March 2016 – The Reaganskopp Homestead

Posted on March 29, 2016January 20, 2019 by Brianna — 12 Comments

Hardy Grape Kiwi: Plant Porn

Did you know there was such a thing as a grape kiwi (aka baby kiwi, kiwi berry, or hardy kiwi)?! Is it possible to get almost fan-girl squeely over a plant? Did you know that this kiwi not only comes in green and red, it grows in temperate zones? Oh yes folks! I can grow a kiwi in zone 6. A teeny tiny kiwi that you do not even have to peel! There are actually larger hardy kiwi’s, but this post isn’t about them. This is about the adorable grape kiwis.

Grape kiwi size comparison, Image by Hiperpinguino, CC License — Image by Hiperpinguino, CC License. Check out the tiny kiwis in front for comparison

The Low Down on Grape Kiwi’s

Grape Kiwis are a hardy kiwi type (Actinidia arguta). Say ak-ti-NID-e-a ar-GU-ta three times fast. The tiny kiwi’s grow in groupings that look much like grape bunches. They have thin edible skins and come in the traditional green kiwi color and also a red shade. Descriptions of the fruit are sweeter kiwi flavor with hints of pineapple. Yum!

These vines likely originated in Japan, China, or Russia which means they can survive temperatures of -34. Yippy for zones 5-9! Many of the cultivated vines you can buy have been bred in Russia, which, seems kind of cool. Maybe even give me some garden cred: “Check out my special Russian Kiwi!” I always picture scenarios where I am showing my lawn off to other gardeners… When in reality I am pretty sure I drive everyone around me nuts with my love of plants.

Annanasnaja kiwi from Raintree Nursery — Image from Raintree Nursery. I am thinking of buying these Annanasnaja kiwi

The deciduous vine grows glossy green leaves with scented white flowers. In perfect conditions you can have a 20 foot vine in a growing season so careful trellising can give you an ornamental attractive vine. Sitting in the shade of softly scented vine sounds like a summer pleasure to me. Bonus, the flowers and scent should be attractive to butterflies. Fruit should be ripe in the fall for fresh eating.

Edit: I just ended up buying these three kiwis! I can’t wait to see how they do*:

How to Grow

Alright, there is a downside to the grape kiwi or maybe an upside depending on your space. You need to have at least 2 vines. Male and female (romantic lover vines ;)) are a must if you want to produce the fruit. Luckily one male is up to the challenge of pollinating anywhere between 6-8 female vines. That means you can have a red grape kiwi and a green grape kiwi and one male will work for both of them.

I have read conflicting information on how far to place the male and female plants away from each other. Most information points to one male being able to pollinate 8 female plants. You’ll need to space these suckers out because if they have the right conditions a single vine can grow 20 feet in a year. WOW! Sounds like a great way to make a vining screen, just remember they are deciduous so all the leaves will disappear in the winter. The recommended spacing is 10 feet apart. I personally am going to plant mine much closer, but I am into backyard orcharding so I plan to prune, prune, prune to keep these babies in shape and in size. WHICH! Is highly recommended. Do not forget this is a vigorous plant that grows for years. Have a sturdy trellis! We built one with 4×4 posts in concrete. Additional bracing to match our composting fence and 14 gauge wire with tightners (turnbuckles). This puppy is going no where.

Planting itself seems a bit finicky. Like every plant under the sun it needs organic, well draining soil. BUT unlike most plants this one NEEDS it. Apparently, they originally grew in forest type settings and are used to having a lot of organic matter and trees to climb. Additionally, heavy wet soils contribute to crown rot. On top of that site selection is muy importante to this plant if you want to get fruit. Sure they are hardy, but their spring growth is very frost sensitive. So you are going to need to find a location that keeps it cool as long as possible so it doesn’t come out of dormancy till the last minute and still gets full sun. Sounds like fun right? So here is my plan to place this plant in a zone 6b-7a. The mountains of Western North Carolina where I am assured to have 80 degree weather followed by a snowstorm in spring and I somehow managed to have a house built on a clay shelf so I have to deal with basically everything that will make this a PITA to get going.

