Lowe’s vs. Home Depot: a house log

We enjoy Lowe’s. We find tons of strong things there – low prices, good customer service, pleasant 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 compact half-bath

Now there is 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 truly pleasant and similar in age and life stage to us (simply got married, was renovating her first home) so we connected immediately. She listened to everything we liked, was truly 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 began off a little rocky. We did not immediately click with the designer – perhaps because she began with the serious stuff: budget restrictions, timeline expectations, etc. Then she began telling us how some of our ideas would not work! How NOT lively. 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 was not managing our kitchen project. We needed someone to tell us what we did not know, what was not in our budget, and what did not meet code. Call it tough enjoy, I guess.

So, thank you Nancy Kulik C.K.D. for taking good care of us. Point Home Depot.

And do not worry, we broke up with the Lowe’s girl gently.