There’s a First Time…

This past weekend I’m in the middle of my normal Sunday routine, which is to say I’m making the 5th of 8 trips to Lowe’s, and something shocking happened…. let me set the stage.

As it was Sunday, I was in my normal Sunday best. Ripped jeans, long johns, John Deere cap, and really muddy boots. Seriously, I don’t just dress up like this for pictures, I look like this every weekend.

portriat_drywall saws_alone mud_portriat2

Sometimes I vary the color of my long johns just to keep things interesting.

Back to my story.

I’m perusing a selection of varnishes in the paint aisle when a man approaches me. Lot’s of men approach me in Lowe’s and usually say something like “did you know your jeans have holes in them?” or “are you doing that all by yourself?” I refrain from sarcastic comments about the invisible friend I have helping me by giving these fine gentlemen a look I like to refer to as The Death Stare.

So when this guy approached me– a harassed looking man with two small kids and smears of dirt on his face– I looked away and rolled my eyes so back into my head my hat almost fell off. And then he says the unthinkable…

“You look like someone who could tell me what to use to plaster my bathroom walls… Can I just use spackling?”

I blinked seventeen times. This guy just walked up to a five foot tall girl in Lowe’s and not only did he not say something incredibly stupid, he actually asked for advice. Granted, at the time the left side of my body was covered in joint compound so the fact that I could answer that question was kind of a no-brainer, but seriously guys, would you walk up to a random girl in a home improvement store and ask her for help?

No? Well you should give it a try sometime, because I sure as hell knew the answer to that question.

Just like giving up my hours between 12:30 – 2:00 AM to write this website, helping this guy find what he needed and giving him a couple of helpful tips on how to finish his project just made my day. I may just have to change my tag line to “Empowering people to find their inner DIY badass… one project at a time.”

I’m glad he took a chance on asking this loose screw for advice.

7 Responses

  1. That is so cool! I would definitely ask you for advice. Mostly because the guys at Home Depot just ask me if I need help so they can look at my boobs. I’ve never gotten from the door to the hardware section without at least three workers harassing me. When a woman strides in the door heading purposefully to the aisle she needs, does it look like she needs ‘help’?? NO.

    ps – when the weather gets warm, will we see some wifebeaters make an appearance in your work outfit? Please say yes.

  2. Sara – at $5 for a pack of 3, you KNOW I’ll be sporing the beaters this summer! I’m so fashion-forward it’s unreal. lol

  3. Nice! What a compliment! Or something. 🙂

    I usually have a different sort of experience at Lowe’s. On the flipside, when I go with my husband we practically have to hunt down some employees to help us (because yeah, we usually DO need the help, haha). But when I go alone I don’t have any problem finding help – sometimes I think they’re even a little TOO helpful, ya know? I don’t mind working the help-me-I’m-a-girl-in-a-home-improvement-store angle sometimes, haha. But then again usually we need all the help we can get when we’re stuck on something! Hm. Actually, I might just ask you from now on, come to think of it. 🙂

    Okay, here’s our current random question/dilemma: We just finished a granite tile countertop, and love it. We bought a drop-in sink from Elkay, I think. Our countertop is 1 3/4″ thick (I don’t think that’s terribly thick, but then again I am an amateur lol), and the sink clips that go on the underside of the sink don’t fit/the screws aren’t long enough. Any suggestions? The company sells the longer clips/screws for like 30$+ shipping on the website, but we were hoping to either find something that would work for alot less $ or rig it somehow (we’d really like a kitchen sink again). My (solo) trip to Lowe’s with this problem produced nothing that would work, even with 3 male employees “helping” me… plus the manager, lol.

  4. That is great! I know that I get annoyed when I go into hardware stores, and all the guys act like I am a little flower. I can use power tools too dammit, even if I am only 4’11”.

  5. It took me 3days trying to upload a new video, and when i finally do and view the video myself…"We're sorry this video is no longer available." how can a new video that has been uploaded and shows that it is available not be? i've been checking it for over 3 hours to see if it was just processing but its still the same! THE VIDEO IS NOT AVAILABLE BUT THE VIEW STATS SHOWS THAT IT HAS BEEN VIEWED MORE THAN 10 TIMES?!?!PLS EXPLAIN THIS PHENOMENON…

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