First Salvo

So today we made the first effort into the home restoration. We bought stuff. And where do I go when I want to buy stuff for home improvement? I go to Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse.

I have said this before and people thought I was joking or they may have just thought it was funny, but we shop at Lowe's because HOME DEPOT KILLS PEOPLE!!

No kidding! Don't believe me. Check this out:
Accident Claims Lives of Home Depot Shoppers

From the article, describing the death of a 3-year old girl:

The countertops splintered and large fragments of broken lumber scattered around the area. Horner-Cunningham pushed the cart carrying her youngest daughter away from the lumber that was "flying through the air end over end." As she turned to grab Janessa and move her away from the danger, two large pieces of splintered lumber hit Janessa and "crushed her into the concrete floor," the mother said.

"I grabbed her bruised little body and screamed 'Janessa,' realizing she was unconscious," Horner-Cunningham said. "I laid her down on the floor, too scared to check for a pulse or breathing. She was already bruised all over her body, her face, and one eye [was] swollen purple. Everyone in the store kept reassuring me that she was going to be OK but I knew that she wasn't."

The lumber that hit Janessa split a main blood vessel in her brain and broke bones throughout her body. She was disconnected from life-support machines several hours later. Her parents donated her organs, except her heart: It was too damaged from the accident to salvage.

They were following Home Depot's safety guidelines when this happened. The number of deaths at Home Depot has been estimated to 30 customers. Have you heard of any? Probably not and Home Depot loves that fact. They make people sign confidentiality agreements to settle the lawsuits.

Lowe's has never killed anyone. That doesn't mean it's not dangerous but it means they are doing something right. I know. I used to work there. Lowe's is very safety conscious and I appreciated that fact. Little tip to share with you. When you are shopping at a big warehouse store, look up. Don't just look up once, but always look up. Look for pallets hanging over the side or stuff not secured to the pallets. That is the stuff that will kill you or whoever you are shopping with then. And if you find something you think is unsafe, tell a manager. Don't tell the pimply-faced stocker. Tell a manager. They will do something and you may save a life.

Now, we bought a little over $100 worth of stuff. Nothing big, really. Got a hammer, a prybar, respirator and filters, some large trashbags and then some light bulbs at Wal-Mart. That pretty much wore the boy out. He's pretty good out of the gate, but not much for stamina.

So we gathered our new stuff and headed for the house. The electricity service was started today and we could see the basement for the first time without the use of a flashlight.

The first thing that had to happen was I had to remove the dead possum from the basement. Oh yeah, dead possum. That smell was lovely. I have a picture of the dead possum if anyone wants to see it. It was a medium sized vermin and is not on the front porch in one large garbage bag. Come and get it.

Following the removal of the possum, I walked around the basement and looked for light sockets that needed bulbs. Once I illuminated the rooms, I saw that it was filled with junk that we might make a profit from in a yard sale. I also found another room but did not enter it because it was pitch black and I was without a flashlight.

I then went and retrieved my Uncle Junior, who came up to look around with me to help spot any structural deficiencies.

I started working with my Uncle Junior when I was fifteen. I mostly broke the equipment I was using and he helped me fix it.

During a tour of the basement, he turned to me and said, "You haven't gotten any smarter since you were a kid." All I could do was laugh. Ah, good times.

He helped me understand that there wasn't a low spot in the dining room floor. He found that there was a high spot. For some reason, someone has jacked up the floor under the dining room and created a hump in the middle of the room. Uncle Junior spotted this and said it could be fixed fairly easily. We then moved upstairs and started talking about the carpeting. I wondered if there was hardwood flooring under the carpet. He said when I tore the carpet up, I would find out. I said, "Let's do it now." I happened to be carrying a box cutter and tore up part of the carpet. Lo and behold, beautiful hardwood flooring.

We left after that. I think I may leave the basement the way it is for now and get to work stripping the plaster off the walls. There is a ton of trash in the back yard and I think I'll just deal with all that garbage at one time. Plus, the sooner I get the walls gutted, the sooner I can have an electrician look at the wiring.