Weedyacres, I love your vanity! I will have to look at Lowes when I am ready to do some remodeling in my powder room. I also love your Rialto Beige tiles and I may use them for my middle bathroom when I do the floors first downstairs in engineered wood since that floor is not in the best shape. I love the mushroom grout and I am glad I used it for my Akoya Bone tiles that look so much like the lighter lot of Rialto Beige tiles but were slightly bigger. I have a 1/8th grout line that is now all around the same width. You have such great taste.

The problem with Any big box store flooring is this. They get junk wood which they get cheap which allows them to sell it cheap. Every see lumber liquidators 99 cent hardwood. If you look closely thats utility wood. Which means its all scrap that couldnt be graded for sale. I installed a friends floor they bought from HD and while the floor in every aspect was okay. The problem was each box contains roughly 20 sq ft. Out of each box about 5 sq ft was unuseable. The tongue was busted. Boards were scratched/dented or had visual defects. He had 400 ft to install and had to buy around 550 sq ft just to make up with all the junk wood. The other problem i ran into was what to do with that left over wood? This particular HD would NOT take any wood back that was opened. So he was stuck with that. If your big box store will take returns on open boxes then i say ok. But beware that you will probably need to buy more than 900 as your contractor suggested.

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A quality local guy is worth finding. Unfortunately there have been too many scam artists co-opting that term who are anything but custom. You have to do your due diligence. Visit the shop. The clean room where he finishes. Discuss the finish types and brands and his equipment. Where does he source his ply? (If HD RUN!) What's his favorite wood? Is he a raised panel guy or does he prefer recess panels? Where does he stand on reverse raised panels and humidity? What requirements does he have for his customers in order to maintain the warranty? How large of a drawer does he recommend as maximum size? Is he the guy you hope to find? Or just another smoke blower hiding behind a Self applied PR label?