Jul 2008
The Lowes Conspiracy
Jul/25/08 08:09 AM
Most people who shop Lowes for their weekend project
think of them as having reasonable prices. But for
those of us who shop there on a weekly basis, we know
that they are way overpriced. Especially us seasoned
veterans that are used to working on our house with
an extremely tight budget. We tend to get creative
with our shopping an sourcing. It is my belief that
Lowes is also aware of this fact, AND that they feel
guilty about gouging us, their lifeblood.
My wife works in advertising, and in her early years in this profession helped companies run special promotions and such. She is in awe of the apparent promotional blunders that Lowes makes on a pretty regular basis. It's not to say they make mistakes, so much as maybe they underestimate our ability to exploit such opportunities.
One such example is the Visa/Lowe's Coupon. All you needed was an email address and BAM! you had a handful of $10 off a $25 dollar purchase coupons. Tell me, those of you who knew about this promotion, how many times did you buy something and use the coupon and then once you loaded it in the car, went right back in and used another? A lot of you I'd bet.
Another example is the Home Depot 20% off coupon on ebay, $5 lands you a handful of competitor coupons that you can use at Lowes. You would think that they would have taken measures against it, but then again if you are feeling guilty then I guess letting a few of them slide eases the conscience a bit. (This didn't work at all Lowes stores)
But my favorite promotion of ALL time was the kitchen and bath remodel. All you had to do was sign up for it and go online and enter your receipt number for the items that you purchased for your "Kitchen and Bath" remodel. For every $1000 you spent they would send you a $100 gift card when the promotion ended. The beauty of it was that they weren't very picky about what you purchased as it was ambiguous as to what could be used for a K&B remodel. According to the receipts that I entered, I must have the strangest looking Kitchen in all of Arkansas. That being said, now that the promotion ended, I can't remember the last time I went to Lowes and DIDN'T use a gift card.
There, was one instance I went to Lowes and used a $10 off $25 coupon for a bucket of mastic I think, and I got one of those $10 off of a $50 purchase receipts. While standing in line I'd noticed they were having a promotion for a $20 rebate on all ceiling fans over $100. So I went to the car and dropped off the mastic. I went back inside and picked up the ceiling fan that my wife and I had been drooling over. I went to the same cashier, handed her a $10 off $25 coupon and paid for the fan, when she printed the receipt, it printed out the $20 rebate and another $10 off a $50. So essentially I got $45 dollars off the ceiling fan and left with 2 $10 off $50 purchase coupons.
Sometimes it's a lot to wrap your head around but if you pay attention to their promotions, you too can help ease their conscience. I would love to hear any comments about your Lowes story.
My wife works in advertising, and in her early years in this profession helped companies run special promotions and such. She is in awe of the apparent promotional blunders that Lowes makes on a pretty regular basis. It's not to say they make mistakes, so much as maybe they underestimate our ability to exploit such opportunities.
One such example is the Visa/Lowe's Coupon. All you needed was an email address and BAM! you had a handful of $10 off a $25 dollar purchase coupons. Tell me, those of you who knew about this promotion, how many times did you buy something and use the coupon and then once you loaded it in the car, went right back in and used another? A lot of you I'd bet.
Another example is the Home Depot 20% off coupon on ebay, $5 lands you a handful of competitor coupons that you can use at Lowes. You would think that they would have taken measures against it, but then again if you are feeling guilty then I guess letting a few of them slide eases the conscience a bit. (This didn't work at all Lowes stores)
But my favorite promotion of ALL time was the kitchen and bath remodel. All you had to do was sign up for it and go online and enter your receipt number for the items that you purchased for your "Kitchen and Bath" remodel. For every $1000 you spent they would send you a $100 gift card when the promotion ended. The beauty of it was that they weren't very picky about what you purchased as it was ambiguous as to what could be used for a K&B remodel. According to the receipts that I entered, I must have the strangest looking Kitchen in all of Arkansas. That being said, now that the promotion ended, I can't remember the last time I went to Lowes and DIDN'T use a gift card.
