If $800 makes or breaks a home build, then you are not in any financial shape to build. It will cost FAR more than that to fix the damage from one bad fixture flooding your home. Remember that the plumber provides NO WARRANTY on any product that you furnish. It's all on you to get it right, and to know the difference between cheepchinesecrap knockoffs that only look good and the real thing.

You engage a professional for his knowledge. Not just his skills at wielding a pipe wrench. He's offering you that knowledge in his link to a local showroom where he trusts the quality. If you choose to disregard that aspect of the selection process, then good luck with your build. You're going to need it if you are trying to second guess and micromanage the people that know more than you do.

I would save the money and wait until I could afford to pay for the job before I went into debt. Really.

There will always be something else that comes up that will be expensive. It's a universal rule. When you go into debt then your car will go out or your kids will need braces or there will be an expense you just couldn't foresee but it will happen.

When you borrow money you are paying interest. So don't forget to factor that in. If you're planning on using a credit card and paying a little per month then it will cost you hundreds if not thousands in interest. And if you fall behind on payments it will get worse fast.

Get serious about saving and you'll be so proud of yourself. If you can't seem to save, how do you expect to pay off the $11000 + interest?

I'm not sure your contractor doesn't get a kick-back from this store. P S ?

Most professionals let the difference between wholesale and retail pay for the time spend creating the list, and delivery and checking in of the products. That isn't a ''kickback''. It's part of the compensation package for services rendered. Or, they allow the homeowner to have their wholesale rate and just charge a straight % on top of product for the service. If the service is provided, you don't get out of paying for it one way or another.

Our plumber also guarentees the work when bought through him- if that's a consideration. He comes back out if we have ANY problems with fixtures/plumbing in the first 2 years. Luckily, his prices were all about the same as we could find elsewhere (and two significantly cheaper!).

1. @Architectural Novice I have discussed it with the
contractor; he claims that even when it's the same manufacturer, model #, etc,
that all manufacturers have a "pro quality" version that they only
send to pro houses, and that the other stores (HD, Lowes, etc. all get a
"second" version). I know that sometimes there are similar
versions of the same product, where perhaps the pro supply houses might get
all-metal, and a similar version with some parts made of plastic - but the
model numbers are different in that case. So I don't get his concern in this
issue.

2. @Sophie Wheeler It's not that
$800 will break the bank per se, and trust me, if I didn't need to go into debt
to do a full rebuild of two bathrooms, I wouldn't be doing it. The house
is a slightly older house (about 45 years old) and the previous owners didn't
do anything in the bathrooms. After we moved in, we found out that the
master shower tile/wetbed is failing - water leaks from the master shower into
the room below. We also have a significant mold issue going on in the master
shower, which was not evident when we bought the house - the house had been
empty for over a year. The master shower is tiny (30"x32") , closed
off and there's no ventilation fan. We had several contractors look at it, and
they all told us the same thing: the only way to correct the leak and mold
issues are to completely gut the bathroom down to the studs, and then rebuild
from scratch. As far as the other bathroom, it turned out that the wax ring for
the toilet had failed, but we didn't know it until the little mosaic tiles
around the toilet lifted up from the subfloor being damaged. And prior to this,
there had been a leak in the combo shower/tub area, and the plumber that the
home warranty people sent out accidentally chipped the porcelain tub near the
overflow. They put something over it, but that came off and now the tub is
rusting and chipping near the overflow, and leaking into the subfloor as well -
and damaging the subfloor, and the ceiling to the room below. The contractors
who looked at that bathroom also said it needs to be a full gut-and-rebuild,
because the need to be sure that the joists weren't damaged. As far as
trusting the contractor, I am trusting him insofar as he says the only brands
he installs are Moen and Kohler; he won't install brands like Delta, American
Standard, etc. From what I can see, Moen & Kohler tend to be much
more expensive than other brands. Similarly, he won't install any
cabinetry that is found in HD or Lowes (like American Woodmark, Kraftmaid,
etc.), so I'm purchasing cabinetry from a cabinet store he uses. Also, the
contractor hasn't really spent any time checking over the list. I described
what I wanted in terms of plumbing to the supply house person, she sent me the
list of items, and I've been checking it over. I found a couple of errors (for
example, she was going to order a roman tub faucet set for the sink in the
vanity), and she corrected that on the list. On the new list, I found another
error, so when they open Monday, I'll let her know about that.

