Someone Doesn't Want Me To Finish This Bathroom
First thing this morning, Sheila and I set out to buy more supplies for our half bathroom. The priority was two sheets of drywall and lumber to custom build a door for the bathroom. We made it to Lowes easily, but...
Once we arrived at Lowes, we had all sorts of crazy and frustrating problems. Prices were absurd and about 30% higher than all the other local building suppliers. Some items we needed were out of stock. The quality of lumber was not only rather lousy but the quality we were seeing was not matching the claimed ratings. Things would get worse though.
I needed just two sheets of drywall to finish the bathroom so we loaded that onto our cart first. I was really looking forward to getting this part of the job finished. I also needed a good quality sheet of 1/2" plywood for door panels. I wanted cabinet grade A-A rated plywood (each side graded A) but would settle for A-B. They had A-C in stock... okay, I would settle for that if I placed a decent C graded side on the inside of the bathroom... Once I put a sheet on our cart I realized that this A-C rated plywood really should have been rated B-D... It truly was horrendous for A-C. There was no way I was going to go through all the trouble of designing and building a custom door only to use crap lumber. I'd might as well just hang a hollow core door. The plywood would need to wait until we stopped at Home Depot on our way back home.
I picked up a few other little odds and ends and we headed for the cashier. We went to a cash register with a light on... no cashier... hmmm... maybe he/she just stepped away to help a customer so we wait briefly. The cashier across the aisle then tells us that our cash register is closed... okay, we go wait in line at her register... it was the ONLY register open.
She seemed like a new cashier and seemed to have difficulty with everything. Actually, I seemed to know more about her POS system than she did. Of course, that isn't a huge surprise since I have retail experience. That being said, because I have retail experience, I knew she was struggling so I kept my mouth shut and just waited patiently. There was no sense making her day more difficult if she was new to this job. This was not a good sign though especially after the difficulties in finding products that met our needs.
After strapping the two sheets of drywall onto our roof rack and supporting the somewhat flexible drywall with four 2x8's, we hopped in the car and headed toward Home Depot to pick up some decent plywood.
Unfortunately, the wind had picked up and it had picked up significantly. The forecast (yes, I checked it before we strapped anything to our roof) called for some light winds gusting to only 9 mph. That is not a problem for big flat surfaces securely strapped on top of our car... we often travel with boats or building supplies on the roof so I am pretty good at gauging limits to stay safe.
Whenever I put anything on the roof of the car, especially our bulky boats which tend to add a lot of drag in wind, I am always careful about picking up speed and paying attention to how the air is flowing around whatever is strapped to the roof. I don't want the entire load to go flying off the roof and smashing into a car behind us! Today was no exception...
We only had a mile to travel on a short stretch of highway... I knew that whenever I put anything on the roof, the car is good up to around 50 mph safely... and especially with a light load and in only light winds. So, we head down the on ramp... I slowly pick up speed, listening to the flowing air, watching my speed as it slowly inches upward, and watching the load hanging over the front of the windshield... everything seemed fine as I was slowly getting faster and faster... unfortunately, before we even got up to 35 mph, a brief period of chaos ensued...
We weren't even off the acceleration ramp and we hear a thump on the roof... I look in the rear-view mirror and a big chunk of drywall narrowly misses the swerving car behind us... I look at my speedometer and I see that I am not even up to 35 mph but my car is rocking fiercely... I slow down and start to pull onto the shoulder... another chunk of drywall flies up and smashes down on our trunk... I'm thinking, "geez, I could pedal my bicycle at this speed and this is too fast?!?"... More impatient drivers behind us (and following too closely to a car carrying a load) swerve around us as I pull onto the shoulder.
We come to a stop well off the road, mostly on the shoulder and partly into the grass, and I get out of the car to check our load... The drywall is destroyed and now the load is loose. I also immediately notice that the wind is no longer a "light" wind gusting to only 9 mph... I've sailed a lot and I know wind and I can honestly say that the wind was now sustained in the 30's and gusting to around 50! This was bad news for anyone with anything on their roof.
I readjusted what was remaining on our roof and tightened down the straps... there was far too much traffic to safely retrieve the broken chunks of drywall... I added another strap to our now lightened load and then we slowly made our way a mile down the road to city roads.
Once we hit a retail area, the winds were just too crazy (yes, even worse than before) and I had to pull over into a parking lot. It was abundantly clear now that we could not travel at all in these winds with anything on our roof nevermind things that were big, flat, wing-like surfaces. I removed everything from the roof and then started cutting up the remaining jagged, broken sheets of drywall so we could fit the pieces in our trunk... obviously, rendering this drywall useless for our project. The four 2x8's fit in the car, however, so those are still usable. I even removed our roof rack from the roof, disassembled it and put it in our trunk.
I don't have a clue why, but I am left feeling as though someone does not want me to ever finish this project! At least nobody was hurt. In the end, only two sheets of drywall were ruined. Oh, and I have a small ding in the top of my trunk from flying drywall. Considering my health struggles, though, it really is frustrating to use up valuable energy for no known purpose. And, I am not too fond of the idea of what people were thinking of us on that short stretch of road... contrary to what they were probably thinking, everything was safe and secured for the forecasted conditions... the wind changed drastically, however, and we didn't stand a chance.
Thankfully, nobody was hurt.