There, was one instance I went to Lowes and used a $10 off $25 coupon for a bucket of mastic I think, and I got one of those $10 off of a $50 purchase receipts. While standing in line I'd noticed they were having a promotion for a $20 rebate on all ceiling fans over $100. So I went to the car and dropped off the mastic. I went back inside and picked up the ceiling fan that my wife and I had been drooling over. I went to the same cashier, handed her a $10 off $25 coupon and paid for the fan, when she printed the receipt, it printed out the $20 rebate and another $10 off a $50. So essentially I got $45 dollars off the ceiling fan and left with 2 $10 off $50 purchase coupons.
Sometimes it's a lot to wrap your head around but if you pay attention to their promotions, you too can help ease their conscience. I would love to hear any comments about your Lowes story.
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Snap, Crackle and Pop
Jul/14/08 08:16 AM
After an incident where one of our subs marred the floor pretty badly (We won't name any names, but it was the electrician), we decided to put protective plastic on the floors to cut down on the damage to the floors since we still had the movers coming and various other contractors. This was several weeks ago.
This plastic you can buy at Lowe's in the flooring department. It comes in 100' lengths and has a sticky back on it to adhere to the floor. When you lay it down, enormous amounts of air gets trapped underneath and form "bubbles". The longer you walk on the plastic the more it gets pressed down and in turn the more it compresses the air in the "bubbles". Cats hate walking on plastic, so Moscow was generally not fond of what we had done and as it progressed we became increasingly less fond of it too. You see, these compressed air bubbles became something like little sonic land-mines, with an explosive sound not unlike bubble-wrap (the BIG bubble-wrap). Not even the stealthiest of ninjas could have traversed our floors without a snap-crackle-pop. The pinnacle of the absurdity of the situation occurred one night while laying in bed, we heard a loud snap! We both about died laughing while we were imagining the look of disgust on Moscow's face as he walked across the floor snapping one of the loudest bubbles yet.
Well, kitten is happy now, because this weekend we pulled up the plastic. When the plastic came up in the bedroom, he had a solid two hours of frisky-time. Unfortunately, this was when we were going to bed, so I had to remove his bell collar so we could get some sleep.
Since the plastic has come up, we have purchased cute little baby blue booties for any future contractors to cover their boots with. I can see it now... "You want me to wear wut?
Thinking of Starting Another House Blog
Jul/10/08 11:48 PM
Kristin and I have another house in Rogers, Arkansas
that serves as a rental property. It has pretty much
been a carefree deal until recently. Our "neighbors"
in Rogers called us a few weeks back to let us know
that our renters were terrible and that they were
destroying the house. We knew that the neighbors
didn't get along with the renters, but we assumed
there was an agenda on their part as well. Kristin
and I discussed it and I told her that we should just
boot the renters and sell the house and dump our
earnings into the Williams House. Kristin agreed, so
we ordered up an appraisal from the great guys down
at Boston Mountain Appraisals.
Basically there was only one photo of the exterior and the appraiser didn't even go into the house. After I saw the exterior of the house in the photo, I knew why... I think he was scared. This house, that was a beautiful house, that Kristin and I fixed up and rented out was no longer so. First of all there were toys on the roof, a giant inflatable snowman thingy in the front yard that had been there for who-knows how long and a six foot rebel flag hanging from the front porch. Kristin and I gasped in horror as it had been about 4 months since the last time we had been up there. We followed up with the neighbors and apparently the husband had not one but FIVE pit-bulls chained up in the back yard (which has to be against some city code), and they also told us that the wife had been running a daycare out of the house. A DAYCARE (which also has to be against some city code)! As you can imagine grubby little hands touching EVERY single freshpainted wall in the house. My stomach churns thinking about it.
We evicted the renters almost immediately, which wasn't hard since they rarely paid rent every-other month or so. Then we went to survey the damage. Aside from the 5 billion flies in the house at first glance it didn't seem too bad, but as we looked closer it became apparent that the damage was extensive. They had put nails in almost every inch of the trim in the living room to hang baseball caps from, all the walls had handprints covering every inch up to about 4 feet, all of the door knobs had dented the walls even though there are doorstop springs, and for some reason had bubble gum stuffed in the holes like that was a suitable wall patch. I won't even go into bathroom detail, but trust me it'd make you sick. The back yard was destroyed and the dogs had ripped off the downspouts for the gutters, METAL GUTTERS mind you! I'll share this photo of the back yard with you because I find it strange, like a crop circle or a UFO landing site.
