Another week has passed on the shore of Lake Superior in my hometown. The weather was cool, windy and showery for the first half of the week, but has switched to sunny and nice for the weekend!
The big saga of the week here surrounds the purchase of a new front door, and involves more than one week! Wendy has been wishing to replace our old, solid core wooden door for about (let's see, how long have we been here?) twenty years! Originally it was at the end of a short, dark hallway, so I got rid of the hallway, which necessitated moving the light switches (gang of four) so they were now behind the door! As you may well imagine, this did open up the hallway, and reduced its length to about 1 metre, but did nothing to removing the desire for a new door that swung the other way, and had a window in it! As we walked around the nearby (and not so nearby) neighbourhoods, she would delight in pointing out the windowed doors that evoked her interest. Finally, she settled on a half-light door; she wanted fancy glass that let in light, but didn't allow one to see through. And, she found one—at Home Depot! Well, sort of—it showed up in the online listings, and in their inventory, but not in the store itself! It was a virtual door! The workers there assured her there was no such door in the store. They opined that it may be on a customer's cart, and just hadn't gone through check-out yet! (I could have advised them that such an excuse would not fly with Wendy!) During the entire episode, we took numerous trips to the store. No, they assured us (in person, not just on the phone) there was no such door. There were also many phone calls—that virtual lady who "answers" the phone cannot be trifled with either! Wendy ordered one on-line (it'll arrive mid-July while we're in Saskatchewan!), but she was undeterred, (Do you understand that faintly resigned-look I wear on my face?) and finally, last Saturday, Wendy found the door. It had been "misfiled" among a batch of other-sized doors! It was up in the top storage area, but not out of her range of search. Ah, they agreed, we will sell you that door. So, she bought a second door; it, they assured us, would be made ready for pick up tomorrow. And so it was that Sunday afternoon, we cleared out the back of the Santa Fe in readiness for the new door, drove over to Home Depot, presented ourselves at the pick-up desk, and, the helpful clerk (also an apparent rarity!) there checked through his inventory, and assured us there was no door! He prepared a "pick order" for the folks in millwork, who, we knew, had no idea where the door was. In undue time, a fellow from millwork arrived to get the pick order, and Wendy went to supervise over there. Soon, she beckoned me to come over there. The door had been brought down, but the latch-side jamb was broken. The threshold is attached with two screws to the bottom of each jamb, and the wood (MDF) was broken off where the screws should attach. Ah, they agreed, this is not good! Ah, they assured, HD will reduce the price by about $20 to $30 and sell the damaged article. Ah, I'm thinking, for a $100 reduction, I'll take it. So, on Monday we were back to HD to try to discuss with someone in management what kind of reduction we might be offered. But, by this time, there was someone helpful in millwork who assured us that would never happen. They do not sell damaged goods, he explained. The door had been dispatched to trash, by which he means Habitat for Humanity Re-Store! At this point, Wendy had paid $650 for each of two doors and had neither! This kind of discrepancy does not sit well with her! She cancelled the in-store purchase of the non-existent door, and we made our way to Re-Store, but alas, there was no door. The helpful clerk there informed her that she should phone in regularly, and could thus find out when the door arrived from HD. On Tuesday, she advised us that the cube-van had been dispatched for commercial pickups, so we headed back to Re-Store. Sure enough, as we peeked through the window into the processing area, we could see our door. But no, the unhelpful fellow there informed us, it would not be processed today—better come back tomorrow. Back to the helpful lady strode Wendy, who after some consideration, processed the door, and assessed a value of $260. After some examination to assure ourselves it had not been further damaged in shipment, we bought our door, loaded it in the Santa Fe and took it home! Sigh! Some epoxy and screws repaired the broken area, and I installed the door on Wednesday! Looks good, I think, and the surrounding story is even better! Other news: Golf good! Markets bad! Hockey good! Riders good!
