Lowes Coupon » Lowes Home Improvement

Remodeling the 1950′s bungalow

admin — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 04:26:19 +0000

Remodeling the 1950′s bungalow

There are so many of these 50′s bungalows that it seems the prime target for discussion. The 1950′s bungalow was what was built for the new families that were formed from all the returning service people from World War II. Of course these were the homes that the baby boomer’s were born into. These were built by the thousands to give Americans a place to live and grow their families. I live in Southern California and I do not know if there are as many of these across the nation but there are tens of thousands of these simple homes stretching across the Southland.

The 50′s bungalow, come to think of it they do call it the California Bungalow are marked by 1 bathroom, small closets, small doorways and very small simple kitchens. They usually had a single family/living room with a small dining area in the kitchen. Most of these have a simple lateral gable with wood siding and shingled roof.

Lowes Coupon Picture

It’s hard to know where to start but of course form follows function so we need to start with structural issues then move into the fun stuff like cosmetics and innovations. So as much as we hate to say it – we need to start with the termite inspection repair and treatment. I actually like to get homes fully tented the whole orange oil thing never set well with me. Tent the home and gas it! When you tent and gas you kill everything – not a bad way to go – all spiders, little bugs, bed bugs – you name all dead. So now at least we will be the only ones living in the home. Now you need to find the parts that the little critters have eaten you replace the wood. If it is in a stud in the wall make certain you tie it into the structure of the home in order to maintain the structural integrity of the home. Floors, eaves, etc – they all need to be fixed repaired and replaced. You DO NOT need a termite guy to do the repairs – simply replace the eaten wood with new wood and nail it all together – piece of cake and a lot cheaper than paying the so called “experts”.
Personally this is how I do the home – I will go into a general overview and then in later posts cover more detail of each improvement.
Rip It Out! – OK first I tear out all old interior doors, cabinets, toilets, crummy tile flooring, door casings, windows, old style baseboard, old carpet, pretty much everything. Rip it all out and now you have a bare shell. Next I put in the windows. Make certain you are complying with the EPA lead rules. Put in new windows – this is a total WIN! New windows are not too expensive – about $140 per window for good ones. I frame them in with plain drywall – no need to add all the extra trim and molding. If you are trying to do a fancy remodel then do the extra trim but it is not necessary – tie the windows in with drywall. You will save about an extra $20 per window. And that’s materials only not labor.
Now I put in new pre-hung doors and drywall and tape all the new drywall. So patch holes, tape the window trim, and tape the door casings. Now texture the whole home. What you say? Texture the home? Yes you need to texture the whole home. It is very important because nothing makes the home nicer than if you spend the money to texture the whole place – it is worth so much to the remodel – you will thank me later. Now paint everything! One color is fine and paint the doors too – spray it all.
Now look around. You have done a lot and the whole home is fresh. All bugs dead. All defects in the walls covered with the texture. This is a tremendous trick and a total win for your project. I know I already said that but so many people skip the textured that they are crazy – do it one time and you never skip it again.
Now lets start putting in the extra elements. How about the bathroom. Throw in a vanity with granite top and built in sink. Put up the mirror above the vanity, new exhaust fan, and 8” faucet into the vanity. Buy one of those lowes toilet set kits that have the entire toilet, wax ring, etc all included. You do not need to but it does not cost much to tile the whole shower. Leave the tub and just tile the shower walls. If you do not know how attend a lowes do it yourself training – learn to tile and you will be saving money forever on all your re-habs. Add a towel holder toilet paper holder kit and you have completed the bathroom. Of I almost forgot – add a $30 light above the vanity and you are done! Having trouble matching colors? Just check in with a lowes customer service representative and they usually can help.

Lowes Coupon Picture

Now the kitchen. It’s simple really. Pull together a total order list for the kitchen cabinetry and use you lowes coupon. It should cost you less than $2,500 for a total kitchen cabinets assuming the kitchen is not too large. Do not be fooled into buying high end anything – it is not usually worth it unless you are in a million dollar area – the basics will make the home look more than worth the re-hab.
Think about the utter simplicity of it all. And you can do all of this, even hire it out for usually under $15,000 – and that is with quality materials and a decent contractor. Total renovation of the Californian Bungalow for around $15K – think it cannot be done? Use that Lowes Coupon and go for it – I think you can do it. $2,500 for the bathroom. $7,000 for the kitchen. $1,500 for the paint and texture. $4,000 for all the fixtures etc – you can do it and probably for even less especially with a lowes coupons. A remodeled home usually goes for much more than a $15K premium.
Soon we will go into more details on how to do each part.