Anyway, we surveyed the damage and it appears to be in the thousands, luckily we can do most of the repair work ourselves. But it will take a lot of work, almost enough work to justify doing another blog, hence the topic of this post.
Do you want to hear the REALLY funny part about the whole thing? (Every time I think about this, I have to refrain from physically laughing out loud.) Get this: The renters called yesterday and ASKED FOR THEIR DEPOSIT BACK... Hah hah hah hah hah.
Basically there was only one photo of the exterior and the appraiser didn't even go into the house. After I saw the exterior of the house in the photo, I knew why... I think he was scared. This house, that was a beautiful house, that Kristin and I fixed up and rented out was no longer so. First of all there were toys on the roof, a giant inflatable snowman thingy in the front yard that had been there for who-knows how long and a six foot rebel flag hanging from the front porch. Kristin and I gasped in horror as it had been about 4 months since the last time we had been up there. We followed up with the neighbors and apparently the husband had not one but FIVE pit-bulls chained up in the back yard (which has to be against some city code), and they also told us that the wife had been running a daycare out of the house. A DAYCARE (which also has to be against some city code)! As you can imagine grubby little hands touching EVERY single freshpainted wall in the house. My stomach churns thinking about it.
We evicted the renters almost immediately, which wasn't hard since they rarely paid rent every-other month or so. Then we went to survey the damage. Aside from the 5 billion flies in the house at first glance it didn't seem too bad, but as we looked closer it became apparent that the damage was extensive. They had put nails in almost every inch of the trim in the living room to hang baseball caps from, all the walls had handprints covering every inch up to about 4 feet, all of the door knobs had dented the walls even though there are doorstop springs, and for some reason had bubble gum stuffed in the holes like that was a suitable wall patch. I won't even go into bathroom detail, but trust me it'd make you sick. The back yard was destroyed and the dogs had ripped off the downspouts for the gutters, METAL GUTTERS mind you! I'll share this photo of the back yard with you because I find it strange, like a crop circle or a UFO landing site.
Anyway, we surveyed the damage and it appears to be in the thousands, luckily we can do most of the repair work ourselves. But it will take a lot of work, almost enough work to justify doing another blog, hence the topic of this post.
Do you want to hear the REALLY funny part about the whole thing? (Every time I think about this, I have to refrain from physically laughing out loud.) Get this: The renters called yesterday and ASKED FOR THEIR DEPOSIT BACK... Hah hah hah hah hah.
The Refrigerator Incident
Jul/07/08 10:19 PM
The fridge arrived. You know there is some value in
shopping locally, mainly for such conveniences as
delivery, or old appliance exchange. But you know me
I am waaaaay too much of a cheap bastard to succumb
to such conveniences as these. Nope, we had to search
the internet for the least expensive version of the
fridge that we picked out at Best Buy (Who, by the
way will deliver and set up your appliance and haul
off your old one).
What most people don't know about ordering appliances online is that delivery of said items is about as half-assed as it could possibly be. Typically, they deliver to curbside only, unless you got a big-ass loading dock in your back yard, I dunno maybe some of you do. And on top of curbside only delivery, they belly-ache about having to do that much by telling you at least 150 times that they are in no way going to help you haul the sucker into the house. They belly-ached so much that they tried to convince me to come and pick it up at the distribution center in the next town over. What the heck was all those shipping charges for? Anyway, so the fridge was dropped off today, however unlike the stove delivery, I was prepared for this one. I was waiting with a fridge-dolly and a good, strong, and albeit not-too-smart friend. With some heaving and HO-ing we got the fridge up to the porch where we uncrated it to take the doors off, which for some God-only-knows reason required a metric wrench. Which of course is the driver I didn't have. A half hour later the doors were off.
I wheeled it to its future location and began assembly. What I was completely unaware of was that there would be some minor plumbing involved. As I'm pretty sure that I am forbidden to perform ANY type of plumbing in the state of Arkansas, (On account of me flooding a 3 story building once) I didn't know what to do.