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| Our new front door! |
The big saga of the week here surrounds the purchase of a new front door, and involves more than one week! Wendy has been wishing to replace our old, solid core wooden door for about (let's see, how long have we been here?) twenty years! Originally it was at the end of a short, dark hallway, so I got rid of the hallway, which necessitated moving the light switches (gang of four) so they were now behind the door! As you may well imagine, this did open up the hallway, and reduced its length to about 1 metre, but did nothing to removing the desire for a new door that swung the other way, and had a window in it! As we walked around the nearby (and not so nearby) neighbourhoods, she would delight in pointing out the windowed doors that evoked her interest. Finally, she settled on a half-light door; she wanted fancy glass that let in light, but didn't allow one to see through. And, she found one—at Home Depot! Well, sort of—it showed up in the online listings, and in their inventory, but not in the store itself! It was a virtual door! The workers there assured her there was no such door in the store. They opined that it may be on a customer's cart, and just hadn't gone through check-out yet! (I could have advised them that such an excuse would not fly with Wendy!) During the entire episode, we took numerous trips to the store. No, they assured us (in person, not just on the phone) there was no such door. There were also many phone calls—that virtual lady who "answers" the phone cannot be trifled with either! Wendy ordered one on-line (it'll arrive mid-July while we're in Saskatchewan!), but she was undeterred, (Do you understand that faintly resigned-look I wear on my face?) and finally, last Saturday, Wendy found the door. It had been "misfiled" among a batch of other-sized doors! It was up in the top storage area, but not out of her range of search. Ah, they agreed, we will sell you that door. So, she bought a second door; it, they assured us, would be made ready for pick up tomorrow. And so it was that Sunday afternoon, we cleared out the back of the Santa Fe in readiness for the new door, drove over to Home Depot, presented ourselves at the pick-up desk, and, the helpful clerk (also an apparent rarity!) there checked through his inventory, and assured us there was no door! He prepared a "pick order" for the folks in millwork, who, we knew, had no idea where the door was. In undue time, a fellow from millwork arrived to get the pick order, and Wendy went to supervise over there. Soon, she beckoned me to come over there. The door had been brought down, but the latch-side jamb was broken. The threshold is attached with two screws to the bottom of each jamb, and the wood (MDF) was broken off where the screws should attach. Ah, they agreed, this is not good! Ah, they assured, HD will reduce the price by about $20 to $30 and sell the damaged article. Ah, I'm thinking, for a $100 reduction, I'll take it. So, on Monday we were back to HD to try to discuss with someone in management what kind of reduction we might be offered. But, by this time, there was someone helpful in millwork who assured us that would never happen. They do not sell damaged goods, he explained. The door had been dispatched to trash, by which he means Habitat for Humanity Re-Store! At this point, Wendy had paid $650 for each of two doors and had neither! This kind of discrepancy does not sit well with her! She cancelled the in-store purchase of the non-existent door, and we made our way to Re-Store, but alas, there was no door. The helpful clerk there informed her that she should phone in regularly, and could thus find out when the door arrived from HD. On Tuesday, she advised us that the cube-van had been dispatched for commercial pickups, so we headed back to Re-Store. Sure enough, as we peeked through the window into the processing area, we could see our door. But no, the unhelpful fellow there informed us, it would not be processed today—better come back tomorrow. Back to the helpful lady strode Wendy, who after some consideration, processed the door, and assessed a value of $260. After some examination to assure ourselves it had not been further damaged in shipment, we bought our door, loaded it in the Santa Fe and took it home! Sigh! Some epoxy and screws repaired the broken area, and I installed the door on Wednesday! Looks good, I think, and the surrounding story is even better! Other news: Golf good! Markets bad! Hockey good! Riders good!
Erica writes, "Not much happening around the Bailey household this week… we got our summer tires on! It rained, a lot. And Eric is working on figuring out some new programs at work. All is well with us!"
Kristian's classes have completed, but he is heavily into yearend deadlines and exams. This week, he decided to give his bike to a Ukrainian refugee family—nice touch, buddy! Erin has scheduled the RAV4 for hailstone dent repair, and arranged a loaner. They are also getting our room ready!
Joanna has been away in England this week, a bitter-sweet week to be sure. We look forward to her return next week. I got the bookcase re-assembled over at their place, making the final delivery of shelves today, and picking up the rest of my tools. It looks serviceable.
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| Rebuilt! |
And that's about it for this week.
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