Yay for you! I love finding bargains. You're right that it seems sometimes as if they find you. We had a lot during this project, but our best bargain by far was our $2600 fridge for $600 at Sears outlet. It works fine, and the big dent in the front was covered by custom cabinet panels.

What a find! Congratulations!

But I have to say that my best bargain is my GC, whose initial bid was three times as much as the others. And whose expertise led me to increase the scope of the project. But he's so good and so sweet, and his guys are so amazing and willing and quiet and clean and responsible and skilled and just the best. So a big chunk of money, but a great bargain at the same time!

I came across two bargains during our remodel. I found the Kohler Harborview sink with legs on Craig's List for $600.00 (can retail for up to $1600.00). And I found my first choice chandelier on Ebay. It is the Restoration Hardware Alexandria chandy. I got it for $200.00 less than the RH sale price.

Don't you just love a bargain? Both were in perfect condition.
As a matter of fact, the guy that we bought the sink from delivered it on his tow truck flat bed. The bed extended, so he was able to get the sink to our porch and then he helped my DH carry it in and place it where it was to be installed!

My farm sink. When I chose it, it wasn't in stock yet. $769. I didn't need it for months so I said, put me down for one. I had to have that sink because it had the largest inside measureent I could find. (cookie sheets, electric roaster pan, big pressure cooker) A few months later when it finally arrived in stock it was priced less than the $769 so I was happy. When I got to the check out page, in that little box that says Do You Have A Coupon? I thought, hmmm. No. But maybe there is one. I emailed bluebath and they gave me an additional 10% off!! Got my sink for $653!

Chowgirl I'm a fan of Sears Outlet too...found my dishwasher there...the salesgirl started to scrape the label off with a blade and I said nooo!!! I'll do it!!!

I'm right there with you. So far mine has been the GE Profile 42" built-in fridge at Sears Outlet. Originally 8,000 but I got it for 3,300. It hasn't even been delivered yet because it's too tall to fit in our garage!

Mine are mostly appliance-related as well! $3200 new U-line fridge/freezer with clear ice - for $500. The same appliance guy gave me a fabulous deal on the 30" Thermador fridge and freezer columns, b/c the Bosch ones I originally wanted were discontinued. Now it turns out that the Thermadors are backordered, so without talking to me, he made arrangements ("If" I am willing) to get us the 30" Gaggenaus instead. No additional cost to us but over $4k value!! Our build has been stressful and disheartening in so many ways - but this guy is a true gem! He is the kindest, most service-oriented person I've encountered in the whole build - and it's all genuine.

Recessed ceiling cans for $5 apiece.

An undercabinet cookbook holder for $7. I love this thing; it saves countertop space, and it surprises me that none of my friends have ever seen it before.

plllog-
love yours! It's so true that often our true "best buys" aren't the cheapest at the outset. But imagine what you've saved in heartache and aggravation, errors and delays, etc. Kinda like when you think you've picked the short line at the supermarket and it really works!!

Sears Outlet: Kitchenaid 30" SS warming drawer, new with a barely there dent at the lower corner for $290. Since I'm putting this in the bottom of a wall cabinet, it will be invisible.

Also a 36" wide new in box Kitchenaid built in fridge for $3100, down from $5800. Discontinued model. Ebay.

$650 for a new $2300 floor model Kitchenaid 36" cooktop with a griddle built in. Had it freighted from Virginia to Texas for $400. Still a bargain.

Here is a link that might be useful: Our home remodel blog with pics

Our 48" Thermador sxs fridge. It was originally $8000 but we got it for $3500 from Sears Outlet. When you make the purchase there, you mark all of the scratches/dents you see. Ours had one little one. However when they only sent 2 men to deliver it, (which nearly killed them), they managed to add a couple more dents and scratches. Sears jumped in and the door skins were completely relplaced. They had some trouble with part numbers, so I have been sent the actual doors, and a couple sets of skins. I saw the total "bill" which was completely covered--over $4000!

So I have a perfect fridge for less than 1/2 price. It is great! The repair guy told me to keep the extra parts too, he had no use for them.

My crystal chandys were bargains too--they are Irish crystal, bought them on eBay for $89 & $99, QVC sells them for $400. They were brand new never taken out of the packages.

WOW! and I thought I scored on my items but you people really know how to shop. I bought a Broan $479.00 rangehood for $99.00 AND a $580.00 American Standard SS sink for $74.50.

Wow, that is impressive. We used the Sears Outlet a lot, too. Haven't saved quite that much, though.

Have to make a list, can't pick just one. Altogether a lot of savings.

72"x30" maple butcherblock, 3" thick from Craigslist seller for $60. It was in pretty good shape, so sanded and cleaned it and it looks great. They sell new for at least $1,000.

