I don't remember why but a week had passed before I was prepared to buy the cabinet. I figured my chances were slim that it was still sitting in their little warehouse but called anyway. Sure enough they still had it and I told the guy I needed to hook up my trailer and head up there. I'd be there in an hour. It must have been Thursday night because I remember listening to the Packer game on the radio. When the Pack is playing, shopping is weird. All the "guy stores" are slow and when I pulled into Harbor Freight I was the only customer. The gal at the register greeted me by saying "you must be here for the toolbox". I acknowledged and she got on her radio and let the dude in the back know I was there. She rang me up and I asked if there were any coupons available. She said no but if they went on sale in the next 60 days I could bring in a coupon and get a refund. I thought "ya right like thats gonna happen" but made sure they had my email address for sale flyers.
Out back in the warehouse the dude had unburied the crate and grabbed it with a forklift. Because I was the only customer and he had nothing else going on, he agreed to help me strip the crate down, lift the box off the pallet and help me roll it up the ramp of my enclosed trailer. All the cardboard and crating stayed there. I returned the favor by walking him through some tune up procedures he needed to fix up an old chainsaw he inherited.
Yesterday morning after waking up I was scrolling through my emails on my phone and saw the usual flyer from HF. Huge Garage and Shop Super Sale was the header. Could it be on sale? I started scrolling down through the page and sure enough the 72" cabinet was on sale. Is this really gonna happen? I was just thinking it would be nice to put a small top box next to my hutch to help sort out my tools. The big drawers of the new cabinet are nice but I was lacking smaller drawers for better organization.
I found my receipt, printed out the coupon and ran up to Harbor Freight after work. When I showed the cashier my receipt and the coupon he stated that the offer doesn't apply to special order items. He knew that big cabinet wasn't something they stock but didn't know I didn't have to special order it because they accidentally had one. Luckily the gal that sold me the cabinet was within earshot and straightened everything out. In the end I walked out of there with a top chest to set next to my hutch and it didn't cost me anything. Sweet.
The shipping weight of the top chest is like 120 pounds. My back won't handle that kind of lift anymore so I have to get creative when moving stuff around. I slid the box out of the big ass station wagon onto a cart. I rolled the cart next to the cabinet and pushed it up and on.
So what have I gained here by selling the train and buying these two boxes? I did gain more cubic inches of storage space with the extra four inches of depth and I like this drawer configuration and a few larger drawers. Its true the hutch was built to match the height of a different cabinet but what are we really talking about here? I work out of it, a few guys at work see it and except for this blog no one else knows about it. It doesn't have to be pretty.
I dropped the box off at work last night and then came home and typed this post. I just spent five minutes studying the above pic and started thinking maybe I could build a third floor above the hutch. You know, for more stuff.
Before I sign off I just want to say to my wife, Thanks Honey for putting up with my bullshit.
Later.
That setup looks great!
ReplyDeleteThanks. I did a little organizing yesterday and I think it'll work.
DeleteYeah, the wives put up with a lot, too many tools, too many bikes, and in my case, too many dogs, but still, don't yah just love'em!
ReplyDeleteYa I've been working on a way to even up the toy distribution around here. I got the hint when I came home one day and there was a new screen saver on my laptop. It was a two seater convertible.
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