The Nest

A bright idea

Posted Monday, July 16, 2007 10:36 PM

 
Yesterday I became Susie Homemaker. It was for a few hours, but it was a territory I seldom venture into -- except when I bake, make chocolate dipped strawberries or create my fabulous candied carrots.

Adam and I had reached a domino effect when it came to making his house, which was once his grandmother's, more "our" house: we couldn't do A until we did B, which couldn't happen until we did C, and we could forget about doing that unless we did D. In this case, we wanted to put away the presents we received from the first shower, which had to wait until I finished the thank you notes. (A task I luckily accomplished last weekend). Then we couldn't put them where they needed to go in the kitchen until we cleaned up the cabinets, which wasn't possible without the right supplies.

So off we went to the "budget" trifecta: Costco, Target and Home Depot. At Costco we picked up the food items, paper goods and cleaning supplies that we knew wouldn't go bad in large supply. We were so focused on our task that we didn't even stop and taste one sample.

We went to Target for the items we didn't need 300 pounds of, like shampoo and air fresher. I was also on a mission to find a light bulb. Not just any light bulb – the mother of all light bulbs: a three-way 100, 200 and 300 watt one. We have a very large lamp in our living room that popped the night before. Of course there were no others like it in the house because the darn thing hadn't been replaced sine Clinton was in office. So there I was walking around Target trying to flag down a Target "team member" with a light bulb. Considering the darn thing wasn't lit – this was not an easy task.

Finally, I was told they didn't carry anything that looked like that. I turned to Adam and asked where the nearest hardware store was (I'm from Chicago, where there's a Tru-Value or Ace on every other block). Then it dawned on me: Home Depot (if this was a sitcom, the light bulb would have miraculously landed on top of my head indicating I'd had a great idea.

Of course Home Dept had it – they have EVERYTHING. We bought two ulbs, just in case.

Once we got back to the house I changed some light bulbs, put down shelf paper, and threw out some very scary stuff we found in the supply closet. It was a dirty job, but someone had to do it.