On Sat, 09 Apr 2005 08:58:54 -0400, Steve Manes
wrote:

Good thinking. Unfortunately, during my house renovation I've got too
many war stories about buying cheap and paying for it heavily at the
other end.

I have a similar story to tell. I have had shoulder pain for the last
couple of weeks. A few trips to a massage therapist didn't improve
the situation much.

One day I finally realized what was wrong with my shoulders. I've
been painting my whole house in anticipation of new hardwood and
carpet. My shoulder pain was the direct result of me hand sanding the
walls.

I had though about buying a $20 sander but thought I could save the
$20 by hand sanding.

So I finally broke down and bought a $20 electrical sander and the
paint job went much faster and the shoulder pain disappeared.

Even though my insurance covered my $200 massages but I still had to
endure the pain and suffering for a few weeks.

The worst was a Jacuzzi I bought online and tile I got cheap at a
contractors' salvage yard. That story is he

http://www.magpie.com/house/bathroom.phtml

And just to demonstrate that I don't learn from my own lessons,
another one was just yesterday. I needed some wallpaper to finish off
the guest room I'm building. I spent an afternoon hitting local
wallcovering stores and the Borgs looking for something I liked which
was also in stock. Nothing. I found a yellow pages ad for a store in
Boro Park which claimed to have a million rolls in stock. As soon as
I walked in the funky place, warning bells should have gone off.
There were disorganized boxes of wallpaper all over, none of it with
so much as a manufacturer's label. There was also a large pool of
water on the floor in back from a leaky roof. The owner said it
always happens after a heavy rain.

After an hour, I found some prepasted stuff which was acceptable,
feeling victorious about saving $5 over what I would have paid
elsewhere. I hung it last night.

This morning, it was curling up and falling off the wall. It's not
like I haven't successfully hung a lot of wallpaper in my life. This
stuff was damaged goods. I tested a piece and found that the paste
was almost useless. In a side light you could see where some of it
was dusting off. Then I thought about that pool of water and what the
recurring humidity may have done to it.

One of these days I'll learn the wisdom of "Cry Once", I hope.

Steve Manes
Brooklyn, NY
http://www.magpie.com/house/bbs