I find it interesting seeing your experience with pricing at Ferguson. I spent hours - literally hours - searching online for the best pricing for my Kohler Archer tub and Duravit Starck toilet , carrier etc. Keeping in mind that I might have to pay shipping - I found the best price to be at FaucetDirect.com and I wouldn't have to pay shipping because my order was above $1,500. I then looked on Kohlers website to see who the local distributors of the Kohler archer so I can see it in real life, the closest was Ferguson. I called Ferguson and asked for the trade price using a plumbers name and their price was $100 cheaper overall from FaucetDirect - Maybe you can find a way to get trade prices? I was prepared to buy online but one drawback - what if your item arrives damaged- ok you refuse delivery so now you have to pay upfront for a second to be delivered or wait for them to get your return for them to send you a new one - I imagine dealing with a bricks and mortar store might help if issues arise (not knowing anything about ferguson's customer service yet of course) Good luck it's a hard decision to make but when it's a product and not a service at the end of the day the product is the same and I would go where I save the most money. Did you call ferguson direct? Try calling and what thier walk in customer price is, if your contractor is charging you up and above that (he may be) he might have some negotiating room where he still makes money just not as much. (If you feel comfortable doing that)

Thanks- all good things for us to know when buying an expensive item. It is now ;Cyber Monday'= and I don't see any prices that are different from the last several weeks...maybe Cyber Monday is just a gimmick? I had a horrid experience with buying from Best Buy- in person....first, the salesperson walked away while I was actually asking questions about the computers- I floowed him through several isles to drag him back. He then said 'I'll be back in 3 minutes'....10 minutes later I found him standing up front talking with coworkers. I again ragged him back to the computer area. I bought the HP Mini. I did complain to the mgr, who gave me a $40 off the computor. 4 days later, when I returned the computer because it didn't work, the mgr only refunded $359, not $399...I guess all the crap I went through/got a sales price renigged because the product didn't work, and it was then ok to have such bad salespeople. I won't ever be buying from Best Buy. Now....where are the Cyber Day Sales????? owbist- I think it was you that said I was already ahead $40 online.....where, please?

V_olstein68, thank you for letting me know. I can't wait to get rid of this carpet. I have been steam cleaning it every 2 weeks and the beige carpet is never clean looking except the day it is cleaned. I am now leaning towards the Brazilian Cherry again. When the engineered wood floors were removed in my two foyers, the floors were very dry underneath (Alex's installers thought I might have a moisture problem but I think they thought this since I had a flood here from my air conditioner failing on me and squarting water everywhere) so I will get my floor tested for moisture when the humidity is back in the air in the springtime. Right now, my place is so dry, that I have to run a humidifier on all day to get the humidity up to 32%. Without the humidifiers on, my home seems to be at 23% and I know that is bad for wood floors and bad for my allergies also. I am actually thinking of buying a second expensive humidifier to bring my two room home office up to 40% since I can't stand how dry it is which hurts my nose. Since I had the new air conditioner/heating/compressor unit installed in June 2008, I did not have to run the dehumidifier to get the moisture down to 40% which is my comfort level since the air conditioner worked so well, that it was not too dry or too humid in the summer time. I have to decide to seal the floor or float it. Alex's installer's were great but they did not want to float the BR-111 Triangulo 3.25" Engineered Wood while other installers would. They said I had to seal my floor first which I may consider. The cost of sealing the floor may be as much as installing a plywood floor but that would raise my floor up a lot higher than my tile. Also I wonder if I can have a plywood floor glued down without sealing it but maybe I can since I know someone in my area that has done that in her kitchen and she has not had any problems in several years. I will have to think this over and know for sure when my busy season ends. I really love the quality of the Brazilian Cherry used in BR-111 flooring from the pictures I have seen and from what I have seen in person. Do you have any pictures? My next choice after Mirage Lock Maple Auburn was the Mirage Auburn Oak Loc Float Floor since I love the Auburn color. I guess that is why I wanted Brazilian Cherry since I love the coloring and the hardness of the wood.

When I first began the planning process for our remodel, I anticipated doing primarily online purchases plus the occasional local blowout sale for all my large items. I purchased my dbl wall ovens and microw first and got a great deal at a special sale at Sears along with deferred payment for a year. When I began shopping around for my Thermador induction cooktop and vent system I found that local distributors were very scarce and everyone was sticking to the MSRP. I was just about to pay full price at a local Expo when I was referred to a Kitchen/Bath and Lighting store locally which worked primarily with contractors and construction companies. They had a large showroom with full kitchen and bath displays, appliances, lighting, cabinet hardware etc. I did not expect to find any lower pricing but thought it was worth checking out. Since I was basically GC for my own remodel and trying to coordinate all aspects of the job, I was given small contractor pricing. They immediately saved me over $500 on my Thermador system. At that point, I started to do my internet research on models of sinks, faucets, undercabinet lighting etc. to find the best prices online and also to find a few local prices for specific model numbers. I would bring my list of model numbers and color selections into the Kitchen/Bath/Lighting store and in most cases they would match my lowest pricing or even go $10 lower. I did have one faucet that was on Ebay that they could not match price on, so I just purchased from the Ebay store. The bulk of my kitchen remodel, however, I purchased through this local distributor and have been extremely pleased with their service. Yes, I had to pay sales tax but I feel having the benefit of a local store where I can see potential purchases hands on, check color samples, get advice for options and selections I may not be aware of plus have the advantage of a local warranty repair service for the products purchased, was well worth the sales tax and small price differences. They definitely saved me $$$ over what it would have cost me at the local big name stores. I also got the added security of local service for dealing with order errors, returns and repair service which is not so easily done with online companies. There was never a shipping charge, most items were either delivered directly to me from the manufacturer or delivered to the Kitchen/Bath store's warehouse and then delivered to me by their own trucks on my schedule. They were willing to store my multiple sinks, faucets and cooktop at their warehouse for almost a month and then had them delivered to my home 2 days before the granite templating for my convenience. I feel I now have a good working relationship with the staff there and plan to continue to come to them for the rest of my whole house remodel. They have catalogs and work closely with vendors of almost any product you would need in a kitchen/bath remodel. They know that I will come prepared with pricing lists and am not afraid to go elsewhere if they cannot drop their price within reasonable range. Plus it makes keeping tabs on all my purchases very easy since I have full detailed printouts from them with all model numbers and pricing, delivery dates etc. I have found it to be a very nice "one stop shopping" experience and have no problems paying slightly above online pricing for the customer service and support. I would strongly recommend you check your local area for a similar distributor for construction contractors. Policies may differ between areas and stores, but if you can get a referral to such a distributor from your granite fabricator, tile shop etc. and are doing most the GC work yourself you may find you can save yourself many dollars, getting close to online pricing with the advantage of personal, hands on service.