Mower and Cart

We needed a riding mower soon or we are going to end up buying the neighbor a new mower (since we have been paying him to mow our lawn the past few months). Our 7-blade push reel mower worked great on our tree-less suburban 0.2 acre bermuda lawn in TX. Not so much here in the moist, acre of soft grass filled with tree-litter and rocks and dirt thrown up by moles.

I shopped around for a "no-project" lawnmower with bagger. I wanted to be able to get it and start mowing and not spend a fortune fixing one up.
Ok, Ok ... having my hubby fix it up ;-).

I called some ads and no one called back. Well, I thought I found one about 2 hours north of home that came with a cart and bagging system. The lady called back and I loaded up the truck with my kid, rented ramps and put a mortgage payment worth of fuel in the tank and headed toward Canada (mistake #1 - too far from home).

Ad said excellent condition and owner said they kept it under a tent when not in use. (mistake # 2 - it's not excellent if it's  "out of the box"). It looked decent, engine sounded good to me (didn't skip or chug or smoke or explode) and it ran and all the parts seemed to work. Keep in mind - no hubby with me (mistake #3 - always have your mechanic look it over b-4 u buy).

Hubby fixing it up

I get it home and hubby decides to clean it up which, of course, leads to taking the thing apart (that's a gear-head for you).

Come to find out, the deck is rusted and had stress cracks, 2 spindles need to be replaced, the strippers are stripped, needs a pulley, blades are super dull, wheel is bent, needs filters, oil, etc..., etc.... ca-ching ca-ching. Ugh!

Did I mention I did not want a  "project mower" (mistake #4 - if it's not new, its a project).

At least I have something to blog about ;-)

Here is our project:

Cart: 
 before (with the exception of the new wheel we just bought)

 AFTER sanding, washing, priming painting and art.

 I did one side.  

        

My daughter did the other.

The mower itself looked good. It was mainly the deck that had to be re-built (a new one costs over $400 smackers). The rebuild put us back about $200 (in addition to the cost of the purchase)- that was for parts, shipping, paints and sanding supplies, no-flat wheel (not including the 2 weeks it put us back in our time to fix it). 

At least my "mechanic" said the engine was good and the mower itself was in decent condition.

Now lets' get to mowing this mess!