I posted this on another thread, but thought I'd share here as well. I am a huge fan of Home Depot's daily deals. You can sign up on their website to get them emailed to you each day. Being a savvy shopper, I have literally saved thousands of dollars already and we haven't even started building yet! I keep up with everything that I buy in a spreadsheet that I use to not only keep up with what I've bought and what I still need, but I also keep track of the regular price versus the price I actually paid for things. I had mentioned on another thread about my desire to save around 50% on all my lighting, fixtures, etc, etc, and I kinda got laughed at like that wasn't possible. I just updated my spreadsheet tonight with some orders I placed today, and I am now at exactly 50% saved! Included in those figures are all the light fixtures, faucets, ceiling fans, one tub, two toilets, over half the doors, several windows, furniture, sinks, vanities, cabinets, hardware, etc, etc. We are building a 4 BRM, 2 BA, 2200+ square foot house for less than $100,000. I am serving as the general contractor, which is going to save us quite a bit. I have overseen construction projects before and have helped build two houses and have remodeled several, so I'm fairly confident this is the way to go for us. Our goal is to not have a mortgage when we're finished. We're able to do this because we recently sold two homes and will be selling the home we live in now along with about 9 acres of land that we own outright. We'll be building on the remaining 6 acres that we have. Another tip: If you're shopping online, always shop through Ebates.com (or shopathome.com - there are several websites like this) where you earn cash back on your purchases. I also buy gift cards through places like Raise.com. So, for example, when I want to order something from HomeDepot.com, I log into ebates, and then put in raise.com. Then at raise.com, I purchase discounted gift cards (that can be used online within a few hours of purchasing.) Then I go back to Ebates and enter Home Depot, then click thru the link to place my order at Home Depot. I know it sounds like a lot of steps, but it's just second nature for me now. My best find this week is was a hammered copper sink for my kitchen. I had looked at a lot of places where they were well over $1,000, but that just wasn't in my budget. Home Depot had one exactly like I wanted on one of their daily deals one day this week for $399. I had gift cards that I had bought through raise.com already and went to order it online, but their website wasn't cooperating, so I called and they agreed to give me an extra 5% off because I wasn't able to go through ebates to get the cash back on my order. So, when all was said and done, after you take into consideration what I saved by purchasing the gift cards through Raise.com and all the discounts, I paid around $330 for the sink. And it was exactly what I wanted! I've taught workshops on how to save money, and the first rule I tell those in attendance is to buy when it's at it's lowest price, and then figure out a way to get it cheaper through using tools like Ebates and Raise.com. Of course, when it comes to doing this for a house, you have to be extremely detailed and organized, and I've found that my spreadsheets and pinterest help keep me sane...when I purchase something, I add it to my spreadsheets and also to my pinterest boards (I keep several private boards just for this.) That way, when I'm out and about, all I have to do is pull up pinterest on my phone and I can be quickly reminded of what I've already bought, even if I don't have my spreadsheets with me. I've also purchased things like tile from Habitat for Humanity Re-Store. Before purchasing it, I looked up the tile on my phone and it was still in-stock at Home Depot, but by buying it at the Re-Store (still in the boxes even), I saved about 1/4 off the retail cost at Home Depot. I've also bought some things off our local facebook swap sites - some cabinets, trim, etc.

I really loved working with Bilotta, especially the particular KD with whom I worked (Tom). I also interviewed a couple of others, including NYKB and Atmosphere. NYKB carried Rutt and Signature which were the two lines I was looking at, as did Bilotta. I chose Bilotta because of the KD. gearing Atmosphere, they carried Signature and one other brand which I don't remember. Their owner was knowledgeable and responsive but their showroom was not quite as appealing. Maybe not the best reason to cross them off, but I had two other good choices, and I preferred Rutt anyway.

Did not plan properly for storage of my skillets. The 12" pans will not fit vertical / on their edge in the 12" drawer (the actual clearance of this drawer is 10.5"). So instead I have them stacked in the bottom of the other 12" drawer. Arrrggh. The drawers in this cabinet are 6-12-12. Drawers of 6-9-15 would have been much better for me. In my defense, I had not bought the pans yet when the cabinets were ordered, haha. All of the other pans fit nicely stored on their edges. At least I know I have a lot of company on this one. I see several upthread with the same oops. I wish I had planned a longer kitchen window. It sits about 12" above my counter height. When the house was being built, I could see out just fine when I could walk right up to it. But now that I am 2 feet away from it because of the base cabinets, I cannot see my driveway, the street, or even any of my neighbor's driveway across the street. I would like to be able to see when people drive up in the driveway of my house. I have to walk into the other room to look out another window. I'm 5'3"... others who are taller can see more than I can. (Our kitchen is on the top floor of our house, which is the equivalent to being on the 3rd or 4th floor in height) Not in my kitchen, but in the dining room right next to the kitchen ... I wish I had known that the clear opening of my 5 foot sliding glass door to the deck is only 23.5". For soooooo many reasons ... a wheelchair won't fit thru the door, living room sofas wouldn't fit thru it, etc. In the architectural design program I was using, the default width of a sliding door is 5 foot. I never even thought to question it. And also, I assumed that would give me a 30" opening. I have deeper upper cabinets on one wall in my kitchen, but not on the other walls. There is one other spot that I wish I had chosen a slightly deeper cabinet, even 12.25" would have been enough to store my 3 largest mixing bowls. As it is, a couple of them touch the door on the inside and just barely keep it from closing fully. It would have been no extra charge to have it deeper, I just didn't think of it (UltraCraft allows changes in 1/16" increments to height width and depth at no extra charge). I am very glad we went with 15" deep uppers on the other side of the kitchen. They are deep enough that I can store my large canning / crab steamer pot up on the top shelf. Also they are deep enough for my glasses to be 4 rows deep and my cereal bowls to be 2 rows deep. I wish I had planned ahead the space under my sink so I could have had a larger trash can there than just a little dinky bathroom size can. i.e. how deep is the sink, where in the sink are the drains located, which side the disposal would go on, how the pipes would run. Right now, trash can is in a different location, not in a cabinet. : ( The electrician must have mis-measured - he installed the outlet for the over cabinet lights too low on one side of the kitchen but it wasn't noticed until the upper cabinets were installed. So the outlet ended up being inside the upper cabinet. I wasn't here the day they installed the upper cabinets on that wall and the cabinet guy cut a hole in the upper back of that cabinet for the outlet. Glass front cabinets. Oops ! It might still end up ok. I now have an outlet inside the glass cabinet for lights in there, which I hadn't previously planned for lights in there. Eventually, I will get an electrician out here and have him piggyback another outlet above the cabinet to that outlet. I wish I had thought of asking for shorter toe kicks to give more space up inside the base cabinets. An extra inch or two would have come in handy in that skillet drawer !! I wish I had recessed the outlet behind the range so it could push back further, closer to the wall. We are also using the Lee Valley channel dividers to customize our drawer organization. Yay !!

I haven't personally. However, I have purchased a few cabinets online that I felt I couldn't make well myself. I have nothing but good experiences from online vendors. If they're a distributor of that cabinet line, I'm sure they're just fine or they'd risk their distributorship! Those are always pretty cabinets. Good luck! Christine