Dig a much deeper hole and put lots of soil amendment (tiny bark shavings) at the bottom. Layer in dirt and compost and plant the kiwi plants slightly above the ground line. Hilling them up will help with the drainage but I am going to have to remember to mulch the hell out of them in fall to protect the first year roots…
The trellis site is on the southwest side of my house set slightly back. That means that it gets shaded in the mornings and some even in the afternoons but gets some amazing direct light during the day.
We are going to use the male to train on our porch to the west side. First, he doesn’t have to be quite as protected. Secondly, you can prune the heck out of him. He just needs enough growth to set flowers. Finally, we will get the added benefit of some shade in the afternoons where our porch mostly bakes. In the winter we will still get the warm sun since the vine will lose its leaves.

I’m game to try these grape kiwis though from the planting info they seem like they may need a little extra care than a beginning gardener might want to try. Just being honest, I’m a tiny bit nervous about this purchase, but almost everyone agrees that if you can get them off to a decent start they are easy after the first year.

Kiwi Berry Care

Assuming that everything grows off without a hitch (Get it? har, har, har) the care is not that big of a deal once you get them established. Pruning the growth if you have a small space becomes incredibly important. You will want to train a central vine and then let it umbrella shape from there. Once it gets to the top of your trellis cut it off and focus on keeping it that height. The first year or two prune for shape and prune regularly throughout the growing season. Tie the main branches to the trellis to keep them from getting wound around. Small branches can twine without worry of causing bad growth later on. After the first couple of years you can read in depth articles about the best way to develop fruiting wood. Lots of opinions out there, but by that time you’ll be a seasoned kiwi grower able to experiment with different choices. Sources disagree on how long each variety takes to set fruit. I have read anything from year 2 to year 5! So I’ll update this with my own experiences later. Remember that it likes a lot of organic matter so side dress with compost regularly throughout the growing season and in the fall and spring like other fruit trees and bushes.

Once you get past the initial hard phase of growing hardy kiwis the vine is supposed to last for years and years. Just prune, fertilize and repeat. Flowers will set fruit that ripens September through October depending on variety.

So, I’m set to try my hand at growing a grape kiwi. This hardy plant should be good to go if I can get it established. Wish me luck on my tiny, hardy kiwi experience.

Posted on March 25, 2016January 20, 2019 by Brianna — 15 Comments

Goodnight Moon Theme Birthday

Details of how to create your own Goodnight Moon birthday Party

Goodnight Moon has been a staple throughout my Son’s lives. I have to admit that I originally did not see the appeal but after reading the book 6+ years I have grown to love it. It seemed fitting to have a Goodnight Moon theme party for our last son’s first birthday.

However, have you ever tried to find goodnight moon themed items for parties? Apparently, this book hasn’t reached massive commercialization. I found some good items on Etsy but instead of purchasing I decided to DIY it. Never underestimate the power of a scanner!

One of the most notable parts of the book is the color scheme. Can we say “Great Green Room”? The shades of green, red, yellow, and blue are unmistakable. I used those colors as the base for my decorations. We purchased matching plates, napkins, and silverware in a mix of those colors.

Since I wasn’t using the book for my own commercial gain I felt inclined to scan away and looked through google images to find source material. I printed out some of my favorite scenes to place in frames and make a centerpiece for the buffet. I also sat out the tattered copy of Goodnight Moon and Our World (the companion book). Adam, filled out that buffet space with lots of yummy grilled items!

It is possible to purchase some adorable mouse wrapping paper. However, by the time I found it, it was too late to get it shipped to my house. You know what does work? Tiling images in Picmonkey and taping together sheets of paper. Trust me, no one year old actually notices his present is made of lots of small sheets of paper. For that matter I do not think anyone noticed and it added a pretty pop of on theme color.

