Over the weekend the Handsome Husband and I spent some quality time together at the Home Depot shopping for new toilet seats.
To say the HH and I don’t shop well together would be an understatement. It’s not that we don’t like the same things, it just that whole coming to a conclusion thing that gets my eyes rolling and has me looking feverishly for the exit sign.
Don’t get me wrong, I think my husband is great.
But if I see something I like and the price is right, I grab it. I am a mom with teenagers after all and making split second decisions 24/7 is what I do best. I don’t need to stand there and read every word on the package or debate about it for a half an hour. I just grab and go. But the HH, he’s a thinker that one. Oh yes, shopping is a process.
A couple of years ago the HH woke up one morning and decided we needed new toilet seats. So he bought wood toilet seats. Wood toilet seats painted white to be exact. Who on earth buys white wooden toilet seats? They have this thing called PLASTIC now. You know, the stuff that’s really easy to clean and disinfect?
Fast forward a couple of years and now the paint has worn off select areas of the toilet seats, leaving them with some sort of greyish black tint to them. {I’ll spare you the photos}. I have tried bleaching the stupid toilet seats time and time again to no avail. The last straw with the stupid white toliet seats was last month when my buddies Amberlina and Lola were over and I felt the need to explain to them that even though the toilet seats may look dirty, they were in fact clean. Yep. Good times.
By the way, have you priced toilet seats lately? Forty bucks! Are you kidding me? Note to self: buying new toilet seats ranks right up there with purchasing a new refrigerator, or a dishwasher. A necessary purchases that I despise spending money on.
Let’s just hope these seats last longer than the last ones.
~Mavis
P.S. Do YOU and your husband shop well together, or am I the only one who finds it difficult?
Kelly A says
We don’t shop well together. I cannot take him to Costco or the grocery store. I like to look for the best deal with my calculator out and everything. He just grabs what is on the list without comparing prices. UGH!
Lisa says
I agree with you Kelly! My husband is the same, except he also wants to buy things that aren’t on the list! Drives me nuts!!
Teresa says
We bought the ones that shut slowly and do not slam. Oh it’s the best thing! Yes they are spends. We bought two and waited for our bathroom a few months. We are slam free now! 😉
Teresa says
Speedy not spends
Mavis says
These ones are slam free too. Kind of hard to get used to at first. 🙂
sindy says
This is so wierd. I have been wanting to change our white wood seats now for months (really it’s been years). Yes, the husband picked them out. I just cleaned them today and said That is it I can’t take it anymore and told my husband that I was going to buy new PLASTIC ones. I don’t care if they seem to look cheap. They are easier to clean and look was nicer not to be all stained. Funny how things like this pop up in other families lives as well. Thanks you always make me smile.
Mavis says
We are all the same. 🙂
Beth says
No my husband and I don’t shop well together…he too has to research in the store, on the phone, and online before we buy stuff…drives me batty! He works for Lowes’ however so things like toilet seats I don’t usually have to get involved in…but he also calls me and drives me crazy with bargains that we can’t live without…like a fake fireplace for our bedroom…dumb…..and a wine refrigerator….dumber….if he bought all of the bargains, we would be made famous on Hoarders…
Mavis says
Why on earth would someone want a fake fireplace for their bedroom? I think I saw an ad for one of those in Parade magazine. Awesome!
Madam Chow says
This story is one of the many reasons I love your blog. You just made my week!
Yes, actually, we shop well together, even when it comes to decorating.
And I had to buy a new toilet seat last year and I was SHOCKED at the prices!
Mavis says
Shopping AND decorating. Amazing! 🙂 You are lucky!
Madam Chow says
It helps that we don’t like shopping and want to get the pain over with as fast as possible. We both like grocery shopping, though,
Jenn says
My hubby and I do okay shopping together, but we always end up spending way to much money when he is with me. On the other hand, we just bought new toilet seats and they are the coolest thing I have ever seen before. The seat actually comes off the bolts so you can clean that hard to reach area around the bolts. I didn’t know this at the time when we bought them, but I have never seen anything like it before. I just hope these last longer than the last. For some reason we are hard on toilet seats!
Mavis says
HA!
Deniseathome says
My husband and I don’t shop together because he hates to shop. The only shopping that I really like is Thrift store shopping which he really hates. Home Depot gives me hives and I generally send him there. We do much better eating out together.
Mavis says
I love your comment!
Karinna says
Oh Mavis… I’m with you except I’m your husband and you’re my husband. He despises the mall. Hates shopping unless its something he really likes which is often… Electronics. Needless to say, we don’t shop well together. Lol. Hey, that’s marriage for ya. A little give and take. He gives me crap and I take his fun. Marriage shopping bliss at its finest. Ha!
Jules says
Yes, oh yes. “Let’s just go already” is a common thought when husband and I shop in Home Depot.
We have a store in town called the ReStore, where people can bring home repair items, any kind really, like sinks, tubs, drawers, wood, drawer pulls, etc. It’s run by Habitat for Humanity. As I was reading your story, I’m wondering if anyone would buy a toilet seat from there. Would you? It would be cheaper 😉
Diane N says
I think I’ll send my husband shopping with yours and see who takes longer to make up their mind!
