Remodel

We've been remodeling our house. Until recently, we've never really had the time or money to do anything major, but in the past couple of months, we've embarked on a fairly large project, i.e. new wood floors in the living area and hallway, new carpet in the master bedroom, and new paint throughout the house.

Still on the list is new trim and baseboards throughout (I'm making most of that), refacing the kitchen cabinets-including replacing the existing cabinet doors, replacement doors throughout the house (the builder's used a cheap hollow-core door; we're upgrading to a craftsman style 5-panel door), new appliances in the kitchen, and replace the tile in the entry and one of the bathrooms. I'm still deciding on what I may or may not do to the master bathroom. Now, don't get the wrong idea--we're not loaded and we're not spending near the money on these projects we could, mainly because I'm doing a lot of the work myself. And, we're pretty simple people; none of the changes/additions we're making are extravagant.

We live in an older neighborhood, the houses are all close to 20 years old or older. When we moved into our house, the neighborhood looked pretty good. Now, there are several rent houses on the block and people haven't kept their homes up like they could, so it looks a little worn in places. We stay because we like the layout of our house and it's CHEAP. You'd die if I told you how low my mortgage payment is. I'm pretty sure that we've over-built for the neighborhood, but we're not doing any of this to sell the house in hopes of getting more money for it. We just want to fix it up the way we like.

So, this past week we've been confined to the house because of that huge snowstorm that has hit the Midwest United States. Our town received 21 INCHES of snow in 24 hours! We sat in the house for several days...thankful we had heat, plenty of groceries, and a dry roof over our heads. During that time, we watched a bit of television, especially DIY, HGTV and A&E--all of those channels that show the "How-To" shows, and people flipping houses, etc. What really gets me about those shows is the amount of money people spend on some of their remodels. "We've got a budget of $75,000 to renovate the kitchen." Geezo-PETE! That's more than I paid for my entire house!

When the TV remodelers are asked about their projects, they say things like: "We entertain a lot, so we really needed a large area for friends...because we entertain a lot!" What does that mean, we entertain? Do they juggle? Have a trapeze act? Do a little standup comedy? It must be something like that because they just added 5000 square feet to their 4500 square foot house! And just how many people do they entertain that they need so much space? Since moving into our house 19 years ago, I can safely say that there's NEVER been a time we needed that kind of space. In fact, I can't remember there ever being a time we've had more than 10 other people in our house at a time!

Maybe we're just not very entertaining people...but we do have a nice, new floor.

Brand New Used Stuff

I went to Lowe's yesterday to pick up a few things for the office I've added on my house. I was installing cabinets and needed some screws and an attachment for my Dremel ® for cutting out the cabinet backs where they covered electrical outlets.

I grabbed the screws, then headed to the Tool Department to find the Dremel aisle. Man, they've got a lot of neat stuff for Dremels. Anyhoo, I found the attachment I was looking for, but noticed it had been opened. Everything appeared to be in the package, but the clamshell container had been cut open, then taped back together. "Someone must have bought the thing and returned it because it didn't fit," I told myself. I noticed on the front of the package it stated "for models xxx, xxx, xxx." "Maybe they had a Dremel that wasn't listed and just failed to pay attention to the label."

I made my way to the self check-out and headed home where I discovered something very interesting: the Dremel thingy had been USED! It was obvious when I got it out of the package! Here's my theory: the person "bought" the item, took it home, used it, then returned it for a refund. Now, maybe they got the thing home and tried it out and it just didn't perform to their expectations...or maybe they went to the store, "pretended" to buy the thing knowing full well they were going to bring it back for a refund after using it. If the latter is the case, that ain't right!

I put the cutting attachment on my Dremel, made my cuts and put everything away, but I couldn't help but wondering how often stuff like that happens.

I've written about it before, but it reminded me of a family I know that, when they needed new clothes for a special event, would go to the store, "buy" the clothes, WEAR THEM being careful not to soil of tear them, THEN RETURN THE ITEMS TO THE STORE FOR A FULL REFUND! That's not even like renting!