I know Lowes isn’t new in the city, but it is compared to our usual Rona, J&H, and Home Depot. When our family first discovered that our build was in fact POSSIBLE this year, we began filling our evenings and weekends with slow walks through these kinds of stores, and that was probably the first time I ever set foot into Lowes. I found that they were comparable in a lot of ways, pretty severely lacking in others, but they had some WONDERFUL products that we couldn’t find anywhere else comparable.
We found a couple of things at Lowes right off the hop that I knew we could not compromise on, because I loved them way too much. We got our kitchen sink from Lowes, if you remember from waaay back in the posts. At least I think I shared it! Its a HUGE white coasted cast iron sink. Its Kohler, and only $300. I didn’t even ask if it put us over our kitchen budget. I didn’t care. It was SUCH a beautiful sink!
We also ordered our countertops from Lowes. It was kind of amazing actually. We went into the countertop place that our builder uses as their standard, and we knew it would cost more than a hardware store countertop, of course, but we figured we’d give it a go and just see how the prices compared. I picked my absolute favorite top off of the wall and the salesman laughed and said that was practically his cheapest top. (This is why we ended up buying from a hardware store. I don’t have expensive tastes for countertops.) When the quote came in, however, it was WAY over our budget! And that was even excluding the island top!!! So we politely said we’d let them know and bought the lovely medium grey standard laminate tops from Lowes. We paid a fraction of the cost that way.
The last thing we chose from Lowes was tub/shower doors. Rather than hanging a shower curtain, Brady expressed that he would really like to have shower doors in the main bathroom instead. Since I feel like almost every little detail has been chosen by me, I was quite determined that Brady should get his shower doors. He also wanted three panels instead of two, for the sake of bathing our kids in the tub and having it more open. I did a lot of looking online and myyy goodness, those doors are EXPENSIVE!! And most of them are only two panels. But I am pleased to have found a three panel shower door with raindrop detail for a VERY reasonable price! What fun surprises all of these purchases were!
I have to say, though, we have gotten the SERIOUS run around actually receiving these products.
The sink is up to the plumber so I’m sure (hoping) he’s on top of that. The shower doors we ordered last week, and we were informed they would be shipped by Same Day Worldwide shipping. Its a deceiving name, really, since they’re not going to be here for at least another week. *eye roll* Ideally Brady would install them before Friday, but I guess another day will have to do. It won’t really affect anyone else, but he’s working on his second stage finishing tomorrow through Friday, and he will be installed all of our bathroom hardware anyway. But oh well. Shower doors will just come later I suppose.
We ordered our countertops a while back already, and they were supposed to arrive on May 10th. It is now the 17th and we have gone through a decent amount of annoyance trying to actually get them into our hands. We FINALLY got the call last night that they were in store, so Brady and I set up the plan for today. He’ll also be finishing up cabinets this week, and doing countertops, so it all needs to be there this week. We decided, since Brady only had Daytona work this afternoon, that after breakfast today, we’d each take a van, drive to Lowes (me with the kids, he in his work van), pick up the tops, drive them out to our house, and haul them in while getting a good look at the house as well and showing my mom around it. She hasn’t even seen it painted in person yet!!
OVER AN HOUR at Lowes!!! Not only did Brady have to explain who he was and what he was picking up again, but they then said they had to go pick the order. When they brought it out to us, it was all damaged and messed up 🙁 The main part of the order was two 10′ chunks of countertop. They had ordered three, and THANK GOODNESS for that, because one was split right down the middle, and one was missing a hunk of the backsplash. We’re actually trimming one down, so the loss of the backsplash corner isn’t a big deal. Thank goodness one was in good shape all around and we could use it. They agreed to take a percentage off of the broken one that we accepted, and on their own, took that same percentage off of the one that was still in good shape, just as a good will gesture, which we appreciated. It was quite a long mess getting everything sorted out, but we did not stick around to stay annoyed. Once Bradys van was loaded, we bailed.
We had a couple of other plans fall by the wayside because of how long Lowes took, which is too bad, but stuff happens. We got our countertops, they will work well, and we got to tour around our house! The carpet guys were working in there, but had no problem with us being around. However, there were open tack strips everywhere, so we carried the kids through to save their toes. Now that the flooring is basically done, our house is officially a “no shoes” house, which we really appreciate! Brady has seen muddy footprints through new builds, caking up the new carpets, and UGH! That would just make me sick to see in my own house. So we carried the kids through, and my mom also came along to see how it all looked. Because we carried everyone, we didn’t take pictures, but I promise, I’ll ask Brady to take some tomorrow. It all looks AMAZING! I was worried that the dark grey tile, grey laminate, and grey carpet would looks suuuper monochromatic, but it really doesn’t. It looks classy and finished and beautiful. Eek! Seriously, I want ALL of you guys reading and caring about our house to come to a house warming party so you can see the place in person!
I digress. I was VERY frustrated at Lowes earlier today, and I still think a lot of that hassle could have been avoided, but I do love what we ended up with, and I’m VERY excited to see it all installed!!! We are so very fortunate to be able to do what we’re doing, and to build our dream home! I truly can’t wait to show it off to each and every one of you who wants to see it!