Obviously, at a Goodnight Moon theme party you will need a moon of some sort. I looked through my cardstock stash and found some metallic white and silver paper. I used a plate to make a nice circle and cut out a moon and then hand cut lots of stars. The cutting took a bit but it was fun. I lightly drew lopsided stars in pencil and then cut out a couple of sheets at a time. The book has all kinds of wonderful and playful star shapes so my hand cut items matched perfectly. I simply taped them to fishing wire and hung everything from the light fixture Adam hand crafted.

No first birthday party is complete without CAKE! Well cupcakes in this case. You may think what you like but I ordered them from Sam’s Club. They were super helpful matching the colors and they tasted great. To make them extra special we printed out tiny scenes from the book and made toppers with similarly colored toothpicks. Keaton got a special moon on top of his too! I would say he very much enjoyed his treat!

Finally, I made a fun game for both the adults and kids in attendance. I printed out 10 1/2″ images of the elusive mouse from the books. I then took the tiny mouse and taped him throughout the downstairs to windowsills, doors, Keaton’s highchair, etc. Everyone spent the day trying to find all 10!

With just a little ingenuity and a lot of Goodnight Moon inspiration we were able to come up with a creative and affordable theme party to celebrate the last first birthday in our house. Well that is until we have the grandkids. :) If you are not into DIY like we are or wanted some great gifts Amazon has some adorable merchandise. Affiliate links below.

Posted on March 21, 2016January 20, 2019 by Brianna — 18 Comments

It Is Not Too Late to Start Seeds

Guess what? If you live Zone 7 and above March and even into April is not too late to start seeds indoors and you have the WHOLE outdoor seed planting season ahead. (Get those peas and spinach out today!) If you have no idea of the timing of seed planting both indoors and outside I will walk you through the process and offer free Seed Planting Guides for vegetables at the end of this post. These free seed starting templates are meant to be used for whatever zone you live in! I have even had someone from the Southern Hemisphere say they work for them.

So What Can You Plant?

Joking aside the peas and spinach need to go outside ASAP. They should have been out the first couple of weeks of March, but depending on how hot spring is you should be able to get a good crop of snap peas and spinach in before they wane and bolt. So now that, that is out of the way here are some things you can start indoors today to plant out in early may. Affiliate links to my favorite local seed vendor to follow! In case you want to order some of these beautiful seed packets for yourself.

Summer Squash: Zucchini, Patty pan, Yellow, etc
Winter Squash: Butternut, Acorn, etc
Melons: Watermelons, Cantaloupe
Eggplant
Nasturtium
Zinnia
Marigold

Obviously, most of these plants grow well planted straight outside, but if you have a shorter season (as I do in mountainous Western North Carolina) getting an extra month can be really useful to get larger, riper, fruit. Plus who doesn’t love flowers?

How to Know When Can you Plant

When to plant your seeds indoors and outdoors all depends on the frost! You can find your average frost free day by Googling. Also the Farmers Almanac has a great list by major cities. So once you have this all important date you’ll need to know how many days before or after that date your seeds can be planted. Such as 7 days before, will tolerate light frost, -1 week, etc. Then you will also need to know how many days the transplants need to actually grow. Additionally you can factor in how long germination takes and WHOA! Are you overwhelmed yet? Trust me it is not too late to plant yet AND I am going to break this down so it is super easy! And if the breakdown still doesn’t make sense then I am going to offer you a free spreadsheet or google doc that you can just plug in numbers and get your dates! How much more simple is that?

The Magic Formula

To Plant Indoors: Frost Date + (Weeks Before Or After Frost – Weeks Needed to Grow Indoors)
To Plant Outdoors Seeds or Transplants: Frost Date + (Weeks before Or After Frost)

Let’s run through an example:

Cabbage can be transplanted. It needs about 42 days (6 weeks) of indoor growth and can tolerate frost. So we can plant it about -21 (3 weeks) days prior to the last frost free day. My average frost free date is 4/24/2016.

