Alright Lowe's... keep it together for me.

The measurement is scheduled for tomorrow evening, and we should hear the results shortly after that. Considering I have already killed the pink carpet in Cole's room, this BETTER work out. I have hope for you Lowe's... don't let me down!

I wanted everything done by 30 weeks - that is tomorrow. I don't have another 3 weeks to burn on yet ANOTHER store and yet ANOTHER measurement!

::let the freak out commence:::

Fuck Home Depot... and Carpet Mart too.

So, as I wrote earlier about the carpet being installed... yeah, let's say it will NOT be done by those two places.

First Home Depot - We were called last week after the measurements, and we were told $2700. We went in last night to schedule the appointment for round one of installation. We went back and sat down - first off, the old guy was so SLOW. He was reading over the entire quote, and that alone took 10 minutes. As he's reading, he says about removal of vinyl flooring in accordance with HAZARDOUS regulations (that we specifically told the guy NO, we will carpet over it, we don't mind the quarter inch ledge between two rooms... and 5 year old vinyl is not exactly hazardous, thanks.) and so he says "Oh, then we can subtract that $700..." That of course peaks my interest. I start reading the page (I can read upside down, thank you years of childhood boredom) and I see the bottom of the page says $4400!!!!!!!! Ummm WTF NO. The first page says $2700, so I would love to know where this number is coming from.

Apparently, $2700 is for CARPET ONLY.

"Well, you are getting 1300 square feet of carpet, that is a lot... we can take off a room to reduce that." Uh, no, we are not taking off rooms, we are not picking a different carpet. Our foyer wasn't measured properly (wasn't supposed to measure the whole thing) and they said they would have to come back out and measure (yet another $35), and now you want to jack the price up that we were told and saved up for by $900?! OH HELL NO. So I told dude off, got up, and walked away. Chris mentioned about how he had already paid for the measurement, so he was going to go get the file - no problem. He comes back with hand written measurements, not the file LOL, and I start looking over them.

And it clicks. How is it that carpeting MAYBE half an 1800 square foot house, do we need 1300 square feet of carpet?!

Bedroom 1 - measured as 12'x11'1". Reality? 19'x11'. Yep, that's a TAD off.
Bedroom 2 - measured as 12'x17'2". Reality? 15'x12'3". Are we in the same house?
Hallway - counted as bedroom 3 for some reason - measured as 17'4"x12'. Reality? 16 FEET BY 30 INCHES. If you can tell me how 16'x2'6" (40 square feet) equates to 17'4"x12' (208 square feet), I will pay you the $4400 they wanted for carpet.

Needless to say, we won't be using them - and we've burned $35 and 2 FUCKING WEEKS on them.

So today, we go to CarpetMart. Okay, they are running a special, Good time to buy - and they would be able to install quickly. We get to the carpet, we are looking around, literally looking at 100 different carpets - and dude is BREATHING DOWN OUR NECKS. He is standing right behind us the whole time, making comments, even as we are walking down this HUGE aisle. We did find a carpet we liked, in a manageable price range... Chris says, Let's do it.

My only problem - I forgot the paint swatch. I can't be sure that it will match the paint - and since we have an open floor plan, that color is in the living room, dining room, foyer, up the steps, and the whole upstairs hallway. I will not be repainting that! Chris is already filling out the paperwork for the order for the measurement... so I walk over to Chris and say Wait. We can run around the corner and get the paint chip from Home Depot, and come back - I don't want to spend another $30 on a measurement if it doesn't match. We don't like any other carpet here, I want to get the paint chip so we don't waste more money.

Also, I have some slight qualms that their best padding is SO expensive. We were told by a friend of the family who used to install carpet - Go BEST with the padding, and cheap but decent with the carpet.

Doesn't this DOUCHEBAG sales guy have the NERVE to say to me (right after saying the $30 is NOT refundable), that no, the $30 can be refunded if we don't like it, but if we leave, he won't be here and he doesn't want us to WASTE ANYONE ELSE'S TIME. I of course, DO NOT THINK SO. I say "OH HEEEELLLLLL NO. We can leave now."

EXCUSE ME?! No, you are saying that YOU want the fucking commision. If you want it so badly, you can wait while we go to the OTHER SIDE OF THE SHOPPING CENTER and get the damn paint swatch! You don't 1.) tell me what to do with my money, and 2.) tell me to spend MY money so you don't have to STAY LATE if you want the commission so bad.

