When I was "oldifying" my previous house, a 1994 Cape, I shopped at Bradbury & Bradbury (bradbury.com) for wallpaper, Rejuvenation for lighting, vintagetub.com (FANTASTIC customer service) for plumbing fixtures, ebay for accessories, Horton Brasses for door pulls. Now we've bought an old house (1900 Eastlake Victorian, albeit stripped naked and modest to begin with) I'll be back to all those companies, and soon I'll be headed down to Architectural Salvage in Exeter NH for parts for our broken mortise locks (I may have to buy the whole lock and scavenge the parts we need; it would probably make more sense to replace the whole thing but I'm sentimental about the parts that have been there for 107 years). He's a little expensive though. In a few months I'll go up to Old House Parts in Kennebunk ME, and check out the rumors of a Habitat ReStore in Portland (Maine, that is). jfpegan.com (who also sells on eBay as jfpegan) sells restored antique and handmade repro lighting at good prices. I picked up two slightly battered pan chandeliers at a yard sale this last week (15 bucks for both!) and when I'm a little more flush I'll send them off there for repair and restoration, which they also do. I'm not sure if I've seen anyone mention Bathroom Machineries (deabath.com). Sort of a mediocre website but they have things no one else does. Sadly, where I live (SE NH) the Arts-and-Crafts-that's-not-Mission ;-) furniture I love most is a rare critter, at least on the lower budget end. I've heard the Skinner "Discovery" auctions in Bolton MA have cheaper, less-fancy things; it's about an hour and a half drive but I'd rather bring something wonderful home from that than something from Ikea, which is the same distance in a slightly different direction.

Thanks for the responses, Jasmar, Cascade and PoolGuyNJ. I completely agree with you about the benefits to local service and support of the local economy. I think the problem is the two pool companies I have had contact with may just be terrible. First company was the one the realtor got to come inspect pool before closing. They also gave us a heart-attack inducing ($45K) estimate to completely refurbish the pool to like new condition. When I contacted them back with questions about the estimates, never could get a response. Unfortunately, we had to call in on our home/pool warranty Friday (when the pool was opened, one skimmer and one pump will not start), and guess who the warranty assigned to work on the pool?! Inspection company! Blech. So, since we were not impressed with them after we bought the house, we solicited suggestions from friends who were pool owners and got company #2. Had them come, look at the equipment/setup to give us a reno estimate, and hired them for opening and closing. It's been four months and have not gotten the full reno estimate (got a verbal ballpark of $25K at walkthru), but got those prices for the necessaries above after two more followups. The opening and closing process has been a PITA, as the company seems very poor at communication. First came to close without an appt and did not use all the chemicals left by the seller which we asked for them to use up first and wanted to charge an extra $250 for chems I had sitting in my garage! They did waive the chem charges since it was their miscommunication, which was nice and stand-up of them. Second, when they came back to open, took three weeks to get an appt, they changed their policies from working on Saturdays, so we had to take a work day off to meet them, then the nice man they sent did not speak English and couldn't communicate what needs to be done with the pool. He could only say things did not work, but that was it. He indicated missing plug/part in the skimmer, but I don't know how that could be since his company closed it and put all parts in the bag which sat in the deck box since January. Also, starting up the hot tub only one of the pumps would work and it causes water to come up through the holes in the deck and spew all over the concrete. These little plumbed holes seem like they should be for air to go down into the spa to aerate the water, but we are having water back out of them. Again, he had no idea but could only shrug and say 'not work.' They also charge $75/hr for vacuuming but we thought it was such a swamp lets have the pros tackle it first then we can maintain it throughout the season. They sent a kid with a Leaf Eater who only started 4 days ago. I thought I was inexperienced with only four months with a pool but even I beat four days!! He worked on it with Leaf Eater for about an hour and a half then packed up and left. He brought a vacuum hose but didn't use it. We still have a ton of leaves and silt in the pool. Now what? How was that getting it cleaned to be opened up? No followup instructions were given. They also want to sell me those parts I mentioned in the first post but gave me no recs on installers/electricians - I'm on my own after they sell me the parts. That's not a great endorsement for 'buy local because they are more helpful and supportive.' When I called the day after the opening and said I wasn't sure what the opener was trying to tell me to do the next day, maybe five bags shock? or maybe he was coming back to do 5 bags shock?, they said they couldn't get him on the phone and said 'is it cloudy? yeah, probably five bags shock.' I have to think there is more to it than over-the-phone diagnosis. So our $500 package for opening and closing was less than satisfactory. This co charges $220/mo plus chemicals for weekly service in OKC. That was too rich for our blood, maybe there are other services that are more in line with what you say Jasmar. Will keep looking. (FYI, we were not thinking to fill in the pool, but maybe the separate hot tub. It was Pool Co #2 who suggested filling it with dirt and making a planter, so if there are regulations about it, they were not too concerned with them.) I know there are good local pool co's out there but I am having a difficult time finding them, even using friend's/realtor's referrals. Just so disheartened! I ended up taking a water sample to Leslie's yesterday and was pleasantly surprised by their knowledgeable and helpful staff. They offered to show me how to use the test kit, explained what all the chem levels mean, and even helped talk me through backwashing and how to run the filter. They said the tests show no chlorine in the pool, so all the organic debris is eating it up faster than I can add it, so keep cleaning the pool and add more shock and some other stuff (floc/enhancer I think) in about four hours. Told me to keep a list of all the chems that seller left for us, and every time my H20 is tested they can help me find out what I need to buy and what I already have. so far best experience with a pool co! (and I know there are not a lot of leslie's fans here, but that has just been my experience). When the pool co #1 comes next week to fix warranty problems, I will see if I can find out about plumbing for cleaners. I was back there looking at the sand filter pressure and noticed a big thing that said 'Polaris' with an on/off switch plumbed in on one of the PVC lines. Will take a photo and post if they cannot tell me what's what. Here is a link that might be useful: Miracle of Chlorine!