Indoors: 4/24/16 + (-3 – 6 weeks) = 2/21/2016
Outdoors: 4/24/16 + -3 weeks = 4/3/2016

So, are you saying?! “Ugh, math? And where do I find all this information anyway?” Well I have the answer for you. For the old school I have a printable pdf Seed Planting Guide for vegetables, flowers, and herbs so you can calculate when to start seeds for yourself. It has additional information about depth, spacing, thinning, and seed saving. You will still have to do the math and look at a calendar. Though you can use this handy website to plug in weeks and get a date.

For the New school I am offering a free spreadsheet where all you need to do is plug in your frost free date and when to start seeds, both indoors and out, just populates throughout the sheet. I also have a pared down version of the Seed Planning Guide in a Google Doc you can copy and use for yourself. I know not everyone has excel just hanging out on their computer or phone.

Excel Seed Starting Template

PDF Seed Starting Template

Google Seed Starting Template

Posted on March 18, 2016November 19, 2019 by Adam

Building a Custom Industrial Wooden Desk

The only thing that appears to be constant in our lives is change. Our youngest son just began walking, he and the next youngest have moved into the same room, Brianna and I cleaned out our master closet, moved a dresser into said closet to further our organization effort, our oldest started Kindergarten, and Brianna had a career change that sees her working from home periodically.

Realizing that we have no good place to work (much less concentrate) amidst the chaos of our family of six, creativity was forced upon us. We’ve always lacked an office space in our home (and with 6 people, we have no free rooms!), so our ability to set aside such a space has been significantly limited. Moving Keaton in with Cooper freed up a nice little corner of our master bedroom.

We’d looked at buying an industrial desk for our space, but we couldn’t find that perfect piece. Everything we’d looked at was either the wrong size or the wrong price. So, as typical, we decided to build something of our own!

Supplies

5 – 2″ x 4″ x 120″ Untreated Lumber
1 – 120″ x 3/4″ Black Iron Pipe
4 –3/4″ Black Iron Floor Flanges*
6 – 3/4″ Black Iron Tee*
2 – 12″ x 3/4″ Welded Steel Nipple*
4 – 2″ x 3/4″ Welded Steel Nipple*
2 – 1-1/2″ x 3/4″ Welded Steel Nipple*
4 – 3/4″ Black Iron Cap*
Sandpaper (Course, medium, and fine grit)
Wood Stain
Polyurethane
Wood Screws
Wood Glue

Craft Thyme

Brianna and I measured our available space, and after drawing out a few different options, our plan was to build an industrial desk that was 18″ D x 40″ W x 30″ H that matched the general décor of our home. Follow along below to see how we got there and let us know how we did!

Lumber Selection and Initial Cuts

As always, pick out lumber that speaks to you. On the random Tuesday that I took off of work to focus on this build, the hardware store had some great, partially grayed untreated lumber. (Stress the on the untreated) Selection of colorful, knotted, and straight wood was easy. On to the lumber prep….

Given that the actual dimension of a 2″ x 4″ is 1.5″ x 3.5″, the easiest way to get to 18″ was to stack 12 2×4’s together (18 / 1.5 = 12). Super easy!

To get to 40″ wide, all we had to do was cut 40″ sections out of our lumber. If you’ve done the math, you’ll see that I have waaaaay more lumber than I needed for this project. Why have have 600″ when all I really need is 480″? I do this for two reasons: 1) I want to be able to use the most interesting sections of the lumber, and 2) I’m probably going to mess something up at some point.

There are multiple ways to handle your cuts. You can cut all 40″ sections and call it good, or you can strategically cut random length sections whose total lengths equal 40″. I chose the latter. With this, I don’t have a true final cut list for you, constant reader. Make it random and make it awesome.

