Watch Out for Lowe’s Home Improvement Stores

I recently renovated my 71 year old house, and the contractor is still not quite done, but the house is 98% finished. In other words, we are down to just a few minor things that need to be done, one of them being interior doors. And here is where it gets interesting.

Three months ago my contractor told me that it’s time to order the interior doors for the house, and he suggested that I order them from Lowe’s because he has had great success with other clients ordering doors from Lowes, and since it will be such a large order, they will give me a better price. Uh ok…….so off to Lowe’s I go.

Ok, so first things first, Lowe’s will send someone out to measure the doorway etc so we get the right size doors. And they did send someone right away, and we spent 2 hours discussing and measuring the doorways in my house. Simple enough…..

I then went back to Lowe’s and met with the guy in the doors and windows department and we spent an hour picking out doors. I paid for those doors and one of the store managers had to approve the sale because it was a large amount of doors. I was told it would take about 3 weeks to get the doors. Ok great! The doors would be in before the contractor needed them. Supposedly.

Three weeks later my husband and I went to Lowe’s to purchase some other things that we needed and we decided to ask about the doors. We approached the guy who helped us, and he seemed very nervous, and at first I thought that maybe he didn’t recognize us because it’s been three weeks…….so we both very nicely said: Hey, remember us…..to which the door guy replied that he did. So we asked if we could check on the status of our door order. And he pulled us up and he looked nervous, so I commented about the fact that he seemed nervous, and that if there is a problem please just let us know. The door guy replied that for some reason there was a hold up on our order but it looks like the doors are coming in by the end of the following week. Ok great!

And this is where it gets interesting. The following week we did not get a call or email etc saying that our doors were in. We let it slide. But the week after that my husband went into the store to check on the door order, and he was told, oh the doors are coming in for sure NEXT week. For sure, for sure. Ok fine. Now we’re at 6 weeks and no doors.

The following week my husband goes into the store to ask about the doors and he points out that we’re in the 7th week since the order has been placed. The door guy still didn’t have an answer and blamed the place that he ordered the doors from, but he did say he would call them and let us know. The door guy never called and I could not get him on the phone to save my life. I did talk to the other guy in the door department and when he pulled up the door order he got really flustered and said that he would have to call me about it. At this point I’m like WTF is going on!!

So, guess what? The following week the doors were not in, and no one had an answer and no one wanted to talk to use so I cornered the assistant store manger because apparently the actual store manager was in a very important meeting. Yeah sure. So the assistant manager was actually very helpful and our doors did come in the following week. Great! The contractor sent someone to the store to pick up our doors, however, when Juan got back to our house he told me: “Guess what? I only have some of the doors because the store told me the rest will be in on Friday”. I burst out laughing and we both laughed.

Thursday night my husband stopped in at the store and was speaking to the merchandising manager because apparently the door guy was now hiding from us. And mind you, we have been perfectly nice this entire time so there was theoretically no reason for anyone to hide from us. So anyway, the merchandising manager tells my husband that the doors will be in the following day but then he changes his story and tells my husband that our guy picked up all the doors. My husband then calls me and after a brief conversation with the merchandise manager, I decide to head to the store because something weird is going on.

Long story short, the merchandising manager proceeded to tell us that our contractor stole the remaining doors and he had proof on camera. Yet, the camera clearing showed our guy taking 5 doors, no more. Then we were told: Oh yes, the remaining doors will be in tomorrow. Later that night at 9:30 pm, the merchandising manager called me and told me that he now knows that we never actually ordered the other doors, or that we have the doors and we’re lying because we want to get free doors. I burst out laughing and I told him: “Thank you for your attempt at gas lighting me, but it will not work. Why don’t you just admit that the door guy forgot to order all of the doors, and that he made a mistake so we can actually order the remaining doors and move on”. But this guy wanted to carry on with his story, so I told him to get help and I hung up on him.

