Luckygal...gee I thought I had posted a reply to you.. must have been in my sleep...lol Anyway..thank you so much. I'm really so surprised over all the wonderful compliments on this. I actually feel, that because Everyone saw the 'Before and After'..they are just amazed by the end results. I've refinished many pieces of furniture over the years, mainly b/c of lack of money...but then actually enjoyed the older pieces more than the new, because they had 'character'. With this piece...I guess I like it cause it's All Wood, and with the way we refinished it, gave it character too! All the fru fru I had, and I just 'stuck' it in! lol mag... like your DH, mine was very adamant on building one..but after doing some research on unfinished pieces..I convinced him to 'look'. There was a pretty big place not to far from us, and the selections were amazing. Slowly DH saw that some of the pieces, he couldn't build for the money. He actually spotted this piece, and the rest is 'History' !! Although, he did want to add top moulding and bun feet to the bottom...I convinced him I liked it just the way it was. There are many places online that have great selections, and now that the holidays are coming, do great sales, and ship free!! I used to scope the sites out, to see the different styles that they had, to get ideas for DH to build. So, you might just find the right piece at the right price too! Don't sell yourself short, I'm sure, with all the lovely things you have, you will be able to put it together just beautifully. Dom..Thank you......wow, you're just about 'Stripping Away' my DR..lol If I should redecorate, I'll keep you in mind.. but then you'll have to stand in line, behind my DD and my Nieces! lol I'm glad you too were in on the Before and After and appreciate the end results. Thank you all again.. jane

I didn't ask for discounts from cabmaker, granite fabricator, or GC. In fact, when the GC forgot to include the built-in cutting board that I had asked for (he turned out to be very absent-minded), I was willing to pay for it rather than holding him to the amount on the contract. I tried to be fair, because he had the power to screw up my job. He did make some mistakes and get sloppy at the end, anyway, and that was with him happy. Just think if he thought I was screwing him over. It never occurred to me to ask a craftsman to reduce price for no reason. (ao34 -what you do is different, because you are changing the service, not just the price.That's reasonable.) Plus, they all knew I was getting a few quotes, so if they were smart, they weren't padding anything. Appliances, however, I bought at a discount from a local appliance store by telling them what I could get online. The appliance store has sales - they do have a built in margin. It can go the other way, where they ask you to negotiate. That annoys me. Once a vendor did that to me, but it wasn't the kitchen. It was Invisible Fence, you know, the electric dog fence. They were the first ones I talked to, and I told him that. I also told him I had appointments with the other two guys in town. Inv Fence guy closed his presentation with "After you get the other quotes, I hope you'll give me a chance to see if I can meet them." Really? As opposed to, say, giving me your best price right now, since you know I'm getting other quotes? Inv Fence also runs 50% off sales. So if you call only Invisible Fence and you don't have the coupon, you pay twice as much? I hate that. I used Hidden Pet Fence. I guess I'm just not cut out for bargaining, even if I am Italian. I don't like feeling like I could be getting taken if I don't know some arcane secret or play some psychological game or clip some coupon. I love the new JC Penney policy.

Well, I have gone to every Tuesday Morning store in the New Orleans/Baton Rouge area (about 12 different stores), and I DID find the mocha/ivory rug that My3dogs has, but it was only a 3x5! It seems like every store had at least one or two of the Couristan Woven Treasures rugs in various sizes (ivory ones, green ones, pink ones, red ones). I still have the sort of golden/tan one in the 8x10 size in my living room, and I also bought a sort of crimson/fire orange colored one in a 7x10 size that is just absolutely gorgeous. It has sort of an Aztec-looking pattern with what looks like birds and vases with flowers. I almost think I like it the best of all of the ones I've seen, but I don't know if all that red works in my house. I may bring in back, but I just had to try it at home. I tried using Tuesday Morning's product locator phone number and entered the numbers that my3 was so gracious to get for me, but their system doesn't seem to work too well. I haven't been successful getting an actual person there to help me, either. It looks like this weekend I might take a trip to the couple of stores on the Mississippi Gulf Coast to see if I can find the mocha rug in the 8x10, but if I don't find it there, I may just have to settle for the tan version. If anyone happens to find this rug in a Tuesday Morning where you live, I would be happy to reimburse you for the rug, pay for the shipping and even throw in a little extra for your effort! I know that's a big favor to ask, but there seems to be so many helpful people here. Well, wish me luck! I WANT THAT RUG!!!!