But we didn’t stop there… oh no, that would be too easy.

While stacking 2×4’s together gave us the right depth dimension, there were two readily apparent design flaws: 1) 2×4’s aren’t square, they’re rounded squares; and 2) the thing was going to be really freaking heavy. To remedy, we broke out the table saw and ripped both sides of the previously cut 2×4’s to make everything nice and square. We ended up taking off around 1/4″ from each side. The end result was nice, square lumber that weighed an average of 7% less.

“Assistance Needed in the Pipe Cutting Area”

Having drawn out the basic design for our industrial desk’s frame (using Pencil*), we already had an idea of how we wanted to put things together.

We’d ordered everything except for the long length of pipe from Zoro.com and started calculating the lengths we would need to finish the frame’s build-out. I pre-assembled the feet of the frame, connected the front feet to the back using the 12″ nipples (such a silly term for a foot-long pipe), and started measuring. We needed the bottom of the desk for fall at 27″ high, and with some simple subtraction, we’d come up with the following pipe cut list:

2 – 24 (Front legs)
2 – 20 (Back legs)
1 – 32 (Back brace/Foot rest)

At that point, it was off to Lowe’s! Remember, your local big-box home improvement store will cut and thread pipe for you – most of the time for free!

Putting the Pieces Together – Industrial Desk Frame

Hands down, the easiest part of this project is the desk frame assembly. In a nice, open area, lay all of your pipe parts out and start putting things together as you’d planned. There’s no right or wrong order in this step. Give everything a good hand tightening as you get the pieces in their final position. Once you secure the frame to the desktop, everything will be stationary, so there’s no need to use any tools to aid you in this step.

Tutorial on how to create an industrial desk from wood and pipe — (Colorful Balls and Toy Cars Optional)

If you’ve got a long enough level, go ahead and check your frame at this step in the process. Yes, you can always make adjustments later if necessary, but it is easiest at this point.

Putting the Pieces Together – Desktop

This step takes both time, and patience (frankly, personality traits I typically lack)….

Using large clamps and as flat of a surface you can find, lay out 2-3 pieces of your previously cut lumber in the order you’d like them glues together. Liberally apply wood glue to the back of your face board (I am a big fan of the squiggle application method), but it up against the second piece of lumber in the series, and clamp that baby together as hard as you can. For best results, clamp both on the ends AND in the middle. Repeat this steps as many times as you have clamps on hand.

Then wait….

Most wood glues actually have a drying time of only one hour. So while this process takes patience, you can probably knock it out over the span of the afternoon. Once your newly glued sections have set for their hour, continue this process for your remaining pieces of lumber. When you have 6 stacks of two, start gluing those together. And so on, and so on.

Depending on the size of the clamps you have, the last step of combining two stacks of 6 may be difficult (or frankly impossible). I had this problem, and for me, this spawned creativity. I went under the house and pulled out my crank straps. You know, the ones you use to tie a king-sized bed to an SUV that’s as wide as a full-sized bed? Believe it or not, these types of tie-downs make excellent large application clamps. Do your final gluing, wait an hour, and drink a beer as most of the hard work is complete.

Flattening out your Desk Surface

There are multiple ways to achieve that perfectly milled work surface. The BEST way is to use a mechanical planer to do the job for you. Unfortunately, we don’t own one of these bad boys.

So… we did what we could the old-fashioned way and used multiple grits of sandpaper to knock down edges quickly. As you’ll see below, there are lots of wood joints, knots, and saw blade “imperfections” that would make writing on this newly made solid surface rather difficult. Hitting the desk top with heavy-grit sandpaper on the powered hand-sander will take care of any significant surface changes. When finished with the high-grit, move to medium-grit across the whole surface, and finish it off with a fine-grit.

