The Hardware Store

I am installing runners on the stairs at my mom's house. Now that she has tenants in her house, the stairs have become a high traffic area and the broadloom on the stairs have gotten tattered and uncleanable in places.

To remove the 20+ year-old wall-to-wall carpeting, it meant prying the weave out of corners, cutting between the rail rungs, ripping out the under-pad, pulling out all the nails and staples, without getting too soiled and choked up by the dirt uncovered, and without stabbing myself on the little wooden slats of nails that held down the carpeting. Then I had to bang and pry the wooden nail slats up, after which I had to use wood filler to repair the parts of the stairs that got damaged from the prying out of the wooden nail slats.

Then I have to install quarter round where there is a gap between floor and wall. I haven't decided if I'll re-stain and varnish.

I've never done any of this before, nor do I know how to install the runner. But I am sorting things out as I go and relying on the advice of the sales people at Home Depot.

So mom and I went to Home Depot to get the supplies we need today.

I was served by an attractive, delightful man who couldn't do math to help me figure out what length of stair runner I needed. But we worked together. That is, we each made our calculations separately, compared figures, then re-calculated together the ones that were different to arrive at an approximation of the length I needed. I didn't mind that he made mistakes in his math because each time he flashed a smile at me, I melted.

Then he directed me to another man for carpet nails. The nail man explained how many nails I needed for each step and where on the step to hammer in the nails. We calculated I would need almost 300 3/4 inch carpet nails for my job. But Home Depot only sells carpet nails in little boxes of 30. The nail man took me aside and said, Go to Dundas and Runnymede. There is a Rona Hardware there. No, not the one across the street. They sell nails by the pound at the other Rona. You will get what you need at a fraction of the cost here.

While I was being serviced this way, mom was scampering around the carpet area. She wanted a rug for her bed side. She liked a floral one that was actually very pretty. But she fretted and paced about because the rug cost $45. If she chose one that was the same pattern as the stair runner, it would only cost $18. So she muttered and complained about the difference in price.

Finally, I had to put a stop to her fretting. I said, In the blink of an eye, you gave The Boy $40 for no reason yesterday. Now you won't spend $27 extra on yourself to buy a rug for your bedroom that you will stand on each day? She said, But the one that costs less does the same job as the one that costs more. I said, But you like the one that costs more better.

In the end, she relented and took the floral one that she liked better.

At the check out, the cashier scanned our items and stopped at mom's rug. It's $45, she said to make we knew what we were getting into. Now mom piped up and said, Yes we know, but that's the one I want.

So she measured our quarter round and decided to charge us only for half of the wood. She said, They're different lengths so I'll just charge you for the longest ones.

Maybe there is something about two women bumbling about in a hardware store that makes people want to help us out. Maybe it was a Sunday and the store wasn't that busy. But gosh, I had a nice time in the hardware store today.