The deadspot is mostly because of distance (I want netflix under some trees while in the hammock out back :-p ). I had not thought of using a second wifi, but running an ethernet cable would not be easy and I would still have to buy a thing.
What really surprised me with the range extenders was I saw no distance or power metric; I expected something like 30$ gets you 50', 100$ gets you 80' or whatever. Should I look for one that is faster than 50/50 Mbps and just be done with it?