We love Lowe’s. We find tons of great things there – low prices, good customer service, nice product selection, etc. I can think of only two times Lowe’s failed us and Home Depot came to our rescue:
1. vinyl floor tile options
2. a special sized toilet tank for our tiny half-bath
Now there’s a third: kitchen design.
While browsing cabinet options one night, we stumbled into conversation with a girl in Lowe’s kitchen design department. She was really nice and similar in age and life stage to us (just got married, was renovating her first home) so we connected immediately. She listened to everything we liked, was really encouraging and supportive of all of our crazy ideas and ended our meeting by promising a few kitchen layouts for us to see later in the week. Sweet.
We had to explore our options, so we set up a similar appointment at Home Depot. The meeting started off a little rocky. We didn’t immediately click with the designer – maybe because she started with the serious stuff: budget restrictions, timeline expectations, etc. Then she started telling us how some of our ideas wouldn’t work! How NOT fun. But, as she explained her 30-year experience designing kitchens and her credentials as Richmond’s only CKD (certified kitchen designer) between the two big box stores, we realized we’d struck gold.
While the Lowe’s girl was doing her best to please, she wasn’t managing our kitchen project. We needed someone to tell us what we didn’t know, what wasn’t in our budget, and what didn’t meet code. Call it tough love, I guess.
So, thank you Nancy Kulik C.K.D. for taking good care of us. Point Home Depot.
And don’t worry, we broke up with the Lowe’s girl gently.
Betsy says
Hi-
Just stumbled upon your blog today and LOVE LOVE LOVE it. I live in Midlothian, it’s a small world. Was wondering in which home depot Nancy works?
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Betsy,
Nancy’s at the Midlothian HD, but you might wanna call to be sure that she’s in because she’s not there all the time. Feel free to tell her we say hi!
xoxo,
Sherry
julie says
just wondering, what were some of the ideas that wouldn’t work, and why not?
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Julie,
it was mainly a bunch of little things that wouldn’t fit in our budget like all those fancy cabinet upgrades or the type of backsplash we were originally thinking. The main thing was that she warned us that the picture of the layout that we had in our heads wouldn’t work because it put the stove on the end, exposing the side to the doorway. She taught us that it was against building code and that you had to have some cabinets on either side of the stove. Something the Lowe’s girl didn’t even bring up!
-John
Jennifer says
love coming back and reading this first post. was it really the first one or do the older ones just not show up anymore? thanks for spilling the beans with your little history lesson post today!
YoungHouseLove says
Good question! This is actually the first post: https://www.younghouselove.com/the-blog-begins/
They all show up when you go into the archives, they just go from newest that month to oldest, so from the Lowe’s post link (this post) if you check out the links below on the September 2007 archive page, the bottom link is the first post.
Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Karen says
Do you know if Nancy Kulik is still with the Midlothian Home Depot? It has been a while since your kitchen posts and I’m curious if she is still available.
YoungHouseLove says
Hey Karen,
We ran into her a few weeks ago (she got to meet Clara) so we’re thinking she’s still there. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Jen R. says
Ok, so I am a poor medical student’s wife with two children, so we don’t have a house to beautify yet, although we are just starting our VERY FIRST do-it-yourself big project, semi finishing our basement. And I had a similar wonderful experience with Home Depot. I wish so badly that I remember his name (we live in Kansas City, MO) at our home depot but he was beyond helpful. I just asked one simple question, like where something was, and he ended up spending about an hour with me drawing my layout fixing my calculations, suggesting more efficient (and cheaper!) materials and then helped me get every single thing I needed and LOADED it into my cart and truck. Oh and got me 10% off just because! I LOVE HD. Also, I think they are generally cheaper than Lowe’s for the same products.
Cindy says
I live in Canada. Lowe’s is great in terms of sellection but generally I find that Home Depot generally has better prices. I only buy paint from Lowe’s though. Paint is priced lower and there is more to choose from.