Doin' it yourself...

[LIPH]

Oh, and either place, if I'm there will hubby, heither place will talk directly to me--they always talk to hubby.

I'm looking at an opportunity here...opening a Do-It-Yourself store for women only.

B.O.B.s and C cells?

[sy]

Oh, and either place, if I'm there will hubby, heither place will talk directly to me--they always talk to hubby.

I'm looking at an opportunity here...opening a Do-It-Yourself store for women only.

B.O.B.s and C cells?

You'll have to stock more than just C cells

[buffettbride]

That is awesome. I forsee many shower doors in my near future. Fortunately, we have contractors doing a bit of the "hard" work for us like tiling the bath and shower areas and the floor, but to save costs we're installing all the fixtures, doors, moulding, painting, etc. etc. etc. ourselves.

In the long run, you actually do save a ton of money. I know I was all about the DIY when we moved into our current house, and we did everything that didn't have to do with electrical or major plumbing - tiling, moulding, painting, flooring, etc. It was A LOT of hard work and cursing and throwing tools across the room, but in the end, I think it came out a lot better and I'm really happy to look around and know that we did it ourselves It also gave us a good chance as we did things to make small changes that really make a difference in the end, like different ways I stain-glassed the shower door, different moulding techniques we did on the ceiling, and so on.

Good luck!!!! It's an adventure, but I think it's a fun and educational one.

Thanks Jen! It definitely is an adventure!

We've done all the demolition of the existing fixtures (2 bathrooms--1 full bath and 1 3/4 bath) are being completely redone. Demo is EASY and FUN!!! We're also on a timeline as everything needs to be completed by Feb 10th so we can refinance our house!

If we weren't on such a schedule, we'd be doing every bit of it ourselves. Nevermind that trying to do any home improvements with kids around seems darn near impossible at times!! We completely re-drywalled our living room/dining room last March, and it's still just bare drywall!!

[buffettbride]

It happens at a LOT of places and makes me NUTS!!

The contractors that are doing our mold mitigation were really funny. When they were talking about the mold removal and demolition, they looked at hubby. When they were talking about picking tile/decorative stuff, they looked at me.

My husband always lets them go on and on to him. Then after they've wasted their breath and I've already walked off, he'll just shrug and say 'I don't know, I don't write the checks. You need to go through all that with my wife'.

Ooohh. That's a good one.

[sy]

If we weren't on such a schedule, we'd be doing every bit of it ourselves. Nevermind that trying to do any home improvements with kids around seems darn near impossible at times!! We completely re-drywalled our living room/dining room last March, and it's still just bare drywall!!

Oof, now drywalling is something that if I ever have to do again, I will definitely pay someone. We drywalled our entire basement when we were starting to finish it. When you have me, my husband, and my b-i-l doing something like that together, two of us want to be in charge, and the other mocks us the entire time, it does not make for good time management

[sy]

My husband always lets them go on and on to him. Then after they've wasted their breath and I've already walked off, he'll just shrug and say 'I don't know, I don't write the checks. You need to go through all that with my wife'.

Ooohh. That's a good one.

We walked out of a Toyota dealership because of that. Salesman didn't even want to talk to me and made it very clear. My husband kept trying to walk away, guy followed him, wouldn't answer any of my questions. Finally, hubby turned to him and said 'look, I'm not driving it, I don't like Toyota's, and I don't care. I don't handle the money, and you've really p*ssed off my wife, so I think we're done here.'

The guy followed us all the way to the car, nearly crying and apologizing. It was great. Then I went two doors down to Hyundai and the salesman couldn't have been nicer and more attentive to me.

[buffettbride]

If we weren't on such a schedule, we'd be doing every bit of it ourselves. Nevermind that trying to do any home improvements with kids around seems darn near impossible at times!! We completely re-drywalled our living room/dining room last March, and it's still just bare drywall!!

Oof, now drywalling is something that if I ever have to do again, I will definitely pay someone. We drywalled our entire basement when we were starting to finish it. When you have me, my husband, and my b-i-l doing something like that together, two of us want to be in charge, and the other mocks us the entire time, it does not make for good time management

Well, about 6 of us all got together (including Victoria) and took out all the old drywall (weird faux walls and 1/4" plaster texture) BLECH. Hubby and 2 of his buddies put the new drywall up in 1 day (after having nothing but insulation showing for 7 months!)--the room is about 30' by 12'. All the seams are taped and hubby's been working on the mudding/sanding. What hubby can't finish by the time our bathrooms are done, we're going to have the contractors who are doing our bathrooms complete.

If I never see another sheet of drywall again in my life, it will be too soon (well, until we finish the basement I guess).

[Wino you know]

Lowes because it's much closer than the others, but the rest of them (Home Depot, Menards, etc.) are all good too.

[buffettbride]

Lowes because it's much closer than the others, but the rest of them (Home Depot, Menards) are all good too.

I've heard of Menards and I think seen them in Iowa. Is it basically the same?

Our Lowes and Home Depot are equidistant, so I know I'll be going to Lowes if I have the choice.

[Wino you know]

Yeah, Menards is another type of Lowes/Home Depot type store.
I bought my paint from there two years ago when I painted the outside of the house. I also bought a couple of ceiling fans and the sliding door to the patio from there.
They're a good store, but they're up in Cedar Rapids, about 30 miles away.

[buffettbride]

There's a Menards in Spencer, IA if I'm remembering right. That's where my mom grew up.

[Wino you know]

I'm sure there's one there. There seems to be at least one in every city in the state.
Spencer is probably close to 300 miles away.

[El mojito]

Yardbirds Hardware also Builders Supply

[buffettbride]

Haven't heard of Yardbirds. Builder's Supply I think I have, though.

[NYCPORT]

We only have a Depot close by. But they are building a Lowe's as we speak. I hear the Depot lowers it's prices one they have a Lowe's to compete with.

[buffettbride]

There's an HD and Lowes right next to eachother near us, and I still think HD is more expensive by quite a bit.

The same shower doors are $100 less at Lowes.

[Big Red Parrothead]

How can any place with power tools be bad? I picked Home Depot just because (a) there are no Lowe's close to me and (b) I own Home Depot stock.

But I'll agree with those who said Home Depot personnel are sometimes lacking in the knowledge department. I've found it's really hit and miss--of the people I've dealt with they can either tell you anything and everything you'd ever want to know about the project you're trying to do or they have no clue what you're talking about.

We still have a couple of Ace Hardware stores around us, but they're considerably smaller and don't have much selection compared with HD or Lowe's.

[buffettbride]

We still have a couple of Ace Hardware stores around us, but they're considerably smaller and don't have much selection compared with HD or Lowe's.

We have a few Ace stores around too. I like Ace a lot. They carry the basics, but not a lot of the end-to-end remodeling needs of the bigger stores.

[prrthd1987]

We've just started getting Lowes in our area... so I really don't know what it's all about


It's always been Home Depot or Menards around here... and there used to be a place called Builder's Square but that was about 12 years ago It was the closest thing to Home Depot we had!

[Quiet and Shy]

I've taken on some different projects both inside and outside (including the yard) and thank goodness Lowe's is close (maybe 1/2 mile as the crow flies) because more than once I've been there 3, 4, and maybe even 5 times in a day.... And it's amazing how much money I can spend at that "toy" store!