This is indeed great news! I am joining today, and I can't wait until the web site is up - hopefully soon. Jackie

We are facing the same decisions on our reno in Lake Tahoe. I have lighting plans done, but my KD and contractor don't see eye to eye and right now I'm feeling pretty blurry eyed. Thanks dmlove for your contribution! I love your idea of overworking the Fluorescents on the overhead cabinets. I have a lot of those to work with, so you think T5HO would be the best solution for this? (For T24 only, we'll never use them) My husband and I live on mood lighting even when we aren't entertaining. Evenings we cook together and our kitchen lighting consists of candles on our island (2 glasses with a good Brunello or Bordeaux), 2 medium-lit task lights and a low-lit chandelier in our adjoining dining room. For us, bright lights are for surgery and cleaning. I'm also taking a look at your suggestion of the Juno 13 watt bulb airtight cans to dim and Lutron Hi Lume that dim down to 1%. We are searching for warm ambient lighting with dimmers......so any other suggestions are welcome! Under island and undercabinet lighting needs to be decided as well

Great point - Thanks so much for that idea- i will need to check and see if the item could be returned locally (in the worst case scenario like it being a total dud). I will call the local Costco and inquire - I wonder if they have ever addressed this before. I did review the written warranty from Bluestar and it says something to the effect: "warranty valid for all items purchased in US or Canada. It is looking like difference it will be the same range (RCS model) and after tax, etc would be approx $450 more to buy in the states. Not a huge amount but enough to make a difference and have me consider Canadian option (assuming it goes easily and relatively pain free). I will keep checking but have to pull the trigger eventually ... Don't want to be one of those who come back in 2 years saying "ok, I'm almost ready to buy" ...lol I did look on ebay and found 1 or 2 BS ranges. For anyone else thinking of doing this, beware of a company hawking BS ranges under the name if Markdown Madness - check some if their reviews on Merchant Circle. There is a similar outfit in my area (somehow associated with this Markdown Madness outfit) and they seem shady to say the least. 1 thing I think these shady ebay sellers do is sell a ton of simple items (shoes, lunch boxes, whatever) to overcome any negatives they may have selling high ticket scratch and dent items. At least that is the only way I can imagine a company maintaining a good ebay rating while having an "F" rating at the BBB and terrible reviews online (like Markdown Madness). In other words, if you are buying a "new" or "floor sample" item from ebay or craigslist, make sure you are buying from an actual dealer or personal seller and not from some guys using a storage garage to sell potentially non-warrantied items. Good luck getting any money back from people like this no matter what assurances they give you. Not saying you can't find a deal this way but you have to ask yourself if you have the capacity to deal with a total lemon (financially and emotionally). Unfortunately people looking for deals usually can't afford to buy another appliance if the "deal" goes bad. If it seems to good to be true - it probably is.

I have asked my accountant about this issue as this is not the first thread that has brought this up. Any company that does not charge you sales tax either pays it to the company that actually produced the product or they are evading paying the sales tax. A granite company does not charge sales tax because they technicaly charge 100% of profit as labor and are supposed to be paying sales tax to the wholesaler of the slab. Any kitchen and bath store that is buying the cabinets from an outside source is by law supposed to declare sperately the value of the product and the cost of the labor. I have to fill out a form from the State of Va that notifies all my suppliers that I have a "RE"sales tax certificate. That I am buying something for the purpose or resale. Other wise I have to pay sales tax at the price I get for the product. The law says that if I resell it I am supposed to collect sales tax again regardless of the fact that I paid it when I got it from a supplier. The oppinions that state you do not have to pay sales tax because it was installed is just not true. For this to be true the company has to state the products were sold to you for the same price they were purchased and the install was the only profit on the job for labor. For that to be completely legal you need a reciept that shows the cost of the products as stated to you was what you paid for them and that the dealer you had install the cabinets paid sales tax for you.