To wrap things up, not only did Lowe’s never admit to their mistake, we had to return 2 of the doors because Lowe’s measured the doorways incorrectly and they did not fit, and we got to talk to the manager who approved the original sale. He was dumbfounded that all of this had taken place, and he refunded the money for the 2 doors we returned as well as for the doors we never received. We had to buy the interior doors from someone else, and guess what? We had those doors in about 4 days………I wish I had read all of the complaints about Lowe’s before trying to order anything from them. Lesson learned.

A Small Improvement That I Can Make in my Life

What’s one small improvement you can make in your life?

Actually there are several small improvements I can make in my life, but I need a few things to change first, like the renovation on my house needs to be done. For the past 7 1/2 months I have had a construction crew in my house doing one thing or another, and because I have to manage things, I have not been as good at working out or even being able to cook properly. Supposedly the house will be completely done by the end of the week, and when it is, The first thing I am going to do is start working out regularly like I used to before the work on the house started.

Something else I am going to do is continue to make healthy changes to my diet and not go for the easy thing to eat because I am stressed out. I will start with those 2 things and go from there.

The Public Figure I Disagree With Most

What public figure do you disagree with the most?

Well, there isn’t exactly one person in particular in the public eye who I disagree with; I disagree with a large group of people in the pubic eye. If you want to lump them all into one large group, then you can say that I disagree with the media and all of their baloney.

I disagree with the way the media tries to scare us…….scare porn…..and the way they try to pit us against each other. The media point blank lies to the public. I really hate the way that the media talks to us like we’re stupid.

The truth is……the talking heads that repeat whatever they are told to say, are the stupid ones.

Things That Make Me Nervous

What makes you nervous?

I have to admit that these days not a lot makes me nervous, but if I had to pick something then I would say people make me nervous. However, not just anyone makes me nervous, a certain type of person and certain behavior make me nervous.

People who are not able to listen to what others have to say, and who shove their beliefs, opinions, etc onto others are not people I want to be around. It’s one thing to express what you’re thinking, but when someone gets belligerent and bullies others, threatens them because they have a different opinion, it’s a problem. Also, people who think verbally attacking other people and who promote aggression and physical abuse make me nervous.

My Favorite Restaurant

What is your favorite restaurant?

My favorite restaurant is a restaurant called Pasta Cucina Rustica. They make authentic Sicilian food as well as dishes from all over Italy. The food is very fresh and authentic, and reminds me of my grandmother’s cooking. My grandmother used to press out noodles and pasta with her sisters, and I used to help when I was a kid, and I can tell that this restaurant also most of the time makes everything from scratch.

This restaurant also has the best authentic desserts. The staff is very friendly and professional. The overall vibe of the restaurant is good, and I have not yet had a bad experience.

If Something Could be Named After me, What Would it Be?

If you could have something named after you, what would it be?

I have never thought about having something named after me. Should I have a purse named after me? It might sound regal to have a purse named the Victoria…….Look at my purse, it’s the latest Victoria. LOL

Or does it make more sense to have a drink named after me? Someone could drink the Victoria and say: Wow Victoria really fucked me up LOL! Tough choice, purse or a drink.

When I was Five, What did I want to be When I Grew Up?

When you were five, what did you want to be when you grew up?

When I was five years old I wanted to either be an equine veterinarian or a therapist, possibly a psychiatrist. For awhile I was very into helping the vet when he came to the stable to take care of the horses every week, and he even taught me how to give shots and draw blood when I was 12 years old. I was so into wanting to be a veterinarian that when I was a teenager, I even did ride along to get an idea of what it was actually like to be a vet. I thought for sure that I would become a veterinarian…..

Fast forward and I started college. My friend Sunni and I actually got into the same university and we began our journey as pre-vet students. We were lucky to get most of our classes together so we were lab partners in classes. School was great and we were learning a lot of things, and even enjoying class until……this one semester was a bit brutal. I have a tough skin, but when I started to actually realize that I would spend a fair amount of time going out to calls for sick horses at 2:00 am, I started to rethink things. I also had the chance to talk to veterinarians who told me I could forget about actually having time to ride or own a horse once I became a vet because I would never know exactly what my day would be, and I had to consider that……even knowing all of this, I still wanted to be an equine veterinarian.

