Originally published Saturday, April 5, 1997

By JON HAHN  
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER COLUMNIST

Good neighborhood hardware stores are harder to find than left-handed levels. But the folks on Phinney Ridge are plumb lucky to have one of the best.

Hardware stores ... not left-handed levels.

Greenwood Hardware & Glass hasn't been leveled by competition from the big warehouse home stores. If anything, Ron and Robyn Lewis' business has prospered in the almost 20 years they've been behind the counter.

"And I figure it's because we hire good people who give good service. And they know what they're talking about," said Ron Lewis. Business has more than doubled since they bought the business, and the store has pushed out at the edges and undergone a complete inside/outside remodel. It's downright light and airy compared to my first visit there more than a dozen years ago.

The neighborhood's gone decidedly upscale, too, with a substantial amount of remodeling and landscaping. "Homes you could have bought here for $40,000 or $50,000 about 20 years ago now are going for $200,000," Lewis noted.

And since the Ernst store closed down near the Ballard Bridge, all these new homeowners are spending more of their home-repair dollars right in the neighborhood. That gives Lewis a relatively concentrated customer base between Aurora Avenue North and Eighth Avenue Northwest, and between 85th Avenue North/Northwest and 50th Avenue North/Northwest.

Like many of the neat and brightly colored Craftsman bungalows on Phinney Ridge and farther north in Greenwood, the hardware store at Greenwood Avenue North and North 72nd Street presents a freshly painted gray and blue-trim facade. Every morning -- 8 a.m. weekdays, 9 a.m. weekends -- the storefront is festooned with whatever tools and supplies mark the season.

So this is the season of lawn mowers, hoses, lawn spreaders and garden supplies. Nine months from now, the evergreen at the front of the parking lot will be the brightly lit center of an annual neighborhood holiday party. During Halloween, the hardware store is a center of special activities for neighborhood children.

This store, this business, these people are all about neighborhood, about what makes a community work. People waiting for the bus or going to work greet Lewis by first name, and he knows their names. "Someone told me that Phinney Ridge works because the homes are treated with tender loving care and held together with parts from our hardware store," quipped Lewis.

Well, they've got the parts, and the supply pipeline through the True Value co-operative, which is merging with the Coast-To-Coast Hardware giant. But what makes Greenwood Hardware work is its workers, Ron and Robyn and eight staffers, "including one who's been an architect, another who's a retired Boeing electrician, another who's a retired AT&T worker ... all quality people," Lewis boasted.

And the customers know by now that this is where you can solve many of your homeowner problems. "I always get a kick out of how the customers come up with their own solutions," said Steve Hugg, who's worked here for three years.

"One customer wanted a window box for plants but had a very narrow window sill, and ended up with a wallboard 'mud' pan that fit perfectly. Another broke the handle on a hood-release knob under the dash (board) and found a machine pulley with a set screw that worked perfectly. They're always happy when we help them find something to do the job."

Ben Anderson, the resident electrical and plumbing guru, retired from Boeing and joined the staff about a year ago. "It was sort of natural because I'm a resident here and I bought a whole lotta stuff here when I was remodeling my house." That's the kind of hardware clerk you need when something behind the wall or under the sink makes a strange gurgling or buzzing sound.

You can buy one or a pair of items on a shrink-wrapped card, or you can buy a whole handful out of a bulk bin. And you can still buy nails and screws by the pound, out of bulk bins at the back of the store.

Because there's not enough space for big-ticket items, and because you can't sell a whole lot of wood stoves from spring through fall, Lewis hit upon one significant need in this market: water heaters.

"Everyone needs one, especially in older homes or remodeling. And we've been able to hire good local contractors to install and service them. So far we've sold and installed more than 400 water heaters."

Of course, they still cut, bevel, edge and install window glass and mirrors. And Phinney Ridge homeowners still occasionally bring in a recalcitrant toilet or sink for a counter-top fix-it session. Because they know this is what hardware stores -- real hardware stores -- do for customers.

And they do it all without an espresso cart out front.

Jon Hahn is a staff columnist who writes three times a week in the P-I.