Doin' it yourself...

buffettbride · Post by **buffettbride** » January 18, 2006 9:52 am

What is your favorite do-it-yourself type store?

The only ones I know of are Home Depot and Lowes (at least that's what we have in Colorado).

Gone are the days of the locally owned or small-chain hardware stores it seems.

I'd say I have to pick Lowes. We are in the midst of remodeling 2 bathrooms and our living room/dining room right now, so there's times I feel like all I do is drive back and forth from Home Depot. That's where hubby's always gone and where he sends me when he needs a screw.

So, as we've been doing our remodeling, I've been checking both the Web sites and been to a few different HD and Lowes stores, and I gotta say Lowes has a much better selection and the people seem more friendly.

I have a few more stories to add (there is a story behind the Home Depot screw), but I'm not quite awake yet, so let's see how this thread goes before I get too excited to share my screw adventure.

z-man · Post by **z-man** » January 18, 2006 9:54 am

I find the employees at Lowes to be much more knowledgable and friendly than those at Home Depot.

We probably spend more money at Lowes than we do at the grocery store!

buffettbride · Post by **buffettbride** » January 18, 2006 9:55 am

Oh yeah, and if you go someplace else, do tell where.

rsgeist · Post by **rsgeist** » January 18, 2006 9:55 am

I voted "Other" - the title of this thread is SO misleading.

mings · Post by **mings** » January 18, 2006 9:57 am

Lowes all the way. The goobers at HD hired contractors when they first started, which is great because you have the knowledge. BUT, most of them have left and replaced with regular blokes like you and I, and the ones that remain are just sour and lacking in the people skills department. That's just my experience.

buffettbride · Post by **buffettbride** » January 18, 2006 9:57 am

z-man wrote:I find the employees at Lowes to be much more knowledgable and friendly than those at Home Depot.

We probably spend more money at Lowes than we do at the grocery store!

That's exactly how I feel! I still have a hard time at either store getting someone to pay attention to me, especially when I go in myself. This weekend at Home Depot we were thinking about having a custom vanity made for our bathroom and talking to the gal about our tile choices/wood/etc. and she didn't even pretend to like our choices. I figure if she's going for the sale, if the customer wanted an orange countertop and fuschia tile, she'd make it sound like an excellent choice. She was just a big fat meanyhead.

Oh, and either place, if I'm there will hubby, heither place will talk directly to me--they always talk to hubby.

buffettbride · Post by **buffettbride** » January 18, 2006 9:59 am

rsgeist wrote:I voted "Other" - the title of this thread is SO misleading.

Well of course it is! Look who started it!

buffettbride · Post by **buffettbride** » January 18, 2006 10:00 am

Just with the first few posts, I at least feel better that I'm not the only one who sees a noticable difference between the two!

Gulfbreeze · Post by **Gulfbreeze** » January 18, 2006 10:00 am

buffettbride wrote: Oh, and either place, if I'm there will hubby, heither place will talk directly to me--they always talk to hubby.

I'm looking at an opportunity here...opening a Do-It-Yourself store for women only.

sy · Post by sy » January 18, 2006 10:01 am

Home Depot because it's the closest and if I need paint, electrical or plumbing supplies. But only that one. For some reason, each Home Depot around me is laid out differently and I find it a pain to try and sort out each store.

Lowe's if I want appliances, grilling supplies, stone, or decor (lighting fixtures, moulding, etc.), or plants and gardening supplies. I found Home Depot to be lacking in any form or water gardening supplies when I needed them. Their plants and trees also seem to be healthier and they took returns on them when they immediately died without any questions.

When we needed lumber, we went to 84 lumber. They were by far the cheapest (but that might just be our area)

buffettbride · Post by **buffettbride** » January 18, 2006 10:02 am

Gulfbreeze wrote:
buffettbride wrote: Oh, and either place, if I'm there will hubby, neither place will talk directly to me--they always talk to hubby.
I'm looking at an opportunity here...opening a Do-It-Yourself store for women only.

I know some of the stores are now offering "Do It Herself" clinics with this idea in mind. I definitely find the layout of the stores very man-centric, which makes sense since that's the target buyer for those places.

sy · Post by sy » January 18, 2006 10:06 am

buffettbride wrote:Just with the first few posts, I at least feel better that I'm not the only one who sees a noticable difference between the two!

The ONLY time Home Depot was really helpful to me when my husband was with me was when we were going to put a tile backsplash in our previous kitchen and I wasn't sure of the steps (we had tiled floor, but not the backsplash before). The man who helped me took the time to actually write down everything with me, walk me through the steps, and gave me his schedule in case I had more questions I could come back.