Time to Stain and Poly

Choose your favorite stain(s) and desired polyurethane and get to work. For this project, we alternated the use of Minwax Early American with Rustoleum Dark Walnut. “Color blocking” best describes my technique on this particular piece: A block of one color here, a block of the other color there. Randomize the application of the stains (if you’re using more than one), wipe away, and see how it’s turning out. You can always make areas darker if need be by allowing for longer set-times or applying a darker stain over a lighter area.

I’ll admit, once the stain had been applied and had dried, I couldn’t wait to see how the industrial desk looked on the frame. So… rather than apply the coat of poly on my nice grocery-bag covered work space, I hauled it outside and set it on the frame to get a sneak peek of what the final product might look like.

Being happy with the progress we’d made, I decided just to keep the desktop sitting on the frame in order to apply a coat of Minwax Semigloss Polyurethane. I also went ahead and used some bronze colored wood screws to mount the desktop to the frame. One coat of poly was enough for this project. Let things dry as per the provided instructions.

Finished Product

Posted on March 15, 2016January 20, 2019 by Brianna — 15 Comments

How to Save Money at Lowe’s Home Improvement

10 legitimate ways to save money at Lowe's Home Improvement

As avid DIYers we love to save money on all our projects. Over time we have worked out strategies to save money at Lowe’s. Personally, I am not comfortable scamming anyone, even large companies, so every suggestion on how to save money is on the up and up! Also, we are not currently a Lowe’s affiliate so all of these links and suggestions are simply from our own personal experience. We love all hardware stores, but Lowe’s is so close by that we often use them as a matter of course.

10 Ways to Save Money at Lowe’s

Email Sign Up $10 off $50 Purchase
This offer sometimes goes away so you may need to google around to find the current link. All you have to do is enter your email address and information in Lowe’s website and they should send you a coupon good for 7 days after receipt. Here is a recent link.
In Store Pickup/Online Sales
I can not say enough about Lowe’s in-store pickup! There is nothing better than to just walk in, get your order, sign a piece of paper, and walk out. Especially on busy days like Saturday and Sunday. However, you might wonder how this saves you money at Lowe’s… Not all Lowe’s stores have the same price. Oh YES, believe it or not this is sooooo true. If you have two or more Lowe’s in reasonable driving distance CHECK THEIR PRICES. I can not stress this enough. When we were trying to outfit our whole house with roman shades we discovered this little fact simply because no single store had enough inventory to cover the whole house. We then maximized our orders so that we got the cheapest inventory at each store. Spent one afternoon picking up all our orders, but it was totally worth the $50+ savings even when looking at gas and time. Sometimes the online price is cheaper than in-store shelf tag. Check, check, check! You can order it online, but they will match that price if it is their store you are viewing online.
Sales
Can you wait? Because Lowe’s has weekly sales and they are GOOD. We tend to stock up on seasonal items especially during their sales. For example, we just scored tons of suet cakes for the wild birds and chickens for .88 when they usually go for $1.50-$2.50. Whatever we do not use this winter we will store for next year. Besides just seasonal items Lowe’s tends to routinely put large appliances, paint, and gardening items on regular sales. If you are near a holiday, even something as small as President’s day, WAIT. They will always have a special sale for holidays.
Clearance Racks
ZOMG, I can not explain how important these clearance racks are. You will have to learn the locations in your particular store but usually there is a rack near the paint section, back of gardening, and somewhere near flooring. Why are these so important? Because when Lowe’s does clearance they are ready to move it on out. I calculated that I got close to over $1000 in annuals, perennials, and trees for over 80% off last year. Simply because they were no longer flowering, frost nipped, or at the end of the season. Can you shout FIVE DOLLAR FRUIT TREES?! In my blasted landscape it was a blessing to be able to fill it with some decent vegetation. Ditto for paint, brushes, light fixtures, etc. These all make their way to the clearance sections.

