Dollarama (Ontario) Canada sells whole wheat and white bread for $1.00 and recently added other related bread items Giant Tiger has great prices on produce, not a huge selection but usually just what I need, it's fresh and always much less than Zehrs or Sobeys. The only thing I don't like about GT is that they don't offer reward points. :-( Ah well, I go for the overall savings (but the points are nice) JASDIP I've never had a problem with printed online coupons and have used 2 (different) coupons for one item My favourite sites for coupons and deals: www.smartcanucks.ca www.bargainmoose.ca Coupon sites: brandsaver.ca save.ca websaver.ca (more listed on smart canucks) Price Match! Zellers and Walmart price match, you can use coupons with price matching and do pretty good! I am an avid "point" collector, optimum, visa rewards, airmiles, Sobeys, Sears, HBC, (which I convert to airmiles) I buy Shopper's Drug Mart gift cards and recieve optimum points for purchasing them. Then I get points for spending them. Adds up really fast. I've used my Visa Reward points to buy Shopper Drug Mart gift cards - which are different than the gift cards SDM sells. Then I take the Visa SDM gift cards to SDM and buy their gift cards, then spend them on 20x the points day. I only redeem my points on point redemption day and use tons of coupons. I have saved hundreds and hundreds doing this! And it's all legit. :-) Oh and we go to a lot of movies and have a Scotia Bank Scene debit card which gets you free movies and discounts at the concession stand. Last week was the first week in ages where we had to pay full price for movie tickets as our scene point were all used up (darn teenagers!) But it's still a great deal (if you like the big screen like we do) Of course there is half price Tuesdays ... AND Pizza Pizza has a pizza and movie deal on right now. Get a large pizza and 3 drinks for $11 and get a free movie pass. So, that pretty much makes the movie free. Shopping these days is all about strategy it seems. Everyone at my house knows better than to go out to buy something without asking Mom first if she has a coupon! lol Usually I do. Geesh I could go on forever about couponing. It's sort of a hobby for me. :-) BJ

The relationship is a bit complex. What is the reason for rising interest rates? Currently the US Federal Reserve will consider raising their fed funds rate if certain conditions are met - namely employment and growth metrics. So if interest rates rise because employee wages are heating up, and GDP growth is increasing, and inflation is a risk, then your build will cost more. Not necessarily because of interest rates, but because of the conditions that caused them to rise in the first place. Cost to build is more a function of wages, industry capacity, lumber and other building materials costs. Cost to you may or may not take into consideration rising interest rates. It will cost you more, of course, if you are borrowing. Good luck!

Update: I was able to determine that the plans I gave the cheaper fabricator didn't account for needing countertop under the cabinets that touch the counters or 20 square feet. (This wasn't his fault it was the way my KD had sent me a picture of where counters would be needed and didn't take this part into account). When I factored in needing more square footage, the difference was about $1800 and I thought I could live with that for ease of scheduling and then my cabinet guys are on the hook for making sure it's right. SO... I contacted the cheaper fabricator to let him know I wasn't going to use him. He asked if he could sharpen his pencils and I agreed. He said because I've sent 2 people there (because of their prices), he said he would keep the SAME price for the additional square footage. We are talking $6800 for 133 sq feet compared to $9800 for same. Honestly I don't know how they can do it that low. My cabinet guy said it's like "you can always buy a chevy for $40K less than a mercedes" but I don't think that's a good analogy. I'm talking about the exact same product. Apples to apples. $3K less. Long story why, but cheaper fabricator has a $2500 (fully refundable) deposit. I was thinking I could tell him that I wouldn't pay any more until the job is completed because I'm nervous about quality. It's hard to walk away from $3K! Also note that I called Cambria to inquire if they were legit, the rep knew exactly who they were and said "they order a lot of product from us"....

This is the first time I’m reading about this situation and I’m so glad to see you chose this route. In fact, had I read it when it was first posted, this is exactly what I’d have suggested because the hood isn’t subjected to anywhere near the same use and abuse as the cabinets—especially the ones around the sinks and dishwashers—not even close!