So I read this about the 10-20% suggestion -- "The suggested numbers will be skewed at both the low end and the high end. It's really hard to do anything less than a 15K kitchen in a 50K house, as even rental grade components still cost a certain amount. It's the same with the upper end homes in areas where the market hasn't crashed too badly. When you live in a 1950's 1400 square foot box close inside the beltway in DC, you're not likely to spend 100K on a kitchen, even if your home is valued at that 1M. Most of the value is in the land, not the home." I was thinking "holy moly" until I read the qualifier -- five bedroom house in Arlington way inside the beltway (closer to 4k feet than 1.5) and we never ever pondered 100-200k when we were updating our kitchen. With respect to cabinets, we went the other way when updating (not remodeling -- and not gutting and rebuilding) our kitchen. When we bought the house a little over 13 years ago, it had a newly updated kitchen. White Shrock cabinets -- no solid wood was harmed in their construction. We never loved them, but we never hated them either. They're still fine. Heavy use from a family of five (well, 5 for the past 9 years) and they're still fine. Some little issues here and there, but they are not falling apart or listing or coming off the walls. When updating the kitchen early this year we started with the cooking facilities -- a 36" range and proper hood, with adequate ventilation. Added a new floor, because it really was time, a new matching pantry (which does have some solid wood inside), and small things, such as pot racks. We elected not to replace the cabinets because the old ones basically still work for us and the basic white looks fine to us -- not beautiful or lovely or awesome, but fine. Lovely cabinets are lovely, but it's a big kitchen, and the extra 30k or more we might have spent on substantially nicer cabinets was money we chose to keep. Similarly, we kept our granite counters -- not our favorite pattern, but a decent neutral tone, decent counter space, and they've held up just dandy to everything -- hot pans, you name it. I've nothing at all against the up-market cabinet suggestions. Paying for quality materials and workmanship absolutely makes sense if it's in-budget and appreciated. I'm just adding the perspective of somebody who has found a more budget oriented option to hold up fine. For me, the kitchen is about cooking. Storage is necessary, but I start with the cooking equipment -- range or top plus oven(s), ventilation, and prep space. For me -- just my perspective -- the boxes come somewhere down towards last. For free, I'd swap them in a heartbeat, but it's not free.

I think wedding planning was easier! We started off first thinking we were going to have the cabinets in our "new to us" house repainted, since the off-white paint was peeling off. The granite countertops were in great shape, and it was obvious the previous owners spent a lot of money on these counters. We received an estimate for $4500 for repainting. Then, I figured it would be better to reface, and get a whole new look. I received estimates ranging from $12k- $20k (with one place being very high pressure, "will drop the price if you order today" type of attitude). One place I called, also did remodeling, and I called them in asking for prices for remodeling, not refacing, yet told me remodeling would be "much more expensive" than his quote for refacing. How much more? He would not elaborate. At this point, with particle board cabinets that really were not in the greatest shape and could stand for a lot of improvement, I figured I had to try to get an answer from SOMEBODY about a remodeling price. We were not even trying to change much - just pretty much keep the same layout in terms of appliance placement, but make a few modifcations to get it to where I thought it would be more functional. I finally got one place, when he saw in person that our kitchen wasn't as big as he thought based on the pictures I showed him, to give us a quote for remodeling. Came in around $32,000. Ok, finally! I tried a few other people, both of whom wanted a budget. I explained how we went from spending $4500, to $15000, to now maybe $30-40k? But that honestly we wanted to spend as little as possible to get the look and features we wanted. My DH was not thrilled at the thought of spending $45 (as one quote came in) and the idea of redoing the kitchen fizzled. But I knew there had to be a way.. I called a custom cabinet maker that had done a few kitchens in our neighborhood, and I went to their homes to see his work. Beautiful! I was shocked to find out he came in the lowest out of them all (around $20k for just the cabinets - since at the time we were thinking we would save the granite, and he was able to do that.) We are still toying around with what to do - we have another quote from a friend who has told us that the markup on cabinets and granite is just ridiculous. Some of the quotes I received were more detailed than others. I have been trying to get more specific on other quotes so that it would be easier to compare them - I am so afraid of choosing one, thinking it comes with everything I want, then finding out it will be extra $ here and there after we've signed on.