Today, I did something completely out of the ordinary for me. I went shopping. On a Saturday. When other people shop. People whose hygiene and child-rearing habits may significantly differ from my own. It was scary.
Only a few things can lure me toward the mall on a Saturday. A big, blinking neon sign that says, "Free Beer" being one of them. Maybe a Rick Springfield sighting. And DEFINITELY a big sale on tools at Sears. I love me some tools! I've acquired a few here and there, when I first moved out on my own and later when I dipped my toe into doing a cosmetic remodel. I'm kind of a tool nerd and like anything else, it's so exciting when you're just getting started that you can't resist the chance to add to your collection.
So, today Tank, Shawn and I were all over Sears. I had found a circular saw online and there was a Memorial Day sale going on that ended today, so I was planning to just buy it and have it shipped to the house. I mentioned it to Shawn, whose head exploded at the thought of just BUYING something! Without the RESEARCH! The COMPARISONS! The SLEEPLESS NIGHTS IN FRONT OF THE COMPUTER READING REVIEWS! Oh, the humanity!
So, I griped and whined, but eventually emptied my inbox at Sears.com, cleaned up Shawn's brains and agreed to go today to look at these wonders in person. We'd decided that a circular saw met our needs best, because let's be honest, neither one of us is going to turn into Handy Manny any time soon and a table saw just didn't seem necessary. We'll mostly be cutting trim pieces, maybe some plywood for subfloor and concrete backer board. It made sense to buy a good, middle of the road circular saw for this point in the game.
We wandered into Sears and Shawn accosted an employee and started playing 20 Questions, Circular Saw Edition. After twenty minutes (which I spent chasing a hyped-up Tank through the tool section, the garden section and the home gym section--big shout-out to the very nice man we almost knocked over--he was ready to buy........(wait for it)......the same saw I was ready to buy the night before. I will admit--grudgingly--that he saved us just over $15.00 by getting it from the store and not paying shipping. And I will also admit--grudgingly--that going to the store enabled me to find a clearanced Shop Vac for $38.00, down from its original $99.99 price tag. So, we got the saw for $67.99 (had been $79.99) and the Shop Vac, both of which will be great for the Taj projects to come.
We also heard from Roofer C today, who gave us an estimate of $3915 to tear off the old roof, replace some plywood decking and use Rubberoid coating on the flat roof. He didn't bid doing the same amount of work as Roofer A, but he is definitely cheaper, doing a side by side comparison. We have a personal reference for Roofer C (of course we do...it's Mayberry!), so as of now, he is looking like the front runner. We'll talk to him about adding in ridge vents and checking the motors on the existing exhaust fans, which is really the only difference between his bid and the $6980 bid from Roofer A, since the Weather Watch and shingles on the flat roof aren't a big deal to us. Even standing at the highest point behind the house, you can't see the flat roof, so as long as it doesn't leak, I'm not all that concerned with how pretty it looks.
So, we're inching closer to our closing date, we've bought the first of many tools for this job and I'm completely, insanely ready to get started!
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