We also are current members of Direct Buy but when we joined the membership was $2500. Their sales tactics are creepy and I was a nervous wreck after we joined. But we made up that money in savings our first year on furniture and I had priced out through several locations including North Carolina. We have purchased many things there at a good savings but I have also found things cheaper on certain items through the internet. We are in the process of doing out kitchen but I did not use Direct Buy for the cabinets. At our location you have to pay for the kitchen design (ridiculous considering the membership fee)plus they do not come to your house or do the measurements. You are solely responsible and if anything goes wrong you will be responsible unless it was an ordering mistake on their part. I do feel that we got a very good savings on the granite and tile and definitely furniture but I don't know if I would join at $5,000. I know there are mostly negative opinions about Direct Buy and had I read those when I joined I think I would have turned and run. I think it depends on the location but we have been very satisfied but I also think we are more the exception than the norm.

all this non sense about chinese drywall boils my blood! Any cabinet professional knows that when comparing cabinet prices you have to get your 2 products as close to the same as possible in features to see who is a better deal. Comparing a cabinet produced for All wood to drywall produced by another corporation is beyond reasonable for the same type of reason. Sunco has been doing this business model since early 80's I challenge anyone to find a lawsuit against them for product quality you suggest to be going on. Stigmatisms are just that. You should be saying do not buy a Ikea cabinet as well. I am sure they are made over seas as well. To say that a KCMA certified cabinet made over seas is more likely to be made of poor quality materials over a KCMA cabinet made in the USA is just plain stupid. That is what the KCMA is for to state that the quality of a product meets the minimum standards for long term durabiltity. For you to suggest that becasue Chinese drywall has had issues and equate that to cabinets means you have to throw out every KCMA certified cabinet as not being safe. Way to many people have poor points of views that are not accurate with reality. Allwood handles the costco customers directly as mentioned in several posts above. Bottom line if you work with some one who knows what they are doing you will be fine wether thru costco or independent. The warranty on the cabinet itself is from Allwood directly. If your allwood cabinet cost more than armstrong you got ripped off. It should cost less. Armstrong as a general rule of thumb costs dealers about the same as what you can get Woodmark products for as consumers. My prices on Allwood are less then my american brands and I am in line with woodmark on my semi custom cabinets. You should not be paying as much for a stock cabinet line as a semi custom.

I did my whole showroom in Hafele. Did the install myself. Simple to do. They are dimmable. You plug a dimmer controller into the driver. Simple. Warm White lower wattage for up lighting, warm white higher wattage for under cabinet. Drivers inside corner cabinet, hidden by basket. Warm white higher voltage also hidden behind face frame of corner cabinet to light it. The electrical outlet is underneath the right side of the corner cabinet, and the occupancy sensor switches are under the corner cabinet. They aren't pretty. But, they have to be visible to detect motion. [Traditional Wine Cellar[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-wine-cellar-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_755~s_2107) by Other Metro Kitchen & Bath Designers ProSource Memphis Cool White, except under glass cabinets, which is warm white. Controller/dimmer to left of sink, right where the electrical outlet is that powers the install. Driver on top of cabinets. Wires run through cabinet interior, hidden by face frame. Glass cabinet tape lights hidden behind face frame to light cabinet interior. The outlet and driver for this section is on top of the wall. [Transitional Kitchen[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/transitional-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2112) by Other Metro Kitchen & Bath Designers ProSource Memphis Warm White, dimmer controlled underneath cabinet to the left next to oven, where the power originates. Driver is in top glass cabinet, with control wire run through cabinets hidden behind face frame. [Transitional Kitchen[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/transitional-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2112) by Other Metro Kitchen & Bath Designers ProSource Memphis

Well, the behavior of the rock makes sense. Knowing what we know now, thanks to Sweetcheetah, is that the rock is extremely well-bonded, pure quartz. This rock went through a lot of metamorphism to the point where the quartz grains grew into each other. The degree to which this happens with quartzites depends on how much metamorphism it undergoes. Some quartzites aren't much different from the sandstone they started out as. But others get much more heat and pressure and approach melting, but don't melt. Instead they recrystallize where the grains all grow into each other. It looks like in this rock the crystals are fairly large, which probably makes it more challenging to work with. So yeah, cutting this rock would be a lot like cutting glass. Extremely difficult and prone to breaking. As I described above, quartz (and glass) tends to break unevenly so it's hard to make a clean cut in that case. Too bad, Antarctica is a stunner. But the Snowflakes is cool too! Soilbean's example is fantastic (and those pendants - swoon!).