Home Depot - You Can Do It, We Can Help You Spend Money

The condo Boyfriend bought was "move-in ready" but with an unexpected bonus (man am I in the wrong industry or what?) he decided it was time to stimulate the economy - namely Home Depot - with some remodeling projects.

First up was the kitchen backsplash - or the complete lack thereof. I have been looking at a lot of real estate ads now and have been suprised that so many homeowners have neglected to install a backsplash behind their kitchen sink. What are they thinking? The kitchen in Boyfriend's condo was recently remodeled to include all new appliances and granite countertops, but yet has no backsplash. I think it makes it look a little unfinished.

We weren't going to attempt to do this work ourselves but we were lucky enough to find the labor of Boyfriend's former Crackhead neighbor (former neighbor, current Crackhead) who has extensive tile experience. Just an aside here, if you plan on hiring a Crackhead to save money, be prepared to renegotiate based on his whims or really long explanations of his outstanding debts, pregnant wife, etc. Also be prepared to provide transportation and McDonald's cuisine at all times.

Granted I don't have ALL the numbers in front of me since it's Boyfriend's money but I did have a vested interest in this project since there is a fairly good prospect (wink wink) I will come to own half of this kitchen one day. And also I was dragged along to Home Depot seven times this weekend. Yes, that's right. I, Sallie's Niece, visited a total of 5 different Home Depots in a 72 hour period. Several of the trips were because we thought of different tools, accessories, etc. that we needed. But four of the trips were in pursuit of our preferred tile.

Yes, this elusive tile only cost $1.49 at Home Depot. Not bad. But when you realize you need 100 of them when the twenty you bought are already on the wall? Well that's a Design Disaster.

The City Home Depot only had two more tiles. Yup just two. We still needed a lot more and were told the Uptown Home Depot had more. No luck, they had zero. Were told to go to Suburban Home Depot. What a store! Man those rich suburbannites have all the fun. But not many more tiles unfortunately. The very impolite man in the tile section told us where we could probably find the remaining tiles for our project - in farm country. Yes a Middle of Nowhere Home Depot about 40 miles away of a scenic drive past cows and nothingness was the key to our salvation. We were able to find all the tiles in the world there! And we did admire the plethora of rideable lawn mowers. Alas, condo residents have no lawns, sorry Boyfriend!

So between Friday night and Saturday I had been to four Home Depots. For my service, I was treated to one fancy dinner Friday night and one take out order of Boston Market which Boyfriend and I promptly spilled all over our new rug (the table is still covered in boxes so we ate on the floor - oops). Sunday we had to go out to town to attend a work function and luckily passed a Rural Home Depot to add to our collection (and we needed some wood). Five Home Depots were visited. Lots of time and money was spent but the backsplash looks pretty awesome.