How I beat HD out of $1,000.......

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Last spring when our youngest son and spouse visited us I was embarrassed by the condition of the main floor bathroom. The finish on the all oak counter top had worn so bad that water had gotten to the wood and caused cracks and even mildew was growing in some of the cracks. I was terribly embarrassed.

We didn't want to do anything major as the LOML loves the cabinets that are in there. So, we went to HD and got an estimate for an installed solid surface counter top. $1,000. I about choked. I told her as we left, I can tile it for a lot less.

We couldn't agree on a tile and she made the mistake of saying " Get the tile you want." I made the mistake doing what she told me. So I tiled the countertop on the bathroom vanity. Looked pretty good....until I tried ..(key word "tried") to reinstall the drop in sink. It seems as though the 1/4" tile and thinset had moved the backsplash out far enough, the sink wouldn't fit. I checked and there was no room to enlarge or move the hole for the sink forward as the current hole went to the face frame. OOPS!

Long story short I went back to HD and bought a cheap porcelain sink. I used my tile wet saw to cut off the back 3/8 of an inch and with new hardware, faucets, supply lines etc, it dropped right in. Looks good. One more minor problem...it's bone colored and the tub and toilet are white. Boy do they clash!

So...back to HD...they don't carry that color in stock. It's special order time. It's double the price time too!

Of course, now it means tearing out the current tile, replacing the tub and toilet and while we are at it...repaint and replace the carpet. Of course, there is no place I can find that has the accordian style shower doors so we go with a custom glass one....and I let the glass shop install it.

Then...since we are ordering carpet for the bathroom, HD has a special...install all the rooms in your house or one room...total installation cost....$39.00. So...we really need to replace the carpet in the masterbedroom and of course it needs painting prior to the new carpet being installed.

Well, $4800 later I showed those folks at HD. I still haven't spent the $1,000 on that solid surface counter top. You can't push this damn old hillbilly around!

Here's some photos of the newly remodeled bathroom.

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[Josh Reet]

Great story Ken!

[Joe Mioux]

good job and story, Ken.

and you gave me a good laugh.

joe

[RickT Harding]

Completely understand. Nice bathroom there. My wife just wants to replace the vanity in our master bathroom but I've avoided it. I just see a spiraling pit there. There's no such home project as "Let's *just* do this...."

[Paul Ryan]

Nice looking bathroom Ken. Way to stick it to HD.

[Mitchell Andrus]

Scope-creep. Gotta love it.

[David Bridgeman]

Fixing a window leak. When we bought this house 20 years ago I replaced the windows with inexpensive vinyl ones. Eventually, the miters in the vinyl frames came unglued and would leak if the rain hit them the right way. We decided to replace the window (6’ wide by 3’ high) with an Andersen slider. When we pulled the old one we found rotted wood in the frame. We exposed the entire wall replaced the bad wood and reinsulated. Finally, I built cabinets and a window seat for the room (my daughter’s).
My wife did the painting, curtains and seat cushion.
I used birch ply and poplar for the cabintets. I made the drawers out of 1/2” ply with two coats of shellac.

Pics:
http://mysite.verizon.net/vze11mqvv/.../jebthumb.html

[Brian Brown]

Nice looking remodel Ken. You have got to stop taking lessons from me on how to save money on remodels. Apparantly you have learned too well.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Ken - sure hope HD learned their lesson! Don't think you could afford to teach them to many more!

Great looking bathroom! Nothing like a remodel job as a source of entertainment and a great way to use some (all) of your free time! The results show it was worth the effort!

Hope you are able to relax for a while before starting the next job - and as a home owner - there is always a next job!

Nice work! Thanks for sharing!

[Jim Podsedly]

Thanks for the good laugh today! Very funny.

[Tim Morton]

Didn't this happen to someone else here last year? I am having wicked deja vu reading this.....

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by Tim Morton

Didn't this happen to someone else here last year? I am having wicked deja vu reading this.....

I sure hope it didn't happen to me last year! Something left with the color in my hair and frankly it could have been me.....

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Oh but the story got better.....

So the LOML decides we have to paint the master bedroom before we have the new carpet installed.

I have this paint scheme I like to use. Bright white for the ceilings....off-white or antique white on the walls. Any other color will go with it.

The LOML disagrees strongly.....

So she's chanting her mantra "Anything but off-white!.....Any thing but off-white!......Anything but off -white!"

So she sees the ad on tv and runs to HD. She gets a little 4 oz sample of paint....she paints a 1' square on 3 different walls in the bedroom. Nope! That ain't the right color. After a week and a half she has 7 different 4 oz. cans of different colors of paint and 21 different 1' squares on the walls of the bedroom.

At this point I was just hoping she didn't just decide to connect the dots.

In the end guess what color she decided to paint the bedroom to go with the silver carpet she'd selected......WHITE!

I love that woman!

[John Shuk]

Originally Posted by Tim Morton

Didn't this happen to someone else here last year? I am having wicked deja vu reading this.....

Me too! I looked at the date of the post 3 times.

[Tim Morton]

Originally Posted by John Shuk

Me too! I looked at the date of the post 3 times.

i think Ken is messing with us.....it was the same exact story.....same mismatched colored sinks...the guy was quoted some price for new fixtures and he was sure he could do it for less....it involved proving somethign to his wife i think...ended up costing him thousands....i tried searching but i did not come up with it.