I mistakenly employed my mother to help refurbish the rental house in Indiana several weeks ago. After missing the deadline for carpet install I drove out there in the F250. The headlamps have good bulbs but the plastic lenses are all yellow and dull, almost like my TJ before upgrading to Round Eye lights, which is to say practically worthless.
Among other things that needed doing in the house were a handful of lightbulb replacement. My mother was cramming these compact florescent bulbs in all the fixtures, some of which didn't fit without eliminating some one of the bulbs (so two bulb fixtures now have one, others you can't get the cover on, etc).
One of the first things I told her when I arrived was to please take out and return all the 10-year fluorescent bulbs. A) they're expensive B) the renters are responsible for bulbs so who gives a hoot if they burn out in 6 mos. C) if I own the home in even three years I'm going to be hella unhappy since we've been trying to sell and renting is only an economy stop-gap.
She said it didn't matter since she'd taken them out of the closet at home, e.g. my dad paid for them. Which is also to say that she went out and bought so many 10 year bulbs that she had more than one complete package left after putting in all the bulbs they'd ever need at home.
I bought some more bulbs that matched existing bulbs in fixtures, and took the mismatched fluorescents and incandescents (which was every spare bulb from my parents' house) and went around distributing light through out the house. In the end she'd only put two bulbs in, left the covers off anyway and it turned out things fit- however there were a dozen other spots in the house where she hadn't bothered to replace the burned out bulbs. In the end I'm not sure how many bulbs I replaced, but I had only one spotlight bulb from a 3-pack left over.
Oh and three plug in fluorescents that were for specialty fixtures that exist neither at their house, nor ours. Why they bought them at nearly $9 a bulb I have no idea.
Anyway, when it was all said and done I got a bill from my mother, with, among other things a $30 charge for compact florescent bulb purchases, and another $16 for "lites" which I imagine were the incandescents she brought.
Incidentally I can't imagine how she worked in the house for nearly two weeks with the majority of lights burned out.
I should really put this on my blog, but hey, this is a lightbulb thread after all, and she reads my blog.
Oh and a little something for you Herb...
Sportsmobile (AKA Money Pit)
Linear Mode
