We are building a house in the spring in Washington

[marlakay]

I am totally confused now on which stores to buy my supplies. If they are too small we can't afford to build and we are retiring. If we have to buy at big stores which are the least offendable??

[politicat]

1. short list of recommendations I would use if I were you:

But I'm not you, so feel free to do as you please. I think that it might be more important to build for long-term efficiency and stability than to either build politically correctly or to build cheaply, but that's me. There's a reason we still live in a 1000 sq foot, 2 bedroom house. I'd also look into buying an older, existing house, but again, that's me.

GAF Materials for roofing: 78% Dem contributor. 84 lumber is pretty neutral, more so than Home depot. (84 contributed 48% of their 73K in donation to Democrats, all to individuals.) Oldcastle Materials is nearly as good at 43%. Of the building suppliers, these are the top three. Home Depot definitely hit the low end of the list, donating 94% of 716K to the Repubs.

Lowe's made significantly fewer contributions as a whole, most going to their PAC. about 48,000 USD came from Lowe's in total. Of that, 4300 can be identified as going to a Dem Candidate or Progressive cause directly; the rest went through the PAC. Interestingly enough, almost none of the PAC money went anywhere. The Lowes PAC only disbursed 12,148 USD of the 48,663 that they collected.

So in my mind, Lowes is functional. It's still a big box, there are still supplier issues, and building a house is never good for the environment.

Avoid: Jeld-Wen Inc, National Gypsum Co, Edward C. Levy Co, home Depot, Michigan Cat, Palm Beach Aggregates, Southern Pan Services : All were very bid republican contributors.

All information from opensecrets.org and www.campaignmoney.com

Pcat

[fudge stripe cookays]

3. Ooh! Good list politicat.

I'll add these (eventually) to the PP.

FSC

[buycottJoe]

2. I don't know anything about building a house

or home improvement, but I believe that a house is usually the biggest purchase in a person's life. A car is usually the 2nd biggest purchase. I don't know how this compares with the accumulated purchasing of groceries over the years.

That would really be something if such big purchases could be politicized.

[K8-EEE]

4. I Did A Remodel Of My 1920 House....

OMG. Very difficult.

We are in Los Angeles so I can't give you very specific advice but my contractor did get the lumber direct from the supplier as he though Home Depot etc were all a rip off for lumber.

Another suggestion is to comb the salvage yards. You can find doors, windows, and most especially decorative trim like emolding and fireplace mantels etc that are so much more beautiful than what they are making now.

I was not at all politically motivated when buying any of this stuff 5 years a go, just trying to get a deal and get some cool stuff; however there is that bonus of buying used/salvage that you are not contriubuting to the Idiot In Chief's corporate thugs.

The biggest tip I can give you is to skank around at the giant home shows in the spring and summer. A lot of the stuff we got from closing day at the Home show at the L.A. convention center. If you bring a pick up and a posse -- a lot of the exhibitors will let you take the floor model stuff for cheap or free if you will dismantel it. You can get faucets, sinks, fixtures of all kinds, sod (you have to have your yard prepared to lay it) etc. We got some gorgeous French doors for our bedroom for $100, they would have been $800 new.

Also ask about an Order House for plumbing and major appliances. The one I went to is Appliance, Plumbing and Design here in LA. They have no product in there so you go to the retail stores, get the model number of what you want and order it from the order house like the kitchen and bath designers do. You have to go in there with model numbers and allow 2 weeks for deliver. The delivery for these places is usually free whereas stores charge around $50. They don't install though.

I'm really happy with our Pergo flooring which is fake wood of course but it has held up very nicely and takes up less natural resources than real hardwood floors.