Walk Through With New Home Owners – using that lowes coupon for all it’s worth!

admin — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 10:06:34 +0000

I have been thinking a lot lately about all the money I spend at Lowes and how I rarely use a Lowes Coupon unless I am legitimately helping someone that has recently moved. Because it is my business to remodel, do additions, etc I run into a lot of different situations. I was thinking about first the money I spend with the people just moving and really they come into two categories.
The first is the person moving into a relatively turn key home. This person can do everything on a single lowes coupon if we plan right because they rarely are spending more than $5,000. While it is not uncommon for us to pick up a new refrigerator the rest of the purchases are usually personal touches when dealing with this turn key home buyer and really all of these personal touches are fun to buy with the homeowner. First we go through their new home and take an inventory. We talk about what it would be like to use each room. The living room, where to put couches, lighting, ceiling fans and throw rugs. The bedroom where to put a new tv jack, mirror on closet doors, ceiling fans, window locks. The kitchen we talk about towel holders, cabinet storage solutions, pot and pan racks, new built in appliances etc. It is really a fun part of my job because when we do it right and inexpensively using ever trick in the book including yes a lowes coupon we can do a lot to a home for not too much money. Oh yeah, I almost forgot. We also go into the bathroom and yes I have them sit on the toilet, lid closed of course, to get an idea of if they like the toilet paper holder, if they fit (yes it is an issue in some smaller bathrooms), lighting, exhaust fans etc. I know you are thinking all of this takes a lot of effort but really in this slower economy it allows me for a minimal amount of money to put a couple workers to work for a few days and it produces a little in income.
After we do the interior we then go outside and discuss things like gardening, lighting, security, and entertaining. There is a lot you do in a new home and if you are only working from a single lowes coupon you need to put it all on one tab. It is amazing to me how many turn key home buyers do not even own a lawn mower and yet they tell me all the time that a. they were not planning to hire a gardener and b. they never thought about it. We then have to discuss storage of the equipment and if they need a shed or not.
What’s fun about lowes home improvement is they carry everything. Yes I know the other guys do too but really, they may have every specific screw, but lowes has a larger variety of of nicer looking décor items. Anyhow I digress. We were discussing the aspects of the exterior walk through with the new homeowner. What many people do not think about is concrete aka known as a patio. It is relatively inexpensive to add space to a patio are to improve the entertaining experience. It is also time to discuss an enclosed porch area or maybe parts that are set apart from the landscaping. Like maybe a path to an area that holds a gazebo or something of the like. I think you are getting the idea. In later posts I will get into much more detail how, beyond a simple lowes coupon, which I know is the obsession at this site, but into greater detail on how to do all these improvements for a very low cost. But for now we are finished with the turn key home buyer walk through. As you can see a turn key homeowner is really oftentimes focused on many of the finer touches that personalize the home and bring everything into a much more “home” feel rather than just moving into someone else’s “house”.
For the non turn key home we have a lot more on our minds than just the “finer touches” we have the big stuff in mind. Now as you all know we are a licensed contractor but do not be afraid – everything I discuss, well almost everything, can be tackled by the astute DIY homeowner. Just thing about what I am pointing out and then take on one thing at a time. The Lowes customer service is great and they will help you, show you, assist you – as I have posted in other posts – they are really great. Go to their training DIY seminars and you will see what I mean first hand. Now I cannot emphasize enough – unless you are really good at things – tackle one thing at a time. There is no benefit to starting 10 improvements and not finishing any of them. Start 1 thing and take it through until it is done then move to the next. If you home is in serious need of a lot of work – take it from me. If you can afford it live in a hotel or keep you old rental home until the repairs are done. If you cannot afford it, and I know this sounds bad and I am sorry, but let your wife and family stay with in-laws during the major work. Living in a home being remodeled especially if everything is in poor shape puts a lot of stress on the family. Get the basics done first the move the family in.
OK the walk through. For the most part when dealing with a home that needs some serious work and is not “turn-key” I focus on making it fresh and clean. What I mean by this… well you will see. Paint is the number 1 improvement. If the home is an entry level home and has old plaster walls consider texturing them then painting. I know many people enjoy plaster walls and smooth wall but an entry level home can look modern, fresh, and clean simply by texturing all the walls, using a good killz based primer, then a good quality paint for the final coat. Painting is somewhat cheap. Using cheap paint is not smart and not cheap. If you are doing it yourself, trust me, spend the extra few bucks for good paint – use your lowes coupon – but spend the extra. Good paint is much easier to work with than cheap paint. Texturing takes a professional. Trust me. If you know someone that does texturing then buy him a pizza and rent the machine from lowes that does the texturing. A whole home takes more than just the sprayer with hopper on top – rent the stand alone machine with the hoses – its less than $100 and you can texture a whole smaller home in 1 day. There is no single improvement that makes a home look better than the texture and the paint.
The next is flooring. If you can afford tile – Great! Even DIY tile jobs are not difficult if you take your time – but do not rush either. Putting down linoleum in the bathrooms and kitchen is fine for starters. Remember you can always do tile later -t he goal up front is to get the home livable. Do not think “its better to do nothing then tile later – why do it twice” do not fall into this mentality – it almost ruined my marriage because we never had enough money. Just get that floor covered with a good looking lino – its livable and really it looks great!. For the rest of the home just carpet it. If you can afford wood laminate and love it then fine – but really I do not understand the obsession with tile and laminates – a great carpet is just that – great. Livable, soft etc. I know that many moms think its hard to clean – but just control your children and wash your pets. Carpet is a great starter and it’s fairly cheap. If you do not think so just remember you are doing a smaller entry level home. Go to a remnant store.
Well that’s it for this post. Sorry I did not finish the non turn key home – maybe next time. If you email me I will get to it sooner than if you wait for me. But either way I should get it done in the next day or so.

