Lowe's today

Today's major accomplishment was a trip to Lowe's. My trips to the home improvement store have slowed to about once a week, which is better than last year when there was a time I was going almost daily. I picked up the locks for the new front and side doors. The door replacement is part of the next big chunk of work. We'll have the place sandblasted, put the new doors in and then re-stuccoed. I am quite excited by this as it will make the place look significantly less abandoned and junkyardish. I purchased exterior stain for the doors as well. We will start with them looking "natural" with a clear finish. I am finishing all the wood trim in the house that way. I really like natural wood, and also it is much easier to paint over clear finish than vice-versa. Stripping paint is a nasty, smelly, tedious job. Picking the correct product took a long time. There are a ton of products that meet this need and all have their pros, cons and price points (like everything in a remodel). Trying to make a choice using their marketing literature is really difficult as well. This is, in my opinion, the biggest challenge of being a do-it-yourselfer. Picking the right products amidst so much often conflicting information is really difficult.

I also picked up a weedwacker. I've been putting this one off as I hate to accumulate things that aren't that useful. But, the front median strip is just looking too nasty. Even though I mow it weekly, the tall weeds just don't get cut very effectively. Hopefully this won't be a wasted purchase.

I got home and unpacked the weedwacker, and it took more than an hour to get set up and charging. The instructions were horrible. I think I could have a lucrative business testing and writing manuals because so many of them are just so bad. This one omitted information on how to make certain adjustments to the tool. It also instructed you to look for a "pre-installed screw" and even showed where it was on a diagram. The problem was that the screw was in a separate package in the box. Nice. The thing that really killed me is that the battery charging instructions say "allow the battery to fully discharge before recharging." On the very next page, it says "replace the battery [there are 2] as soon as there is a loss of power. Do not allow the battery to fully discharge." OK, which is it?

I was surprised to hear voices in my driveway and I looked out the window to find a strange man and a young woman out there. It turns out they were the stucco people sent by the general contractor to take a look at the house. It was good to actually talk to him because, as usual, I have a million questions. He did make one really good point - I had been debating getting a custom stucco color since I haven't found exactly what I want (sort a milk chocolate or capuccino color). He disuaded me by saying that a) it is more expensive to get a custom color than one off the shelf, b) the guarantee isn't as strong in terms of cracking, etc and c) if I ever need repair work, I have to buy a huge quantity of stucco rather than just one bag. Sold!