The MTS is coming along nicely...I think...the amount of dirt seems to be shrinking, seems kinda odd.
Ordered my plumbing bits from
http://www.flexpvc.com, shipping was a bit much, but its saved me the time/hassle/driving of going to random stores looking/begging for parts.
On top of the stuff mentioned before (thanks to great prices), I got unions for the drains, two ball valves for the drains, ball valves for the returns, and ball check valves for the returns as well. The 'ball style' check valves were definitely not available locally. Also managed to snag some nice red 1/4" tubing and the 'street' 90-degree pieces that were also not available locally.
I do understand that BeanAnimal's page uses 1" bulkheads because that's all he had available, but I'd already ordered the 1" bulkheads when I discovered that 1" PVC has no local supply. Anyway, handy that I can just make a direct shopping list from his page now.
That site also has 'freebies' for different order values. I spent more than $50, so got 520' of 1" teflon tape for free. Cool.
Back to Lowe's tonight to return the pipe fittings and pick up the PVC glue/cleaner.