It wasn’t until Sunni and I were partners in a class where we had to put to sleep animals one right after the other. Of course all of these animals were deathly ill in some way, and we were not putting healthy animals to sleep, but it was still heart wrenching. I had even assisted my own vet in euthanizing various horses that were beyond help and it was ‘“ok” sort of……but this class was the final straw that did me in and I changed my major to psychology.

After that I worked on becoming a therapist, and after 8 years of school, I did become a therapist. Although every time my vet comes out to vaccinate my horses or check in on them for something, I wistfully have a second of wondering if I should have been a vet, but it quickly passes when my vet tells me about her day. And I really do enjoy being a therapist and talking to people and helping them. I gratefully wave goodbye to my vet, give my horses hugs and feel grateful that I have a career that I enjoy, and that I get to spend a lot of time doing what I love, which is riding.

What Tattoo Do I Want?

What tattoo do you want and where would you put it?

I have actually wanted a tattoo for a very long time, but I could never decide what I wanted, so I haven’t gotten one. When my friend Laurel and I turned 18, we ran to the tattoo shop to get tattoos. Laurel knew exactly what she wanted so the tattoo artist started with her while I perused tattoos. When Laurel was done, I still wasn’t sure so the tattoo artist told me to come back because…..tattoos are there forever potentially, so you need to know what you want for sure. So I left the tattoo shop feeling disappointed. Laurel’s tattoo was cool though.

I started to think about what kind of tattoo I wanted, and I feel like I probably put too much thought into it. I was talking to my cousin years ago and I told him I wanted a zodiac sign tattooed on my lower back and he immediately said: “Oh no way. That’s a tramp stamp”, and he told me I should get the tattoo on my upper arm because it was the latest thing. This was in the 90’s and this particular cousin already had several tattoos, but I felt that he really did not want his female cousin to get a tattoo, so he gave me grief about it every time I tried to get a tattoo.

A few years later I got married and I was telling my husband I wanted a tattoo, and he said it better be tasteful. I again started thinking about what kind of tattoo I wanted and I still wanted the zodiac sign on my lower back. My husband thought it was a cool idea and I told him my cousin said it’s tasteless and it’s a tramp stamp. My husband told me: “Yes, but you’re MY tramp, and I’m cool with it”, and we both laughed.

So did I get that tattoo? Nope. Not yet. But I’m closer to going to get it, and I so think I will get a nice tramp stamp with my zodiac sign creatively done.

One Word That Describes Me…..

What is one word that describes you?

Hmmm….if i had to choose only one word to describe myself that would be fearless. I am not afraid to try anything, well…..except sky diving….that’s off the list, but I am not afraid to try new things. I started my own business,and let me tell you, it was terrifying. But I did it, and 4 years later I am doing quite well. Best decision I ever made.

And I have never been afraid of jumping horses over 5 foot jumps, although these days my husband has requested that I no longer jump that high because I don’t bounce as well as I used to, and I’m a mom so I need to be a little more careful. But I still have horses and show them, and I am fearless when it comes to that.

I am also fearless when it comes to standing up for myself. I don’t back down and allow people to bully me or talk me out of something that I really want to do.

And I am fearless when it comes to traveling. I love to travel and explore new places and countries.

My Parson Russell Pixie after playing in the hose

The dog pictured is my 2 year old Parson Russell, Pixie. She decided to bite at the water coming from the hose, and ran through the stream of water as I was watering plants this morning. Pixie is quite the clown and has a huge personality, and makes me laugh every day.

And you might be asking, what the heck is a Parson Russell? Basically a Parson Russell is not much different from a Jack Russell, except that a Parson cannot be small or short legged like a Jack Russell, but they have the same tenacious personalities as the Jack Russells.

Pixie is always with me, and she came into my life at a time when I really needed a pick me up. I think if it were not for Pixie, I may not have made it through a very rough time I had 2 years ago. It’s as if Pixie knows that she is here to put a smile on face and make me laugh. And she definitely makes me laugh every single day.