Five months later, our air conditioner has been upgraded, the roof has been reshingled and a new patio covering and fence have been installed - all work done by someone else at no expense to us.
That's my kind of repair work.
The only thing damaged in the storm that our contractor wouldn't handle for us was the installation of a new shed, which I thought was strange.
I now understand why.
Sean and I started looking at what was available in our price range. We quickly learned that Tuff Sheds were the best and were professionally installed. They were also the most expensive I saw.
When telling the Home Depot employee that we were looking for something a little less awesome and a whole lot cheaper, he said metal sheds are much less expensive, but warned us strongly against getting one. I don't remember exactly what he said, but his description of building a metal shed gave me the impression it would take at least a month or five to complete, cause serious emotional strain, come close to killing us and that it would bring us to the brink of divorce.
We assured the man that we would do no such foolish thing as buy a metal shed, and went on searching for that mythical mid-range, low-priced, easily installed, durable storage shed.
Weeks later I had discovered that we could afford a lovely nearly hail-proof resin shed the size of a cupboard, a vinyl-coated metal shed the size of a coat closet or a decent size plain ol' metal shed.
I looked at so many sheds and got so sick of searching that I disregarded the helpful employee's anti-metal-shed warning.
We bought a 10x8 metal shed for $350 - what I now know to be a bargain.
It took us two and a half days to assemble.
The shed, or as we affectionately call it, the Storage Turd 5000, has brought two old adages home for me:
That which does not kill us makes us stronger.Sean and I made an awful project fun. Toward the end, there were definitely a couple of snippy builders, but we made it through without too much name calling or throwing any real punches.
You get what you pay for.The old shed may have been rusty and leaky prior to being pummeled by hail, but it was still usable and structurally sound after the storm. I'm pretty sure the new one would have crumpled like a soda can under the same conditions. And while I think we put it together better than the instructions led us to, I wouldn't be surprised if it leaks like a sieve.
The moral of the story:
Home Depot employees really know their stuff. You're an idiot if you don't listen to them, and you deserve whatever home-improvement hell you put yourself into by ignoring their advice.
Seriously.
1 comments:
Thanks for the advice I will remember it. Mostly though I have learned to not need a shed and then I won't have any of that mess to deal with.
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