There is no aspect of adult life where you wouldn't benefit from being your own advocate unless you hire someone to act independently in that capacity. For building construction architects and engineers normally provide that service to owners but in homebuilding most owners believe that service is redundant and expect the builder to act in their best interest even when that would not be in the builder's best interest. It's an approach that works quite well until something important goes wrong. Then, the "owner pays", which is the first rule of construction law. You would be able to sue the engineer for those ridiculous drawings if he was hired by you. The builder is usually required by his contract to notify the owner and engineers of such obvious drawing discrepancies but if he wrote the contract that requirement would almost certainly be absent. Are engineers in your area not required to inspect structural work before it is covered up? Why wouldn't the builder want that to be done? Contrary to popular opinion that is not the responsibility of a building inspector. I have an engineer look at even simple engineered beams and have often been surprised at the mistakes he has found that no one had noticed. On a construction site, being your own advocate is often not enough.

The price you pay is immaterial, IMHO. A reputable, quality florist is whom you should choose in that they can pack a lot of punch for $50-$75 bucks, especially if you can provide an idea of preferences, colors, etc. so they can render their talent to the display! I recently bought a large table arrangement, and 2 smaller arrangements for either side of the hearth for a memorial service, and also had a corsage made for the widow. I went to the florist in person, with the tablecloth which would drape the memorial book table where the large arrangement was to be placed. I'm so glad I did. The florist chose perfect flowers and greenery to complement the tablecloth, used similar yet different materials for the hearth pieces, and made a lovely corsage that included a lovely ribbon in the primary color. Quite frankly, the result was artistic, stunning, and looked like it was worth a lot more than was paid. I paid less than $150.00 for the lot! If possible, can you go in person to a reputable florist and just see what, in fact, $50 to $125 will buy? Can you let them know color or floral preferences and just ask them what they can do within that range? You might be surprised! I think phoned in orders can often result in older flowers, or not enough care put into the arrangement.

Service up grades in most States require the homeowner to be responsible from the weather head down. When considering upgrades it is better to remove any splicing in attics, crawl spaces and any other place that those splice may be located at. A splice is a weak link in the wiring and with the amperage involved it is not a good idea ever to splice. Electrical power will always take the least resistance to ground if properly grounded with a 8' ground rod or rods. When updating the Meter Base and Main Breaker panel consider whole house surge protection to be placed into the 1st Main Breaker panel not out laying subpanels. Also consider ATS (automatic transfer switch) for auto start fueled generators and alternative electrical energy like solar and wind. The ATS will not backfeed utility grid power when it goes down from fault due to storms or other grid issues. But the ATS will feed onsite requirements as designed to do so or until the grid power comes back on and then the ATS once again does its job and shuts the generator cycle down. There are grid quality off the shelf products in today's market from various vendors that are designed to be mixed and matched (battery banking, inverter power, solar, wind) to form your own grid quality electrical power. So as for the cost of what it takes to upgrade a electrical service what are your onsite wattage needs and voltages? Along with a host of other considerations to account for. Alternative electrical power is an investment that pays for itself and is safe, reliable and efficient. the old days are gone when you had to wait 10 seconds for the fueled auto start generator to kick in. High end grid quality inverter power now is so fast that clock or computer resets from electrical power transfers is not necessary. www.dbelectric.us

Steve, I'm in the UK so am unfamiliar with Home Depot items. However, sinks in that price range over here I'd imagine would be similar, same gauge of s/steel etc and friends who have them hate stainless. Our sink in our old kitchen when we bought this house was a DIY store special I think ( everything the owners did was cheap and to enable a sale). It was the bane of my life. Hated it with a passion and vowed never to have stainless. Well, then I found this forum! I now have a kohler stages 45 sink and its 16g and obviously was £££ but I love it. Cleans up a dream and is very quiet too. It is a massive part of our kitchen functionality. So that was the only reason I said to get the best sink you can afford nothing specific about that sink ( though H.D do it in 16g and it is over $300 the one you linked is 18g which is still good but not the top) you are right that it is possible to remove a sink that is under-mounted and replace it especially if it has been installed with a cradle system like HUSH, undo the cradle, loosen the silicon round the sink and it will come free. however, if the sink is as big as the cabinet or almost and the cabinets have been messed with to enable it to fit it will not be possible to get that sink out of there without breaking into that cabinet that's really why I said originally, try and go for the best sink now rather than come unstuck.