Ok, Deep breath take it slow, it is only a simple waterline attached to the fridge. Sounds easy right? Obviously you don't know my luck with plumbing. This little venture required not one but THREE trips to Lowe's. I went and bought a compression fitting and came home to connect it, yep I cross-threaded it and stripped it. Ugh, back to Lowe's this time I was smart, I bought two! Got home and almost immediately stripped the first one, ok one more chance. This time I didn't tighten it so hard and tried to thread it properly. "Ok Kristin turn the water on." It was almost instantaneous and waaay to quick to catch it, but the hose blasted off of the fitting spraying me, the fridge and half the kitchen floor... "SHUT IT OFF, SHUT IT OFF, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD SHUT IT OFF!" It was a terrifying flashback to the time that I flooded the 3 story building. Anyway I changed my pants and headed off to Lowe's for the third and hopefully LAST time. This time I bought a whole assortment of fittings and different connection options. I must say it was epic brilliance on my part, as the fittings were the wrong size. While I was pondering the potential of a fourth trip to Lowe's, I noticed that one of the complex fittings that I had purchased had the same pieces as the first original fitting. I tried it and hold the friggin' presses, IT WORKED! And no lawsuit to boot!
What most people don't know about ordering appliances online is that delivery of said items is about as half-assed as it could possibly be. Typically, they deliver to curbside only, unless you got a big-ass loading dock in your back yard, I dunno maybe some of you do. And on top of curbside only delivery, they belly-ache about having to do that much by telling you at least 150 times that they are in no way going to help you haul the sucker into the house. They belly-ached so much that they tried to convince me to come and pick it up at the distribution center in the next town over. What the heck was all those shipping charges for? Anyway, so the fridge was dropped off today, however unlike the stove delivery, I was prepared for this one. I was waiting with a fridge-dolly and a good, strong, and albeit not-too-smart friend. With some heaving and HO-ing we got the fridge up to the porch where we uncrated it to take the doors off, which for some God-only-knows reason required a metric wrench. Which of course is the driver I didn't have. A half hour later the doors were off.
I wheeled it to its future location and began assembly. What I was completely unaware of was that there would be some minor plumbing involved. As I'm pretty sure that I am forbidden to perform ANY type of plumbing in the state of Arkansas, (On account of me flooding a 3 story building once) I didn't know what to do.
Ok, Deep breath take it slow, it is only a simple waterline attached to the fridge. Sounds easy right? Obviously you don't know my luck with plumbing. This little venture required not one but THREE trips to Lowe's. I went and bought a compression fitting and came home to connect it, yep I cross-threaded it and stripped it. Ugh, back to Lowe's this time I was smart, I bought two! Got home and almost immediately stripped the first one, ok one more chance. This time I didn't tighten it so hard and tried to thread it properly. "Ok Kristin turn the water on." It was almost instantaneous and waaay to quick to catch it, but the hose blasted off of the fitting spraying me, the fridge and half the kitchen floor... "SHUT IT OFF, SHUT IT OFF, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD SHUT IT OFF!" It was a terrifying flashback to the time that I flooded the 3 story building. Anyway I changed my pants and headed off to Lowe's for the third and hopefully LAST time. This time I bought a whole assortment of fittings and different connection options. I must say it was epic brilliance on my part, as the fittings were the wrong size. While I was pondering the potential of a fourth trip to Lowe's, I noticed that one of the complex fittings that I had purchased had the same pieces as the first original fitting. I tried it and hold the friggin' presses, IT WORKED! And no lawsuit to boot!
Painting Kitchen Cabinets Part II
Jul/02/08 09:42 PM
Well another week has escaped us and all that we have left on the primer coats are the cabinet shelving boards. When all is done they will be a minty-olive green that will compliment the other half of the cabinets that are a cherryish-walnut color.
I really appreciate all the feedback we got on our last post as Kristin and I have been debating on latex or alkyd based paint. The guy at Sherwin-Williams was strongly pushing his latex trim/cabinet paint but honestly we are still up in the air about it. And really we are leaning toward the latex based as I don't think Kristin will go near an oil based paint and I need all the help I can get. When I say debate I mean that I want oil based and Kristin wants latex.