Lowe's gift card

It pays not to shop at Lowe's too often. Awhile back they were trying to lure me back to the store with a 10% off discount. I didn't get abck in to use it. So this week they sent me a gift card. ON a $25 purchase, I get a $10 gift card to use...in other words, 40% off....as long as I don't spend more than $25 LOL! You know, if I keep playing Home Depot and Lowe's agianst each other, I can keep getting return incentives every few months....LOL!

Bama,

Lowe's for one will mail you a 10% your entire purchase when you move and fill out the post office request for change of address. The Lowe's offer has been in the coupon envelop the last 5 times I've moved or so...only on this last move when it was my own house did it finally come in handy! But there is like a 1 year expiration date on it so it is nice.


This message was edited Jun 1, 2006 2:16 PM

Yep, I got one of those when I moved and it really came in handy when I had to get a fridge, washer, dryer, hot water heater, and an assortment of small hand tools! 10% off that purchase was HUGE...plus I got rebates! But I haven't been in for a while.....so they sent me the gift card to get me back in the store. I know they assume that no one can go in there and get out for $25...LOL! Still, it is nice to have the gift card...I'm sure I will use it before it expires next month.

Hmmm....wonder how I can get on this preferred customer mailing list. LOL. There are times when I've budgeted and gotten out on $25. But you just can't look at the plants section. It's usually when I just need some plant food or something.

Well, when I bought the appliances I had to give them all my info to deliver them....that got me on their mailing list BIG time....LOL! They pegged me for home improvments...well, duh...my house is 116 years old...what do you think? It needs a LITTLE work...Shall we start with the roof? The floor? The bathrooms? The paint? They saw me coming and smelled money...LOL! Only they didn't realize that after I bought the house and appliances and paid for the move, that pretty much wiped me out. I figure by the time I die, it might be a pretty sharp house.....

Bama,

LOL. Good luck with all the work. I think old houses, especially the bigger the better, are sooo interesting!!!!!!!!

Saw an incredible show on HGTV about what you get for the money, the same priced house in different parts of the country. Holy cow. They had a historic beauty in Detroit MI. It was 1 million $, 14000 sq ft, 3 acres, TONS TONS TONS of architecture: murals on ceilings, wood trim out the wazoo....etc. I thought for what celebs pay for their mansions it sure was a sweet deal. But I grew up in Michigan and know their economy has been sliding in recent years......But I just LOVE to look at old houses. So awesome that you have one of these historic beauties.


This message was edited Jun 1, 2006 2:16 PM

My house is an old farm house built in the Folk Victorian style. It is larger than most Folk Victorians...but still not huge. We have 1720 sq feet. The bathrooms were added after the house was built, as was the kitchen. When the house was built, there was no such thing as indoor plumbing and cooking was done on a wood stove. As a result we have one bathroom that was built where a small hallway type area was, and the other bathroom was added on to the back. The kitchen was also added on. The walls and ceilings are 2" wide oak planks. The floors are heart of pine planks with tongue and grove. The only nail I have been able to find in any of these floors, walls or ceilings is a single hand made nail in one floor board. There are nails in some of the studs, but there are no nails holding the ceiling and walls together...they are all held in place by the pressure of the boards agaisnt each other. And the wood is so hard in the walls that in order to hang anything, I either have to drill a hole in the wood and run a wood screw in, or I have to hammer a nail between the boards.

It has all kinds of interesting built in cabinets...and, unlike most of these really old homes, it does have some decent sized closets. Back in the 1890s, most ladies only had one or two dresses and the guys usually just had one suit for 'marrying and burying', so the closets were usually really tiny. I've only got one closet that is really small...and that is because it is also the closet where they installed the AC return air vent. I really love the house...but it is going to take us some time to get it fixed up.

Bama,

It sounds incredible! I love the Victorian architecture. That is great you have nice sized closets. We had an old house growing up. My grandparents built it about 1940 and it was only about 1,300 sq ft plus a full basement. The woodwork and wood floors were always better built back then. I dream of building a house that LOOKS like it's historic, with all the nice trim. I'd have to build it to get it where I want it on the land I'd like someday. I believe it about not finding any nails. My parents house had wood floors throughout and I never saw any nails in them....is that how they install them now?

Now they use subflooring and glue it down. It would be cheaper to find an odler home and move it than to build a replica. When I went to inusre this house, I was told I could buy another old home the same size in this area for $95k...but it would cost at least $215k to rebuild the house. I paid $52k for it. I don't know how much they paid to have it moved to this location...it had been out in the country and was moved to this subdivision. A few years ago in Pensacola, FL, I saw them move a whole neighborhood of older homes to an upscale historic district. They bought the old bungalow style homes for $25k each, moved them, fixed them up, and are now selling them for ten times what they paid for them.

