I feel so suburban

[jducoeur]

Join us for this week's episode, as our hero realizes that his next quest is going to be for a snowthrower. (I love the new house, but man -- that's a lot of driveway to shovel...)

Comments

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

I guess in comparison to what you had, yes. Do you know motomuffin? Perhaps we could arrange an introduction to The Driveway Of Doom...

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

But no eeevil retaining wall to throw the snow over!

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

We have an electric one, which I love because it doesn't make a gawdaful noise (merely a loud noise) and doesn't require engine maintenance fu.

[hungrytiger]

Ditto to Cynthia's comment. We have an electric one as well and it's done the job fine (just remember to get a heavy gauge cold-weather extension cord and the lightweight ones sometimes don't work in cold-weather). Of course, I hate gas-powered home equipment and the maintenence involved in getting them to work, so YMMV.

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

I just got a single-stage for free. Today I'll see if it works. I was told it worked OK last year, but that it needs a tune-up badly and a new tighter drive belt.

Since I received it Wednesday Night, it hasn't gotten it's tune up and drive belt yet. :-)

[dsrtao]

We have a Sears dual-stage gas powered. VROOM!
It cost $500 and came with a $500 gift certificate to Sears. We think we did all right with that...

How big is your driveway?

[jducoeur]

Not extraordinary -- it's two driveways, which probably total a little more asphalt than your full thing. But after being used to a space just barely large enough for a single car, it's kind of daunting, and *way* more than I want to deal with with a shovel. (I'm simply ignoring the larger front driveway today, and focusing on keeping the rear driveway clear. That's going to be a total of 3 hours of shoveling, I figure...)

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

I think you probably have similar sq. footage as our house, drivewaywise. While it would be possibly *fun* to blast through it with a hyper-powered professional machine like our neighbors are doing, keeping the thing up is not something I want to do. If I lived further north, maybe.

You might want to consider a snowplowing service; another option at any rate.

[meranthi.livejournal.com]

At my old house, my parents had a 600 foot driveway. In Colorado. Yes, they had a snowblower. :)

snow blowers

[camilla-anna.livejournal.com]

ours is a quarter mile evil grin. Ekk HAS shoveled it a couple times. Bleah.

Get the biggest snowblower you can afford. Seriously. That way when a two foot drop happens you aren't stuck. The more power and bigger auger it has, the longer it'll last. Get the maintenance contract.

BTDT

Anna dimitriova

Re: snow blowers

[crosslet.livejournal.com]

I agree with A-D on this one. The end of the drive always gets icy. I have a 5 hp. I wouldn't recommend anything less or you'll have problem with the HEAVY spring snows. Mine has lasted about 10 years now. It was worth every penny of the $500 I paid. My next blower will probably be an 8hp or a 12hp if I have extra cash laying around. Ideally I'll blow the stuff into the next county!