Things I have learned about customer service

During the last month, I have been to more hardware stores then any other shopping destinations and I have to say service at hardware stores in Toronto sucks. Here is in order from the worst to the best:

Rona (Warden and Eglinton) - I needed to get 3 items in 3 different departments at Rona, after wondering the aisles for 30 minutes and not finding what I needed, I decided to try to get help. I found the first person available they said "I don't work that department let me page someone." Thirty minutes later I had help. I then asked that person about something in the next department they gave me the same answer and again 30 minutes later I had help; needless to say the same thing happend for the 3rd item I needed. 3 hours later I was at the checkout with a screaming baby in arms that was just about as fed up as I was. If it would not be for the fact that we had about $400 in gift certificates at Rona I would not have entered the store again for the duration of the project.
Home Depot (Gerrard Square) - This is our close large hardware store we end up going here for almost everthing just because it is only a few minutes drive away. The service is hit and miss everyone is always nice but you can't trust what they say more then once we have been mislead on how to use a product. Like the guy who said the concrete board should face label-side out when the labels were randomly placed on smooth and rough sides, and, in fact, the orientation depends on whether or not you're using mortar or adhesive on top.
Home Hardware (Gerrard and Coxwell) - Amazing bunch of guys that work here, they are very knowlegeble and friendly however the store is very small so you can not always get what you want.
Lowes (Warden and Eglinton) - I hate saying this but I am impressed with Lowes, the staff knows what they are talking about, you get service fast, the staff is extra nice. The store is huge so they pretty much always have what we need. I hope this lasts, our Lowes is pretty new.

And that is that on hardware stores. Basically, Rona has lost my business except for when we have gift cards there (I say this because you can cash in Air Miles for Rona gift cards); Home Depot could probably treat us like crap and we would go back just because they are convenient; Home Hardware is my first stop for little things; Lowes has definitely won me over and if I need to price compare I will make the trip.

Where have I gone to

Some of you may have wondered where I have gone; well, the answer is: deep into kitchen renovation. About a month ago now our plumbing gave under the sink leaving a flood in my kitchen and we decided to take this opportunity to renovate instead of just patching up a kitchen that was already in shambles.

My mom and dad are down from NB helping (thank you so much). 3 weeks into the reno, my dad is now working on getting the floor ready for my new cork floor. The walls are up and painted; same goes for the ceiling.

I wish we could have done the full kitchen eco-friendly but cost restriction and timing prohibited us from doing so. However I did consider the enviroment at many points in the kitchen reno; below are some of the decisions that we made that are in part green.

1. Cork Floor: When cork is harvested the tree is not destroyed and then replanted but rather the bark is trimmed from the tree every 9 years, leaving the tree and the forest undamaged. Its not unusual to have a 200 year old tree still producing cork bark. Cork flooring is actually made from the waste of the cork wine stopper manufacturing process so cork flooring is a recycled product.
2. Sico Go Prime Duo 100% Acrylic Latex Primer- Sealer and Undercoat: This is a great all purpose primer with less then 78.38g/L of VOC's. I knwo there are some primers out there that have 0g/L VOC however we had some primer left over from a previous project and in our time restraints could not get our hands on anything that had a lower VOC count.
   
3. Sico Paint Chamois: This is a 0g/L VOC paint; however the tint does add some VOC, the darker your paint the more VOC in it. Once again I know more eco-friendly options exist but we had all the paint we needed left over from previous projects.
   
4. I would have loved to get a LED light fixture for the kitchen but the up front cost is too much for us; instead we got a light fixture that could accomodate a compact florecent bulb. When chosing your light fixture make sure to always double check that a compact fluorescent bulb will fit, they are bigger then their incandescent conterparts.
   
5. We are reusing our existing cabinet pulls. We don't have enough to do the full kitchen so the uppers will have the old pulls reused and the lowers are going to have new pulls giving the kitchen a unique fun look.
6. An Ikea kitchen we chose Ikea for a few reasons first they are inexpensive secondly they do have a good enviromental practice. Ikea is not perfect but they do try harder then many companies out there to find out more check out : http://www.theikeaway.ca/en/home.html.

I found a great website with information on non-toxic painting if anyone is interested:
http://www.eartheasy.com/live_nontoxic_paints.htm#2d

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