Luckily, we went to Lowe's. When we went in, we were immediately asked if we needed help, and when I responded with "Not yet", we were actually left alone to shop in peace. When we flagged him down for help, he was friendly, attentive, actually had a CLUE about what he was talking about, and all in all, a good shopping experience. We were trying to decide between two carpets - one way cut pile, one was loop. Loop was more expensive, but I had a worry about the dogs. Instead of telling us lies just to upsell, he explained that it shouldn't snag any claws, but it is a possibility - and it will pull ALL the way across the room. (Oh, by the way, Home Depot said oh no, that wouldn't happen! Good thing I didn't believe them to begin with.) Even though it was cheaper, he told us cut pile would be a better carpet in our house. So we picked one out, a very nice color called Golden Honey, also known as yellow lab. :D

To top it all off, we got BETTER quality padding (Lowe's best is thicker, anti-microbial, anti-mold and mildew, vs. just thicker) and a better quality carpet for LESS MONEY! WAYYYYY LESS MONEY!

Now let's just hope they are freaking competent in their damn measurements and we can get through this in one piece.




...otherwise I might have kill someone.

After well over a month of neglect...

I am back to the blog... momentarily, anyways.

There is so much going on right now! Today I have officially hit 29 weeks - just one week shy of 30 weeks! I don't know why 30 weeks seems like such a milestone to me - there is no difference between 29 and 30 weeks really, but 30 weeks just seems SO CLOSE to 40 while 29.... not so much.

This timing of course, only fuels my nesting rage. I don't know what it is about this little man, but I have been insane psycho nesting since somewhere around week 17. We are talking house changing, room ripping, full house remodel nesting. We always had too much in this house - Chris lived here for over 10 years before I moved in, so he had accumulated a LOT of junk. And of course, there are those typical "We haven't touched it in 5 years, but we might need it one day so we'll keep it" items... no longer. Everything has been thrown out! Everything has been emptied, removed, donated, and destroyed.

Home Depot has already come out to measure for the new carpeting, we are heading there tonight to set the appointment for the first installment - Cole's room, the upstairs hallway, and the stairs - which I am HOPING beyond hope it can be done Saturday May 30th. The second installment will be the living room, dining room, foyer, and master bedroom, hopefully around June 13th. And who would have ever thought that carpeting the stairs would be the expensive part? We are talking the REALLY expensive part! They are a separate labor fee, and if you don't want it done half assed with giant gaps on the stair foot, you are going to pay per stair. Installment one will cost 150% of what installment 2 will cost - and it will be HALF the carpet. Strange!

The crib has been ordered - it was on back order, so while not planned, we had to order it early. Now hopefully the carpeting will be here before the crib is! I will not want the crib sitting in the box, I will want it UP asap! I will be ripping carpet up this week as well - since the carpeting is wall to wall already, I need to paint the baseboards below it just in case. You never know where new carpeting is going to fall compared to the old stuff!

Nesting Must Have Product - I have been so crazy, we don't even bother with regular trash bags anymore for anywhere but the kitchen - we get the contractor bags. Heavy duty black nothing-is-getting-through-these-babies contractor bags - I highly suggest the Husky Contractor Clean Up Bags from Home Depot. Big yellow box of 42 gallon trash bags! I have gone through 2 of those boxes (32 count) since ripping up the house, and I need to get another box tonight since I used the last one last night. And no, the other brand from Lowe's is not the same - they aren't as strong and they STINK. No kidding - the whole kitchen panty now smells like those Lowe's bags.

My new ceiling fan has been put in the dining room, ceilings have been returned to white, every closet has been cleaned, paint has been completed/touched up, nursery is painted, furniture has been broken down and thrown out... and now it is time to start the last minute demolition before all the rebuild!

As long as the all of the new flooring is put in before Cole is here, and his room is completed, I can handle having to delay other remodeling... but all floors go in before baby!

That being said, Cole is still doing fantastic. I'm still measuring 2 weeks ahead consistently, and he's still a big boy :D I have been able to watch him move and wiggle and kick for a while now - I've been trying to capture it on video, but it hasn't worked out so well LOL. He is very active, and I love when he has the hiccups! I'm now moving into the stage where when he kicks hard, it hurts - it feels like being knuckled from the inside! He discovered my kidney was a fun toy a few nights ago, and I was pretty sure I was dying... but seeing as I lived, we're all god again. Just keep in mind kid, Momma has 18 years to exact such revenge... :D