(at least you only had to shop for toilet seats at one store…we had to check Home Depot AND Lowes!)
Mavis says
HA!
Nichole says
That’s funny because my husband has the exact same complaint about me. I totally check Lowes against home Depot and have to read all the labels.. and even amazon and ebay after that. He on the other hand, plows on in to the nearest store and grabs whatever he sees first, it sort of makes life interesting sometimes. 🙂
Gardenpat says
We have the same slow close toilet seats as the ones you bought. Have had them in all 4 bathrooms for over 7 years. They look as clean and nice as the day we bought them and we LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them! Hard to remember when we’re away from home that not everyone has them as we just let the seat go down slowly and instead they slam down loud and hard! Wise purchase- well made, long-lasting and does what the advertising hype says it will!!!! IMHO!
Melissa says
Oh no!!! I feel so bad now y’all! –> ME <– I'm the slow shopper! My husband can pick things out really quickly and I admire that. But me? No way! I have to gather all the data on multiple products at multiple stores, create a spreadsheet with price and features, analyze the results and THEN, only then, can I make a decision. But I guess that's why some of us are analysts and not interior decorators :-).
Aunt G says
Hey Mavs–love your blog! Love it. While I was cleaning the bathroom yesterday it occured to me we needed to buy a new hat for the throne. Plastic hats stick-ugh. Cheap ones break if you stand on them to paint-don’t ask how I know. So you can’t help but spend a little dough help make everything come out ok in the end…sorry. BTW–as far as shopping…my hubs would be right beside me shopping, cracking jokes and hiding to poke the fart button on his phone in his pocket to see how other shoppers might react to a ‘talking’ toilet seat. Happy installing…
jamie says
This story sounds like dejavu for for me, except I bought the same seats you just purchased two months ago, after my husband and I bought the white wood ones two years ago. So far the new ones are great! I also love that they remove easily when someone misses ; )
Diane says
My husband and I shop well together as long as we’re shopping for something specific, whether it’s milk or a new freezer. For a small purchase, we just go and get it, and that’s that. For bigger-ticket items, we do some research (well, usually HE does that online), discuss what each of us is looking for ahead of time, then go shopping. Sometimes we have to discuss the potential purchase again when we get to the store, but that usually goes pretty smoothly. We’ve been together a million years and each of us values the other’s point of view.
I DON’T take him with me if the shopping trip involves any browsing – he, like most men, HATES “non-purposeful” shopping unless it’s for tools. Somehow, if he sees a tool he doesn’t have yet, he suddenly has all the time in the world to hang around in a store. I love him for it because I get to tease him!
Stacey says
I love shopping with my husband because he is better at it than I am! When I worked evenings, I would make up the list and he would do the shopping while I was at work. I completely understand about the white wooden toilet seats. We had one, and it stained quickly. After trying a soft padded plastic one that split even more quickly than the wooden one stained, we’re back to a regular brown wooden toilet seat.
Bill Dungan says
Speaking as a husband, wellllll, EX-husband, my then wife and I shopped well together; like a finely tuned machine……….she found what she wanted and I paid for it. SIMPLE. LOL
Anyway, the first time you sit down on a cracked plastic toilet seat and it pinches the HECK out of your toosh when you move to stand up, you will understand the sense and sensibilities of a solid wooden seat. Now, as for those stains…….remove the seat, and thoroughly wash them down with some degreaser (rubbing alcohol works great and evaporates FAST). Then, scuff them with a scuff pad or fine sand paper and wipe them down again to remove the fine dust you just created. Then, repaint with good quality spray paint in a can. Building up the paint in LIGHT coats will give a smooth finish and a like-new look for a whole lot less money. If you use GLOSS paint instead of the matte or satin, the seats will be easy to wipe clean. They’ll also be a little more SLICK, so be careful when you sit down. LOL (again)
Kim O'Donogue says
You are a crackup. I love your blog! You got me hooked on square foot gardening that seems to be working fabulously for me. I love your honesty, humor, wit, and realistic approaches. Thanks, you often brighten my day!
Kim O'Donogue says
PS, my HH and I, no good at the shopping thing either.
Shell says
Well, I’ve heard everything now. Why would you buy something new that you have to paint? O.K., back to the thing about shopping with men. I always thought women were the ones that took too long to pick out an item, until I started shopping with my current partner. Not so. While I am looking at the item and have pretty much made up my mind within ten minutes or so, my partner is talking to every salesman or clerk in the store. Seems he knows everybody in our local home Depot , because he visits a lot when he goes by himself. This may have an upside, because he gets a lot of help when he needs it. However, I don’t want to move in with these people, I just want to get the stuff, pay for it and get out. Most of the time, I buy the groceries,because I like being prepared before I ever set foot in the store and he buys the hardware. I even do this online before we go to Home Depot,because I like to know what I am doing when it comes to prices. Somehow, it all goes out the window when he comes along. Go figure.
NotGonnaTakeItAnymore says
One year? Try one month! That’s how long the ones I dropped $80 on at Lowes lasted. Cheap, Chinese garbage! And the plastic ones break after a few months and just look too ghetto.