You buy it, you deal with all the hassles. From checking to see if it arrived undamaged and is the right product and finish, to being sure you're ordering every little tiny accessory that's required to go with it. Any warranty issues are yours to handle. Storing it is on you too. And if you mess up and forget something, you pay the trip charge for the trade to come back later and handle the install, plus you wait on parts. That's a big part of why contractors discourage homeowners from supplying their own product. Many don't understand that they don't understand what they are doing, and it slows down the overall build for the builder. If you really know what you're doing, have the space, and order NOW, then go ahead. But, do check your local showrooms first. Most will match internet prices and give you a point of local contact if there is an issue.

I had a much different experience with builder's supply house prices vs. the prices I was able to obtain through online sources. I had my list of light fixtures...took it to the 2 recommended stores that my builder uses (had to go to 2 b/c the one lighting store didn't carry Hubbardton Forge, Fanimation or Tracy Porter). After the price quotes came in from his suppliers, I compared them to my online price quotes. We saved close to $8K by purchasing ourselves online (our contract allowed us to do this with no penalty). We only had 1 light fixture that arrived damaged out of over 30 fixtures. We saved over $1500 on our great room fan alone by purchasing online vs. from Ferguson's. We saved over $800 on our dining room chandelier. We saved over $1K on our foyer chandelier. Etc, etc. The only pain was that we had to put the chandelier together instead of having a lighting store do it, but that was a small price to pay! And, quite frankly, we didn't have anyone involved in our build who was as particular and quality-minded as we are ourselves, so I felt more comfortable playing with the crystals than if it was the electrician!

Hi squarefour, We worked directly through our local plumbing supply house for all faucets and plumbing fixtures, but we had to make it clear to our GC (who had to let his plumber know up front) that we would handle the purchase of all fixtures. Our local plumbing supply saleswoman gave us about 40% off retail (maybe partly because it was the 2nd whole house remodel we did w/her). We bought mostly Kohler fixtures with some Hansgrohe and Grohe. I price-checked against several online retailers and found, on most items, she was giving us a comparable, or sometimes better, price as those found on efaucets.com. You can save even more during the efaucets free shipping or 10% off promotions, which they run quite frequently. In a past remodel, we had a plumber get quite upset about the fact that we intended to buy fixtures directly through the supply house because (unknown to us) he had bid the job with the expectation that he would also get a markup on the fixtures. We ended up working it out with him and paying him a bit more, but our GC had not explained this process to us (it was a cost plus contract) so we assumed it was okay for us to do our own thing with fixtures. During our most recent remodel, we knew the question of who buys plumbing fixtures was one we should specifically ask the GC before the contract was signed (both for plumbing and electrical). It was fine with him and was perhaps different because we were on a fixed price contract and maybe that makes a difference, but I don't really see why it would, as long as you make it clear to the GC and his plumber that he should not assume he'll get any fixture mark-up on the job, and his bid numbers need to reflect that. Also, some plumbers will try to convince you that it's important for them to buy the fixtures because they will then stand behind them, but I've never understood that position because the fixture warranty is what matters on the fixtures, and the contractors' work is supposed to also be guaranteed, so if there's a problem with either within the set period of time, you should technically be covered. If, for example, there's an issue with a faucet and you have to pay a plumber to come back and fix it, you'd probably have to pay for the plumber's time (unless you get the manufacturer to agree to cover it all) so you'll have to weigh the risk/benefit of getting the lower price on the fixture. I'm sure others will disagree with this strategy, and of course, I'm speaking from the homeowner's perspective, not the contractor's. Regarding light fixtures, as it turned out, I wish I bought these online. My electrician told me he and many of his clients have had great luck using online retailers. Instead, I used my local lighting showroom, after researching the types of fixtures I wanted online. They did give me a fair price (which I, of course, doublechecked against online retailers), but actually, the local showroom service left a lot to be desired. We had a few fixtures that came in damaged, and they did not "pre-check" them so they sat in my garage unopened yet damaged and then when our electrician came back to set fixtures, we found several of them were broken and, as it turned out, were on backorder so it took about another 4-5 weeks to get them in and could have delayed the final building inspection. The electrician claimed that it was the lighting store's responsibility to check the fixtures for quality control when they arrived in the store before we picked them up. We also paid one of the lighting showroom "designers" a $100 fee to come out to the house, give us design advice for proper fixture sizes, review our order and make sure that our downrods were correctly sized for chandeliers, etc. As it turned out, when the fixtures were delivered, she had not ordered long enough downrods on the DR chandelier and two of the ceiling fans. Again, another 3 week wait for these with another return trip by electricians! Very frustrating. So, you can get poor service either way, and who knows, I may have been better served by going online. There are some excellent lighting retailers online who offer good phone support, as I've since found out. Here are my favorite online retailers for both lighting and plumbing, all of which seem to offer excellent prices - For lighting - www.1800lighting.com (the store is actually called Capitol Lighting, but this is their website address) www.lightinguniverse.com For plumbing - www.efaucets.com - they seem to offer around 40% off retail, but I don't have any experience with their service. Also, do a google search for ongoing coupons for all of these websites and you may find they have a weekend sale of 10% off or some such thing frequently. Best of luck on your project!

Hi Mrs. Monkey - Don't know if you are interested in vintage/architectural salvage type stuff. Legacy Vintage in Cobourg ON has a great site and but even better a "Resources and Links" section to other retailers, many of whom have web sites. See the link below. One of the retailers linked is Turn of the Century Lighting, which is where Redroze got her island pendants. If you search her name on this forum I'm sure you can find a link with photos of her almost done kitchen and her island pendants. Also check out Royal Lighting http://www.royallighting.com/ - they have a huge selection. Eliz Here is a link that might be useful: Legacy Vintage Resources and Links