Posted by admin | Home Depot | Posted on November 19th, 2009
The kitchen. It’s where you keep your food and prepare ‘em. It’s where you do sundry activities like washing the dishes, making coffee, peeling fruit, and even tenderizing meat. But you’re getting a bit ahead of your self. In essence, the kitchen is just a room – empty, devoid of function. That is, unless you stock it up with mundane appliances and knick knacks that define it. Mundane, you say. But really, these are the stuff that make a kitchen, well, a kitchen. So before you even declare a room as such, you have to get all the stuff possible for it to be worth the moniker. This is where Home Depot coupons come in.
The Basics
Picture your kitchen stripped bear. What’s left? Why, those that are fixed, built-in, and practically immovable. These include counters, cupboards, the sink, the plumbing and electrical system, and even the lights. These are there to stay, unless, of course, you go through the whole shebang of overhauling the place and moving things around. And unless these are faulty and really quite ugly, there’s really no point in doing so.
The good news is you can work around what’s already there. As they say, “if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it.” In fact, your kitchen’s current setup is a good jumping off point as you try to re-stock it. This will help you determine the best way to put those Home Depot coupons to use.
The Big Ones
When refurbishing your kitchen, it’s best to start big. This means that you should purchase the big appliances first to utilize the available space. This includes refrigerators, dishwashers, stoves and oves, and even an appliance for garbage disposal.
Before you even take out those Home Depot coupons and start shopping, however, consider the kitchen’s layout. Take measurements to get the dimensions right. There’s nothing more inconvenient than trying to squeeze in a huge freezer in a teeny tiny space, and vice versa. With that said, take those coupons and shop!
The Small Stuff
After you’ve taken care of the major appliances, it’s now time to quite literally sweat the small stuff. This means stocking up on sundry items like cooking materials, cutlery, china, storage containers, cleaning materials, etc. – the list goes on and on.
The best way to go about this is to decide on a theme. Look around you, and color coordinate. Or, if you’re a bit more adventurous, go for items that are unique, or even mix and match. That will give our kitchen a more fun, cozy, and personalized look. Of course, don’t forget to take those Home Depot coupons when you’re shopping to save yourself a buck or two.
Indeed, when it comes to redecorating your kitchen, you just rely on a hodge podge method. It takes a bit of planning, foresight, style, and Home Depot coupons to get the job done. And once you have yourself a brand-new, spanking kitchen that you can say is really yours, well, that’s just worth it.
Posted by admin | Home Depot | Posted on October 31st, 2009
Home security is something that can be put on the back burner right behind excitement, decorating, and house warming parties. However, checking to make sure that you have the right home safety and security issues taken care of before you move your things in could save you from potential headaches and court fees later. Unfortunately, when you take on possession of a new home, you also inherit a world of accountability for every person that sets foot into your new domicile. You should be proud, but protective, of your new investment and take the provisions necessary to ensure life long happiness in your secure home.
You must always remember that, unless you built your home, someone else owned your home and that means that you won’t know what safety measures are in place without checking. There’s more to home security than bells, whistles, and alarms. The garage and the basement areas are often ignored because they are not in plain sight. However, these areas can be the most dangerous in the entire home perimeter.
If you have a basement, garage, or both, you should make sure that all chemicals, pesticides, and charcoal are way out of reach. For some reason children and pets are attracted to these hazardous materials. A good option for storage is a product made by RacorPro which is a device that is connected to the ceiling and can be lowered by a remote control. Another thing that can be good is to get your local Home Depot or Lowe’s to set up a storage shed that you can lock when you are not there to supervise. Another problem area for basements and garages are fuse boxes. Make sure that all fuses are a correct fit for the circuits because if they aren’t than you will have a fire hazard on your hands.
There are proactive steps you can take to make the inside of your home as safe as possible. You should have smoke detectors placed all throughout your house. Make sure that hallways and other general areas are not left out.
In order to maintain the best home security possible, you should also check with your local health department to see if your plumbing contains lead or lead solder. If you suspect that your plumbing has lead in it, make sure that you run your water for thirty seconds before you drink it because exposure to lead can be fatal. Also, be aware that boiling water does nothing to remove the lead from it.
It is necessary to have important numbers like the police and fire departments in an easy and convenient location, as well as making sure that your family has a planned escape route in case of emergency.
It’s always wise to check the electrical outlets when you first move in to see if any are not working properly. Wide variations in temperature of the electrical outlet indicate that there may be an issue with the wiring.
Owning a pool for the family to enjoy is a blast! However, as a pool owner, you must make sure that everyone who swims in your pool follows your important home security measures. In case of disaster, there should be a telephone located somewhere close to the pool. In order to avoid accidental drowning, especially by young children, you ought to have a security barrier or fence that surrounds your pool. Fencing around the perimeter of a pool is a requirement by law in most jurisdictions, and you can have a fine levied against you if you are caught without one.
Owning a home is a sure fire way to know that you have reached adulthood, but you have to be willing to take the measures needed to make your home security a priority. We live in a society where a burglar can break into your home, break his leg, sue you, and win. Don’t think that because you are having family and friends over that a preventable accident is going to be acceptable. Make your home security a priority when you move in, and save yourself the trouble of worrying about what could happen because you ignored your responsibility.
