Home Ownership is Fun!

[bzarcher]

Well, that was a longer day than I expected.

Getting up this morning in search of my stolen hour, I was still going through the morning routine when we heard a terrible crash outside - it turned out that our back gutter had decided this was a good time to leave.

We headed to home depot for a ladder, and originally intended to pick up replacement nails, but a very helpful dude there pointed us to a clamp and screw "gutter pins" that -really- did an amazing job once we got them into place. We also ended up renting WAY TOO MUCH ladder, but ah, well. Lessons learned.

The only problem we found, after getting home, was that our existing cordless drill was nowhere near strong enough (only a 3.1v) to drive the pins into place.

So, since Sears had a sale on drills, I decided to head to Sears Hardware, which was a terrible, terrible mistake.

I go in, and I find a nice 14.4v drill set. This one, in fact!

As I'm getting ready to check out, a store guy comes up and asks if I've got everything I need, so I decide to take a second and explain what I intended to do, and make sure it's the right tool.

"Well, that one can probably, yeah, but you might think about one of the Lithium-Ion powered drills here...it's actually a bit more torque for a bit cheaper."

Really? OK, that seems pretty reasonable, so I change over. Ring up on card, walk out, done...

Except I get out to the parking lot and notice the box mentions it not having a battery. Shit.

OK, so back in, and I find the same guy.

"Excuse me, but what type of battery do I want for this?"

"Oh, sorry! I'm so used to guys buying these who already have one." We go over to the rack o' really expensive batteries, I take the least painful option, and I leave another $70 lighter. But, we're done, right? That's everything and we can finish the job now.

So, all that figured out, I head home, unpack everything....and there's no charger. Funny how he didn't mention that, huh?

More than a little pissed off, I go back and the first thing Mr. Sales guy says as Alex and I go back through the door is "OH! You're back again, huh?"

...Alex had to grab me by the shoulder to prevent me from doing something very, very stupid.

As it was, I gave the returns clerk some very detailed and descriptive comments as I made -utterly- sure the drill I'd actually intended to buy in the first place would actually work OUT OF THE FUCKING BOX (minus time for appropriate battery charging), had money returned to me, and we went home.

After allowing about a half hour to charge the drill's battery pack with it's provided charger (amazing!), Alex and I were able to clean out and re-hang the gutters in about 10 minutes, put the drill back in the house, and drive the rented ladder back to home depot.

If I have learned NOTHING else today, I have learned that the people at Home Depot played straight and made helpful suggestions, and the people at Sears Hardware are lying sacks of shit.

I consider it a very valuable lesson.

Comments

[joriel.livejournal.com]

I avoid Sears like the plague, I think it's a horrible store, and it never goes well for me there.

[bzarcher.livejournal.com]

I had some reasonably decent success in terms of sales and buying things like tools or a lawnmower there, but I'm pretty soured on going back there again.

[flaggerx.livejournal.com]

Let me make one other point. My drill set cost me over $400 in spring 2005, and if my drill dies the replacement I will seek is usually $339. It does include a new-case, charger and two batteries.

Next time call me and ask. In all honesty, for you I would have recommended a 9.6v (still heavy enough for your purposes) I know, the first drill I bought in the trade was a Makita 9.6. And when I bought a replacement battery for it that was $66.

[flaggerx.livejournal.com]

Batteries for my drill are $89 each, and frankly I'll have to buy some fairly soon as they're reaching the end of their useful life.

I usually have a good experience at Sears, but then I'm a contractor and come in knowing exactly what I want. Salesmen can't feed me a thing. I think this one performed hideously, as a homeowner needs a good basic drill. Battery drills often aren't the best choice because battery life is finite, and you don't use one even every week. For me, two batteries are essential, the heavier the better.

Nevertheless, it sounds like a pretty cool drill. Hope you'll let me play with it.

[bzarcher.livejournal.com]

Oh, also, made the decision to go with batteries vs. cords because (especially in this case) it's rather hard to find an accessible outlet depending on what we're working on, particularly when it involves 'reattaching things to the roof.'

We might have managed well enough with a corded drill and an extension cord, but on the other hand, when you're already dealing with errant gutter, high winds, and an 18' stepladder, who wants to add more complications?

[felislachesis.livejournal.com]

We have a 9.6v drill that looked like it was approaching end of life, and that's why we got the nicer one. The entire ordeal up and down the ladder wasn't that bad. We knew what we had to do, it was a matter of getting the stuff.

Also, you were in Cinci for the week, I'm not going to interrupt your weekend because a gutter fell off.

Now if we got a sudden electrical fire... (let's hope that never happens...)

[felislachesis.livejournal.com]

Key thing is, we're not using power tools as a vocation, so $80 is well within our price range. for you, the $400 is an almost daily investment.

[bzarcher.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, you're also a contractor and buying tools as a contractor. And you're making suggestions to me as a homeowner and knowing I'm buying tools as a homeowner. (Also, I really didn't feel like interrupting your weekend. :) It's good for Alex and I to learn how to do some of this stuff ourselves, anyhow.)

If I were buying tools to work on a job site? Spending upwards of $300-400 seems totally reasonable, but even then I'd expect that when I'm buying the tools I'd need, I would be -buying the tools I need-, not strung along to try and squeeze more money back out of me a couple more times.