It seems we are forever beginning, in the middle of, or finishing, one remodeling project after another in our 75 year old farmhouse in Virginia. Today we were all set to start tiling the floor of our master bedroom area, when we realized we couldn't find the bag of tile spacers that we bought last week at Home Depot. For 2 hours we turned the house upside down looking for that $2.49 bag of spacers. Aaarrgghh!!

No spacers, no tiling. Well, there goes today's scheduled project. We still haven't found the bag of spacers. We'll probably find them AFTER we no longer need them... Has anyone else had a frustrating delay to a needed project due to the lack of a "trivial" item like tile spacers?

-- Liz Rhein (merhein@shentel.net), March 03, 2002

Answers

I'm a firm believer that things happen for a reason. Whenever something like that happens to me, I usually find a different of better way it can be done.

The last delay I had was I was hanging fence and came to a tree I was going to put the fence on until I noticed it was dead (hard to see in the dead of winter) I had to wait until my husband was off so he could cut it down. And since the weather hasn't been as nice as it was when I was on a roll.

-- Dee (gdgtur@goes.com), March 03, 2002.

Why didn't you just cut it down?

-- laura (Lauramleek@yahoo.com), March 03, 2002.

If things never got temporarily misplaced I would not have my extensive collection of oil filter wrenches. It's a beauty.

-- JJ Grandits (JJGBDF@aol.com), March 04, 2002.

For those planning to do what Dee was doing, that is, hang a fence from living trees, DON'T DO IT! It always seems so more convenient than digging fencepost holes or driving in posts but not good in the long run. For those who don't know it, those staples and the wire soon vanish inside the growing tree when the tree adds a few more growth rings. If it's a hardwood that may possibly be used for lumber later, you'll be called all kinds of ugly names sometime down the road when the bandsaw breaks when hitting a staple. And even if just cut for firewood a few years from now, Murphy's Law says that the chainsaw will find that staple!

-- Martin Longseth (paquebot@merr.com), March 04, 2002.

Look at the good side of it. If you're like me, you probably found something that you were looking for last week while looking for the tile spacers! Next week while you are looking for something else you will probably find the tile spacers that you needed this week!

-- r.h. in okla. (rhays@sstelco.com), March 04, 2002.

You need to find a "special place" to put things bought, but yet not needed. What I do is when I buy something before needing it, I find a good "special place" where I will REMEMBER where the item is located. Then when I need it I usually only have to search for an hour or so before giving up and buying a replacement. Now here is the key part -- always buy a little more than you need so you will have something to save. When figuring out where to save the surplus, remember to find a "special place". When you put the surplus there in this "special place" almost always you will find the original purchased item. You now are on your way to becoming a collector.

-- Joe (CactusJoe001@AOL.com), March 04, 2002.

Reminds me of the can of foam insulation I bought at Home Depot fifty miles from the place I needed it. Looked and looked, came up empty. I figured I never got out of Home Depot with it. I stopped by there and asked the person that rang me up if I had left the bag there. she remembered me, but didn't remember me leaving anything and referred me to the courtesy desk. No.. nothing had been turned in there, but can you believe, they insisted I go get another can at no charge. I wnet out to the car and opened the back door to put my stuff in the back seat, and there, laying on the floorboard was the original can, which being round, had rolled under the seat (when I was looking for it) and had rolled back out when I wasn't looking!@@#%$&. Needless to say, I went back in the store redfaced and gave them back the replacement can they so graciously "gave" me. so... did you look under the car seat?

-- Carole (carle@earthlink.net), March 04, 2002.

I can relate to all of this! I think my "special place" for putting things should be getting pretty crowded by now! LOL

-- cowgirlone in OK (cowgirlone47@hotmail.com), March 04, 2002.

Hello Folks,

I usually try to find a substitute for something that I need that requires more money or a special trip into town, 30 miles. The phrase that a local told me for this kind of substitution was ....to Ozark it!

I gotten pretty good at it too. If I needed spacers for a tile project I guess I would use pieces of scrap wood, (all the same size). If I need a three in screw I would find a longer one and cut it to size. Things like that save me a lot of time and money.

Sincerely,

Ernest

-- http://communities.msn.com/livingoffthelandintheozarks (espresso42@hotmail.com), March 04, 2002.

Oh yeah, had one of those moments just last night.

The 43 chicks in the brooder are getting bigger every day so I have to get their house built and ready to go fairly soon.

Was working on it last night when I realized I'd just used my last pressure treated two by four when I knew I was going to be need at least two more. Got out the diagrams I'd created and started counting the boards I had left and the ones I'd used. Turns out I'd swapped the numbers on how many pressure treated boards and how many untreated boards I needed. Well, putting untreated pine into ground contact in Florida is just providing snacks for the termites and fungi so it was either pack it in for the day or go to town and get what I needed.

So I did. Of course, it was raining the entire time and while I was tying the lumber down in the truck the wind blew my new hat off and toured the parking lot with it. Hadn't gotten the wire yet that I need so figured to go ahead and get it then too and they had all of one ten foot roll of three foot hardware cloth and I need about forty feet of it.

Some days are ever so much more than others.

.......Alan.

-- Alan (athagan@atlantic.net), March 04, 2002.

Ever notice that no matter how many places you have searched, whatever you've lost track of is always in the last place you looked?

-- Susan in Northern LP Michigan (cobwoman@yahoo.com), March 04, 2002.

Or; those spacers are just exactly where I placed them so that I would know where they were when I need them and not have to go thru the hunt and search thing because I placed them in such a logical place that they would be right at my finger tips and I would remember.....

There they are!

-- Jim-mi (hartalteng@voyager.net), March 04, 2002.

You all sound like me! I always put things I buy or get, away in a safe spot, till needed. Trouble is, I forget where I put them!

I've lost soooo many things but the top has to be; years ago when Farmers Home Admin. used the little payment cards, remember those? We got our new packet about 3 months early, so I, of course, being so organized, stuck them away, in a safe spot. Never did find them....and it's been 20yrs! The people who eventually bought the house never found them either, even after extensive remodling. That was some GOOD hiding spot!

-- Jody (ruready@cin.net), March 05, 2002.