I contacted a local siding contractor to give me an estimate of what it would cost to replace all of the aluminum siding with vinyl siding. He quoted me a great price to take off the old siding and put on the new siding. I was very happy with the price but knew that I would have to get my husband to agree to it also. He is usually not one to go for anything that requires him spending any money. I knew that his biggest argument would be that we did not need it.

Last year, I had a contractor come out and give us an estimate for replacement windows and it took me three months of begging and pleading to get him to agree that we did need them. I kept showing him the heating bills from the previous winter and told him that with replacement windows, we would be able to lower them by as much as fifty percent. That was the real reason why he agreed to do it.

I put the estimate from the vinyl siding contractor on the table, right next to the newspaper, so that I knew he would see it. He sat down and asked me what the estimate was all about. I told him that we needed to put on the vinyl siding, to improve the look of the house. He did not go for that.