Posted by hanun | Home Depot | Posted on September 10th, 2009
Stock Research and Home Depot are in the news again. This is a result of the firing of the CEO, Bob Nardelli, and what a story it is. You have to step back for a moment and think about any company’s history that you are doing stock research on. You must have an understanding of the company’s history. As a professional investor, when I think of a company’s history, I am more concerned about corporate culture than just about anything else. History shows that a great corporate culture will produce great results. The opposite is true as well.
I was involved with Home Depot in the beginning. I watched and almost participated in the original private placement for the company over 25 years ago. That’s another $100 million I am never going to have. What made this company really go, were the two founders, Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blanc. They created an entrepreneurial store atmosphere where a lot of what went on rested in the hands of the store manager.
For more than 20 years, the company had a spectacular run. It was one of the greatest stock market performances in modern history. It all came apart during the stock market bubble of 2000. Yes, the stock price was inflated, and the company brought in a new CEO Bob Nardelli, who was in the running to become CEO of General Electric. He was passed over by Jack Welch and the Board, and Jeff Immelt, won the slot to run GE.
As is the case with all top guys at GE when they are passed over, they leave, sometimes for greener pastures. Nardelli was recruited to run Home Depot, and successfully brought GE’s template for how to grow a business over to Home Depot. That was his first problem, his second was execution. There is no question that Nardelli was successful in creating great numbers for Home Depot. He failed everywhere else.
When he started, the sales were about $46 billion. By the end of 2005, they were approaching $82 billion. During his tenure however, the stock price is overall down about 6% or so, while profits doubled. At the same time, its principal rival Lowe’s Companies has seen its stock more than triple.
If it ain’t BROKE – Don’t FIX IT?
Nardelli was a self-made victim. It’s one thing to come into an ailing company, and turn it around using modern management techniques. It’s another thing to come into one of the best stock market performers in history, and start changing things that don’t need changing. The result is the self-destruction of a seasoned corporate manager – Robert Nardelli. Don’t feel too bad for him, he walked out with a very rich $200 million severance package.
He never got it though. He never figured it out. He’s sitting in his home right now sipping a martini, licking his chops, and living in a fantasy world about what went wrong at Home Depot.
Here’s the REAL DEAL
Nardelli went after the wrong issues at Home Depot. Yes, the company may have been a bit “shoot by the hip” in terms of giving those 2000 plus store managers authority to run the show – BUT IT WORKED, and it worked well for decades. The imperial CEO tried to wring them in – GE style, and the new template just wouldn’t work. General Electric is the army of the corporate world, and don’t kid yourself, the army wins the wars.
Home Depot was more along the lines of Special Forces – a lot of authority went to the guy on the floor running the store. After all, these are the guys that deal with the customers on a day to day basis. The customer buying a screwdriver, or the contractor buying drywall never got to see Nardelli. They only saw his procedures in place, and the procedures no longer worked.
Take the handoff for example. For years if you walked into Home Depot and couldn’t find what you were looking for, you could ask any employee. Whoever you asked, would then walk you over to the aisle where the item was located. The employee would then look for the worker in charge of that aisle, and say, this gentleman would like a screwdriver. The second employee would then show you where they were located, even help you select one. The key is that the first employee would hand you off to the second employee personally.
Nardelli destroyed this practice, and with it – that flair that made Home Depot different than everybody else went down the tubes. There’s something about a customer business that’s radically different than General Electric’s business plan which is to engage with other companies (manufacturing) rather than people. Nardelli didn’t get it, and the stock went to hell.
Have you ever noticed that when you walk into a Wal-Mart, you can pick up any item and than find a bar code scanner in the store that will tell you the price of the item? You would think that Nardelli would have installed similar bar code readers in his stores during the five years that he ran the company. Nope, forget about it. Half the items in Home Depot have no price sign attached, or nearby. The customer is completely at a loss to determine what he is paying for an item.
Abusing Shareholders too
Nardelli’s ultimate downfall came after he started to abuse Home Depot’s fabulous shareholder base. On May 28th of this year, Nardelli ran the annual shareholder’s meeting in Wilmington Delaware, absent the Board of Directors. He told them not to show up. He only allowed the meeting to go 30 minutes. There was a digital clock at the meeting to time the questions. You had 60 seconds and then boom, the microphone went dead automatically. They probably put a sadist in charge of the cut off switch.
In the final analysis, this brilliant GE trained executive blew up his own career. He alienated the shareholders, the employees, and Wall Street too. He would appear antagonistic when I would attend the analyst conference calls when he would be quizzed about same store numbers. He couldn’t understand our infatuation with comparables.
Right now, he is probably realizing that we weren’t the ones operating on another planet. Nevertheless, he does have that $200 million severance package to ease his pain. It’s not the end for him however. I understand Congressman Barney Frank is about to launch Congressional hearings, and Nardelli will be brought before the Congress to explain the justification for the CEO pay packages today. Nardelli will have to bring his own lawyer this time, on his dime. There won’t be a single one of the 330,000 Home Depot employees there to support him either.
Goodbye and Good Luck