House in Progress Diary

Well, let me tell you something!!! I'd bet you would do just fine in the playground(in my playground, anyway)...POPS"30"

You go girl! I had a guy in last week to give me an estimate on replacing our vinyl replacement windows with real wood windows with true lights. The guy and I got into a rather intense back and forth about why on earth I would want to spend the money on these windows..."had I ever seen them?" yes "nobody's going to notice the difference!" I will! He stopped for a moment, looked at me (he was twice my size) and said, "a woman who knows what she wants."
When the house projects are over, we're building our own playground...

What made me really laugh about this, um, MUCH later was that he felt that it was his sworn duty to convince me that wood windows would take up too much of my free time. And that was BAD, with a capital "B". And that his choice was much, MUCH better.

I just wanted a hinge!

He was pushing my buttons when I should have just smiled and said, "Mmmm hmmm? That's nice" and walked away. Not everyone I know has wood windows and we made a personal choice to keep them, for better or worse. Everyone has to decide for themselves what works for them. There are some very high quality aluminum clads out there (Jen-Weld comes to mind as a supplier that is talked about a lot at FH...I haven't done a lot of research on windows.) It cost us less to keep what we had and make them seal up tight then replace all of the windows in the house.

Next time, I'm just going to belt out a rendition of My Milkshake is Better Than Yours" and do a dance in the aisle. I'm not sure what that song is really about and I probably don't want to know...I like to think it really is about milkshakes. So don't tell me the real meaning 'cause I might get all sad.

The Home Despot makes me sad.
Wouldn't it be cool if they stocked more high-quality basics? They've got 20 varieties of cheap fake wood floors, but it's murder tring to find a few tongue and groove pine floorboards to patch my floor.
The real sadness comes, though, in that most people just don't know what's out there if the HD or Lowes doesn't carry it... and they carry a lot more junky products than high quality ones. Windows are a prime example.
As for the guy you got into it with... I'm envious that you even found someone to help you there!

You just wanted a hinge and he tried to see you a whole freakin new set of windows, eh?

In addition to taking the phrase "upselling" to a whole new extreme, it also sounds coupled with the sort of pointless technical evangelism of those who have no meaning in their lives.

("Less filling" vs. "tastes great" = "Get a life already")

also...it occurs to me that coincidentally I recently wrote a post ("Shopping Sherpas") which is essentially an ode of thanks to those few who represent the kind of knowledgeable and truly helpful folks we wish to find more often in retail establishments. Because when you find 'em, you gotta sing their praises. :-)

I was once shopping for wood at the HD and a forklift was in front of the section I wanted to get at. I asked an employee if he could move it so that I could pick out the wood I wanted. He instead directed me to a lower quality wood (same dimensions) and said I can just choose from there. When I explained why I wanted the other wood, he mumbled "women and wood don't mix" then walked away without moving the forklift!

At a later time HD announced that they were looking to get a larger female market and intended to do so by brightening the aisles and moving away from the warehouse look. I wrote a letter with my story telling them their attitude is was needs adjusting, not the lighting. I received a short response thanking me for my interest in HD with no apology whatsoever for the mans actions.

Forget the HD, Menards, Fleet Farm (I'm from Wisconsin), etc. Go to an old hardware store. That's where you can get excellent service and products intended for old houses. You also don't need to spend hours walking long aisles looking for something that they don't even stock.
Instead you get employees that know their stuff (and how to understand your request for that tiny little thinga-ma-bob) and you occasionally even find things like 1930 kitchen hardware in its original packaging at original prices!! It looks great in our kitchen!!

OY my garsh...Home Depot. We have a home depot in hollywood. It used to be cool when I DIDN'T own a house and need specific things. It was open 24 hours even!!! Drywall screws at 3am. What could be more happenin' ???

Here's a recent exchange my wife had with our local Home DipS&*t location, and I couldn't make stuff up this good if I tried...it really happened:

her: "Hi. I need to find a lead paint testing kit"

them: "um...a what?"

her: "a kit to test the paint in your home. To find out if there's lead"

them: "um...you want to test your house paint?"

her: "no, I want to get the little kit that you can test a chip of paint to find out if the OLD paint had lead in it"

them: "oh. I don't think we have anything like that"

her: "really? it's a very common item. Are you sure?"

them: "yea, I'm sure we don't have that. you should try going to a hardware store"

her:

her: "well. I thought was AT a hardware store. apparently I'm not. goodbye."

...'nuff said.

Cheers,

Willy

THIS HAPPENED TO ME!!!! But I know they had them, because I had seen them before. So, I looked for them myself.

Once I had FOUND THEM MYSELF, I collared the HDespot employee and gave him a tour of HIS OWN MERCHANDISE!

Moronic doesn't begin to cover it. And it is why I adore....MENARDS!

Oooh! Oooh! I forgot the best part. She had already gathered up her other purchases, and got in line.

The lead paint test kits were on the regsiter line shelves. In droves, many different brands. Hundreds of them.

Right across the street from our local home dips&*t is an OSH (Orchard Supply Hardware) and we try to go there first for things but they just don't have the floorspace to carry enough stuff. I positively hate going there for electrical items because they have nothing but the basics. They always look at me like I'm from another planet when I complain that the ONLY mudring they carry is a 1/2" deep one or two device.

WM

You have to be kidding me.

They were RIGHT THERE????? And they DIDN'T GET IT????

Moronic.

I wish everyone had Menards. I love them. They are as large as Home Depot but privately owned and their prices are better and their floor help KNOWS what they are doing. At least they do at our Menards. It's a bit further of a drive, but SO worth it.