I love cleaning houses in wooded areas with big windows.  The glass is usually a bear to clean, but oh, when they get done, the view is mighty fine.  Here are some pictures from some houses we did recently.  I thought the views were pretty awesome.

In the picture below, who took the picture?  Did someone get me from inside? Or was this the picture I took?  Hmmmnnn

Can you believe it's almost September??  Seems like summer started a week ago!  Already you can feel a cool in the air...beautiful days are on the way!  St. Louis has amazing fall weather.  The look and atmosphere of fall is so crisp and sharp here.  Explosions of color everywhere, and the smells bring back memories of playing sports outdoor as a kid.  Speaking of sports, football season is underway, my favorite sport to watch, so that also adds to the overall joy of this time of year!

The only downfall (ha ha) of the season is the large quantity of leaves that are EVERYWHERE.  After you've jumped in a few piles or buried a good friend with leaves, you've pretty much exhausted the valuable use of all those leaves.  Then all you have to look forward to is a bunch of raking...and gutter cleaning!  Its amazing how just a few leaves can clog up a downspout and cause a 40 ft. gutter to fill and overflow.  It's impressive, and quite annoying!

The only answer to the gutter problem is cleaning your gutters out towards the end of the season...usually sometime in mid to late November.  If you have a good amount of trees around your house, then it might be good to have a mid season cleaning as well.  Gutter guards can help, but don't think that they make cleaning your gutters unnecessary - what eventually makes it way through the guards becomes a mud like substance in your gutters, and can clog your up your system even better than leaves!  I would suggest at least a cleaning every other year if you have gutter guards (by the way, I have found gutter helmet to be the most effective gutter guards).

I hope you are able to enjoy the beautiful St. Louis fall season this year!  I will be!  I hope to bring you some great rooftop shots of glorious trees as the season arrives and passes.  Be sure and check my site when you start seeing colors!  In the meantime, the above shot is a good primer!

Greg

Spring is in full force in St. Louis!  The temperatures have been hovering around 70 and our first major thundershowers  have knocked the last dead leaves off the trees.  In their place we are seeing blossoms and green shoots everywhere! One of the nice things about my job is being able to stop for moment or two and enjoy the outdoors from some great vantage points.  The above picture was from a gutter job I did recently.  The mixture of pink and green and white caught my eye, and I had to capture the scene!

Another thing that caught my eye was the cloudiness of this skylight.  Skylights are absolutely gorgeous entry points of light into a home when they are working properly.  Unfortunately, skylights are completely exposed to the elements and have to absorb a lot of heat and cold over the years, which often leads to broken seals.  When a seal breaks in a window, moisture begins to condense in between the panes of glass, leading to a foggy appearance like with this skylight.  Once a seal is broken in a dual paned window, there is nothing that can be done to make the window clear again, it must be replaced if you desire pure light to come through the window.  Fortunately, a broken seal will not prevent light from coming through completely, so if you are just looking for some additional light to enter a room, you will be fine - few people actually look out of their skylight anyway!  If you are buying new windows that are double paned, always be sure and ask about the warranty on broken seals.  An average warranty life is 10 years, a good warranty will get you 15 years or more.