Hardware Store

Locking up.

Thursday we walked to the carnival, Friday we walked to a housewarming party. Both were less than a mile away and the weather has continued to remain fabulous. No doubt our sunshine and dry skies will run out soon and our gardens will get the water they deserve. For now, we are enjoying the ease of traveling light.

We set up a play date for Elliot across town today. I was gearing up to bike him over when Brent suggested we all go and then we could look for a place to get parts for the rain barrel. Super. So we sun screened everyone and went out for a five mile round of errands.

First we dropped off Elliot and London at our friends house to play. Then we popped into Kroger for diaper wipes and chocolate chips, you know, the important things. At this point Oliver needed a diaper change and being the resourceful folks we are, we changed him right on top of the bike trailer. It worked great. If there are any biking families with trailers who need a changing station in a pinch, this has now been a tried method for our 27lb, 20m old son. Fresh pants and then we were off to find a hardware store.


View Larger Map

When we were driving, we would just go to Lowes or Home Depot in Barboursville. It was a twenty minute drive and one we would make just for a single plumbing part if that's all we needed. Today we thought more local. There were three options we came up with, the ReStore, Southern States and General Building Supply (GBS). The road to the ReStore had more traffic. Southern States is akin to Tractor Supply Company and might not have the downspout connections we really needed, so we ended up at General Building Supply. It was also on our way home from Kroger on 7th Avenue.

We would never have patron this store if we hadn't put forth the effort to stay out of our vehicles. Last month when I was driving just one day a week, I would have just lopped Home Depot onto my car errand list. Now I know I have a much closer option, that was comparable in price and still had great customer service. Oh, there is also the added bonus of parking at the door and just running in. As it turned out, the fitting Brent was creating for our overflow spout wasn't the right size and he had to go back to the hardware store. How many times does that end up happening? He biked over and back with the new parts in under 40 minutes.

Rain barrel attached, overflow spout connected, let it rain.

Our last event of the day was a birthday party up the hill. It was a quick and strenuous ride up but it was a blast to ride down. I don't think we peddled once on the way home.