Cabinet designer - they are on the same path of travel agents in this day and age of internet and resources at our fingertips. When I first began my kitchen renovation process the first place I visited was one of those "design and build" business. I had no idea of how much what I wanted to do would cost me at that point at that point. I took a sketch with my room layout and what I new needed to be done - move plumbing and electrical. The sales guy, a very nice guy at first, asked me if I was a dreamer or was serious. Asked me what was my budget, to which I answered I didn't have a set budget yet because I had no idea of the costs involved, but I was thinking on spending about 50 to 60k. He came to my house, stayed here for over one hour measuring everything on sight and giving some suggestions in the lines of just working of the current kitchen instead of moving it. I was open to his ideas and he said he would send me 3 or 4 options with an estimate in about 2 weeks. Fours weeks later and nothing - hadn't heard of him. Called, he asked for more time. One week later called again and I guess his boss answered - but I just said I was waiting for my estimates. He sends me and estimate the next day of 96k for the work, not counting cabinets and countertop. We are talking here about moving plumbing and electrical to the next room in a house with drop ceiling basement. And he wanted a deposit of 6k in order to work in any cabinet design at all. I was not even asking to keep the designs or anything like that. He only sent me one estimate, not estimates to the alternative options he had suggested that would be cheaper btw. I thanked him for his time and told him unfortunately I didn't have this kind of money to spend on a kitchen in a house that is worth 650k. So by then I had found this website, and subscribed to room sketcher (because you guys ask for measurements and drawings:) ) - got better and better at using it. It was a struggle in the beginning, but with a week I knew how to use it properly and make changes quickly. First I went to Lowes and then HD to get quotes and the only thing I knew is that I wanted glass door wall cabinets and minimum wood doors, base cabinets with lots of drawers, a spice rack and a coking utensils rack. Then I went to a few other "design and build" places that sell the cabinetry maker I had chosen, but was upfront saying I only needed quotes for cabinetry and my contractor would install - I was not interested on installation, countertops or backsplash from them. It took them 30 min of their time at most and they provided me a quote. There was some variation on the design here and there, but 99% of them were similar - white shaker, glass door wall cabinets on one wall, no wall cabinets on second wall, lots of drawers on base cabinets. Oh, that first place I had visited, remember them? Well, I went there again to get a quote for the cabinetry only and explained I had my own contractor and architect because they sell the brand I was looking for. He had the gals to ask me to give him all the cabinets I would need with measurements and fillers etc so he could give me a quote. Keep in mind I was still not asking for measurements of each cabinet or anything like that, I just wanted a quote to maybe buy a product from him. So, after that I just said (in my head of course), screw you. And bought the cabinets from someone else. One of the other small business who had taken 30 min previously of their time to make a simple design. Once I was ready to buy, of course they measured again and we sat down again to go over the design more throughly. Meanwhile, I have found ikea planner software that I think it is even better (more user friendly) than room sketcher, and free to boot! I have been using it a lot lately to make some elevations for some questions I have here when I want to present different option. Although room sketcher permits we custom size our cabinetry if it is important. I m in the process of replacing some windows in my home as well, and will be replacing them all in August (right now only kitchen and breakfast nook). Do you think any of the companies I requested a quote from charged me to come up with different options, measure and quote? Of course not. I guess there is still a market for people who think cabinetry designer/seller is doing them favor coming up with a initial design and quote. Sorry for the rant.