My children seem to have a deep and powerful loathing for Lowes. When Briton was two we were deep into renovating our first house. And it needed some serious renovating. The last guy who had lived there was named Spider. No last name required. Just Spider. The house had been decked out in black velvet and dingy paint complete with real spiderwebs everywhere. Needless to say, we spent a lot of time, and a lot of money, at Lowes. After Evie was born we were again renovating a house and again, spent a lot of time at Lowes, and so maybe their dislike for the place is justified. But you would think at almost three (Tomorrow!) and nearly seven, they could hold it together for ten minutes while I chose paint colors. Wrong.
I'm not sure what is is about Lowes that they so dislike though. I used to spend hours at the hardware store with my grandfather every summer. He would putter down the aisles, weighing out nails and screws and nuts and whatever else he needed for the project of the moment. I would entertain myself mixing up screws and nails and nuts, all nicely sorted (until I arrived) in little bins. Once I had mixed to my hearts content I could go check out the selection of Radio Flyer trikes and wagons, pet the cat that always seemed to lived in hardware stores back then, and be ready to go about the time grandpa was.
OK, so maybe I don't let my kids mess with the hardware. And yes, there are no Radio Flyer Trikes at Lowes. Or cats. So maybe I see their problem. But with another major house renovation starting in less than a month, they are in for a shock. They've spent the last two years blissfully free of weekly (ok, sometimes daily) Lowes visits. But not for long.
The good news is, though, despite their whining and arguing I was able to pull paint samples for nearly all the rooms and tonight will put together a board with all the colors and ideas I've found in my weeks of brainstorming.(I told you I was nutty with the organizing thing) Of course, if Will hates it, I'll be back to square one. But at least I feel like I'm making some headway into the looooong list of things to do before we close on the house.
And maybe, if I can make there during the scant open hours, I'll take the kids to the local hardware store next time instead, where Gracie the dog will let them pet her to their hearts content and there are plenty of bins full of shiny screws and nails for them to mess up. Sorry about that, Meadowbrook Hardware.
