Ellen and I go shopping

Big shopping day yesterday. Jim Ince, our GC, accompanied us to a cultured stone supplier, and ProSource, a more legitimate wholesale discount place than the heavily advertised Direct Buy. Jim's a member at Prosource, so we rode his coattails. My takeaway from the day is that there's a lot of bad selling out there. Beyond that, we only decided upon a couple of things, the exterior stonework and the stone for the fireplace. That visit was largely uneventful, but I really wanted to reach out to the sales rep and help him with his craft. Maybe I've worked with high caliber sales professionals for too long and have been spoiled by it, but I was really shocked at his lack of sales effort, skills, and even product knowledge. If he had once been a mason that was now drafted into the role, then all sins forgiven, but I really wanted to take him aside and say, "Let's talk about how to qualify a prospect." I felt sorry for the guy. Anyway, we picked the stone within budget, I believe.

Prosource was kind of humorous for Ellen and I. The person who was assigned to us had done a LOT of work beforehand preparing quotes and making selections for us to review. The only problem was that she did all the work before even asking us what we were looking for or getting a feel for our tastes. She was enthusiastic, personable and ready to show us our choices in tile, hardwood flooring and carpeting. She said, "Let's start with the tile. That'll be the easy one to pick."

We maneuvered to the tile section and she pulled out two or three of her top picks for us. I glanced at Ellen and saw that look I know well, the one I see when I tell her something she doesn't want to hear. Our rep had fired her first artillery round and missed by so much that we couldn't even hear the shot. What followed was an incredibly confusing conversation for me involving color, texture and style. I was so far over my head that I started looking at my Blackberry, hoping someone would send me an e-mail I could read and save me from having to participate any more. Things spun into complete disarray when Ellen brought up the stained glass window my Mom made that we intend to incorporate into our master bath. We didn't have glass samples, so it was impossible to make headway. The rep finally realized we were getting nowhere and advised us to hire an interior designer. Sound advice. Probably not affordable. We did manage to pick out a tile for the mudroom and laundry room, with the help of Jim, who had a better grasp of us than our rep. The hardwood floor was just as inconclusive. She hadn't priced and didn't have samples of the kind of floor we had hoped to find. Ellen did find one she really liked, but it was 2.5 times higher than our budget. That was an easy "no." We never did get to carpeting, but that will be easy when the time comes. We're only going to carpet my sleeping area, the guest bedroom and master closet. My needs are simple. I picked out the carpet for the last house I bought as a single guy in one trip in just under 15 minutes.

Ellen and I finished our shopping day by visiting a roofing supplier. We got addresses from the dealer so we could look at a finished roof that used the materials we picked. I can see it now. We pull up, get out of the car, point to the roof, exchange a few words and then shake our heads. Think the homeowner will come out and look up at the roof to see what's wrong? Is that too cruel a thing to do?