My new home away from home...

So Sunday and Monday were spent at my new home, the Home Depot.  I am normally strictly a Lowes shopper because I am a Jimmie Johnson fan and he drives for Lowes, but they are a good amount more expensive, so my redneck preferences had to be pushed aside.  Disclaimer: I will continue to shop at Lowes for my own home's needs, but not for rentals.

Steve and I headed down to the house early Sunday to figure out what supplies and fixtures we needed to buy; everything from light fixtures, to dry wall, to light switch covers.  That shopping trip was one of the most stressful of my life.  I am an impulsive, find the cheapest, grab the stuff and get out of the store, type shopper, while Steve is more analytical and has to read about every item before he decides.  Needless to say, we spent a lot of the shopping trip on different sides of the store.  The good thing about our differences is that my grab-it-and-go style had me grabbing some of the wrong things, but my little reader caught it before we left the store.  I wrote down the item numbers for everything we weren't taking that day so I could have them delivered. 

While at the house, I met one of the neighbors.  Apparently someone had been out digging through the garbage on the porch and the cops were called.  Glad to know people are watching the house, but I hope they didn't arrest our 2 friends from yesterday as they were collecting the items they couldn't fit in their car the day before.  The neighbor lady filled me in on all of the happenings around the neighborhood.  Most of the homes on the street are owner-occupied and most everyone has lived there for over 10 years.  During hurricaine Ike, they had a tree fall at one end of the street and a telephone pole fall at the other, so they were trapped on the street for several days.  Everyone dragged their grills into the middle of the street and they had a big party.  I think that is one of my fantasies.  I love hurricaine parties!  She was very disappointed to hear we are putting renters in there and went on and on about how they don't take care of their houses and blah blah blah.  I found this extremely ironic because her house is the biggest eye-sore on the street.  Even with a dumpster and trash in the carport, our house still looks better!

We decided to hire Marco to do the work on the home.  He came highly recommended by the tailor at Steve's office and was the least expensive, so it was an easy decision.  He is a very nice guy who understands more English than he can speak....his helper speaks almost no English, so communicating with the workers is great fun. 

When I got to the house on Monday, they were hard at work prepping the house so they could begin floating the walls and sanding the trim.  The water inspector was scheduled to come that afternoon and so I needed Marco to put new shut off valves on the kitchen plumbing so we wouldn't have to advertise an indoor swimming pool when trying to rent it.  The dumpter guy showed up at the same time as the water inspector, and so while I was speaking with the dumpster guy, the water inspector went out to the box at the street and started messing around.  I thought he was checking the meter or something, but had a strange feeling he might be turning the water on, so I went inside to make sure the shut off valves were installed.  There they were, laying on the cabinets.  I said, "Marco, hurry, he is about to turn the water on, we need these installed!" and right as I attempted to screw on one of the valves, water started spraying out of the pipe.  It was like in a movie!  Water hit me in the face, all over my clothes, on the ceiling, EVERYWHERE!  I held the piece on as I scremed and yelled some naughty words (let's hope their broken English didn't pick that up) while Marco ran outside and told the man to turn the water back off.  Apparently, a piece that was connected to the pipe needed to be removed and they didn't have the proper tool for it.  Would have been nice to know 5 minutes ago!

Steve was doubting my construction knowledge last night and suggested we bet on it.  We called Dale to clear it up and guess who was correct......ME OF COURSE!  Rule #1 Steve, don't ever doubt your foreman!  I just wish we had bet something bigger than lunch.

Here are my realizations for the last 2 days:
1.  Women get treated much better than men at Home Depot.  That place is the biggest self-esteem booster!
2.  I need to learn more Spanish. 
3.  The water inspector should always check inside the house, especially when it is clearly being worked on, before turning the water on.
4.  Neighbors with cars and a boat parked in their front yard, should not throw stones.

I'll have to take a better picture of her yard. 


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