Would the contractor buy them from Home Depot or would you? What does the contract say about owner supplied materials?

Yes - lighting is a bit overpriced. Know that home depot and lowes stuff is not generally good quality but it can be reasonable.

One thing I learned about lighting - you can't beat the prices at lighting store (builder's price) because the brands that they sell are generally fixed. There must be agreements that there is a minimum sale price - because the internet sources all had exactly the same price as the local store - which was generally 50% off retail. The real savings came by switching brands. It takes somewhat of a leap of faith since you can't feel the product but we saved over $1000 doing this.

When we bought lights, we had to get the bulbs and deal with any warranty issues. We had a broken globe from Pottery Barn so we had to call customer service - not a big deal. Also the lighting store had some tech experts that really helped with ceiling fans (mainly remote control issues). Their fans were definitely more expensive than alternatives and I wish (on a few) that I had gone with other suppliers. It is nice that they handled ordering the longer rods when needed.

Home Depot offers a knock-off version of most popular fixtures and the prices are below what even a contractor can get at a professional outlet.

I suggest avoiding low voltage or equivalent line voltage track fixtures at Home Depot since they can't be made cheaper and still be reliable IMHO.

Home Depot recessed fixtures in insulated ceilings often require lower wattage lamps in order to avoid cycling on and off from overheating. This can sometimes be avoided by using higher quality brands like Lightolier or Juno.

Thanks, guys. I'm not worried about the can lights as they're already installed by the electrician, but thanks for mentioning about the overheating from lesser quality lights, macv.

Thanks, David. I didn't know that lowest prices were fixed, so you saved me some time checking along those lines. And, it sounds like the prices I saw online (for same store the builder is sending me to) are NOT what the builder will be charged? He gets a better price?

If you don't mind my asking (since you've been so helpful already to me!), what are some of the brands you bought online that saved you money?

And, while I have your "ear"--you bought your speakers from Monoprice, right? Which ones did you go with? I think I'm going to go ahead and order them so they can be installed right after the drywall phase so I don't have to deal with the cleanup from doing it myself later.

Wanna pick my house colors too? I see many test quarts of paint in next week's future :-)
THANKS!

I had a much different experience with builder's supply house prices vs. the prices I was able to obtain through online sources. I had my list of light fixtures...took it to the 2 recommended stores that my builder uses (had to go to 2 b/c the one lighting store didn't carry Hubbardton Forge, Fanimation or Tracy Porter). After the price quotes came in from his suppliers, I compared them to my online price quotes. We saved close to $8K by purchasing ourselves online (our contract allowed us to do this with no penalty). We only had 1 light fixture that arrived damaged out of over 30 fixtures. We saved over $1500 on our great room fan alone by purchasing online vs. from Ferguson's. We saved over $800 on our dining room chandelier. We saved over $1K on our foyer chandelier. Etc, etc.

The only pain was that we had to put the chandelier together instead of having a lighting store do it, but that was a small price to pay! And, quite frankly, we didn't have anyone involved in our build who was as particular and quality-minded as we are ourselves, so I felt more comfortable playing with the crystals than if it was the electrician!

Dixiedoodle, can you share some of the online sites? We sort of know a general "look" that we like, but that's about it. I guess if I can't decide quickly enough (or ordered items don't arrive in time), we'll just let him put a cover plate on the ceiling and take care of it after we move in.

Thanks,