But that was it, Home Depot as a whole, has never been real helpful to me. If I need to know how to do something, I go to Lowes. They've always been good to me. When I needed to hang a new shower door, the guy in the bath supplies actually got another associate and made a mock-up of what I needed to do. I was so impressed.

buffettbride · Post by **buffettbride** » January 18, 2006 10:08 am

sy wrote:When I needed to hang a new shower door, the guy in the bath supplies actually got another associate and made a mock-up of what I needed to do. I was so impressed.

That is awesome. I forsee many shower doors in my near future.

Fortunately, we have contractors doing a bit of the "hard" work for us like tiling the bath and shower areas and the floor, but to save costs we're installing all the fixtures, doors, moulding, painting, etc. etc. etc. ourselves.

sy · Post by sy » January 18, 2006 10:08 am

buffettbride wrote:Oh, and either place, if I'm there will hubby, heither place will talk directly to me--they always talk to hubby.

I get that, too. I call them on it, and they never even seem to care.

I also get that at car dealerships, which just infuriates me

Gulfbreeze · Post by **Gulfbreeze** » January 18, 2006 10:08 am

buffettbride wrote:
Gulfbreeze wrote:
buffettbride wrote: Oh, and either place, if I'm there will hubby, heither place will talk directly to me--they always talk to hubby.
I'm looking at an opportunity here...opening a Do-It-Yourself store for women only.
I know some of the stores are now offering "Do It Herself" clinics with this idea in mind. I definitely find the layout of the stores very man-centric, which makes sense since that's the target buyer for those places.

I get really confused at the "self-checkout" lanes at HD...I start to sweat thinking everyone's staring at me and laughing...then some 18 year old punk kid in an orange apron sort of rolls his eyes and says, "here sir, let's take you over to the "other" lanes...

rsgeist · Post by **rsgeist** » January 18, 2006 10:10 am

Gulfbreeze wrote:
buffettbride wrote: Oh, and either place, if I'm there will hubby, heither place will talk directly to me--they always talk to hubby.
I'm looking at an opportunity here...opening a Do-It-Yourself store for women only.

Ah, Toys for ....... er, nevermind.

buffettbride · Post by **buffettbride** » January 18, 2006 10:10 am

sy wrote:
buffettbride wrote:Oh, and either place, if I'm there will hubby, heither place will talk directly to me--they always talk to hubby.
I get that, too. I call them on it, and they never even seem to care.

I also get that at car dealerships, which just infuriates me

It happens at a LOT of places and makes me NUTS!!

The contractors that are doing our mold mitigation were really funny. When they were talking about the mold removal and demolition, they looked at hubby. When they were talking about picking tile/decorative stuff, they looked at me.

buffettbride · Post by **buffettbride** » January 18, 2006 10:11 am

rsgeist wrote:
Gulfbreeze wrote:
buffettbride wrote: Oh, and either place, if I'm there will hubby, heither place will talk directly to me--they always talk to hubby.
I'm looking at an opportunity here...opening a Do-It-Yourself store for women only.
Ah, Toys for ....... er, nevermind.

DIFFERENT STORE! DIFFERENT STORE!!!!

sy · Post by sy » January 18, 2006 10:13 am

buffettbride wrote:That is awesome. I forsee many shower doors in my near future. Fortunately, we have contractors doing a bit of the "hard" work for us like tiling the bath and shower areas and the floor, but to save costs we're installing all the fixtures, doors, moulding, painting, etc. etc. etc. ourselves.

In the long run, you actually do save a ton of money. I know I was all about the DIY when we moved into our current house, and we did everything that didn't have to do with electrical or major plumbing - tiling, moulding, painting, flooring, etc. It was A LOT of hard work and cursing and throwing tools across the room, but in the end, I think it came out a lot better and I'm really happy to look around and know that we did it ourselves

It also gave us a good chance as we did things to make small changes that really make a difference in the end, like different ways I stain-glassed the shower door, different moulding techniques we did on the ceiling, and so on.

Good luck!!!! It's an adventure, but I think it's a fun and educational one.

sy · Post by sy » January 18, 2006 10:15 am

buffettbride wrote: It happens at a LOT of places and makes me NUTS!!

The contractors that are doing our mold mitigation were really funny. When they were talking about the mold removal and demolition, they looked at hubby. When they were talking about picking tile/decorative stuff, they looked at me.

My husband always lets them go on and on to him. Then after they've wasted their breath and I've already walked off, he'll just shrug and say 'I don't know, I don't write the checks. You need to go through all that with my wife'.