Lowes Financial Reports

admin — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 15:36:23 +0000

Lets make another excursion into an overview of lowes. I know you expect us here at lowes coupon to always focus on do it yourself tips as well as ways to save money. And as you all know we are not affiliated with lowes companies but we must be their biggest fan. Our goal is to absolutely encourage everyone to shop at lowes home improvement and save money all at the same time – which is the goal isn’t it?
So today lets cover much of the details about lowes coupons home improvement itself. Maybe the more you learn about this fantastic company the more likely you will be to go and shop shop shop.
First the financial’s from the latest reports. To start Lowes home improvement is exactly as the name states – a home improvement store. As of this year lowes coupon home improvement has over 1,700 stores throught the United States and Canada. That totals over 193 million square feet of retail space packed full of everything you need for home improvement. Lowes home improvement serves both retail and commercial contractors but primarily they serve homeowners, renters and commercial business customers. Suprisingly many of these are do-it-yourself (DIY) customers and do-it-for-me (DIFM) customers who utilize the lowes home improvement sales programs which signifies this niche offering success. The commercial customers are made up of both contractors as well as residential contractors. What is amazing about lowes is that they actually opened over 60 stores in 2010 – after years of nationwide recession they still can open new stores.
Now let us talk the most recent performance of their stores. It may sound unbelievable but the lowes companies posted net income as up 2.7% in the first quarter. They attribute this to people spending more money on home improvement projects and buying more expensive items like grills and riding mowers. In total they earned $489 million, or 34 cents a share, up from $476 million, or 32 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue in the period, which ended April 30, rose 4.7 percent, to $12.39 billion.
Lowes thus has posted earnings higher than expected and they beat the street expectations – you know we at lowes coupon want to congratulate lowes for their success and know that their superior service and pricing make the difference. Lowes also raised its earnings outlook for the year but the companies forecast for the full year fell short of analysts’ expectations. – ironically enough. The chief executive, reported homeowners were again taking on do it yourself major projects and buying higher end items items. He warned that the higher earnings do not mean we are in a total rebound and recovery but the numbers were encouraging.
“We’re optimistic we’ll continue to see solid sales through the balance of the year with gradual improvement in core demand, but we still view 2010 as a year of transition for our industry, and it will likely be 2011 before we see significant growth,” he said.
In a related story. Analysts reported a combination of trends and factors. Consumers are building up the need to refurcish and improve their homes . They are feeling more safe that they wuill be able to work and keep their jobs through this recession and that it was time to begin spending money on their homes Home Depot in Burbank, Calif. Lowe’s and Home Depot had better-than-expected profits. At both home depot and lowes home improvement, the largest home improvement retailers in the United States, posted better-than-expected earnings. They both maintained that they were not forced to turn to major sales as much as in 2009. They also reported that many custoemrs trended toward spening on higher end items and carpet etc.
Of the top forty United States home improvement markets, almost all posted improvements over last quarter and last year. Even California showed sales growth at stores open at new stores – this is a comon indicator of retail sector growth.
While no one expcts robust growth – this sign of consumers venturing out and purchasing is a good indicator that things at least can begin to stabilize. Both Home Depto and lowes posted good numbers and that is a transition we at lowes coupon are encouraged to see. As much as we hate to admit it – wwhats good in the economy for home depot is good for lowes.
This indicator does not mean that the home improvement stores are out of the woods but it does look like they both will survive and weather this incredible economic storm. Many people do not think of it ewxactly as it is but there is a tremendous amount of re-hab projects going on as people improve the bank REO’s for re-sale. This portion of the market is oftentimes overlooked but account for a significant niche segment that is bolstering sales – this is according to the writers here at lowes coupon. It’s not just the homeowner – its the small re-habber that is buying a lot. We have easily purchased a couple hundred thousand in the past months for these projects alone.
Of course the housing industry is still a mess but it appears homeowners still suprisingly enough want to live in nicely remodeled homes. Good for lowes, good for home depot, good for lowes coupon!

