Back in March our stove died. This was the stove we bought when we first moved into this house. I was pretty indignant that my stove would have the gull to stop working when it was only seven years old, or wait, maybe nine, no ten years… wow, we’ve been in this house for ten years already? How time does fly.
I have clear memories of appliance shopping when we moved into this, our first, house. We drove around the city and visited pretty much every possible appliance store, some of them twice, before settling on the best deal to be had. This was in my pre-kid days and back then the idea of spending a week or more cruising around the city stove shopping didn’t faze me. But now? Add in two kids and the idea of driving around looking for a replacement stove filled me with dread. Trying to compare prices and talk to an appliance salesman while simultaneously attempting to keep my four year old in line sounds like a tiny slice of hell.
Thank goodness for the internet. Ten years has made a big change in how we shop. Now I can browse around on websites, look at flyers and comparison shop. Or even better, I can look for stoves on my tablet, while my kid plays with Lego at my feet. The Home Depot has a shopping app that allowed me to do just that. Instead of dragging my kids around our local store, I kicked back in my front room with a nice cup of tea and did some stove shopping.
So this is how I narrowed down which stove I wanted, and feel free to laugh at me here guys, but I picked the colour first. My previous stove was stainless steel and I always had a difficult time cleaning it. White would look weird in my kitchen, particularly next to my black fridge. Thus, I knew I wanted a black stove. Ceramic top and solid black, those were my two must have features and I started my search from there.
With The Home Depot app you can browse their latest flyer or shop through their online catalogue for everything from patio furniture to appliances. There’s a virtual tool box full of helpful little gadgets such as a unit converter, a flooring calculator, a nut & bolt finder, and my personal favourite a tape measure that allows you to estimate distance by entering your shoe size and counting your steps. You can also sit and watch “Know-How” videos that show you how to do everything from tile a backsplash to build a book case, or install a toilet (Warning: Watching these videos is addictive and can be a total time suck).
Ok, so I may have gotten a little distracted day dreaming about patio furniture and watching how-to videos, but I also truly enjoyed the convenience of being able to pick out a new stove from the comfort of my own home. The product listings in The Home Depot’s app are incredibly detailed, and gave me all the info I needed from “Is this oven self-cleaning?” to measurements that let me know me if it would fit through my side door. The appliance section is also very easy to browse, allowing you to sort by manufacturer, price, colour or features.
In well under an hour I was able to narrow it down to three stoves. Then I did a few quick searches online to comparison shop and confirmed that the prices at The Home Depot were the same, or lower, than elsewhere. I also searched online for product reviews, and didn’t find anything terribly helpful. The Home Depot does have customer reviews built into its app catalogue, but of the three stoves I was eyeing none of them had reviews posted. I ended up going with the “no news is good news” approach and decided the fact that I couldn’t find any negative reviews online anywhere about the stove I was thinking of buying would have to be good enough.
I then stewed over it for a few days, asked around on-line, let my husband give his input, etc, and finally decided that this stove was The One. Once the big decision was made I just picked up the phone and called The Home Depot’s 1-800 number and I was quickly able to place my order and arrange for delivery. I think the biggest stress for me was carefully measuring, and double-measuring, my side entry way to make sure the stove would fit.
I keep comparing it in my mind to the amount of time, and stress, that went into pricing and picking out my first stove and fact that I was able to do all of this at home in the space of a few hours still amazes me. If you’re shopping for a new appliance, or if you want to while away a few hours window shopping or watching how-to videos, I recommend giving The Home Depot app a look.
For further info on The Home Depot:
* visit their website.
* connect with them on Facebook.
* connect with them on Twitter.
* dream & plan with them on Pinterest.
* download The Home Depot app (available for iOS and Android).
Disclosure: This post was brought to you by The Home Depot. As always my words and opinions are my own.
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