30" Bosch wall oven from Sears Outlet, $650. Savings approximately $700. It was brand new, but discontinued model. Turned out all the boards needed to be replaced, but were covered under warranty. A little inconvenience, but still a savings.

Kitchenaid gas cooktop, black ceramic, $250. It was returned to a regular Sears store and we found it on the floor in the appliance department and saved about $500. Replaced a white GE that was really dirty and down to two burners working intermittently. If I want to upgrade in the future, I can probably sell this one on Craigslist.

Weidiii, thanks for creating this thread. i'm enjoying it alot. I'm a serial bargain shopper. I did pretty well on the Christmas shopping bargains, but no big bargains for my kitchen, except our DW is last year's model, so we saved $300. We were pretty happy about that.

jkom51, do you have a photo of your undercabinet cookbook holder? I love stuff like that!

Are you guys finding these great Sears Outlet deals online or are you making a trip to a local store? And does anyone know if every Sears/retail/outlet store puts all their merchandise on line? TIA

Almost everything in my kitchen was a bargain of sorts. I bought my convection wall oven on ebay for $600. My 30" Kitchen Aid warming drawer (that we use constantly) delivered for $399. My farm sink was under $500; my copper sink was $130.

I could go on and on, but those were some of the bigger items I bought on ebay. I have to say, we even got a great deal on our granite, though ebay had nothing to do with that transaction. LOL.

You could say I was TKO before I ever even heard the term here on GW. ;^)

Great thread!

I saw the Sears Outlet service online but I know it's not exactly everything available at the actual outlet. What you see online may be in good condition, at a fair price...but they are not showing the REALLY good deals you get with scratch and dents...I'm lucky to be within 5 miles so I check regularly...and the good stuff goes fast...

westsider40 - We go to the Sears Outlet store. You can usually beat their regular outlet price shopping online so for the best prices wait for sales and markdowns at the store. You can also find some bargains at Sears stores. My KA cooktop was a return and I found it with the clearance items at the store. My town also has several appliance outlets where you can find some awesome bargains. These places advertise a lot on Craigslist.

Thanks weidiii and steff and everyone else for the valuable info.

SubZero refrigerator/freezer drawers for $1000 from CraigsList, brand new 48" Wolf dual fuel range for $7000 from another of our KD's clients, who had changed her mind.

Those were two of the first things we bought, and we re-drew the kitchen to fit them. So in a sense we didn't save any money, as we hadn't planned on those items to begin with. But we ended up spending about the same as we'd planned, with much nicer results.

weidiii, thank you for letting me know about the knobs and that I can get bargains if I looks since that is one of the changes that I want to make for my kitchen.

Thanks everyone for sharing your great finds which I enjoyed reading about and I will try to find great finds for the rest of my kitchen renovation.

$500 for a new Kohler Poise sink, retail $2500 on Fleabay.

$700 for a new Bertazzoni C36500X slide in 5 burner gas cooktop on Craigslist.

Not exactly my best bargain, but a good story with a happy ending . . .

I ordered an $1,100 KitchenAid cooktop from Sears online (not the outlet site). When the common carrier delivered it, I inspected it and found a small scratch on the rear edge of the glass cooktop (you would never actually see it, once installed). The driver called a CSR at Sears. He put me on the phone with her. She told me that they would either deliver another one, offer me a free extended warranty, or that they could take $200 off the price.

I took the money.

My best bargain was my cabinet maker! I feel so lucky to have found him.

The KD we had been working with completely ignored our budget and came up with a seriously flawed design with many unsatisfying compromises and not the line of cabinets we preferred, and he wanted $38,000 for it. Oh, and it would have taken a minimum of 8 weeks to get them.

A friend recommended a custom cabinet maker she had used, and he did everything exactly as we wanted and gorgeous quality for only $18,000. He also did it in less than 5 weeks.

Our sink. It is a Kohler double-bowl stainless undermount -- doesn't seem "fancy" in any way, but retails for $700+. It was an out-of-box return at Lowe's and we happened to get there the day is was marked down to $100. Sold!

Beekeeperswife, you gave me hope! I am going to pray they add a new big ding to my fridge so I can get new skins too!

Jenn Air Counter depth french door fridge = $1800 (normally $2600) on Craigslist. Brand-new, had been a floor model in an extremely tiny, little-visited shop!

NXR pro-style range = $1800. Cooks like a dream, and looks like a range that costs twice as much.

Plumbing, electrical, flooring and finish work= FREE (love my talented DH!)

Weidiii-I can't believe you found RH knobs at a consignment store! And in the amount you needed!

Holligator-a twenty thousand dollar difference in price with cabinet makers!!? Your bargain find takes the cake.

My husband found a Dacor double oven on craigslist for 950.00. It retails for either 4000.00 or 6000.00 (can't remember). Works like a champ!

