Sunday, May 1, 2011

Busy Busy Weekend

Before I begin with my tales about this weekend I need to back up and tell about Tuesday... well, I guess the story starts on Monday.

Monday, after school, I decided to go to Lowe's and buy one of the tiles Sparky and I have selected to be the floor in the kitchen, hall, and bathroom downstairs at the log house. I drove over to the log house, popped one of the linoleum tiles off the floor and put my ceramic tile in its place. Pretty.
It looked good. But while I was at Lowe's I noticed that the tiles Sparky and I liked were marked down. This means they might be marked back up if I don't get them soon!
Since it took eternity for Sparky and I to agree on a tile we liked and actually find it in real life I decided I needed to go to Lowe's the next day after school to buy all the tile we needed before it went off sale.
(I don't know if tile even goes "off sale" it might just get marked down forever until it is sold. But I don't know, and don't want to to take a chance.)
So Tuesday after school I headed back to Lowe's in my trusty car Blanche. She is a mercury sable. Not anything rugged. I talked with Sparky about being able to pick up the tile we needed with Blanch verses going to the log house and getting Sparky's cargo van to do the job.
Here was Sparky's logic: What could a tile weigh? About a pound each? Well, we were getting 300 tiles. This would be able 300 pounds. That would be like having two passengers in the car who each weigh 150lbs.
Sounded good to me!
So I go to Lowe's after an exhausting day at school. I find the tiles we love. I find a cart (easier said than done). I divide out how many boxes of tile I need using my handy phone calculator... I need 300 tiles.... there are 18 tiles in a box... so I need 16.66666667 boxes of tile. Well, I'm no dummy, I know I can't tile a floor with .66666 of a box of tile, so I need to round up. And, knowing me, I will probably break a few tiles along the way anyway so I need extras.
I pick up one box of tiles.
Holy Cow.
These boxes are HEAVY!
I don't want to look like the weenie that I am, so I huff and puff and get three more boxes in my cart. At this point I am wheezing, coughing, and sweating. I still need 13 more boxes and I am about to pass out. Not to mention my cart is full.
I noticed there were two men sitting under the large sign that says TILE chatting up a storm having a gay old time. I decided since I am paying for this product they should get it off the shelf for me. So I wheeled my cart over to them and asked them to please help me because the boxes are heavier than hell.
One guy looks at me and says, "You need a bigger cart." and he leaves. The other guy says, "was your installer in here earlier today?"
I responded with, "I am my installer."
Apparently another couple was looking at getting this same tile. They sent their "installer" to check out the tile earlier that day. They planned on coming back to get it on Monday. Well, you snooze you loose!
The man said, "Well I guess I'd better start calling other stores to track down more of that tile for those other people."
Um... ok. I guess you could do that. Or you could help me load up the tile I am here to get.
Finally the other guy came back with a flat cart for me. He quickly stacked 17 boxes of tiles on the cart. Then he said, "Now, your next problem is going to be getting the cart up to the checkout isle. I will get it moving for you, just don't let it stop moving." He shoved with all his manly might and got the cart rolling.
Well, guess what folks! I was not dressed for Olympic cart pushing! I just finished teaching kindergarten all day. I was wearing capri pants and a pair of cute J Crew flip flops. While J Crew flip flops are adorable and come in ever color/pattern imaginable they do not provide any traction on a polished concrete floor.
I looked like an extinct Dodo bird trying to get the cart to keep rolling, pushing with all my might, while my feet slid out from under me time and time again.
I finally passed a couple in the paint isle and while apologizing for not being able to control the direction of my cart they noticed the ridiculous position I was in. The man and the woman each grabbed a side of the cart and they pushed it all the way to the check out isle for me. Saints.
Fortunately, they took my stuff to the checkout isle with the old man. He could sympathize with my plight. He called for some people to help me get the tile to my car. I went and backed my car up to the door while they gathered around.
The guys started putting the tile in my car. I was happy it all fit.
One man commented that it was pretty low, so take it slow over speed bumps.
I got in my car and started driving. Um....
My car was sitting on the tires. The tiles were so heavy my tires were rubbing against the wheel well.
I called Sparky and he came to my rescue with a friend and his pickup truck.

Fast Forward to this weekend:
After school Friday I decided to go to the log house and start putting together the kitchen cabinets. Before I install the tile I need to have the kitchen cabinets together so I know where exactly the plumbing needs to be moved to, but before I install the kitchen cabinets I need to lay the tile. It's a catch 22.
I got two cabinets put together and then I stopped to put together two chairs.
Saturday we went back over with my mom and dad.
Sparky and my dad dug trenches to lay pipe to divert the water from the gutter downspouts away from the foundation of the house. This will keep water from leaking in around the foundation.
My mom and I went to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore to look for some cool doors and to see if they had a better bathroom vanity than the one that is currently in the log house.
No luck on a vanity, or the cool doors. But I hit the jackpot in sconces. I found a ton of brushed nickel wall sconces for $10 each, on sale for 25% off! I needed four sconces for some odd lighting on the first level of the log house.
Then, while walking around the "showroom" we found the treasure. A sofa. A brand new(looking) beautiful green sofa with a tall back and fluffy arms. $250. That's all. Brand new. I bought it before the store could change the price. The tag said it was donated to the ReStore the day before. Sweet.
We picked it up along with the four sconces and delivered them to the log house.
We then took our dining room table to the log house along with Sparky's HUGE speakers and some random furniture that was making my townhouse look clutter-y. We replaced our normal dining room table with an oak one of my mom's. Our current house looks much more spacious now!
We also found four old water/emergency barrels full of "stuff" and other junk half hidden behind some pine trees on the property. We are guessing people bought this stuff when we had an auction and couldn't fit it into their car so they hid it to get later. Later they either forgot about it or decided it wasn't worth another trip back. They were heavy and full of junk we didn't want in the first place (hence it was in the auction).

Sunday Sparky slept in while I caught up on my DVRed Royal Wedding. I called my mom to see if she remembered the name of the sofa I just bought for a steal...she looked at the sofa and read the label.
Wait. The sofa was at the log house. How did she read it? My dad and mom apparently went back today to work some more! They took down some wall paneling and a wall so they could see the plumbing better. All while Sparky slept and I pretended to be British. Aren't they nice?
Now I have to decide what to do about the downstairs bathroom. Should I make it wheelchair accessible by taking out an adjacent closet, or not worry about it? Sparky wants to replace the shower stall. Should we just remove the shower and put in a different one in the basement and make this bathroom into a half bath since there aren't any bedrooms on this floor anyway? Or put in a new shower in case someone makes a bedroom on the first floor? I don't know.

1 comment:

Wendy McConnell said...

Hey girl! This is unrelated to your house work, but I just saw this recently on one of the blogs I follow and I thought you might like to read it.

http://youaremyfave.com/reality/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+YouAreMyFave+%28you+are+my+fave%29

~Wendy