None of the plants cost more that $1. Like my coffee break? Gotta have coffee when digging through the Lowe’s clearance racks.
Price Match Policy
I haven’t used this often as Lowe’s and competitors are often so similarly priced that it doesn’t seem worth the effort for just a few pennies. However, when we were shopping for a new washer and dryer it paid to shop around! Make sure to have good documentation to bring with you as they will want to make sure it is the exact same model for price matching. Also if the price is a percentage off they will only match to the net price. So a 20% off deal somewhere else might not mean 20% off Lowe’s price, but the final price will be the same. You can read all the details here.
Haggle
This one is one of the hardest for me. Or at least it was, a recent trip to India taught me a ton about haggling! Anyway, haggling is accepted at Lowe’s and managers/certain salespeople are able to price adjust purchases. Lowe’s doesn’t have a published competitor’s coupon agreement but that is a great way to start the conversation. Additionally, never buy a large appliance without haggling a bit, especially, if you are willing to take a slightly used floor model. If you are like me and not a huge fan of haggling then you can always ask “Is this the best price I can get?” Be polite and nice and often they will take a little off the price of large purchases.
Lowe’s Credit Card
I hesitate to mention this one because the savings here is really all rolled into how disciplined you are with credit cards. Unless you can stick to paying them off in a specified time (for special financing) or in full each month (5% off) then you are really costing yourself money. That being said, I purchased my first new stove by taking advantage of free financing. Got a small discount by haggling and then had 12 months to pay it off. By paying it off in the specified time I got to keep my savings in my savings account earning interest the entire time I paid for the stove. Just remember these discounts are an either/or scenario. The 5% does not get stacked with the special financing, and sometimes the special financing will not be zero percent. Just be really careful when using this tactic.
Military/Veteran’s Discount
Found this one while researching other ways to save money at Lowe’s. You can read all about it here, but in general active duty and those on VA benefits always get 10%. All veterans can get 10% on Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Veterans Day. They extend these discounts to immediate family at times too.
Rebates
I honestly feel if you buy a can of paint without a sale or rebate you are paying too much. They often run $10-$15 rebates on paint and larger ones on appliances and tools. They have a searchable list of Lowe’s and manufacturer rebates, online submission, and tracking of rebates at Lowe’s Rebate Center. Sure it may take a bit to get the money back but it is certainly worth it and Lowe’s makes it much easier than many companies.
Garden Club Signup
If you are in the market for garden supplies Lowe’s offers a separate email signup for garden offers. They will often notify you of sales and occasionally have exclusive offers such as buy a certain number of plants and get one free.

Add-ons to Saving Money at Lowe’s

While they may not save you cash up front these additional services give you value all for free. You can read the entire list of Lowe’s Store Services here.

Build and Grow: I can not rave about this enough. We have 4 boys, three at the age to do crafts. They let you do an entire craft for free. FREE. And it is a nice wooden object. Besides the fact you get to take home things like monster trucks and birdhouses, they also give you a kid sized Lowe’s work apron and a nice fabric, iron-on badge for each project complete. Adorable and (can I say it again?) Free. Just remember to sign up in advance because they actually fill up.
Cutting Services: Sometimes there is a nominal (.05) a cut or threading charge BUT this is so much less expensive than buying things like pipe threading machines. They do all types of cutting services, pipe, wood, blinds, chain. We have saved a fortune by buying chain, rope, etc in the exact lengths we need. Additionally carefully placed cuts have allowed us to buy larger and less expensive boards that we can fit in the car.
Design Services: This is the only item on the list I can not say I have personally used. Many people rave about Lowe’s in store design services. If I ever have to remodel I would love to see what a designer comes up with. If nothing else I could use the computer generated models as a starting ground for my own designs.

I love a good deal and Lowe’s makes it easy to save money and get great appliances, tools, gardening items, and DIY products. Just remember the big items; always check their sales, website, and clearance sections. Taking that short time can save you hundreds of dollars if you DIY or garden often.