Home Center celebrates new owners with ribbon-cutting, grand reopening

MOSES LAKE — The owners of the Home Center made their takeover of the business official Friday with a ribbon-cutting and a grand reopening Friday. 

“We’re under new owners with the same friendly customer service and good furniture pricing,” said Ron Cox, who now officially co-owns the store with his wife Wendy. 

The Coxes actually took over the store back in February, but between one thing and another had to hold off on making the official debut to the community as the owners. 

Not that the change of ownership changes a whole lot. Wendy has been working at the store for 28 years and running the place for about 15. When longtime owner Roger McSteen decided to retire, the Coxes started the process of purchasing it to continue his legacy. 

McSteen first opened The Home Center in Moses Lake in the former Tri-State Outfitters building on West Broadway in 1995. At that time the store was an expansion from McSteen’s original store in Stanwood, north of Everett. A third location opened in Ephrata, but both the Ephrata and the Stanwood stores have closed since, leaving the Moses Lake store as the last location. 

“We carried on the tradition from Roger to keep his legacy going, but changing it to our legacy,” Ron said. 

That legacy includes the couple’s children, all eight of whom have worked at the store at one time or another, Wendy said. Two of them work at the store now, and one daughter has shouldered a lot of the work recently. 

“(She’s) taken over buying and (other things), so she’s got a fresh outlook,” Wendy said. “I had some health issues the last few months, so she’s been thrown into taking over. She’s been amazing.” 

The ribbon-cutting Friday was set up by the Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce, which The Home Center joined in 2024, according to Columbia Basin Herald archives. The Home Center has been active in the chamber and the community since then, said Chamber Director Debbie Doran-Martinez. 

“(Wendy) and her team are a joy to work with,” Doran-Martinez said. “They partner with the community and help out when the chamber needs things, like when we do photos with Santa, they’ll loan us a chair to do that. They’re a great community partner and I’m excited for them to take it to the next level now.” 

“Hopefully we can expand and leave it to our children so they can carry on the tradition,” Ron said. 

    Wendy Cox stands in front of a bulletin board tracing the history of The Home Center in Moses Lake. After working at the store for 28 years and managing it for about 15, Cox and her husband are now the official owners of the store.
  

  

    Moses Lake Chamber of Commerce members Herman Schreven, left, and Chris Arnberg visit at the grand reopening of The Home Center Friday.
  

    A row of easy chairs in the showroom of The Home Center.