Letter to the editor...

Sears guy $80 or spend $10 and 15 hours of your time trying to get it to work.

I'd rather have the guy put it in with a warranty, and spend my 15 hours doing something more productive... like sitting on a couch watching UFC re-runs and Joe Dirt for the 20th time.

Good lord it didn't take us 15 hours, and the thermostat is right in the living room, so the TV was on anyway. I'd say...maybe 1 hour of actual installation time, and maybe a total of 2 hours research time but that doesn't count 'cause I did that with a laptop while watching tv anyway (and I like researching this stuff).

So...3 hours plus newfound electrical knowledge for $10...vs. $80...not worth it. And the warranty is only for one year, which is hardly worth it for an $80 piece of plastic.

In the past 3 years of owning a home, I've learned:
- how to replace and install a chandelier
- how to replace and install a bathroom fan
- the "proper" way to drill holes in wood to avoid splitting
- how to maintain a garbage disposal when the kitchen pipes lay flat
- how to replace bathroom showerheads (no easy feat when the pipe thingies are INSIDE the wall not outside like now...thanks 1980s for making retarded home building decisions)
- how to clean and maintain outdoor wood structures
- heck, how to use a cordless drill
- kraig learned how to change out the plugs
- and a bunch of other random stuff....

Right now i'm researching how to replace the bathroom fixtures. Yay for plumbing.

All of that seems pretty minor, but for Kraig and I that's pretty huge. When he grew up, his brother was the construction guy and took care of everything. As for me, when I moved out of my parents' house, I always rented (and my dad is an engineer fo the Coast Guard, so he took care of crap himself)...so needing anything beyond a hammer and a screwdriver was wayyyy out of my realm. Now...i actually LIKE reading home improvement books and scoping out Home Depot...

The way I figure it, there's no excuse for me to pay money if its something I can do myself. Like washing my car...is it a pain? Sure. Is it time consuming? Yep. But..wtf, there's no reason why I can't do it myself and then treat myself to a pedicure later (okay well I wouldn't treat myself to a pedicure..but..well it gives me an excuse to meet up with friends for lunch instead of staying in).

Now the odds of me being able to replace the carpet with hardwood...that's a whole other issue because the cost of the mistake is significantly higher than just hiring someone (who already has the tools and can get things at a discount)...although if I had the tools already I wouldnt' mind learning from someone else how to do it. Oh and I don't have the vacation time to take days off work for it. BUT...in theory...i really would like to learn how.

That being said, I really just want to win the lottery so that I can sit around, watch tv, get fat, get liposuction, and never have to lift a finger ever again.