Comments on: Good Deal or Not?

By: Lizzy

Lizzy — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 13:55:58 +0000

Also, I don’t think this is a good deal– my place in LeDroit is a bit further from the metro (about 5 to Shaw and about 10 to U Street and a bus outside to Dupont/F. Sq), but despite the fact that I have to buy all new appliances, fixtures, and environmental systems, I’m getting a 3 bed, 2.5 bath for $330,000. Renovated up to code a couple of years ago and has a (tiny) yard. This place is close to the metro, but there are some great houses for $250,000 or more less in Petworth that just need some love and time and some rehab money.

By: Lizzy

Lizzy — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 13:52:56 +0000

I wish that I had the ability to go to a different store than HD, but unfortunately for my just-purchased foreclosure in LeDroit Park, I have to wait until the job is done to get my FHA 203k Rehab check… and, unfortunately, HD is the only place to offer 0% APR credit card for items in the store. And, I put all my monies into getting the house, so, well, this is my only reasonable financial option so that I can have a (literal) pot to piss in. Sad, but true. So, maybe in ten years, I can re-do the kitchen and master bath how I would have liked it done (rennovated a couple of years ago, functional, nice, but meh on design), and I can afford to go to better places… if they even exist at that point. Sigh.

Yay for homeownership! Quit yer bitchin’ folks!

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 01:39:22 +0000

Shifting the discussion back to the walking distance to Adams Morgan.

I went to Gmaps pedometer (www.gmap-pedometer.com) to plot out a route: New Hampshire to Park to 14th to Columbia, finishing at 18th and Columbia. It says that route is 1.387 miles. Walking briskly (averaging about 3 mph, or a mile every 20 minutes), that’s about a 25-minute to 27-minute walk. No way it’s 15, as they claim.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 22:23:07 +0000

All this talk about HD reminds me of one old time DC store I hated to go into, for the same kinds of reasons as mentioned. Maybe you will remember Hechinger’s. Some of the most ghetto-assed sales “help” who absolutely hated the customers and if they did speak to us, we were ruining their breaks.

As for us not being rich snobs or snits, just trying to eke out a rehab, shoot. We’ve been here so long and have never gotten the $ nor the time, nor wanted to put up with the dislocating inconvenience of a rehab. So we stay in our beautiful old rowhouse, circa 1920s, with no central A/C, no dishwasher, original kitchen and back porches, semi finished basement, old electircal system and radiators, but we did have our floors sanded. The dust that created… It’s still the beautiful life.

By: AJS

AJS — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 21:43:51 +0000

I think the location is not great. Being right on NH Ave south of the metro has got to be noisy, plus no privacy.

By: Jamie

Jamie — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 21:19:47 +0000

Kay: It’s really a figure of speech. Home Depot sells some perfectly decent stuff, but calling a renovation a “home depot” job just means it looks like someone went and bought the cheapest stuff available. Everyone recognizes the Glacier Bay fixtures and the fake terra cotta tiles and all that.

I’ve certainly used that stuff in my own projects before and there’s nothing wrong with it, it’s just a funny way to make a point about the overall appearance of a project.

That said, Home Depot (DC in particular) is a disaster of a business. Just try to find something in Electric. Anything. 10 bucks you can’t. And if YOU can’t you can bet your ass the lazy employee who is responsible for the disaster can’t. Finally it’s almost always understaffed at the checkout. It’s just no fun to deal with.

By: youdontknowme

youdontknowme — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 21:06:26 +0000

Gallatin: Understood, I was responding to the comments above which had nothing to do with customer service etc. I am doing the same thing and have the same experiences with HD. I gave up on the DC HD long ago after an employee threatened to, ahem, ‘smoke’ me. I use the Hyattesville HD which is marginally better.

And, Gallagher and Hughley on Blair Rd in DC is the preferred place. Actual professionals. Rare for DC.

By: Gallatin

Gallatin — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 20:56:16 +0000

youdontknowme: i’d wager that most of us are not rich snits, but folks trying to eke out a rehab of a crusty old rowhouse on a minuscule budget…and i for one have grown to hate HD after many, many trips (often late at night) and many hours spent wandering the disorder and chaos that are our local HDs…where staff actively avoid eye contact so they don’t have to answer questions, and where inventory is almost always sold-out, broken, or filthy (and god help you if you’re trying to find any green building materials)…and then standing in line for an eternity to buy products used by every flipper in the city. I’ll take Strohsniders and G&H, where at least there’s someone to explain to me the difference between a door jam and a door sweep – and with a smile.

By: youdontknowme

youdontknowme — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 19:58:06 +0000

Re: HD, and a lot of people on this blog are probably rich snits living off their parents money and thus get smug satisfaction from sneering at HD and the other affordable sorts of things. There I said it.

By: saf

saf — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 19:54:05 +0000

“why is Home Depot so disparaged on this blog?”

I dunno about on this blog. I hate HD because they sell substandard stuff in big cookie cutter stores. And, their stuff is made for suburban tract homes, not little row houses that are old enough to not be standard. Plus, the staff are often poorly trained.