Pittsburgh Nesties
MandyMilller
member
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
And now another countertop question
You'd think that having just built a house we'd be done with these decisions, but somehow it didn't work out that way!
Has anyone purchased countertops from Lowes or Home Depot? Would you recommend them? HD has 10% installed countertops till the end of the month, but I'm contemplating stopping at Lowes before I order b/c I know they'll sometimes honor each other's sales. I don't know anyone who has ordered from either of these though.
Also, has anyone seen any coupons for these places lately? I swear I only get them when I don't need them!
Re: And now another countertop question
I would be wary of Lowes based on my MIL's current experience. The subcontractor that Lowes sent out to do the installation was not happy that the cabinets weren't perfectly level and left. My MIL had to hire her own carpenter to do that work and he subsequently found water damage that required her to get new piping, subfloor and cabinets. I realize that you aren't going to have the plumbing problems...but Lowes has been totaling hands off about the issues and my MIL still does not have a working kitchen. Her countertop was ripped out on December 26th!
Again, I know that you don't have the "old house" issues that she does, but just know that if there are any installation problems, the big box stores might leave you to solve them yourselves.
Yikes, that's scary! I don't anticipate those particular issues, like you said, but the "it's not our problem" approach is off putting. The other thing that concerns me is that even if I find someone who has used these stores, chances are it isn't the same location and that can impact the customer experience as well.
Amanda, I started with the smaller companies, but their prices are so much higher! I thought it'd be the opposite since these places maintain their own granite factories, but unfortunately they are just $$$. And, I don't like their options as well. The one local place was the same cost as HD, but for that money we were getting the same color of granite we could've gotten through Ryan (thus defeating the purpose of waiting). I actually hate the look of granite, but DH loves it, so I was thrilled to find that HD has a granite that looks exactly like marble (win, win). And their sinks/faucets are cheaper, so I can even get the distressed wood countertop for the island that I wanted (which shockingly is more expensive than the most expensive quartz/granite).
Anyway, they have exactly what I want and the price is right, but I also don't want to run into installation issues to get it.
A coworker of mine used this place:
http://www.quarrygranite.com/
She said the prices were great and the service was awesome. I looked into them briefly, but we're not that far along in the process. I also want quartz...and they don't appear to carry the cambria quartz and I've already fallen in love with a color. :-)
Just to include my experience with Lowes, even though it's not countertop related. We had to special order a garage door last year. When we got it, we noticed that it could only be locked from the outside (which Lowes knew but doesn't advertise/tell customers) - which was ridiculous. Lowes was amazing in helping us to get it corrected/fixed and worked with the subcontractor to get it done.
We looked at Lowe's to install a kitchen floor. The sub-contractor that they sent out was a complete idiot. I'm sorry to say it, but it's true. His communication skills were poor and he seemed to have an inability to problem-solve (he could not figure out how to install the floor without ripping out the swinging butler door to the DR). I just didn't trust him, so I let the $25 I paid for the measurements go and hired my own guy.
With something as important as countertops, I would want to deal with the same people, top to bottom, even if it meant paying more, and not risk it with a sub-contractor who probably gave the lowest possible bids to Lowe's to become one of their installation guys. You just never know what you are getting in that situation.