home depot and lowes is a great way to start . amazon is awesome from small to large items and sometimes have sales . some of the contractors you work with will also be able to source materials from their established relationships of suppliers .

Rest of San Diego that does not have same history as a STR supplier, still has permits. 

Good evening Mindy,Usually if you call the supplier, they should have a table that they could send you that provides load capacities if they can't tell you right off the bat.

Builder keeps on blaming on suppliers etc, every time there is a new story and hard to updates on delays.

If they do, they probably don't work with me for long, and I'd rather spend the time finding a good supplier/partner/contractor/investor/whatever.I have spent my entire life striving to be the best I could without noticing, mostly, whether the people around me were discriminating against me because I was female. 

Gravel he had not paid for and owed them hundreds of thousands  we paid for the rock and made him give us supplier receipts for the rest of the project and paid suppliers direct. 

So can the material suppliers . 

There are suppliers in China who can supply pre-cut SIPs and they say they can source other exterior and interior finishes (except electricals and plumbing) from other suppliers and ship it.

Also, some suppliers will do a takeoff for some of the materials.

Some owners want to purchase the materials directly and this can be a good idea in that they will be in direct privity with the supplier for warranty and post install service requirements where the GC may be hard to get back involved.