Joan had a plan for us today: go to Lowe's, buy stuff, bring stuff back, assemble stuff. Check that all off.
The main thing she wanted (and I completely agree): a large cantilever patio umbrella. It is something we considered when we bought the patio furniture, but decide to hold off until the pergola was installed. The pergola is great, but as we approach the winter solstice, the sun is quite low in the sky (rather than overhead). We decided to go with a patio umbrella, and Joan found one at a particularly good price at Lowe's - we're assuming it is a discontinued color, because the same umbrella in a different color is $250 more. This one is tan, so it goes with the hot tub and the trim on the pillows on the patio couch.
We knew right where to look for the umbrella - Joan had the aisle and bin pulled up on her phone... except it wasn't there. And the app showed they had two of them in stock. We found a nice lady to help us... and it took a long time to track it down. As in: an hour. Joan was determined. In fact, after describing to the lady who was helping us, our new friend Helen said, "If we do have two of them, I'm going to buy the other one."
Turns out, it was in their Receiving area, and customers aren't allowed back there...
Helen said it would be brought to Customer Service at the front of the store. We went on with the rest of our shopping: a storage cabinet and two moveable hanging shelving units for the garage. We found what we wanted on our own and went to Customer Service.
Someone from receiving brought up the wrong color umbrella (which was $250 more), and Helen told them to take that one back and bring both of the color we wanted (at the price we wanted)... it took another 45 minutes for that to happen. Surprisingly, I stayed more patient than Joan. We paid for our stuff, a Lowe's employee helped us getting it all loaded in the Equinox (we had to leave the tailgate open and tie it down - the umbrella is big - 11' diameter, plus the base and cantilever mechanism).
Back home, we unloaded everything into the garage and started assembling... everything except furniture from American Furniture Warehouse needs assembly. We started on the storage cabinet first; the instructions said it should take 45 minutes to assemble it... with both of us working on it, we knocked it out in an hour and 10 minutes. You can see it it the back of this photo in the garage...
While Joan started putting stuff in the cabinet, I went to work on assembling the cantilever umbrella. It was relatively straight-forward, and in a half hour or so, I had it ready to go into the courtyard (what we're calling our portion of the yard now), where the 4-piece base section could be filled with water (for the additional weight) and then the cantilever arm installed on the base...
During the umbrella assembly, I heard a truck pull up in front of the house... we were expecting UPS to deliver Rufus's ashes. Yep. Some misty eyes once again, but our boy is home with us. After some hugs and composing ourselves, we went back to work.
I studied up on how to actually use all the adjustment features on the umbrella, and when Joan was done in the garage, she came out to the courtyard to try out the new-found shade...
While putting stuff away in the new storage cabinet, she came across something we thought may have been lost in the move...
The bear was always with us - we couldn't find the "Welcome/Go Away" sign that he holds. Joan, being nicer than I am, set it up with "Welcome."
Tomorrow... or maybe Friday... we'll hang the shelving units in the garage. It is coming together in there, as well. I did see something at Lowe's that would make a good Christmas present for me...
It is a rolling tool chest with a solid wood top that can be a moveable work bench. It may have to be one of those "To Me - From Me" kinda presents.
A productive day, even though it took a couple hours all in at Lowe's.
No comments:
Post a Comment