Do you shop local?

I'm going to be the first to admit that I have ordered more things online over the last 10 months than ever before. Sometimes you just can't beat Amazon. I do love to buy local when I can. This year, we have made three major (major for us) purchases from local companies and have been very pleased. The products we purchased are not local but the businesses are run by locals.

For our first project of the year we had our garage floors finished by Southern Grit. George lives in our neighborhood and had offered a discount to fellow neighbors. We are so pleased with this floor! Working with George was easy and he was so patient with us! He came out a year ago and gave us an estimate and it took us months and months to decide to have this project done. The worst part was having to move everything out of the garage (of course, I didn't do that!). George even came back over on a Saturday morning and helped Mark move the fridge and freezer back into the space. Our son-in-law had been visiting the previous weekend and helped Mark move stuff out. Another good thing about these new floors is that Mark cleaned out a lot of stuff and organized everything he kept.

The pictures do not do justice to how

great the floors look!

The second project we decided to do was replace our garage doors. Our doors were builder grade with very little insulation. Mark exercises in the garage every day and I had purchased a free standing air conditioner for him and he had run ductwork from the inside air conditioner to the garage but we quickly realized we needed doors with more insulation. We ordered the doors from Golden Garage Door. They came out on a Saturday and measured and helped me pick out a color and ordered the doors. Due to Covid-19 it took longer than normal for the doors to arrive but as soon as they arrived they were installed (actually the next day). It was an all day job but the folks were so nice!! Our previous doors didn't have windows and we have been amazed at how much light comes in through those small windows -- it is awesome! The builder had installed white doors and we have nothing white on our house so it is also wonderful to have doors that match!

Our last purchase of the year was a . . .golf cart! We purchased a refurbished golf cart from Smitty's.

We live in a neighborhood with LOTS of golf carts and we have enjoyed riding around so much. They delivered it right before Halloween and we were able to ride around and look at all 400 homes. We will drive around this weekend with our granddaughter and look at all of the Christmas decorations. I won't allow myself to ride on it if I haven't exercised already! Mark even hung Christmas lights on it for me. I'll have to take a picture of it with the lights on!

Grandmother was not really thrilled

with riding in the golf cart!

I know I said 3 purchases but we have a store in town called Alabama Goods and I did order a box full of Alabama products from them last week. They delivered to my house for $15 and I was able to shop local and have it delivered without worrying about the packages getting stuck in the post office and it was contactless delivery. That is very important! I ordered some small gifts and stocking stuffers from them but spent enough that I felt like I truly supported local.

By the way, these businesses have no idea I'm writing a blog about them - I received no compensation from them. These are strictly my opinions.