We didn’t have The Home Depot when I was growing up.

There was a Grossman’s in the town next to ours, which was similarly warehouselike and, to a young girl, pretty exciting. One day, my dad took me there and I wandered off to find a giant pile of what looked like cotton candy. Jackpot! Except that when I grabbed a handful, it cut the heck out of my tender hands and I was itchy for days afterward. Good thing I didn’t try to eat it.

These days, I can tell the difference between fiberglass insulation and spun sugar, but I still feel like a kid in a candy store when I hit the home improvement center, lumberyard, or hardware store. That’s a good thing, because I’ve been spending a lot of time picking out paint, wood, shelving, putty, tools and other renovating treats lately – and learning a lot along the way.

The first thing I learned is that it is possible to get excited about rocks that aren’t set in platinum or gold. Last summer, when we moved into our sweet old farmhouse, we wanted to put in a small perennial garden surrounded by a stonewall. But then we needed to pick out stones. You’d think this would be an easy decision, but when we went to Granville Lumber in Holden, the number of choices was a bit overwhelming. Even with a traditional rockwall, there were three or four color schemes to choose from. (And all this time, I thought rocks were gray.)

But picking out rocks was nothing compared to paint. Every time I go to Park’s Hardware in Orono (which for me is usually twice a week, but ShopGuy has his own chair there), I leave with a handful of Benjamin Moore paint chips. Nearly a year after we started working on the kitchen, I still haven’t quite found the right shade of green for the walls, but there’s time.

Just last week, ShopGuy and I hit Marden’s, where a fire sale on paint and supplies was just heating up. It cost less than half of the normal price (about $12 a gallon for Pittsburgh Paint), and with the money we saved, we picked up a door for our bathroom – a bargain at $54. Hey, we needed a door, and you can never have too much white paint, especially if you have as much woodwork as we do.

Speaking of woodwork, we were in a bit of a pickle when we moved into our farmhouse. In some rooms, we had beautiful molding with bulls-eye medallions in the corners. In others, we had plain wood. We wanted to make it all match, but no one makes molding like that anymore. No one, that is, except Owen A. Gray & Sons in Brewer. ShopGuy brought in a piece of molding, and a week later, we had enough to do the whole downstairs. It wasn’t exactly cheap, but it didn’t cost much more than the flimsy composite at The Home Depot.

Though I generally like to support small, locally owned stores, there’s a lot to be said for the Depot, which is pleasantly overwhelming. Their lighting selection is great for the price, but if you’re willing to spend a little more, I’d recommend Chez Renee, which has the most stylish home accessories in the area, hands down.

The Kohler pedestal sinks at The Home Depot are just what the doctor ordered for our ailing bathroom, too. The one I want costs about $300, which fits our budget a lot better than the farmhouse sink I had my eye on at the Harbor Farm Store on Deer Isle, which cost $2,000. I should’ve known better, but if your budget is higher than mine, by all means, check out their gorgeous sinks and tile.

For tile, I’m either ordering it from Keniston’s in Bangor or holding out hope that some inexpensive slate will arrive at Marden’s in the near future. But it will be a while before we get to the bathrooms anyway – we’ve been saving for a pair of Andersen French doors from Hammond Lumber in Bangor – if you’re going to put a giant hole in your wall, you might as well do it right the first time.

We didn’t exactly do it right the first time with our cabinets. We tried to save the old-fashioned bead-board cabinets that came with the house, but they came down in a splintery mess when we tried to patch the plaster behind them. So we need to build new ones, because ShopGuy’s handy and neither of us can stand anything pre-made in our price range. Suffice it to say, we aren’t putting in a $30,000 kitchen like you see in the magazines.

We’ve shopped everywhere, and we’ve found the clearest, straightest lumber for cabinets and general construction at Stillwater Lumber on the outer Bennoch Road in Orono. The guys who work there are all really nice, and their prices are so good, we even bought all our insulation there. Fluffy, pink insulation.

I won’t go near it.

Reader Response

After reading the column on home organization, Deb Preissler of Beaver Cove wrote in to share her discovery: the Flip/Fold. It’s a plastic board that you use as a guide to perfectly – and compactly – fold your clothes. “Because it compacts the garment, you are able to stack more clothing on a closet shelf or into a drawer then you normally would,” Preissler wrote. “You know how stores are able to stack their merchandise on shelves so neatly? Now, your closets can look as if you had a professional fold your clothes.” She picked it up at Renys for $8.99, but if there isn’t a Renys in your area, you can get one online at www.smartinventions.com for $10.99 plus shipping and handling.

ShopGirl would love to hear from you! Send questions, comments or suggestions by e-mail to: kandresen@bangordailynews.net, by U.S. mail to: Kristen Andresen, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor, ME 04402-1329, or by fax to: 941-9476.