Get Your Permits! Lowes Coupon Example

admin — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 13:45:06 +0000

I was thinking recently on how so many people are catching up on old projects now that the housing market is stabilizing a little. It seems that all of the old projects are finally shaking themselves out. As many of you know we at Lowes Coupon do a lot of entitlement work in southern California. Usually larger projects but lately we have found ourselves doing a lot of single family infill completions. In the next series of posts I will cover some case studies. For example a customer recently brought me a garage he had built by who he says was a licensed contractor and who clearly built the garage without a permit.
For the sake of the readers lets cover several issues that were resolved – this will help you with your general knowledge of what to do and not to do.
First mistake was the owner did not check out the so called contractor – he failed to look anything up and is paying dearly for it. This happens time and time again. Somehow owners just trust the person in front of them and start handing over significant amounts of money. This particular homeowner I believe was won over by greed. The garage he was building was very large and tall. 40X40 with 12 foot walls with a gable that reached almost 20 feet all attached to a manufactured home of all things. For those that are “in the know” you cannot “attach” to a manufactured home but must leave a 1” breezeway between the garage and the home – but I digress. Anyhow he was getting the entire structure completed for $15,000. Now $20,000 would be reasonable for this particular garage but this was built during the housing boom. So really it should have cost around $30,000. $20,000 would be the price today. Even the best Lowes do it yourself training could not help you do this one. This one required a professional. Anyhow it was greed and a lack of thoroughness that caused this project to go downhill fast.
Second mistake was not pulling permits. Now properly addressing the first mistake would have cured this second one. Now we at Lowes Coupon are all for the do it yourself – but 20 foot gables on a 40×40 garage – well just pouring the foundation is a little much for anyone but true professionals. Permits are very important. I understand not wanting to pull a permit when you change out a toilet but trying to build a garage with a contractor you have not “checked out” is not wise. There is a reason that cities require permits. It is primarily for public safety. It is so that a trained person can not only verify that the structure was designed properly but also so you have a 3rd party coming by at various stages to ensure it is being built to the plans. These 3rd party verifications are critical to ensure public safety. Design flaws can take down anything. We have all seen the video of the bridge that began to sway and then eventually fell down before it was ever put into regular use? That was built with professionals but for some reason they did not “catch” the flaws. Getting a permit puts your design through “plan check”. “plan check” is more than just a hassle – plan check is there to check your plans. It allows someone to review your archetects work to ensure compliance with every single design rule. It’s like a spell checker – if you read your own work you can miss the same error 20 times over – but when another reads your work they can oftentimes correct what your overlook.
So that’s the lesson. Do not be taken in by a cheap price – you can pay a cheap price for someone to weed your garden but do not try to skimp on a 1600 square foot, 20 foot tall, garage. For that you are asking for trouble.
By the way we are still in plan check with this garage. It is going to cost $15,000 to fix at the minimum. First they allowed the structure to lean on the roof of the manufactured home. This is not allowed as a manufactured home is to be completely structurally independent of the accessory building, in this case the garage. Then comes the sheer wall. Sheer wall is very important to keep your building from falling – it allows extra support for the misc pressures on a building. Then there is the foundation. Yikes! Can I say that? They did not put any footings on th foundation. So basically there is a slab of concrete with a 40×40 garage on top that is 20 feet high and leaning on a mobile basically sitting on a slab of concrete that can slip at any time because there are no footings holding it in place – and this is California – one good Earthquake and this thing could easily come down and kill someone. So now they are talking about digging below the 4 corners of the slab to build 4×4 (that’s 4 feet by 4 feet ) footings 3 feet deep with rebar epoxied into core holes in the top foundation. I think the engineer is crazy and they should start from scratch. They are going to be spending a lot of money at Lowes Home Improvement and hopefully lowes has mercy on them and gives them a discount equivalent to a Lowes Coupon or even lowes coupons.
Lesson learned and hopefully you enjoyed the little case study – please, do things right the first time. It will save you a lot of hassle later.

