Bargain Biatch

Bathroom Renovation: Chapter 5 Shower Doors

My bathroom renovation saga continues….sort of. After a flurry of tile activity we’ve hit pause yet again for religious observances.  First it was Passover, my contractor got the wrong size floor heating mats from his Orthodox Jewish supplier who was closed all last week so he couldn’t exchange them.  And today the Jewish mat guy will be open for business but my extremely religious contractor and his worker Angel won’t be back from their Easter pilgrimage until mid week.  Thankfully “Scotty” from Staten Island didn’t let God, Muhammad or Buddha get in the way of making some money. He’s rep for Bay Glass Shower Door Corp who came Saturday to measure for my new glass shower door.  I’d priced some frameless styles and went online and searched renovation sites including the house holy grail Brownstoner.  Every site and post said get ready to shell out some serious cash.  My contractor and I had also taken a road trip to the big Chinatown home good center in Flushing Queens, which reportedly had the cheapest prices, and their best quote was $1350. ACK!  So I decided to at least get an estimate from Bay Glass, which was a referral from a tile store.  Scotty arrived promptly, took measurements and gave me a quote of $1000, which included installation and 2 towels bars.  So I gave him a check and he’ll order and install it in a couple of weeks.  Lesson learned:  Even though I’m getting a little beaten down and will agree to just about anything, it pays to shop around.  And for any project, go online and check out the renovation and home sites.  Someone has done exactly the same type of home improvement or repair that you’re planning so you’ll save time, money and aggravation by learning from the mistakes of others.

Movie Review: Good Hair

For the Friday Movie Review I’m conflicted.  First I have to think hard about if movies will still be a bargain if tickets prices skyrocket to the proposed 20 bucks.  Really?? Well, at least I’ll still have Netflix.  Which is how I rented “Good Hair”… disturbing.  Being a black woman with my own black hair on my black head I thought had a good idea of what the movie was about. Not so much. The movie made me want to turn in my black card because I clearly had no idea how profoundly dysfunctional and depressing our attitudes are about what sprouts from out scalps.  Hair is a non issue for me, it’s on my head, it’s going gray and every month I go to Astor Barbers and pay Simon (from Uzbekistan) $20 to cut it.  Then I go across the street to Wine Warehouse and buy booze.  But don’t get me wrong, for most women I know that there’s more to it than that.  From pressing to perms, relaxers, wigs and weaves, I know we have some issues about our hair. But Chris Rock’s documentary in response to his daughter asking if she had “good hair” blew me away.  Actresses like Nia Long and Raven Simone talked about how they would never even consider being seen without their weave, and walking around with their own “natural hair” was out of the question.  Then there were the non-celebrity everyday women talking about paying for weaves instead of paying rent or putting that thousand plus dollar hair on layaway like it was a major appliance.  Men also weighed on the issue too and the movie showed brothers in the barbershop co-signing this idiocy saying they understood being with a sister meant paying for their hair.  And that it was easier to be with a white woman because she didn’t come with all that hair drama.  Almost everyone interviewed made it crystal clear that their beauty was defined by their hair and that definition was long and straight. Chris Rock also showed the back-story and the origins of the hair.  The majority comes from India and is grown and then cut as part of a religious ceremony.  Then hair brokers snap it and we buy it and sit in a chair for 5 (or more) hours and have it woven into our own thick skulls.  Very heavy sigh! The movie made we want to take the barely two inches of hair I have and shave it off and then jump into the nearest pool.