3. @leelee I really didn't want to go into debt, but if you
read my comment above, I don't have a choice. It''s either
gut-and-rebuild two full bathrooms, or allow the leaks and mold to continue to damage the
house. As far as learning to save because life is always throwing curve
balls, I am quite aware of that. I basically had to restart my life about
6 years ago, when I got divorced and had to pay off my spouse in order to keep
the house I had owned before we had even met, and was lucky he didn't file for
spousal support against me, because I was flat broke. In those six years, I
managed to save some, sold my old house, bought the house I'm in now, bought a
new car (and paid it off), paid off about $21k of my $40k in student loans and
refinanced the rest at a lower rate, pulled my credit score up to 809 (most
recent score), was unexpectedly called to become a kinship
second-time-around-parent (and just adopted this year), paid off about $45k in
credit card debt (and for the past 1-2 years, I've been paying off any credit
card charges every month to zero balance), and have saved up about just under
$20,000 cash to put towards the bathroom renovation costs. This despite the
fact that in the past five years, my position was eliminated twice at two
different jobs (one was literally the week after I bought the new house, and
then again last year, I was just a few months short of qualifying for a pension
and my position was eliminated. It took me a couple of months to find a new job
that works well with me essentially being a single parent). I generally try to
save about $900 a month, but given that this bathroom renovation is likely to
run about $45,000 all told, I'd need to wait and save at the same rate for
another 28 months. I'm not willing to let the leaks continue to damage the
house that long. So what I am doing is using a couple of credit cards to
float the rest of the cost at 0% interest (one for 21 months, the other for 15
months with 1.5% cashback on all purchases). I figure I'll end up
charging about $25k total for the bathroom work. $19k will go on the 1.5%
cashback card; if I throw $600/month at it, after 15 months, the balance should
be down to $10k. My current employer also does an annual bonus, which I
can safely count on about $3k after taxes, so when I apply that to the
remaining balance, I'll still owe about $7k. I'll need to hope for a
decent 3% balance transfer at the end of 15 months onto another card. The
other $6k in costs will go on the 0% for 21 months card; if I throw $285/month
at that each month, it will be paid off within that timeframe. It's not the
ideal solution, but it's what I can manage. Of course, all bets are off
if my job is downsized at the new employer; but I've been extremely lucky to
find work relatively quickly. And no, I don't know if he's getting a
kickback from the specific stores he is sending me to. He did agree to let me
price around for countertops at somewhere else other than his cabinetry store,
which was good - the cabinetry store was quoting me around $2,800 for a
54" countertop and a 25" countertop. I found what I wanted elsewhere
for $1,700, so that was a good $1,100 saved.

4. @Sophie Wheeler The contractor
hasn't really spent anytime creating or checking the list. So far, it's been
between me and the plumbing supply place he sent me to. I've been the one
catching errors so far - like when the plumbing supply place listed a roman tub
faucet for the master bathroom sink rather than the 8" widespread I
wanted. (there's no tub in that room, and she had no other faucet listed for
that room).

5. @Renee Texas The contractor
says he'll address any issues post-construction. So far, he hasn't even
produced an actual contract for me to look at though.

Just stay with the contractor. The buck stops with him. He orders; he installs. $800.00 is small change to protect you should something fail.

Sure, he probably has an account at the store. So what? He has the connection; you don't. Penny wise; pound foolish.

You order a faucet from an on line store. Contractor's plumber installs it...he won't guarantee it. Why would he?

Faucet is horrible; leaks, etc. On-line store...what kind of service will you get? You pay to remove the faucet; you pay the shipping return; you have no faucet; on-line store doesn't respond; on-line store finally sends you a replacement; you hire a plumber to reinstall. You pay for it all.

You should not go into debt to do any remodel and if $800.00 will put you in jeopardy, then I am concerned that you are in over your head, financially, before you even begin the project.

JudyG Designs Thanks for your feedback. It's not that $800 will put me in jeopardy, it's that the project keeps growing in cost. I had originally thought I would go with mid-priced cabinets, tiling, fixtures from HD or Lowes, using brands like American Woodmark, Daltile, American Standard, and Delta. Instead, all of the materials are significantly higher-priced; just the plumbing supplies are about $11,000. Cabinetry is about $3,700. Countertops, $1,700. Don't know what the tile will run yet. I'm told the electrical work will be about $8,000. I just never realized that brands like American Standard, Kraftmaid, Diamond, Delta, etc. are considered cr*p by contractors, and hadn't figured so much on product costs. As far as not going into debt to do any remodel, if you read my comments above, I don't feel I have a choice. The existing bathrooms are leaking through to the rooms below, the subfloor is being damaged, as well as the ceiling below too.

Are you happy with the contractor and his or hers references ? Have you talked to his previous clients ? Maybe talk to the supply store and see if they have a clearence rack... try go down and talk with one main person and try to make them work with you..

There're plusses & minuses to both. The contractor probably likes single source. It simplifies logistics. I'm getting ready to reno a bathroom & I'm going w/ local source who's slightly more expensive than online, but he's worked w/ me to specify every widget & gizmo I'll need. There's value-added in that. If there's something your contractor's store doesn't carry, he can still use contractor's license to get discount somewhere else w/o setting up account. We have "A" Gen'l Engr'g license & owner uses it all the time when buying mat'l for his rental units. On other hand, during my K reno I scored really good deals on appliances that I bought directly. If you've vetted contractor & you're confident he's top-notch, the $800 may be money saved in long run by quality of his work resulting in getting it done right the first time.