Yes they did glue our subfloor but also used nails. Shotty work most of the new construction be we haven't had too many issues really and love the layout...just lacks the historic architectural charm.

The problem with our floors is that there is no subfloring. There are studs every 2 feet for support, but othrwise we are relying on the tongue and groove to hold us up. My cousin decided to ahve her floors refinished a few years ago. They buffed off the top layer and varnhsied them. They are stunning to look at...but it took off a layer of wood...and the wood is not htat thcik and there is no subflooring. Now her floors need refinshing again. The varnish is wearing thin in places or is scratched from doggie toemails and what ahave you. But the wood is too thin to refinihs again. Originally I had planned to do the same thing with our floors...but when I heard that it weakened them, I had second thoguhts. Then I went to get my hair done at a salon downtown. The salon is in an historic buidling with heart of pine floors and ceiling. He left the heart of pine as is...with all the dents and dings and the darker stain...and ti looks great! I figured if this chic salon can keep their flors original, I can too. I was telling my aunt that I had decided to keep the floors original and nto refinish them, and she told me she likes the way they look. She says it adds character to see the depressions from previous furniture...and in our bedroom there are light grooves worn in the floor in parallel lines...where someone rocked a lot of babies. I want to restain the worn areas and revarnish the flors, but I"m not going to strip them.

You should see this neat cabinet in my son's room. It was the originla Master bedroom before the bathrooms were added. Next to the fireplace there is a small cabinet built into the wall. Everybody kept speculating why this cabinet is in the wall thre. I had to point out that it is a shaving cabinet. It woudl have had a mirror inside the cabinet dor and it has two shelves to hold shving supplies. It would have had a table with a pitcher and bowl underneath. When my son moves out, I'd like to put a wash stand under the cabinet, btu with five cats, I'd have to get a plastic wsh bowl and pitcher...and I dount if I could find anything in plastic that would look authentic... And I can't lock off the room from the cats, because they need to have full run of the house to keep the mice out.

Bama,

Cats are incredible for that! Sounds like you've got some neat finds at your old place. Do you know anything of it's history like it's owners, etc?

Oh yeah...to a point. The original files were burned in a courthouse fire. I've been to the courthouse and searched the files and can only trace them back to the fire. The house was built in 1890. There were a few houses built on the same road...and a relative of my great grandmother owned at least one of the houses, but we don't know which one. My sis has a map from 1950 which shows the road and she has been able to track down some info as to who owned the property on the road...but we don't know which one was this house, adn we don't know which house belonged to the relative. The first building permit for this house was issued around 1923...then a few others after that. The furthest we can trace actual ownership back was to a real estate investment company who sold it to the aunt of the man who moved it here. When she passed away, he inherited it and moved it here. I wish we could trace it back to the original owner/builder...it would be nice to know if my great grandmother ever stayed in this house. She passed away when my grandmother was pretty young. I have a photo of her hanging in the living room.

Bama,

Oh my gosh! What awesome history! I think that is so neat you have a photo of her in the house. I hope you can find out more. How fascinating!


This message was edited Jun 1, 2006 2:16 PM

My sister is into genealogy and she got the phtot from a fellow family historian. She sent me a JPG of it and I printed it on photo paper. So, it isn't the actual old photo, but it works. I do have a photo of my dad's grandfather that is original. And my hubby has a picture of his grandmother wearing a Victorian style dress. It is neat, we have his antique family phoptos on one side of the door, and we have my family's old photos on the other side of the door. I tried to duplicate the frames and mats taht he had his in, but couldn't quite match them. I also ahve an old lace handkerchief and wooden crochet hoops that belonged to my grandmother that I want to put in a shadow box. Plus I have a seal from the watermelon distributorship taht my grandfather used to have and an AHS seal that my grandmother got when she went to the National dayliliy society convention in Birmingham....They are both too small to put into a shadow box by themselves, so maybe I will put them in with the hanky and crochet hoops.....

Good morning yall,

About that Lowes gift card. When I moved I received an offer from my bank for that card. We were trying for the right time to use the certificate, so the other day I spent over $200 on tools and stuff. I forgot to give the lady the certificate, so she sent me to the returns desk. They had to reverse the entire cart load, then reinput it with a managers special card.

After all that, when she tried to scan the certificate, it said it expired on 3/15. I didn't have that for 6 months even and it also didn't say this on the certificate. However, the manager gave her a code to give me the discount anyway.

So all was good. When I went to buy building supplies this past week for my orchid house, I got the supply company to give me a contractors discount. This beat Lowes and Home Depot right out of the ballpark. Not only did I save money, it allowed me to buy fence posts so we can get another section of fencing finished and still have buget left.

Molly
:^)))