As I look for faucets and sinks and trim and flooring ideas I wonder if the items that I will get for my home will come from a place like Home Depot or Lowes or do contractors use their own supply houses?

How do supply houses pricing compare to what I can find online?

Another thing to think about is getting a credit card that offers cash back rewards. Because we roll almost everything through our credit card and pay ourselves back with the construction loan dispersments we have managed to accumulate a large sum of cash back that paid for pretty much all of our appliances...Just a thought.

An example of the pricing online to the supply houses, the sink I want is $300 at Home Depot. The plumber supply house that my plumber buys through was $400. Also the tub we bought for the master was 400 less through the big box store over the supply house. It just depends on the item though.

We live in a rural area. So rural that we have more one lane bridges than stores. We are planning to build on the property that we currently live on.

The Amish have done amazing work around here, but I know that they arent going to know where to get certain things that I would want that typically the Amish dont deal with.

If you supply your own items for your trades to install, be sure that you completely understand what it is you need to provide. If you are planning a complicated shower install for instance, be sure that you get all of the correct control valves in the correct manufacturer's finish and have everything on site in time for your plumber. And be prepared to deal with the supplier and manufacturer if you've received a defective valve. Subs make part of their profit on supplying their materials and if you take that away, you also take away any labor warranty on the product install. If that valve behind the wall fails, and you call the plumber out to take a look, he will charge you instead of eating that labor charge. The savings to your bottom line may make up for the occasional callback for defective materials, but it would be better if you were knowledgeable enough from the beginning to be able do quality control on the delivered merchandise. If you have to have your plumber involved for that at additional cost, then you might as well have him doing the ordering as well.

Im glad I came here. Im really getting good information, but it is scary. How do people do this all the time? I am intimidated all ready...

To determine what is the best way to buy materials have your husband talk to the subs he wants to use first. Sometimes they can get better prices from wholesale suppliers and sometimes they can't. It can even vary from month to month. In any event, buying from the internet is risky but often it saves the most money. However, you really have to know a lot about what you are buying since there are so many knock-off materials from China.

2 years ago I was able to buy Andersen windows from a wholesale supplier for 20% less than at Home Depot and I got a quicker delivery date (Home depot had lied about the next available delivery date). 6 months later Home Depot had the lower price. One thing you don't want to do is tell the wholesale supplier you have been talking to Home Depot because he will probably hang up on you. They are often asked for written quotes in order to take advantage of the lowest price guarantee at some box stores. Don't advertise the fact that you are "shopping" the job as if buying a new set of tires or an appliance.