A sink, a faucet and a pot filler

Have you ever looked at something on a website and wanted it so bad you could taste it?  That's how I felt about a farm sink.  Silly I know.  Here's what I have

It's not a bad sink, it's just scarred and ugly and old.

So I went looking and found my farm sink on VintageTub.com (I am naming names because somebody told me I could). Here it is:

It is so pretty and it will match the bead board.  I know geek!

Then I went looking for the sink faucet and pot filler.  That was harder.   I really didn't have an idea what I wanted other than not having a side sprayer and/or a soap dispenser, but did I want a bridge, center set, single post, a wide spread, a mini spread, oh good grief it was like the cabinet doors all over again. And the finish, since my handles were pewter with copper insets, did I want copper or pewter.   So l looked, and I looked and I looked.   I looked at Irawoods.com and at faucet.com.  I love the name irawoods.com, I picture some little old man sitting behind a desk with a sunshade on, filling my order.  Faucet.com is not so sexy, but I have ordered from both of these folks before without trouble.  I found stuff I liked, but I still wasn't sure.

I still had an issue with the finishes. Although, I would have loved copper, it was out because I saw the prices for the pot fillers in copper that were  $1,300.00 and I really didn't even like that particular pot filler that much, so I darn sure wasn't going to fork over $1,300.00. Remembering the fact that I am a visual girl, Paul suggested we go to Azel Plumbing here in Richardson and look around.  So we did and we talked to Tatiana, a nice Russian woman.  I was able to see the finishes in both pot fillers and faucets, compared them with my door handles and I was a happy camper.  In fact, I found a different pot filler that worked well with the faucet, I eventually picked, that I hadn't seen previously on line. So, she gave me a price quote.

Being the comparison shopper I am, I went home and looked on line. The difference in prices were at least $100.00 to $150.00 in what the store quoted and what the internet prices were.  I printed out the quotes from Ira and Faucet and took them back to Azel to see if they would meet them or at least split the difference.  My opinion is if you don't ask, you don't get.  I explained to them that I would rather buy local, but they could see that the prices were vastly different and would they meet me in the middle.  Nope, they said, they don't meet internet prices.  Okay then.  I said thank you and went home to order.

Now something I also did when I ordered, before I hit the pay button, was that I looked for discount coupons for all of these folks on the internet.  I was lucky and in some cases, saved 20 - 35% more on my purchase.

Moral of the story, look around, ask for discounts, look for coupon codes.   Here are my faucet and pot filler (finishes aren't necessarily what they are).