Lowes Home Improvement – Savings Ideas

admin — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 17:36:21 +0000

This post is going to summarize much of what this site is about. Of course I oftentimes discuss the wonders of Lowes Home Improvement and how I much prefer their market plan over their main competitor, Home Depot, while keeping their selections and service on par with the Ace’s and Osh’s of the world. The great mix that is Lowes. But here I am once again going to focus on the what most are interested in – saving money. It’s not just a Lowes Coupon it’s a combination of smart shopping, planning ahead, and knowing when you are over your head. At the end of this post I will cover some ways to really leverage your lowes coupons as well as magnify your savings.

Have you planned your job before hand? Even a simple job like painting a fence takes a little planning and you can save a lot of money. For example if your fence has graffiti or other markings you want to put a thick primer coat over it. Remember thought that you do not have to primer the entire fence, well sometimes you do and other times you do not. You may just need to buy a quart of Kilz for the problem areas and then paint the rest with a single coat – that saves a lot of money!

Lowes Coupon Picture

The lesson is that you need to take a step back and think about what you are doing – thoroughly. If you are doing a job that requires a special tool, try borrowing the tool. Even a $15 tool can add 10% to a $150 job and oftentimes it is the little things that add up to a lot. Thinking ahead will also cover you in wasteful purchasing. For example 5 gallons of any paint usually costs about the same as 3 gallons of the same when purchased by the gallon. So do some math and determine how much paint you need. If it is anywhere near 3 gallons you may be better off grabbing the full 5. Same price yet you will have enough for touch up of for that extra coat in hard to cover areas. And with the extra you will not ruin the job by trying to spread the work out too thinly.
Another thing to remember is to shop shop shop. Look around at what you are purchasing and make certain it meets your needs. Sometimes vanity lights look exactly the same but one is $10 cheaper than the other – I do not know why – but $10 is $10.
Many of us scoff at saving $10 – I mean just grab the item and be done with it. But that is a quick way to losses. The other day I bought a medicine cabinet for installation in a fixer I was doing. The one I choose looked exactly the same to me as all the others but it was $8 cheaper. This takes practice but really, $8 then add that to the $10 for the ceiling light – are you understanding this? It all adds up – to A LOT!

Lowes Coupon Picture

Saving money by hiring someone is sometimes the best choice. I know it is counter intuitive but if you know someone that has a specific skill set – offer to hire them. If the job is small then you should be OK as long as it is someone you know that is expert and is accountable to you. If you are short on connections there is no shortage of contractors in any community weekly. They usually advertise “no job too small” – interview a few of them – go the extra mile and call a reference or two and hire them.. Never pay in advance and always hire licensed individuals. I know it is cliché but hiring non-licensed individuals works out sometimes – but your risks are far greater than simply hiring a licensed contractor. Surprisingly enough the licensed contractors can oftentimes be hired for as little as the non-licensed ones if you haggle over price a little.

