khp2e's Profile

We just did a kitchen project through Lowe's thinking it would be easier to do both countertops and backsplash through them. NOPE! Although we didn't have any major mess-ups like you all, the whole experience was quite unpleasant. The Lowe's people "coordinating" the project had no clue what they were doing, and then Lowe's takes a HUGE cut. The guy that did our tile backsplash was great, though, and gave us his info if we need other jobs done WITHOUT Lowe's. He told me what he got paid for the job and it was significantly lower than what we paid Lowe's (I am so irritated with Lowe's I'll believe what he told me, plus we saw the contractor vs. total pricing for another part of the job and the percent cut was comparable.) Basically you pay Lowe's an arm and a leg and they don't do anything but call you to see if YOU have been coordinating with your contractors.

We replaced our flooring several years back and used a friend-of-a-friend local contractor and it was much better. We will never do a project through a big box store again!

I can't put all my frustrations on Lowe's, though: I called my mother during all this frustration because she has remodeled and restored her old house many times with her long time trusted local contractor and she said it is just always painful for one reason or another.

Lydiechan, RE: cat yack, we have had the same problem....we used to have wall-to-wall carpeting and found that Mrs. Meyers powdered stain remover worked well with a scrub brush, but it was a pain in the rear when she throws up so often. Then we got all hard flooring so it is significantly easier to clean up when kitty retches in the right place, but area rugs were still a problem. We had a very neutral colored jute rug and discovered that the cat yak stained it badly and the Mrs. Meyers (or any oxy cleaner) bleached it.....so, as funds have allowed, we have slowly replaced all non-wool area rugs with wool, which is the only thing the cat yack comes out of completely. The lanolin makes wool naturally very stain repellent. So, you can scrub with oxy and/or try to get wood/laminate/tile and/or get wool rugs......the things we do to keep home nice with those yacking kitties!

Reading this article was like reading the monologue I give at least monthly to my husband professing my love for the vacuum. I have also Miele-evangelized to strangers. We have a canister version on which we also spent a small fortune: we got the one from Williams-Sonoma that is in the ~$850 range, and it was made possible by the fact that we put ALL our Williams-Sonoma gift cards we received at our wedding towards it (and we still invested a few hundred of our own cash....we didn't need any more kitchen stuff anyway.) I was mainly inspired to get it after using my Mom's--she has the top-of-the-line ~$1100 one.

I am now thinking about saving up for the Miele stick vac.......these vacuums are worth the investment if you have pets or are allergic or are a clean nut or any combination thereof!

If you are thinking about getting one, take one for a test run somewhere--you will be hooked! And, it delivers about a million times more suction than other vacuums at half the decibel level.