Now that i have reached the "Geezer" stage in life, and after many years of working with all things mechanical, with the exception of very large ocean going ship diesels, i can see that my simple approach to snow-throwers/blowers doesn't cut it in this modern world! Over the years--we didn't bother with all of the technical jargon i have just finished reading in the past messages, in this section. Oh, we did the regular maintenance, and all that, but, worrying about how much snow something will toss out, and how far, didn't seem to warrant 75 pages of nonsense! Also, an Ariens large snow thrower/blower, is hands down far better than most anything you can buy today! Unless you go to the places that sell real snow equipment! And, just why does everybody trash-talk Tecumseh engines? Geez--they held up just as good as B&S, and sometimes better! Seems the goofs here know so much about them, even though they never owned them, or used them. HMMPH! Any snow-blower i have had, i would remove it from storage, check the oil (which i had changed in the Spring), grease up the fittings, install fresh gasoline, plug it in, and it would start! So now, i just returned from picking up a gift snow blower. An Ariens, electric start, and all that. Only thing wrong that i can see, is it wasn't run last winter because the owner had bought a new one. Today, he tried to start it, and nothing. So he called me and told me i could have it for free! Tomorrow, i'll get it to run, and then i'll have one to use. And, i won't complain if it has a Tecumseh engine, or if it has a plastic chute, or one of the controls won't work right! Some TLC will get it operating again. End of rant! Rusty Jones

ncrealestateguy, thank you for money saving tip on pool chemicals. I will check out the poolcalculator website. This will hopefully offset some cost in running pool equipment + in pool opening/closing. The previous owners spent years on building the pool and the surrounding deck and waterfall. I wouldn't want to undo their hard work by filling in the pool.. stir_fryi, our house is in a nice neighborhood, which is surrounded by woods. Our 1 acre is cleared, mostly flat land. Kids can definitely ride bicycles and play football on it. (Occasionally, I see neighbors' kids riding small motorcycles in their yard & on the streets in our neighborhood. What luxurious toys they have!) Edit to add: Given the current housing market, if we sell the house now, we would most likely not gain anything financially (after factoring in all the costs related to selling & moving). If the current market were similar to 2004 or early 2005, we would probably be able to pocket some profit, but I don't think it would be close to half million.. This post was edited by ILoveCookie on Tue, Apr 9, 13 at 12:16

My house is nearly 200 years old. All the surrounding houses were built after 2002. I look out and think that everyone of those new houses will fall down and this one will still be standing. Here old houses come at premium prices and I hope are only bought by those that want to care for them, not remuddle them. Everyone I've met here has respect for old houses even if it's not their style.