I love to shop the clearance racks at Lowes. One year I got about a dozen clematis that looked dead on top, but werent for a dollar or less.Another yr a bunch of hosta, lillies in pots last yr for a dollar,and other flowers at other times at end of season. Lowes is fantastic with an end of season clearance. Tammy

The Swallows have had a very bad 2 years all over the country, they are not lazy or greedy and are not usual "egg dumpers". They have had to endure horrid weather where their food source was scarce over many states this spring. Last year many babies died due to weather and lack of food.You just lost babies so I know you understand. You can not suppliment the adults like you can the Blues. I know you would prefer Blues but I would feel just as lucky to have as many TRES. You are so lucky to have both. The Blues will defend thier nest, the two species are usually helpful to each other once boxes are claimed. Stop picking on the TRES!

Hi squarefour, We worked directly through our local plumbing supply house for all faucets and plumbing fixtures, but we had to make it clear to our GC (who had to let his plumber know up front) that we would handle the purchase of all fixtures. Our local plumbing supply saleswoman gave us about 40% off retail (maybe partly because it was the 2nd whole house remodel we did w/her). We bought mostly Kohler fixtures with some Hansgrohe and Grohe. I price-checked against several online retailers and found, on most items, she was giving us a comparable, or sometimes better, price as those found on efaucets.com. You can save even more during the efaucets free shipping or 10% off promotions, which they run quite frequently. In a past remodel, we had a plumber get quite upset about the fact that we intended to buy fixtures directly through the supply house because (unknown to us) he had bid the job with the expectation that he would also get a markup on the fixtures. We ended up working it out with him and paying him a bit more, but our GC had not explained this process to us (it was a cost plus contract) so we assumed it was okay for us to do our own thing with fixtures. During our most recent remodel, we knew the question of who buys plumbing fixtures was one we should specifically ask the GC before the contract was signed (both for plumbing and electrical). It was fine with him and was perhaps different because we were on a fixed price contract and maybe that makes a difference, but I don't really see why it would, as long as you make it clear to the GC and his plumber that he should not assume he'll get any fixture mark-up on the job, and his bid numbers need to reflect that. Also, some plumbers will try to convince you that it's important for them to buy the fixtures because they will then stand behind them, but I've never understood that position because the fixture warranty is what matters on the fixtures, and the contractors' work is supposed to also be guaranteed, so if there's a problem with either within the set period of time, you should technically be covered. If, for example, there's an issue with a faucet and you have to pay a plumber to come back and fix it, you'd probably have to pay for the plumber's time (unless you get the manufacturer to agree to cover it all) so you'll have to weigh the risk/benefit of getting the lower price on the fixture. I'm sure others will disagree with this strategy, and of course, I'm speaking from the homeowner's perspective, not the contractor's. Regarding light fixtures, as it turned out, I wish I bought these online. My electrician told me he and many of his clients have had great luck using online retailers. Instead, I used my local lighting showroom, after researching the types of fixtures I wanted online. They did give me a fair price (which I, of course, doublechecked against online retailers), but actually, the local showroom service left a lot to be desired. We had a few fixtures that came in damaged, and they did not "pre-check" them so they sat in my garage unopened yet damaged and then when our electrician came back to set fixtures, we found several of them were broken and, as it turned out, were on backorder so it took about another 4-5 weeks to get them in and could have delayed the final building inspection. The electrician claimed that it was the lighting store's responsibility to check the fixtures for quality control when they arrived in the store before we picked them up. We also paid one of the lighting showroom "designers" a $100 fee to come out to the house, give us design advice for proper fixture sizes, review our order and make sure that our downrods were correctly sized for chandeliers, etc. As it turned out, when the fixtures were delivered, she had not ordered long enough downrods on the DR chandelier and two of the ceiling fans. Again, another 3 week wait for these with another return trip by electricians! Very frustrating. So, you can get poor service either way, and who knows, I may have been better served by going online. There are some excellent lighting retailers online who offer good phone support, as I've since found out. Here are my favorite online retailers for both lighting and plumbing, all of which seem to offer excellent prices - For lighting - www.1800lighting.com (the store is actually called Capitol Lighting, but this is their website address) www.lightinguniverse.com For plumbing - www.efaucets.com - they seem to offer around 40% off retail, but I don't have any experience with their service. Also, do a google search for ongoing coupons for all of these websites and you may find they have a weekend sale of 10% off or some such thing frequently. Best of luck on your project!

Well it's like this. Mohawk has really screwed over the retailers with the introduction of the smartstrand color wall to Lowes in mid last year. Lowes is selling the stuff for about the same cost as the retailer is paying. They worked some wild deal with Lowes and are now scrambling to get the retailers under control. With that said 3 grand on 140 yards or so is too much. They are paying for the carpet roughly what Lowes sells it for. so they are pegging it for about 3 grand profit. Quite a bit. Builder is flipping because he probably is getting a nice discount off the retail store. Tough situation. You could possibly buy cash and carry and have the builder's favorite installer put it in. It will still be a lot cheaper but that will eat into the 3 grand savings. If the installer makes 4 to 5 a yard for builder work....that will cost maybe 700 bucks minus the 99 dollar lowes install price. It sucks...I'd march into the retailer and ask what is the best you can do and show the Lowes quote. Maybe they'd do it for 1500 which would be half way there. then I'd do it because the builder will be pissed the whole time if not. I'd probably even pay the 3 grand because look at that vs the cost of the house and Lowes may use idiots...you never know..Sorry to ramble but i am giving you all sides of the coin. I no longer promote Smarstrand because of this issue. They are introducing some nicer smartstrand to dealers right now as we speak that Lowes will not ever get...but it's pricey...big time. Good Luck.