We too are in the middle of building and I think it is impossible NOT to feel anxious about borrowing and spending money when the economic news is so bad. It is downright terrifying to be building a home when almost no one else is. It always FEELS safer to be traveling with the herd. But I was taught - as I'm sure you were - that the only way to really make money on the stock market was to buy when everyone else was selling and sell when everyone else was buying. In other words, economically, it is BETTER not to follow the herd. I think the same thing holds true here. As all the economists and pundits keep telling us, part of the reason the economic news is so gloomy is that, after years of Americans having a "spend, spend, spend" mindset, so many people have gotten scared and have suddenly started to hold onto every penny they can. While the decision to start saving is great on an individual level, having the entire country start trying to do it all at once has helped to lock up dollars and contributed to the economic mess. DH and I saved frugally through all the years when "spend, spend, spend" was the order of the day. Now, even with the economic downturn and our investments taking a huge hit, we still have enough saved to purchase what we want. And, we getting better deals when we buy things for our house than we would have had we built a few years ago. So no, I don't feel guilty about spending the money we saved over all those years. Besides, as other posters have already pointed out, every penny we spend helps someone else keep a job! Besides, since the government has decided to print and pump more dollars into the economy in an attempt to get money circulating again, I figure double-digit inflation is bound to hit us very soon. Whatever dollars one manages to save right now are going to become worth a whole lot less in the very near future. Better to invest my dollars in durable goods that won't devalue when inflation hits. So rather than cutting back, DH and I have actually decided to borrow more than we otherwise would have...especially since we are able to qualify for very low interest rates on a thirty year mortgage. Rather than wait to do some upgrades later (as we had originally planned), we're doing them now because we're confident we'll be paying back the borrowed money with much cheaper dollars down the road. But, does all my logic insulate me from feeling anxious sometimes? Nope! I still have my anxious moments. Guess herd mentality is hard-wired in. LOL. Just my 2 cents.

I'd say sit down and relax! I know exactly how you feel! This forum is great when you are in the planning stage, but if you've already committed to something then there will always be someone that disagrees with your opinion. We are almost finished our Master BR reno. When I posted a question about glass shower shelves I got so many responses saying that 'they would never put glass in a shower', (I guess all those glass walls don't count? LOL), I panicked for a second. Well, I went with the glass shelf and love it, and don't anticipate having any problems with it. My DH put in 3/16" grout lines, I would have preferred something smaller, but I gave in on this (gotta pick our battles, right?). He would have liked them even bigger. It's sort of like getting what you thought was a great deal on something, and then doing more research AFTER you bought it, and finding out it was even cheaper on Amazon. As long as you were happy originally, I'd say let this one go!

If you are talking about Konecto or Allure, the manufacturer specifically says no underlayment. Evidently the "give" can cause the seams to separate. I put Allure down in my laundry room last summer...it has held up well in that small area, with no telegraphing: I decided I wanted something more permanent for the rest of the basement. I just had duraplank glued to my icky old asbestos...don't have a finished picture, but here it is "in progress": I will say, the cost differential was substantial. My Duraplank ran $7/sq foot installed. The Allure (DIY) was less than $2... I am very pleased with the performance of the Duraplank...but it's only been down a week. It HAS already survived a minor flood--Faye filled up a window-well (the one on the right in the picture) and sent water onto my new (down less than a day!) floor. I've fixed the downspout that caused the problem...but it was an anxious few hours while I waited for the floor to dry. It dried out just fine...but that possibility was one reason I went with Duraplank and not engineered wood. (Which would have cost about the same.) I'm pretty certain wood would have been ruined...as would any sort of laminate. Good luck with your decision! melanie

If I knew it would be coming next week, I probably would. But it's "maybe" it'll show up at Eurostoves next Friday, or *maybe* it'll show up the Friday after that. Of course I've never had granite so maybe I just don't know how bad it will be ;-) And while I won't be able to cook, I will be able to move the mountain of packed kitchen stuff out of my other rooms. And I need to do that in order to finish gutting the old kitchen and (more importantly) finish running the heat mats and tile from the new kitchen across the rest of the space. And then backsplash tile, plumbing, etc. We have weeks worth of work lined up that are dependent on the granite being in.