Lowes Coupon Picture

Now let us cover a little on leveraging that precious Lowes coupon you have obtained. There are a couple of ways to amplify your savings. Of course we already covered shopping around for bargains and comparing prices. This is a skill that takes effort but worth its weight in cold hard cash. There are 2 primary ways you can leverage you coupon into additional savings. #1 find a friend that is a Realtor. They can purchase Lowes gift cards for a 5% discount. Purchase the gift card through the Realtor and then use your coupon – now you have saved 15%!! OR….. Purchase gift cards online through reputable sources that have an unused balance on them. Now I have never done this, I never bought from a Realtor either, but I have seen online where you can buy unused store credits for about 10% less than the value of the credit. So if it is a credit of $100 I have seen them sold for $90 and even sometimes less. Buy unused credits, use your 10% coupon and now you have saved a total of 20%! Now most of us will never go through that much trouble but the option is out there. In fact if anyone tries it let me know how it works for you – I would love to highlight the story and even plug your business if you would like.
Either way enjoy saving money and always Shop At Lowes!!!! They are the best!

Realtor Coupons? Exciting!

admin — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 13:42:35 +0000

Incredible!

Lowes is such a great company – check out this great tip on working with Lowes. They offer a lowes coupon that Realtors can send out to their clients. You sign up at lowesrealtorbenefits.com and they help you A-Z.

With this program you will be sending co-branded lowes home improvement coupons, newsletters and home improvement tips to your target market. What a great idea and great way to get additional exposure.

It includes your company information etc – you can even put in your client information and enter all your client information – even send email or however you want.

They allow you to customize everything – this is a free monthly e-newsletters or even a direct mail campaign either to new homeowners, on closing, or to new listings you have. They include more than the lowes coupon they include many other ways to save also.

This is proof positive that Lowes is continually assisting their clients, reaching out to the community, and 100% committed to being the best lowes home improvement store in the nation. Actually they already are, but this shows their continuous improvement.

One more thing – they also allow Realtors to purchase gift cards at a 5% discount. Imagine combining that with a 10% lowes coupon that the client has mailed to them – that’s real savings. I am certain they do not want you to stack the benefits and would not advise you do so – was thinking more that the client gets 10% off and then you save 5% on giving them a gift card – the total savings is 15% but really it is the realtor looking 5% better and the homeowner saving the 10%.

I wonder if Lowes would allow a Realtor to farm for listings with their program. What is the limit to their relationship building? Looks like it is more email focused – but still email out to a list of defaults and let them save money. Of course maybe these homeowners are not as money saving focused as I am being a home improvement nut. Either way this is a great opportunity and hope you found some useful information in this post!

Lowes – A Customers Perspecive

admin — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 21:25:04 +0000

Here’s a little essay we found on the Lowes Experience.

It can be summarized by saying friendly service & nice atmosphere – but here, read it for yourself:

It is difficult to summarize an experience for a non professional writer such as myself. An experience brings into all aspects sight feel touch taste smell atmosphere – feeling. The first time I ever went to a Lowes was because we had just moved and had a Lowes Coupon.

I have never been good at this but let me tell you a few general reasons why the Lowes experience is welcoming and positive. In general Lowes is nice to enter into. It is a real store that feels isolated from the outside world. The store has a vibe that starts the moment you enter and are greeted by smiling employees. Have I mentioned the air conditioner is working an turned on for hot days? I cannot tell you how important this is for me where I live. When it’s 112 outside it pretty nice to walk into a store where you can look around, figure things out, and shop without sweating the whole time. The swamp coolers other home improvement stores use are ridiculous. It’s impossible for the do it yourself homeowner like myself to concentrate on buying the right drywall mud with sweat pouring in my eyes. Noise and chaos – there is none.

If you have been to other major home improvement stores you know the order of the day is noise and chaos. While Lowes is busy and active the noise is much lees than say Home Depot where its simply loud and much less organized. I have heard it said that is because they are busier and I say – I don’t think so.

