Stupid Conglomerates

Just how, exactly, is someone expected to acquire the necessary building materials to complete any project when the big box stores such as Home Depot et al. have: a) put all lumber yards within a 100km radius from the city out of business; and b) don't bother to carry any of the lumber that you may actually need? Seriously! Good luck to you if you should need any dimensional lumber longer than eight feet, or god forbid, a 1x6! Man alive! In many ways, these stores have been a boon to the DIY-er, but there has got to be a better way to buy lumber.

So, as you may have intuited, this evening's foray to the Home Depot was not entirely a success. On the list, was:

• 1.25" screws
• 5/8" screws
• 1 2.x6x8
• 2 1x6x8
• insulating foam
• 2 2x2x12
• 2 2x2x8
• #2 Robertson driver bit
• tape measure

I managed to find everything but the lumber at the Home Depot - they had neither 12' 2x2's, nor 1x6's in any length. I did also find a suitable tape measure, but it wouldn't scan at the self-scan, so it got left behind as the lack of lumber had left me with a deficit of patience.

With annoyance levels peaking, I headed to Rona. They too, do not stock 12' 2x2's, but they did have 1x6's, so we were at least partially in business. Unfortunately though, their lumber is mostly garbage fit for little more than kindling, and so I had to search through most of the pile of 2x6's and most of the pile of 1x6's before I could find reasonably straight boards that didn't have giant rotting gouges out of them. Alas, there were no suitable tape measures to be found.

Today's loot

So, in the end, I spent two hours in two different "stores", and came home with roughly two thirds of what was on the list. My efforts to minimise shopping time have been thwarted, and I'm ready to resign myself to spending many more hours in home improvement box stores despite my growing dislike for them. Hopefully the dislike will not graduate to hatred before the basement is finished...