I don't wanna!

I'm so freaking tired. I'm now two weeks into the project and it feels like 3 months. Yesterday was a bad day because I spent over 2 hours at Lowe's that should have been spent at the townhouse. By the time I picked up Adam and went up to the condo, all I could manage was unloading the stuff out of the truck.

Jeff and I had loaded the truck up for a dump run earlier so I guess the day wasn't a total waste. We did end up leaving 3 garbage cans behind. Nickle & Dime, baby. We called Sears Service Center and they had a refurbished 5.5" trim saw that came with a cordless drill for the price of the trim saw alone. Of course I saw foldable sawhorses on sale and had to have a couple. Someone please take away my debit card.

The Lowe's experience was awful. I tried to "do-it-myself" and was exhausted by the time I'd loaded the underlayment, laminate boxes, etc. on the carts. Then I had this sleazy employee (must have been a salesmen somewhere else in another life) come up and tell me "I can't believe you did that!" and I'm thinking that he's talking about loading 12 boxes of laminate myself. Then he proceeds to tell me that I shouldn't use the foam underlayment and that I had to buy Quiet Walk. I felt like decking him but I just told him my reasons and he sulked off. Grrrr.

Then when I'm dragging everything up to the register I notice that someone had loaded the underlayment with a machine and badly dinged the edge of almost every one of the boards. I finally asked a clerk to page me some help and we finally found enough good boards. I had to ask again for some help in loading the truck and the clerk finally had to come out because no one else responded.

I had a bad experience at the sprinkler suppy too. On the way to get a load for the dump we stopped for a one piece downspout extension. The 18 year old kid there gives me an 3" elbow. I say that I need the tubing to go with it and pay for 4 feet. He goes out and gets this 4" tubing that obviously doesn't fit. He told me "just put a screw in it"... Listen kid, I have an idea...why don't you....awww, never mind.

I'm hoping that today will be a better day. I've got to get the subfloor down so I can re-install the kitchen cabinets. I'm expecting a call from Dave's Construction any day now to measure for the counter tops and I'm worried that I'll get caught knee-deep in a pile of particle board.

PURCHASES:
5.5" Cordless Trim Saw with Drill $69
2 Foldable Saw Horses $40
Brushed Nickle Bath Faucet $22 (great find on clearance...normally $100)
Plywood Underlayment 16 @ $10 each
Laminate 12 cartons at $25 each (.97 sq. foot)
European Kitchen Faucet on clearance $81 (Need to return same one purchased at $138)
Lots of other stuff (Furring, Masonite, masks, saw blade, etc.)
Total Spent: about $800

LESSONS LEARNED:
Make the store employees help you so you're not so exhausted that you want to deck someone by the time you get to the register. Your time is worth something.

Call around. I found the trim saw at the local Sears Service Center and got a "free" drill for it. Same warranty that I would have gotten on the new one I was considering.

Be insistent. The first time I asked the employee about the nickle bath fixture he said that there wasn't a box for it and that it was as-is. 15 mins later (after another lady left) he found the rest of the parts on the table for me and made sure that he wrote "75% off" on it.

Immediately put the garbage cans back in the truck after you empty them...or at least where you're going to bump into them. Nickles and dimes add up.

Insist on what you want and don't settle. I knew there was a one-piece downspout product and should have walked out if he couldn't provide it. Saw it a few hours later at Lowe's only $2 more.