When the weather is cooperative again (unlike today), hopefully we will be able to pick up the remaining building supplies for this relatively small project... I really want to get this bathroom finished!
Once we arrived at Lowes, we had all sorts of crazy and frustrating problems. Prices were absurd and about 30% higher than all the other local building suppliers. Some items we needed were out of stock. The quality of lumber was not only rather lousy but the quality we were seeing was not matching the claimed ratings. Things would get worse though.
I needed just two sheets of drywall to finish the bathroom so we loaded that onto our cart first. I was really looking forward to getting this part of the job finished. I also needed a good quality sheet of 1/2" plywood for door panels. I wanted cabinet grade A-A rated plywood (each side graded A) but would settle for A-B. They had A-C in stock... okay, I would settle for that if I placed a decent C graded side on the inside of the bathroom... Once I put a sheet on our cart I realized that this A-C rated plywood really should have been rated B-D... It truly was horrendous for A-C. There was no way I was going to go through all the trouble of designing and building a custom door only to use crap lumber. I'd might as well just hang a hollow core door. The plywood would need to wait until we stopped at Home Depot on our way back home.
I picked up a few other little odds and ends and we headed for the cashier. We went to a cash register with a light on... no cashier... hmmm... maybe he/she just stepped away to help a customer so we wait briefly. The cashier across the aisle then tells us that our cash register is closed... okay, we go wait in line at her register... it was the ONLY register open.
She seemed like a new cashier and seemed to have difficulty with everything. Actually, I seemed to know more about her POS system than she did. Of course, that isn't a huge surprise since I have retail experience. That being said, because I have retail experience, I knew she was struggling so I kept my mouth shut and just waited patiently. There was no sense making her day more difficult if she was new to this job. This was not a good sign though especially after the difficulties in finding products that met our needs.
After strapping the two sheets of drywall onto our roof rack and supporting the somewhat flexible drywall with four 2x8's, we hopped in the car and headed toward Home Depot to pick up some decent plywood.
Unfortunately, the wind had picked up and it had picked up significantly. The forecast (yes, I checked it before we strapped anything to our roof) called for some light winds gusting to only 9 mph. That is not a problem for big flat surfaces securely strapped on top of our car... we often travel with boats or building supplies on the roof so I am pretty good at gauging limits to stay safe.
Whenever I put anything on the roof of the car, especially our bulky boats which tend to add a lot of drag in wind, I am always careful about picking up speed and paying attention to how the air is flowing around whatever is strapped to the roof. I don't want the entire load to go flying off the roof and smashing into a car behind us! Today was no exception...
We only had a mile to travel on a short stretch of highway... I knew that whenever I put anything on the roof, the car is good up to around 50 mph safely... and especially with a light load and in only light winds. So, we head down the on ramp... I slowly pick up speed, listening to the flowing air, watching my speed as it slowly inches upward, and watching the load hanging over the front of the windshield... everything seemed fine as I was slowly getting faster and faster... unfortunately, before we even got up to 35 mph, a brief period of chaos ensued...
We weren't even off the acceleration ramp and we hear a thump on the roof... I look in the rear-view mirror and a big chunk of drywall narrowly misses the swerving car behind us... I look at my speedometer and I see that I am not even up to 35 mph but my car is rocking fiercely... I slow down and start to pull onto the shoulder... another chunk of drywall flies up and smashes down on our trunk... I'm thinking, "geez, I could pedal my bicycle at this speed and this is too fast?!?"... More impatient drivers behind us (and following too closely to a car carrying a load) swerve around us as I pull onto the shoulder.
We come to a stop well off the road, mostly on the shoulder and partly into the grass, and I get out of the car to check our load... The drywall is destroyed and now the load is loose. I also immediately notice that the wind is no longer a "light" wind gusting to only 9 mph... I've sailed a lot and I know wind and I can honestly say that the wind was now sustained in the 30's and gusting to around 50! This was bad news for anyone with anything on their roof.
I readjusted what was remaining on our roof and tightened down the straps... there was far too much traffic to safely retrieve the broken chunks of drywall... I added another strap to our now lightened load and then we slowly made our way a mile down the road to city roads.
Once we hit a retail area, the winds were just too crazy (yes, even worse than before) and I had to pull over into a parking lot. It was abundantly clear now that we could not travel at all in these winds with anything on our roof nevermind things that were big, flat, wing-like surfaces. I removed everything from the roof and then started cutting up the remaining jagged, broken sheets of drywall so we could fit the pieces in our trunk... obviously, rendering this drywall useless for our project. The four 2x8's fit in the car, however, so those are still usable. I even removed our roof rack from the roof, disassembled it and put it in our trunk.
I don't have a clue why, but I am left feeling as though someone does not want me to ever finish this project! At least nobody was hurt. In the end, only two sheets of drywall were ruined. Oh, and I have a small ding in the top of my trunk from flying drywall. Considering my health struggles, though, it really is frustrating to use up valuable energy for no known purpose. And, I am not too fond of the idea of what people were thinking of us on that short stretch of road... contrary to what they were probably thinking, everything was safe and secured for the forecasted conditions... the wind changed drastically, however, and we didn't stand a chance.
Thankfully, nobody was hurt.
When the weather is cooperative again (unlike today), hopefully we will be able to pick up the remaining building supplies for this relatively small project... I really want to get this bathroom finished!
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