Monday, October 16 (Pinching pennies)

It's raining cats and dogs today and we're under a tornado and flood watch. I didn't go by the house since I doubt any of the contractors showed up. No point in braving the weather just to be disappointed.

It wasn't a completely wasted day as I had time to look at fixtures online. The glass knobs for my kitchen cabinets came in, too! I ordered them from ebay Friday night and they arrived on Monday - now that's fast shipping! I got a good deal on them as well. The seller was asking $36 for a lot of 18. I "made an offer" of $30, and she accepted. I've had pretty good luck on ebay with hardware - all my kitchen pulls in my last house were purchased there, too. I got $25 cabinet pulls for $4. In the master bath, we had $600 Italian faucets purchased for only $150 each.

We did have a bit of a glitch with the kitchen cabinets - Jesse had made the dishwasher opening 32.5" tall. When I went to the scratch-n-dent store on Saturday, I discovered that 99% of dishwashers require a 34" opening. Ooopsies. Luckily, there is enough trim above the opening so that Jesse can enlarge it and still leave enough clearance for the bullnose trim on the granite. Good deals at scratch-n-dent, too - I got a Whirlpool dishwasher for $169 (Lowe's price $299) and a Whirlpool freestanding range for $359 (Lowe's price $560). Both had such minor scratches that looks-wise I'd use them in my own home, and they were both still under manufacturer warranty. Better yet, we had $315 credit from something we returned a year or two ago. I still count it against the budget, but it's nice to use money that's already spent, if that makes any sense.