I’m a big fan of saving money. Earlier this year, I penned this post about how I immediately dismissed the idea of paying $26,200 to a kitchen designer and find just a good a person for a mere $1,900. That savings single-handedly paid for all my new appliances. This weekend, I experienced something on a smaller scale, but I still feel really good about pandering to my thrifty instincts.
We’ve got an older Lexus which I use as kind of a “beater” car. A few months ago, a very large dent appeared on the front bumper. I’m not sure how it took place, although maybe someone hit me when I was parked in a lot somewhere. I’m not vain enough to get hung up on such things, but I confess it was a little embarrassing to be driving around with this thing.
A few days ago, I decided to bite the bullet and see what it would cost for someone to address this huge dent. The quotes ranged from about one to two thousand dollars, and I figured, screw it, I’m not paying that kind of money.
My brain kept working on this problem, however, and an idea popped into my head: could there be some kind of really hot air blower that might soften the bumper enough so I could push it back into shape? Well, yeah, there was, and for the princely sum of $25, I had a hot air blower shipped to me with same-day delivery (!!!)
As I’ve mentioned many times, I’m not particularly mechanical, and I expected that either this idea wouldn’t work at all, or I’d do something idiotic like wind up with a melted bumper. Much to my shock and surprise, I plugged it in, held a thick towel to protect my hands, and took just a minute or two to gently push things back into shape. It’s not showroom new, but it sure looks one whole hell of a lot better than before!
A twenty-five dollar body repair with absolutely no downtime? I’ll take it!
BONUS:
As we enter the final couple of weeks of our kitchen remodel (thank you, sweet baby Jesus), I was hand-cutting some vinyl protectors to put on some of the shelves. They come in tightly-coiled rolls, which is annoying, since they won’t lay flat. Not even a little bit.
Then I thought: hot air to the rescue! So I went to the garage to grab it, plugged it in, heated the liner up for about thirty seconds, and it’s absolutely flat as a pancake. This is the best $25 I’ve ever spent!
I will say that being without a kitchen for ten weeks has definitely made me appreciate a ton of little things that I always took for granted. Yesterday evening, I took my big dogs for a very long walk through the neighborhood. When I came into the entry hall, it occurred to me how nice a small bowl of ice cream would be. That is something I haven’t had in literally months, and it involved the following:
- Getting a bowl, which was clean and precisely where it belonged;
- Getting a spoon, which was also clean and in the utensil drawer;
- Getting a fresh pint of ice cream from the freezer;
- Knowing that, when I was done with it, I had a working dishwasher I could put the spoon and bowl.
None of these four things was possible even a week ago. What a pleasure it is to actually live in a civilized fashion again, since now even the simple pleasure of enjoying a little ice cream is once again feasible.
