Mowing Down Problems

Last Spring, my friend, Mary Babbitt sold her house and moved to Arizona. She didn't need a lawn mower anymore, so I bought it from her.

I wanted a new lawn mower because our Toro just didn't work well. Nancy's mom gave it to us, so rather than sell it, we felt it only fair to give it to Nancy's sister, Beth.

So, now we owned a Honda HRR216VXA variable speed lawn mower. You'd think by looking at it, that the thing would just kick ass! Wrong.
Turns out it has a major design flaw. The self-propelled "lever" sucks. The control sits in the middle of the upper handle, and has two thumb tabs. You hold onto the handle on either side of the control, and push down on the tabs with both thumbs. It might seem like no big deal, but in practice, it really sucks. It takes quite a bit of strength to push down the tabs, and after a few minutes, your thumbs really start to ache.



I researched this mower online before buying it from Mary, and I found this: Garden Web.

I must admit that I made fun of the author of the post when I read it. I did the whole, "Oh boo hooey my thumbs hurt!"

I had to eat humble pie all last summer while mowing my lawn; which I had to do all by myself because Nancy hated the thumb drive, and refused to use it.

So, I got out of bed yesterday and decided I wanted to try and sell the lawn mower on KSL.com. I took it down to the car wash, and power washed all the gunk off it, took some pictures, and submitted my listing.

Within minutes, I received this e-mail, "hey. what a bout a trade, I own a mattess store in ogden area, I'd trade a mattress set that's worth $400.00 for your mower . let me know. if not no harm no foul."

Uhhh, no thanks, I don't want a bed, and I don't do business with people who don't capitalize the first letter in a sentence.

Fifteen minutes later, a guy called to ask if I had sold it yet. He wanted to come up and take a look at it. Cool beans.

I went out to tidy up the garage, and heard the phone ring. I let Nancy get it, and when I went back inside, she told me some guy had called asking about the mower. Ummm... hello? I didn't know that within twenty minutes, I'd have three offers.

Anyway, the first caller showed up, liked what he saw, and bought it!

I went inside, and told Nancy I sold the lawn mower. So we jumped in the car, and headed over to Costco to buy a new lawn mower. Using the $250, we only had to pay $160 for the new mower. Total deal, since we now have a brand new mower, a brand new warranty, a stainless steel deck, and functional controls. Besides, it looks like the coolest freaking lawn mower ever! It will mow you over, spit you out, and ask questions later.


While driving back home, I turned to Nancy and said, "I never would have thought that within an hour I would have listed the old mower, sold it, and be driving back home with a new lawn mower."

Thank you KSL.com Gods.