On the front of our website, we now feature carousels of items that link to the doitbest.com website. You can now click on one of those items, order it, and have it sent to the store for pickup. As always, having your purchases shipped to the store is free of charge.
Initially, we have 3 carousels that randomly rotate. Two are Christmas items in time for the holidays. The third is populated with heaters. More carousels will be posted in the future.
In addition to over 30 vendor displays, I’m proud to announce that we will be offering some ONE DAY ONLY Hot Deals on select build materials at our Customer Appreciation & Home Show on August 8th!
Cash & Carry prices! While supplies last. Delivery can be arranged (Delivery prices not included).
We will also be featuring Garage Sale Clearance prices on many old, odd, & dead items!
At this year’s Fair in Lynden, Aug 17 – 22, volunteers will be hammering together wall panels for a Habitat for Humanity build project in Sumas, WA. Habitat is inviting people to stop by, volunteer to bring food for workers, or volunteer to work in an information booth. Contact Ashley at Habitat via email at ashleyf@hfhwahatcom.org for more information.
Westside employees will be pounding nails for Habitat the evening of Monday the 17th from 6 – 8:30pm.
After the walls are erected, our cabinet team will be constructing cabinets at the Habitat booth for display. Stop by and see our demo. I’m sure that Holly will be able to answer any cabinet questions you may have.
I’m proud to announce that, at our Customer Appreciation Day on August 8th, 2009, we will be hosting some drawings for prizes. When you visit us during the event, you can pick up an entry form to enter your name into the drawing.
Winners must be present to claim prizes.
On August 8th, we will have a Customer Appreciation & Home Show to celebrate being in business and serving our community for 50 years. We invite everyone to show up and check out the specials we have planned for the event.
In addition to the specials and vendor displays, we will also be hosting a free birdhouse building workshop for kids.
We will also be serving hotdogs, pop, and shortcake between 11am and 1pm for a suggested donation of $1 to Project Hope.
We will be offering a coupon on our website that you can print out and bring in for use in our store only. This coupon will not work with the online store.
The coupon will be for $5 off a purchase of $50 or more, and will only be good till July 31st, 2009. It must be printed and presented to the cashier at the time of purchase.
On May 30th, we will be having a “Deck Expo” to showcase the products that we have for decking. We Felt that this year was going to be a year that the homeowners would be working on their home, instead of flipping houses. Decking is an easy improvement that even the all thumbs homeowner can make to their house with some knowledgeable help.
Our Expo will have representatives from Geodeck, Timbertech, True Marc, Treated, Ducan, Mangaris, and Cedar at our store. The experts should be able to answer any decking questions you may have.
We haven’t done a deck expo in the past. We are hoping that this event will be helpful to our customers and we can do it again in the future.
As always, our customers can count on competitive pricing on all our products. For this event, we are throwing together some special prices on some products that will help you with your decking needs. These deals will run from May 30th to June 13th. Feel free to ask our sales staff about these deals when you come to visit us at the Deck Expo.
To say thank-you, we are offering free hot dogs and pop for lunch between 11am and 1pm during the Expo. Feel free to stop by, get some grub, and check out the various vendors.
What Is Thatch?
Thatch is made up of tightly intertwined pieces of stems, roots, and debris that are slow to decay because of high cellulose content. It builds up in a layer between the grass blades and the surface of the soil. If the thatch gets too thick and/or the soil gets compacted, roots may start growing into the thatch, and since thatch does not hold much water, the turf becomes increasingly prone to drought stress.
What Causes Thatch Problems?
Thatch buildup is due to over-fertilization, over-watering, and/or soil compaction. In the case of over-fertilization and over-watering, the growth of the lawn out paces microbs breaking down old organic material. Thatch problems are seen more in lawns that are over maintained or have high foot trafic.
How Much Is Too Much?
Thatch isn’t always a bad thing. In fact, a layer of thatch between 1/4″ and 1/2″ thick is beneficial. It provides a cushion against the soil surface and helps to reduce drastic fluctuations in soil temperature.
Thatch doesn’t become a problem until it gets over 1/2″ thick. Too much thatch restricts water and air movement, reduces fertilizer and pesticide response, increases disease problems and grub activity, and may result in the grass taking root in the thatch itself.
How Do I Get Rid Of It?
If you get to the point where you have a real problem with thatch build up, you may need to use a dethatcher to help get rid of excess thatch buildup.
When dethatching, you only need to dethatch part way into the layer of thatch. You don’t have to remove all the thatch. If you do remove all or most of the thatch, reseeding may be in order.
If the thatch gets really thick, say thicker than 1″, you may even use a sod cutter if you like to remove it. In this situation, you’d want to set the sod cutter to a very shallow depth so you don’t take off more than you need too. After doing this you will definatly need to reseed. Using a sod cutter would be a very drastic measure taken only because dethatching alone wouldn’t be enough.
How do I prevent it?
Probably the best way to prevent thatch is to not over-fertilize or over-water your lawn. Also make sure that you aerate on a regular basis to keep the ground from compacting too much. Most lawns only need to be aerated once per year. Some lawns may need to be aerated more often than that.
On March17th, Westside hosted a delicious breakfast at Homestead, sponsored by Azek Building Products. John Stegall of Azek presented three different areas that Azek can provide products for the contractor. Azek is a good looking and low maintenance replacement for wood.
1st was the exterior trim products, corners, sheets, cove and beadboard. Most would be used on the higher end homes and replacement for rotted wood on older homes. John talked about the workability of Azek and the new improvements that have been implemented per contractor requests.
2nd was the decking products and rail systems. The scratch resistant of the decking was impressive. While we don’t stock the decking, we can quickly special order it as needed.
3rd was products for interior trims, While Westside hasn’t had much in the way of requests for interior use of Azek, it’s always good to know what is available.
We see ourselves as a partner to the contractors that shop with us and we are constantly on the lookout for products that will help complete the project right and profitably.
The BIA Home Show is finally over.
Westside had a booth that highlighted Canyon Creek Cabinets, Codel Doors, Hardi Artisan siding and trim, Nichiha Prefinished siding and Wayne-Dalton Overhead doors.
The booth was envisioned by our design team of Hollie Hamilton and Grace West. The construction team was Paul Bovenkamp and Dennis Pease. The Westside Staff manned the booth through out the show.
The set up of the booth is a blitz, you always worry that you are not going to get it done in time. The show is the relaxing part, that’s where you visit with friends, old customers and potentially new customers. Then quickly tear down and get the heck out of there and back to work.
When I walked the show, several of the booths had new and innovative products. Of course, some of the booths are the same old tired look. One of our customers, Hudson Remodel, had a double booth, which seemed to have always visitors in it when I walked by. Lynden Sheet Metal had a large booth this year.
All in All, It was a good show. We got some leads. Even if Westside has been here 50 years, Whatcom county has residents that have only been here a few years and haven’t been to our store.
