Home Show

Because we own a home, Eddie and I went to the Long Island Home Show at the Coliseum.  The parking lot was packed when we got there.  This many people wanted to find deals on fertilizer and chimney sweeps?  Actually, no.  This many people we found as we finally found an open door were there for the Islander game.  We didn't have tickets, but we were able to simply walk into the Coliseum.  I suppose that's because the game was letting out.  Perfect timing on our part--we couldn't walk anywhere because of the throngs of hockey fans.  The Coliseum has no wiggle room. We found that we had to walk against the crowd to get to the escalator to get to the lower level.

The Coliseum has a lower level.  I did not know this until the moment the guard told us about it.

Once we got there, we entered the world of windows and patios and vacuum cleaners.  Almost every other booth was a solar company.  I'm interested in solar power, but this was overwhelming.  There were too many companies offering too many options.  I signed up for information from a bunch of them even though only one of them had a name I recognized.  It was that company that also made an appointment to come out to the house the next week.  I also signed up for information and made an appointment with a window company to come out in two days. 

We saw spas.  We saw covers for baseboard heating.  We saw fencing.  One company had an actual fencer standing with their booth, and she poked me with her epee and I was like, Yes, I get it--fencing.  We saw electric experts who were quite upset when Eddie told them that we'd just had our electric redone.  We saw lightbulbs and the salesguy told us we make a good couple and I responded, thank you but I'll come back if I want to buy your bulbs.  He said that meant I wasn't going to buy them.  Yes, very true.

Mostly, I engaged in a lot of conversation to get free candy.  But also to find out about home stuff.  We walked away with a free tote bag, some plant seeds, a chip bag clip, and a handfull of bite sized candies and lollipops. 

The window people called the next day to iron out some information they needed beforehand.  Then they told me they couldn't come if Eddie wasn't home.  Apparently, I can't make decisions.  I was like, Why did you have me make an appointment on the spot if I couldn't meet you by myself?  He was like, well let me give you an idea of an estimate.  The estimate is about the same amount I could use to put another down payment on another house that already has new windows, so that ended the potential meeting anyway.

Then the solar people called to iron out some information.  At the show, they'd looked at Google Earth for an aerial view of our house and said that we had some trees but someone would come out to see in person if they'd be a problem.  On the phone, the guy pulled up the same view and said that they wouldn't be coming out to the house because we had trees.  He said that unless I'd planned to get rid of the trees AND the neighbor's trees, I couldn't get solar.

So really, I went to the home show to get poked by a fencer and get free candy.  Worth it.  Totally.