A Tale of Three Baseboards

Or: Why it's a Good Thing I Really, Really Like Menards.

My mission: Purchase five lengths of this.

I've been to Menards a lot this week to buy baseboards. Last weekend I went with a sample piece of our previous, bright yellow baseboard and attempted to match it. After six aisles of baseboards, chair railing, and quarter round it all started to look alike. I bought the closest match I could find to the old stuff and brought it home.

That one was my fault. Turns out we needed 9/16ths instead of 7/16ths and I was a quarter inch off on the height as well. Close enough is not good enough.

So yesterday, I loaded the baseboards back in the van and trundled them back to Menards, this time armed with a SKU number and profile number. I found the aforementioned numbers on the shelf and proceeded to load five 12' lengths into my cart. Well, technically the Menards guy did this but I'll take all the credit I can get.

That one wasn't so much my fault. One of them was right and four of them had either been put in the wrong slot or the slot was mislabeled. Even though they were the right thickness they had a beveled edge instead of a rounded one. Of course, it WAS my fault for not checking each piece and just assuming they were all the same.

Which of these things is not like the other?

Which brought me to my third trip to Menards, roughly two hours after the second. After having a nice reviving lunch and determining that Little Girl was planning to boycott her afternoon nap as well as her morning nap, I loaded her up and the two of us made the familiar trip. This time, I figuratively followed the advice to "measure twice, cut once" and ended up with some lovely baseboards. I can't wait to get them painted and put down.

Although my husband just came and notified me "One of those pieces is pretty warped and I'm not sure we can use it."

It's good to keep a sense of humor sometimes.