My countertop: 123" x 64". It's Labradorite Blue River. We found it for $2,000 at a going out of business sale. I'm told it would have cost double through a fabricator. We found a company with a fabricator who, amazingly, had more of the same stone which we'll need for the island. Other smaller bargains were that we found prices much lower by buying local as opposed to on line.

Our garage is filling up with mostly new appliances via craigslist/ebay/out of business sales while waiting for our kitchen remodel. My latest purchase is a new Subzero 642/O (side by side 42" built in) refrigerator for $2000 from a store in its last five days of business. It has a few small surface dings from prior moving and sitting around but will be paneled anyhow. It is now discontinued but I think it was running around $7000 just last year. I wasn't going to get a paneled fridge when I heard about the paneling costs ($500-$1000), but this was too good to pass up.

So far I have gotten my 30x18 Rohl's Shaw farm sink, delivered, for $679 (at least $150 better than the best Ebay deal), my Martha Stewart mercury glass pendants (I really had to work to get these) for $161 delivered for 2 (at least $200 less than anywhere else), and my dining room chandelier was $120 with shipping- retailed at Ballard's awhile back for double that. Oh, and my soapstone from M. Teix is a pretty good deal too- I got Python, which is one of the most expensive, and got a $1600 discount, (installed, with trip charges) which ended up being about 42% off the original price.

I am also going with IKEA cabs, and customizing them with trim and then painting them, so HUGE savings there. I am planning to buy the GE dual-fuel Cafe range, which I can get with a full extended warranty, including delivery and tax, for $2100.

Amberley, was this a short term special at M. Teix? That sounds like a deal!

Oh boy.....where to start.

Moen double sink (d-shaped left side, don't ask me the model or anything) - Free. Has a small dent in the curve of the bowl. Was rejected by a customer. Hubby was delivery guy for the local Moen guy and had talked about getting a sink at cost. When the local Moen guy got this one as a return, he gave it to us. Moen would have crushed it anyway. We got the Aberdeen pulldown faucet and water dispenser in satin nickel for $100 (cost).

DCS 30" DF range - Retail $5,500; our cost $2,600 (including tax). Prior year model. Appliance outlet store guy gave me his bestest price (would have been $3,600). Replaced the DCS 30" AG range that I paid full retail for 4 years earlier (it got left at the old house as a condition of the sale).

Samsung 27.5 CF SxS - Retail $1,800; our cost $600. Has a dent in the side. Who cares? Have had it for 7 years now and it's still kicking.

U-Line clear ice maker with pump - Retail $1,200; our cost $450. Same appliance guy cut me a deal. It was kind of like my commission since I always talked people into buying better appliances every time I was in the store.

the $300 that the hvac guy charged us for 8hrs labor in installing the biggest beast of a (wood)hood known to man, in the center of our island/kitchen - straight up and out through the roof. I can't put a price on the aggravation that we would have spent trying to do that ourselves.

scrappy25-

Negotiate! The exotic Brazilian stones were 30% off, and I got them to wave 1 of the 2 trip charges (we are in Baltimore, so a bit of a trek). I am having them do the full fabrication and install, as this is one aspect I don't want to mess with! It could have been alot cheaper if we had had them fabricate and deliver, but not install. They also let me pick a remnant for free for my upstairs bathroom sink!

BTW, the Python and other exotics are still on sale.

Here is a link that might be useful: M. Tiexeira

Blanco Meridian faucet...retail $725, $450 street...got it for $70 from Craigslist, brand new!

Amberley, I emailed you through gardenweb to ask you more about the soapstone costs since I am in Towson like you are (from the other thread), can you contact me via gardenweb if you have a chance?
thanks!
Nancy

My pulls in my kitchen- I bought them on hardware4.com paid $264.00 for 58 pulls (6" for $3/each and 13" for @4/each). At home depot, they cost double that and my cabinet maker was going to charge 3/4 more!! Unfortunately, that is the ONLY bargain we got since we are building a house :(..

Best bargain....Grohe pot filler listed for about $1,000.00. Got it on ebay for $350. LOVE IT. Carol

We've still got plenty more to buy as we move forward with the remodel, but so far it's the $1800 fridge we got for $950 at the Sears Outlet. Then again, there's the ceramic floor tile we found at Home Depot on clearance (and had to go to more than one location to get the full 215 sq feet worth) for just $68. We had anticipated spending over $500 for the tile!

Appliances! Got two floor models at Abt (local electronics store in Chicago) - paid $1200 for a $2000 GE range and $600 for an $1100 KA dishwasher. Sounds like this is the place most of us have been able to save some. Ebay worked for me too -- got good buys on cabinet hardware, lighting, and a cool Grohe faucet.