The Decision: Ugly for Cheap or Pretty for Bend-Over-And-Take-It Prices

Tonight's adventure was buying a whole house full of moldings. First we went to the Home Depot closest to us and found out that they didn't have anymore truck to rent out. Because it was getting late so we went, undaunted, to another Home Depot. This Home Depot didn't have Tony's information in their system (driver's license, proof of insurance, etc.) so Tony had to make a run back home to get that while I picked out the trim with Sam.

This time we had actually thought in advance and picked out what we wanted. Unfortunately we grossly under estimated how much we needed and how much it would cost. Plus our educated minds forgot to read the fine print. What we thought was dirt cheap at $5 or so for a 12 foot piece of molding was actually $5 a foot.

You can see where this might be a problem.

So the next 45 minutes or so I'm on and off the phone with Tony how much he wants to spend on 'pretty'. And we killed some time while waiting and got some stuff we needed for the floor, a garbage disposal and a hood for the stove. When Tony finally got back we added up how much it would cost to do it either way. At first we wanted to put cheap crap on and replace it later. But then Tony decided just to do it right the first time. So we pretty much wiped all of the molding they had in the particular design we wanted (which only ended up being about $1.50 per square foot for the base, we haven't gotten the crown yet).

The drive back was interesting. A 16 foot piece of wood in a 10 foot or so truck bed doesn't exactly work right. The pieces wiggled all around. We had to drive extra slow over the bumps when the pieces started flapping up and down. We had to stop twice to make sure they weren't sliding out. we still need to get crown, but that comes in 7 foot pieces and can be transported in Tony's car.

We also decided, over teh last few days, to do the countes on the cheap for now. we're just going to get an oiled wood or laminate from Ikea and get better ones later. Counters are easier to replace than other things, so the money should go there. And we'd be saving like $2500 in the meanwhile.