(Sometimes) The Power of Craigslist

We have a stump in the front yard we need taken out. It's been sitting there in all its stump glory for 18 months. It needs to go. So we decided to list the task on craigslist.

We thought about doing the work ourselves and (sorta) tried over a year ago by drilling holes into the stump and pouring in a product that (supposedly) breaks the stump down. You're supposed to light it on fire (no joke) after a few weeks to really do the trick, but because the stump is sitting SO CLOSE to the house, starting a fire that risked burning down our entire house was a little bit of a worry for us. So we kinda just hoped the product broke it down without the necessary fire.

It didn't.

Then we thought about getting a stump grinder, but they're expensive to rent. And again, the stump is SO CLOSE to the house I was frankly afraid we'd grind into the house.

So we listed the task on craigslist. Over my day I've listed MANY things on craigslist. I remember when it was just getting started here in the Bay Area when I was in high school ("Craig" actually worked for my dad at the company he was at back in the day), and I used it a lot to buy tickets.

ANYWAY, we list things on craigs all the time (like all of our damn dirt), and probably 80% of the time people don't show up, flake out, don't call, ask a million idiotic questions when they get there (that were of course mentioned in your listing) and then they don't take the thing, blah blah blah.

You can tell I have a love hate relationship with craigs.

Imagine my surprise that within 30 minutes of listing the task of "PLEASE REMOVE OUR STUMP" we had 5 phone calls and 2 emails. We've got someone lined up to do the work, and in the (probable) event that he doesn't work out we've got numerous back-ups.

So today craigslist, all the flaky, annoying people who use it, and the stump: you will be defeated

By the way, who plants a tree this close to a house's foundation? I mean COME ON.