Daily Home Renovation Tips

So, our second contest ever has come and gone.

And, I have to admit it was pretty exciting seeing all of you who entered our contests make your submissions; some only once while others almost every day.

If the number of contest entries is any indication, this contest was a great success. In our first contest, last fall, we had around 850 entries.

Guess how many entries we had for our contest this spring? Go ahead, guess.

Would you believe that we had a total of:

 9,338 entries !

Wow!

Only one entry was a SPAM type entry. And, only 6 entries were rejected before our winner was randomly selected because the people did not play nice. I did warn you, didn’t I? There were some that were borderline, but I let them slide …. this time.

For those interested in the more statistical side of a contest, here are some statistics of the entries we received:

• 1,816           - Number of individual contestants
•        5.13      - Average number of entries per contestant
•      55.78%  - of the contestants submitting only one entry
•       19.11%  - of the contestants submitting between 2 and 5 entries
•        7.76%  - of the contestants submitting between 6 and 10 entries
•      17.35%  - of the contestants submitting more than 10 entries

Do you want other fun facts from our contest?

How about the someone entering 6 times using the name of the actor who plays the Harry Potter character in the series of movies by the same name?

I wonder if the Harry Potter actor really visited our contest? I wonder if he has moved to the U.S. or Canada, otherwise he would not have been eligible to win?

Speaking  of actors, someone with the same name as one of the Sex In The City actors entered our contest 23 times!

The most common first name of the contestants? How about the name Jen / Jenn / Jennifer, for the girls, which was used by 19 different contestants (Linda was used by 16 different contestants).

For the boys the first name of John / Jon was used by 24 different contestants (Dave / David was used by 19 different contestants).

Curious about which were the most popular tools / equipment selected by the contestants during our contest? It actually surprised me a little.

Here is the listing of 9 different rental tools / equipment selected on each entry:

1. 2,842 - Pressure Washer
2. 1,716  - Aerator
3. 1,337 - Paint Sprayer
4.    870 - Chain Saw
5.    642 - Auger
6.    551 - Hedge Trimmer
7.    494 - Wallpaper Steamer
8.    462 - Tree Pruning Shears
9.    423 - Fertilizer Spreader

Any surprises?

During this contest we provided a link out to the Home Depot Tool Rental site where you could learn about all the different tools and equipment that were available to be rented. Did you actually go there? I have no idea how many of you actually did.

We did, and in doing so we learned about some different items for rent that they have available. Hopefully you did as well. And, that cedar hedge in our back yard still needs trimming. Perhaps I need to rent a good hedge trimmer and get started on it. Any idea where I can go to rent one?

One  more thing? Looking for a Home Depot Tool Rental gift card? Well, a simple Google Search shows the following sites are running their own contest for the same prize, so you might want to check them out:

• Home Construction & Improvement - expires 17-APR-09 @11:59 pm ET
• Today’s Green Construction - expires 17-APR-09 @ 11:59 pm ET
  • This site is run by the same person who runs the first site listed so I don’t know if each site is offering one card each or together.
• One Project Closer - expires 31-APR-09 @ 11:59 pm EDT

These contests are run differently, but the prize is the same. And, no, these sites are not related at all to DailyHomeRenoTips.com. 

So, who won? Well, we had to wait for a day or two once the contest closed in order to verify that the winner actually does reside in the United States or Canada.

We are pleased to announce that: 

Linda Fish

of Coldwater, Missouri is the winner of our contest.

Linda was a regular contestant, entering our contest a total of eighteen times. Here’s a case where persistence and determination has paid off.

Megan (our contest contact for The Home Depot) will be sending to Linda the $200 gift card that she  can use towards renting any of the tools / equipment at a Home Depot tool rental location near her. In fact, the gift card is already on it’s way.

Congratulations Linda!

And, thank all of you, again, for entering our contest.

We hope to see you return to our site many times in the future as we continue our focus on home renovation, home maintenance and home energy conservation activities …… and for contests in the future, of course!