Yeah, definitely an old discussion. I think it pretty much got torn to shreds by the rather eloquent opposition. But the real question is: how much markup is acceptable, and when should one attempt to bargain with one's mechanic for a slightly lower price when the parts are known to be more than 100% marked up? Of course, the immediate answer to the bargaining question (as discussed above) is to simply find another mechanic who will charge a total amount which is acceptable. However, what if I have come to appreciate a particular mechanic / business to a point where I want to do business with said mech/business as opposed to supporting their competitors? In other words - let's say I am quoted $300 for parts plus $145 for labor (about 1.5 hrs) for a repair. I do the research, and find that a typical supplier will charge $100 for the parts. If I pay the quoted price, the business gets $445 for the ---- In defense of the repair industry: I am a skilled PC (computer) technician, and have worked as such before - both employed and freelance. I, too, had to deal with the issue of mark-up. Doing freelance work, I felt bad about marking-up goods that I did nothing but diagnose the need for and order. As such, I did some research on what is fair in terms of mark-up. The conclusion I reached in the end was that 100% mark-up is typical and thus, fair. Ergo, I would judge that markup in excess of 110% is "gouging" unless some manner of extra effort was required to obtain the parts. However, for a business to be efficient, the employees don't have time to shop around. Therefore, they will most likely use their standard parts dealer, at whatever cost the dealer quotes (they don't care - the customer pays for it). So the only way to really know if mark-up is exceeding a fair amount is to contact the dealer yourself (perhaps under the guise of an employee of the shop you're a patron of ;) ). So, don't expect that your shop always gets parts at the lowest price themselves - they can get gouged as well. --- And to Dr. Farrell, I enjoyed your humorous anecdote about offering independent business to the mechanics. I know _I_ would much rather give my money directly to these people than to give the shop say, $65 an hour just to have the shop pay the mech $8 an hour - I've been on both sides of this situation before. On the other hand, don't get all high-and-mighty because you can put "Dr." in front of your name - even sodas can do that. Agreeably, I doubt pharmacists really work all that hard. However,lawyers DO do a lot of hard work, and are doctors as well - most of them just don't get such big heads about it that they have to _title_ themselves. Furthermore, intelligence isn't measured my how much schooling one has managed to progress through - the mere cost of schooling, for one, has seen to that. That being said, there are some of us who work in certain lower-paying fields because we are, for the time being, happier here. There is a big difference between enjoying one's work and simply enjoying one's paycheck. Which is one reason which we will always have plumbers, mechanics, et al. - I, for one, fully support doing one's own work - when such action is an option, of course - but we can't each do ALL the work which could be done by others. Sure, I can learn how to fix parts in my own vehicle, or I can pay somebody else to do it for me; but paying for it doesn't make me less intelligent. In fact, this do-it-yourself fallacy of logic quickly spirals out of control. Did you mine, refine, form, etc. your own glass, metals, and plastics to use as raw materials for your truck? Did you create each part yourself from these materials, then assemble them into a functioning vehicle, etc., etc.? In our all-too-short lives, we have to pick and choose our battles. For you, education and minor vehicle part replacement seem to be central to your enjoyment of life; but we all find value in different things, sirrah. By the way, what does a physician need a utility truck for? I can only assume it's for "squander[ing] away [your] earnings" as mentioned earlier in the case of the half-hearted mechanic. The enlightened find drinking more rewarding than trying to out-do their neighbors in a worldly possessions contest. (Hey, I can make uneducated assumptions and generalize too, can't I?) Knowledge does not grant education Education does not grant intelligence Intelligence does not grant wisdom

The CR reports that have been quoted in the appliance forum usually rates Cascade as best, often (Walmart's) Great Value brand, then Cascade liquid (with enzymes) then Kirkland, then various other Cascade and Electrosol (which is now "Finish"). But that's if you put a lot of store in what CR says, which I don't. I figure they're all comparable. When push comes to shove (or wash comes to dry) they're all very similar in manufacture. There's not that much difference in soap. Each will vary in the machine, water, temperatures and other variables. It is generally agreed however that enzymes work better. But it is important to have something for them to work on or they may etch. Also, powders generally more abrasive than liquids so if you're using it for crystal or sensitive fine china (which probably should be hand washed anyway) then you may want to avoid the powders. Rinse agents are important for some people's expectations. And also you should always scrape the bone, and big chunks off the dishes. Rinsing is a waste. If you're going to rinse everything, why not just handwash? Seems silly to me. FWIW, Target's brand (with enzymes) has been given good reviews by users too. I've used Great Value and SunSations as a detergent booster for a long time now. Works great and far cheaper. Actually, SunSations is cheaper than the Great Value brand. For my use it works fine but I don't have a dishwasher so I can't speak to results there.

Hi Officewench. I see two issues here--the cabinet itself, & the the general level of (as you put it) matchy-matchyness, which is a dismissive term I don't like, even if I don't care for the over-coordinated look, either. It's the same difference between saying that a room that's been decorated gradually over a long period of time--a historic house, say, or maybe my own place--has an undecorated look and saying that it's a jumbled mess. At Malmaison in France, everything has been designed within an inch of its life, and the woods & the gilt-bronze hardwaree and the silk lampas fabrics are all perfectly consistent, but the results are gorgeous, not "matchy-matchy". Thus endeth the screed. OK, now that we've finished with semantics, let's get on to your actual question. If the cabinetwork in your entire house--except for this bath--is already done in white shaker cabinets with recessed-panel doors, I hardly think that adding one more cabinet in the same style is going to sink the ship. After all, if you like the all-white look, there can never be too much of it, and if you're already having second thoughts about having so much of it, I hate to say this but it's already too late, anyway, so don't expect a single cabinet to correct the balance. This has nothing to do with that. So, now that we've established that what goes on in the bathroom stays in the bathroom, you can forget about what's going on in the rest of the house as you choose your bathroom's vanity. It's time to focus on the here-&-now. Here's the thing: cherry's a funny wood. In bright light--and if the wood is in a fairly light-color stain--cherry can be absolutely beautiful, with a wonderful, shimmering, satiny luster that you otherwise only see in things like birds-eye & curly & fiddle-back maple veneers and (sometimes) in sycamore. On the other hand, in its darker colorations & without strong directional light to highlight its occasional chatoyance, cherry can also look dull & lifeless, with nothing but surface shine to add any sort of visual interest. That's why, in a very small room with no natural light, I might hesitate to use cherry: it won't show off to its best advantage, and, added to the fact that it will be the only time the wood shows up in your otherwise all-white decor, your vanity could end up looking like something you picked up merely because it was a good deal--rather than something you bought because you loved it--or worse, that it was a mistake, like the wrong cabinet showed up on the truck & you didn't have time to exchange it for the right one. face it: we live in a complicated world, and stuff like that sometimes happens, but when it does, there's no point advertising the fact, and there's even less reason to make it look like that's the case when it really isn't. You'll know which is the right answer. Regards, Magnaverde.

You can get an automotive shop to re-coat a fridge, but that is usually done on fridges that are already painted. To start with stainless steel, they may need to rough up the surface to get adhesion, and if you're looking at a translucent coating, then the roughed-up stainless (if it were even possible to do that) wouldn't look so good. I would get some scrap stainless and test this first if you wanted to go this route. Few things are as durable as stainless steel in a kitchen. You could end up with long-term wear issues from any coating. Many European kitchens feature paneled refrigerators which is more so the standard style there, and those are available here in North America if you wanted to place cabinetry panels over the fridge to disguise it. I've even heard it said that if you get an exposed refrigerator in Europe they say you have decorated "American" style.