I have managed many retail facilities and there is a difference between efficiency and chaos – Home Depot appears chaotic. Lowes appears to be professional designed and maintained with efficiency in mind. I have shared this opinion with contractors and other homeowners and received mixed responses – but the one consistent response is that I am right. After they analyze what I am saying – most everyone agrees.

Going to Lowes is like going to a department store with great prices, even better if you can find a lowes coupon – going to other home improvement stores is like going to a flea market on a 112 degree hot and humid day.

Lowes Customer Focus

admin — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 21:22:46 +0000

New York Time Spots A Trend At Lowes

New York Times reported recently that Lowes is moving into more of the smaller do it yourself homeowner maintenance focus in response to the trend of people staying and fixing their current homes rather than moving up as quick as before.

This of course fits perfect with the theme of this site which is lowes coupons. Inevitably everyone is seeking a way to save a dime. If they can do it by choosing Lowes over Home Depot then I say Hooray!

If Lowes is catering more to the homeowner and smaller projects from the contractor then hooray again! There’s a place for all the noise commotion and attitude the contractors that are doing larger projects have – but it is the great appeal of Lowes for the smaller person wanting to complete some simple like door knobs and not so simple like windows and cabinetry -either way I would rather learn it from Lowes and support them by buying from Lowes than from anywhere else.

I know the Times article mentioned the move away from the big kitchen remodel etc but really these are not that big. You see the Times reporter has probably never been to Lowes – if they had then they would have been able to learn to do such large projects themselves with minimal effort from the expert Lowes employees.

You see I used to think it was a big deal to put in new cabinetry – guess what – its not that hard. I started with a bathroom vanity and before I knew it I was buying kitchen cabinets from lowes. First a built in china cabinet and then I moved through the kitchen. Just a little at a time so as not to disrupt my entire world – just a couple cabinets at a time. Granted we were eating on the base for the new counter top for a few weeks but it was gratifying just the same. Lowes is moving more to the do it yourself projects…

I think it is a great strategy, and once the consumer see how easy it is they will be in to buy more. One more thing while I am discussing the pros of Lowes (a rhyme) – if Lowes successfully gains the attention and loyalty of these do it yourself homeowners then when the time comes for them to move or actually hire a contractor.

They will insist on looking at materials at Lowes and not allow the contractor to force them to the loud raucous hot world of Home Depot. Good long term strategy for Lowes – I know the next time a contractor want me to look at window options, or other things, for my house I will force him to Lowes.

Great prices and better atmosphere – besides I might just be able to find a lowes coupon.

Lowes Home Improvement

admin — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 21:21:17 +0000

Lowes Home Improvement

Lowes is by far the preferred home improvement store for “the rest of us”.

That may not be the exact image Lowes is looking for but the reality is it is their image and niche. Cleaner, more organized, better customer service, better lighting, the list never ends. The shopping experience is enjoyable and most of all relaxing.

Do not get me wrong there is a lot of hustle and bustle and a lot of material being sold. I have checked prices and everything you can find at Home Depot you can find at Lowes for the same if not better price. It’s simply a fact that Lowes Home Improvement is better. In some way I think of Lowes as more similar to Wal Mart and Home Depot as K-Mart. Wal Mart is hands down a better shopping experience. Similarly Lowes is a better shopping experience. You may have heard people say, when Wal Mart first came on the scene – Wal Mart is like K Mart with good service.

I would add that they also had better brands but that is a different story altogether. Lowes is like Home Depot but with better service and with brands you can locate. There is no other way to slice it, Lowes Home Improvement out paces their competitors on all levels.

This site outlines areas where they shine head and shoulders above the rest but lets not forget that they have readily made it possible for those that are in the military to get a discount similar to a lowes coupon on any day of the year. I may be no expert in everything but a company that gives veterans and active duty military (see each store for how it works) basically a lowes coupon to anything in the store – well that store deserves your business.

So lets review –

better service. Check!

Cleaner – Check!

Everything you need with an incredible selection – Check!

Nice cool stores on summer days – Check!

Friendly service that takes the time to teach you – Check!

Lowes Home Improvement is hands down the store to shop at. I think we all should reward the stores that treat us, the customer, with respect and in many cases reverence.

Lowes, the store for the “rest of us”.