My Stone Patio

In the next few days, I have to pay the homeowner's insurance. In almost 22 years at This D*mn House, I've never had to do it before. One of the new joys of true home ownership. Without a mortgage, there's no escrow to automatically take care of it. In fact, the bank recently rebated the escrow accrued in the past year.

I had to call the insurance company to let them know that the bank wouldn't be paying the bill this year. Admittedly, that was pretty damn cool.

The death of the escrow account also means that I now have to pay the taxes. That's been bill I see only once its paid each year. So, I'm trying to figure out how much more I will need to put back to pay the taxes. I found that our county assessor has tax records online.

I found our address and found our assessment, but not our tax bill. So that is still a wildcard figure. I think I have guessed within $30 though. Here's hoping.

But I discovered something interesting on my assessment: I have a stone patio! I do?
Where? What the hell are they talking about a stone patio? Then it hit me.

When we bought This D*mn House in 1986, it had a detached garage. Unfortunately, it caught fire and burned during our first year here. On the concrete pad that was left, we later added a storage shed. After years of exposure, it was cracked and ugly, so my mom painted the concrete around the shed. That's had to be done almost every year since.

So, two years ago, I covered the ugly concrete with rectangular pavers. It's not perfect, but it looks a lot better. Apparently, it looks good enough to be assessed as a stone patio. Does it look like a patio to you?

What's hilarious is I spent less than $100 on the project, including sand for underlay and concrete. (Our neighbors gave us many of the pavers that were just stacked in their yard after they removed an above-ground pool.)

That means I'm being assessed about three times what the project cost me. Fabulous. I'll have to be sure and include that in the key features if I ever put it up for sale. Also makes me glad they haven't been inside to see that I have a finished basement ...