Kitchen Remodel Day 2 (more)

I can't believe I forgot to mention these fun-filled adventures.

First of all, when Alene and I were shopping at Home Depot, this dude came up to us and asked if we wanted to buy a gift card off him (since he could tell we were obviously spending a lot of money). He had $800 on his gift card (he owns a cement business and returned some items to Home Depot without a receipt, so they gave him a gift card with the credit on it). He said if we gave him cash, he would knock some money off the cost. I had thought about how all the banks were closed and that the only thing I could get was $500 out of the ATM. He said he'd give it to us for $600. Ummmm, trade $600 cash for $800 credit? Sounds like a no-brainer to me.

I then thought about some additional cash we had at home in a safe. Alene and I agreed to buy it from him and she ran to the bank, withdrew the cash, then went home and grabbed the extra $100. The dude just waited up front while I continued shopping.

It wasn't until 10 minutes later when I realized that I should make sure to verify the funds are on the card and that we don't just give him the money and let him run. DUH! But man, that would be a horrible scam. I wonder if anyone else is doing that out there? "Hey, sir, I have this gift card that says $100. I'm not going to use it here, so I'll sell it to you for $50". The dude then goes to use the card and finds out it's used up. That would suck.

So I went and found the guy and told him, no offense, but I want to make sure the money is on the card before I buy it. He was really cool about it.

So Alene got back, we verified it, exchanged money and he went on his way. It was nice to get an extra $200 for pretty much nothing other than having to run to the ATM. In all, we spent around $2000, but we had a 20% off coupon I bought on ebay for $6 (which gave us $400 off), then the $200 we saved with buying the dudes gift card. We basically got $2000 worth of supplies for $1400. Not a bad deal!

The sucky part was our trip home. We loaded the truck up with TONS of stuff (we spent over $2000 that day. I was suprized to see that we were able to fit everything on except the ten 2x6x14' boards we bought. We loaded the back of the truck up with 5 sheets of 4'x8' sub flooring, multiple cabinet door backs, 16 2'x4' studs, 50' of 1/2" copper tubing, 130' of door trim and base boards, and 18 sheets of drywall. In addition we put 4 bags of ceramic tile mortar and a heavy cast-iron sink (which was in the box). This doesn't include the stuff we put up in the back seat of the truck (which included an over-the-stove microwave/range unit).

We live only 3 miles away from the store and everything felt pretty solid, so the "all-knowing" man in me figured everything would be safe if we left it as it was. I drove the truck very slowly and carefully. We got about 1/2 mile from our house and stopped at an intersection red light. Upon my taking off (which was slow), Alene screamed out to stop. I did and looked back as all the stuff just started sliding backward. THAT SUCKED!

So we had to put the hazzards on (luckily the weekend traffic was nothing) and a guy pulled over to help us. We had to take all 18 sheets of drywall, the sub flooring the trim, basically everything but some of the smaller items, off to the side of the road. Luckily nothing was seriously damaged (or so I thought, we found out later that our tailgate is all bent up and only one side locks in place, while the other side won't even reach it's lock; oh well, it's a truck). We then loaded everything back up (again, not tying it down, but distributing the weight a little better) and we got home just fine. I have no idea why it all decided to fall off. Most of the weight was in the bed (only 2' of the 8' sheets of drywall and sub flooring were hanging over).

Anyway, THAT sucked, but we were very thankful for the guy who helped us. The stuff was HEAVY and we worked up a sweat getting it out of the road. A police officer came up and put his lights on for us so people would go around him. That was nice of him. At first I thought I was going to get in some sort of trouble or ticketed for some reason, but he was cool. When we got in the truck, I apologized to Alene for being so dumb about not tying it down. She then played the comforter and said "dude, it's not your fault". You're so nice sweetie. I know the truth though :-).

Anyway, I'm glad we got it all home. We have a few more items to purchase still, but we pretty much have everything we wanted (and then some, we have money left over for some new lights for the kitchen and dining area).