Of course, if you find all this terribly frustrating or your do-it-yourself wiring job is a deep, dark disaster, eBay sellers offer alternatives. Consider "Living Without Electricity" by Stephen Scott and Kenneth Pellman, a guide on how the Amish survive without microwave ovens ($7.95).
Wood products are dispersed over several subcategories, and they're often mixed up, so when looking for lumber, cabinetry, plywood or molding, a general search of the site will improve the odds of success. Offerings include cedar decking and antique barn beams recast as fireplace mantels.
Peggy Norris stands in the basement of her West Virginia mountain getaway with the sink she bought on eBay. It's an onyx vessel, flecked with gold, green and brown swirls. It just spoke to me, she says. So she bought it for $374. Onyx sinks usually retail for $800 to $1,500.
(Courtesy of Peggy Norris)
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The flooring section offers a variety of materials, including wood, laminate and tile.
Need some new tools to put it all together? The auction company said more than 16,000 power tools are sold on the site each week, many of them brand names such as Stanley and Craftsman. New and used drills, soldering irons and woodworking tools abound. If you're itching to strip your molding and trim, ProLine Parts will sell you a new, 1,500-watt professional heat gun for $9.99, plus $10 shipping and handling.
The selection, however, goes beyond the big-name brands. Small tool-makers, many offering innovative products, use the site to market their wares. One such company is AccuBrush, which sells an edging tool designed to make painting easier. The tiny company makes most of its sales through QVC, but eBay has been an important direct-marketing tool, said Kevin Yorke, an Ashburn-based distributor.
Both buyers and sellers say online auctions offer them advantages that other sales channels do not.
Chief for buyers is expanded selection. Many suppliers have exclusive relationships with local distributors and contractors, all but shutting out do-it-yourselfers from options beyond what they can find at Home Depot or Lowe's. Those limited options were not appealing to Norris, with her assortment of one-of-kind trinkets.
Cost is another factor. Even when suppliers will deal directly with consumers, they often do so at premium prices, compared with the bulk discounts contractors can negotiate.
Joy Stewart, who is building a log cabin in the mountains north of Denver, said eBay has helped her stay within budget, even when she does not make her final purchase through the site. Stewart often uses the online auction site to find specialty items and directly negotiate with the suppliers for a better price. "I rarely purchase any items without checking out what is available on eBay," she wrote in an e-mail.
For suppliers who are interested in selling directly to homeowners, online auctions can be a bonanza.
Asim Saeed is director of marketing and sales at Carrera International, the company that sold Norris her sink. Saeed said eBay has been "very, very good" for his 3 1/2-year-old company. About six months ago, before he began posting his listings, he was selling about 15 sinks a month; now the small Palm Beach, Fla., firm is moving 70 to 80 sinks a month. Another difference: Before, most of his customers were interior designers and contractors; now, they are mostly individual home owners.
The online auction process offers another monetary advantage, though a shady one: an opportunity to evade sales taxes, at least until states beef up enforcement. If the buyer lives in a jurisdiction with a high sales tax, and many places top 8 percent, this can represent a substantial savings -- often more than enough to offset shipping costs.
Also, many buyers simply find eBay more efficient than shopping for building materials the old-fashioned way, which typically means visiting warehouses and showrooms and flipping through catalogues. Stewart, who also bought an onyx sink from Carrera, said nearly a third of her purchases in building her home have been through eBay.
"We have saved ourselves lots of money by using eBay and the Internet, as well as lots of time," Stewart said. Time is precious in her household, as she runs her own business in addition to holding down a regular full-time job.
