Home Depot's doors are open

Douglas County will get its second giant retail store in four months when Home Depot holds its grand opening next Thursday.

The 117,000-square-foot home improvement store on Highway 395, just south of the Carson City/Douglas line, joins a Target Store that opened Oct. 10 and has been drawing customers from surrounding counties to contribute to Douglas' sales tax revenues.

About 165 employees, all but 30 from this area, will staff the Carson Valley Home Depot, operations manager Duane Ferguson said Wednesday.

"Everything is right on track for our opening," Ferguson said. "Getting our permits, working with our vendors, getting our merchandise in - everything has been silky smooth."

Home Depot will open at 6 a.m. Feb. 3 after a by-invitation preview the evening before.

Hours will be 6 a.m.-9 p.m. weekdays, 6 a.m.-8 p.m. Saturdays and 8 a.m.-7 p.m. Sundays. Weekend hours will run later in the spring, summer and fall, Ferguson said.

"We've been very successful in hiring from the construction trades," Ferguson said. "We've got an outstanding crew with tremendous depth of product knowledge - ex-electricians, ex-plumbers, ex-contractors."

The Carson Valley store is the largest in Nevada, which also has three stores in the Reno-Sparks area and several in Southern Nevada.

It features a 15,000-square-foot exterior garden center.

The new store brings Home Depot's tool rental program to Northern Nevada, Ferguson said.

"We've got things like trenchers, jackhammers, paint sprayers, sod cutters - any type of tool that will be used in installing the type of products we sell," he said. "If someone is installing crown molding and needs a slide compound saw, he can rent it from us instead of buying one for $500."