Home Improvements

My husband and I bought our first home three years ago and have learned some VERY helpful information:

1. First, and foremost, everyone needs to kind a "Keith" or "Jason"
*This is defined as two good friends that can help with home repairs (even in the wee hours of the morning)

2. Never, ever, ever- under any circumstances- take all the doors, hinges, and hardware off at the same time and forget to label what goes with which.

3. Never start a project after 6 pm on Saturday. This rule is strictly adhered to at our house. What started out as tightening a leaky pipe turned into a bathroom remodel the week of Easter (it should be noted here that my husband is a pastor and as you know-- Easter is the biggest day of the year for churches, and my husband was without a bathroom that whole week)

4. Retaining walls are not as easy as they look (especially when one of you insists on being perfectly level)

5. Save the time, RENT/BUY a heavy duty wet saw.

6. Cover the vents before you sand your hardwood floors for refinishing.

7. Buy enough paint.

***SOAP BOX*** I found a color that I absolutely loved at Sutherland's. It was a DUTCHBOY color and their paint comes in an odd size (instead of a gallon only, it a gallon+ quart). This color required a tinted base (no big deal, right?). They were currently out of stock in the quart size, so instead of buying two of their huge (expensive) cans when I only needed a little bit more than what was there I was told to come back in a few weeks and they would have the smaller can available- Great! Well, a week after this happened Sutherland's decides not to carry the smaller size (seriously all I needed was to do the second coat of trim on the top of one wall-- maybe 1'x8' section) Hoping against all odds that they would change their minds I kept checking for about a year. Finally, Sutherlands told me to go to a Sherwin Williams store and they could mix it for me because they still carried this base (this is about a year later, btw). I guess Sherwin Williams owns Dutchboy...

HERE IS WHERE IT GETS GOOD- Sherwin Williams (who owns Dutchboy) won't mix the paint for me. They said it is a protected formula that only a certain tier gets for that companies usage. Granted that makes sense from a marketing standpoint-- but what about customer service? They went on to say that there is no way they can mix it for me (even if I brought them the formula for Sutherlands)....

...and for all the real smarty pants... there's something funky about the paint base that makes it impossible to get a true match from a computer scan (believe me, I tried)

Lesson learned-- BUY ENOUGH PAINT!

SO, if you work at Sutherlands, Dutchboy, or Sherwin Williams I will remove this blog once I receive a quart amount of Lonely Pines. I will even write a blog in praise of customer satisfaction, but not until my room is painted.


Anyway... next week we'll be discussing pet ownership...j/k... but seriously don't give your dog Benadryl.