Thrill(s) of the Week: The Thrills That… Weren’t

Remember our patio to-do list from yesterday? Well, this week’s thrills deal with two of those items: the grill and the umbrella. I wish I had a whole slew of pictures to show you of our sparkling new grill and bright, peppy umbrella but I don’t… because, well, we don’t have them. 🙁 Trust me, we definitely tried, but it just wasn’t in the cards. 

Let me back up… we knew that we wanted to get a grill in time for summer (and were even gifted a Lowe’s gift card for Christmas toward the cause), had settled on a budget ($200), and had a spot all picked out for it:The plan was to do some research on the available grills from Lowes, read the reviews, and then wait patiently for some of the Memorial Day sales to come into play before jumping right in to purchase. And boy, were there sales! After much consideration, review reading, and quizzing my dad, we decided to go with this four burner Master Forge grill:

In looking through all of the other options, this offered the most function and features for the best price and at that point in time, it was on sale for $149 (down from $199)! As we were at the Chesapeake Bay (MD) for Memorial Day weekend, the plan was to drive through Delaware on the way home to pick up our grill… tax free! Except, when we got there, there was no grill to be found… SOLD OUT??? 

Not even thinking to ask for a rain check to reserve the sale price, we left, just figuring we’d order it online or pick it up at another store. No such luck. When I called our local Lowes on Tuesday, not only had the sale ended, but the store representative said that a rain check would not have done us any good because that particular grill was totally sold out in most locations and they weren’t going to get any more shipments for at least a few weeks! Boo.

The only good thing about all of this is that grills go on sale all of the time. Now that we’ve done our research and know which one we want (even if it means having to wait for it to come back in stock), we can jump on the next grill sale and get it for a discounted price… so Father’s Day and/or the 4th of July, you’d better watch out because we’re coming for you.

The NEXT thrill that turned up void was our quest for a patio umbrella. Those suckers are expensive! Here’s the one I originally fell in love with:

It’s a teal and white striped beauty from Target, makes my heart skip a beat, and clocks in at a whopping $65. WELL, on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend, I was in Target gathering supplies to make homemade trail mix for the Bay (which, by the way, is a GREAT option if you’re looking for a snack to bring for a day at the water) and I saw my umbrella friend on sale for $45! Still a bit pricey for my taste, but Target was also having an sale where you could text a specific word to a specific number and they’d send you back a coupon for $10 off of a $50 purchase. I’d just need to spend $5 more on something small and I’d walk away with the umbrella for $35! At the time, I didn’t make the move because it didn’t occur to me that that was actually a pretty good deal for an umbrella, but after talking to my mom over the weekend, we decided to go back for it. Naively, I thought the sale was in honor of Memorial Day weekend and would still be around when we Target hunting on Monday. Wrong-o. It was just one of their weekly sales that had ended on Sunday! In every Target we looked in, all of their umbrellas were marked back up to the original prices. So no umbrella for us. Darn it! For now, our table will just have to remain umbrella-less.Again, the two good things about all of this are that 1. Not buying it right away gave me time to think more about the color (I’ve actually changed my mind about the teal and white stripes!), and 2. There are always sales- now I’ll know what prices to look for and when to buy the next time they are marked down.

We all know that home renovations/ decor take time. It’s not a magical overnight experience (which is how it can sometimes come off when we only see before and after pictures). We’re keeping it real around here- someday we’ll have a grill and umbrella to go with our new bench and table, but today is not that day. So, for now, you can mentally photoshop them into the “patio makeover”. And, of course, when we do get them, you’ll be the first to know. 🙂

-Leslie