My Conversion to the Home Depot

Next Stop: The Home Depot (Part 1) Posted Feb-07-2005
I used to hate accompanying my husband to home improvement stores. It's funny because his enthusiasm for shopping at Home Depot paralleled my enthusiasm for shopping at Michaels. Each of us felt completeness in our chosen environments for our desired tools of the trade. His included nails and lumber, and mine paint and paper.

What I despised most about the Home Depot was the concrete floors and lack of colorful fun within its offerings. Walking on concrete makes me tired, and you'd never hear me exclaim, "Oh, there's some U-shaped piping for under our kitchen sink!"

It's impossible for me to get excited meandering down the screw aisle, but my husband relishes in the opportunity to compare all shapes and sizes.

"They're just screws." I'd sigh behind him, tired after walking for what seemed like miles on the concrete floors.

"Next time I'll come by myself." He'd hiss back.

Despite our not seeing eye-to-eye of the wonders of the Home Depot, I understood his enthusiasm. He saw the raw materials there the same way I saw the artistic offerings beckoning me from the shelves at Michael's. We both shared a passion for making something out of nothing. And for some time, I gratefully bowed to his preference to shop there without me.

At the outset, I mentioned that I used to hate accompanying my husband to home improvement stores. That's not the case anymore. In my next installment, I'll tell you why. •

Next Stop: The Home Depot (Part 2) Posted Jun-25-2005
The reasons why I don’t mind visiting home improvement stores anymore are plenty. In particular, my dislike for Home Depot disappeared last winter after frequent trips to the store during and after we moved into a house. (We previously dwelled in a low-maintenance townhome which required few home improvements and trips to such stores.)

Lesson here: When you get a house, Home Depot quickly becomes an ally.

Not only that, my eyes were quickly opened to the helpfulness that goes on inside the store. On almost every occasion, I found the store employees friendly and helpful, often acknowledging us in a “finding everything okay?” way.

Unlike other stores where you have to hunt down people to help you, Home Depot is well-staffed with people who are available and trained to be customer-oriented. I even had one woman lead me right to a drawer knob measuring template I seen on a Web site AND she stuck around to answer my questions about cabinet knobs and handles. Never once did I feel I was interrupting her work or that she felt that I was a "dumb customer." Either she was a great actor or really enjoyed her job.

Other helpful features I discovered in the store were:

• Clearly designed aisle labels in both English and Spanish (muy bien!)

• Instructional classes and demonstrations I could sign up for to learn how to use tools and make small projects.

• Dozens of how-to home decorating brochures from Behr in the paint department filled with techniques, style guides, tips & ideas, and color palettes. Totally excellent inspiration for someone with blank walls and an “anything is possible” attitude.

• An endless supply of things we could rent from a few hours to a few days including a small truck (to bring home big things from other stores), power tools (like the gas-powered auger to drill our mailbox hole at sub-zero temperatures. Note: It didn't work. There's a reason for cement and buckets.), and a carpet steam cleaner (to tidy the nervous new-house kitty mess in the walk-in closet).

Yep, Home Depot came through for us in more ways than one. And now that I don’t mind going there, on my next trip remind me to pick up some of that pleasant smelling all-purpose citrus cleaner. I just love that stuff.

Oh, and in case you're wondering... I'm not affiliated with the Home Depot in any way. If I were, the aisles would surely be lined with anti-fatigue mats. •

© 2005 Chris Dunmire www.chrisdunmire.com. All rights reserved.