My first go around was a res delete but the exhaust was just about as quiet as stock.
Another option was to have the same shop fabricate a Y pipe from the mid section of the exhaust. This way I would have been able to keep the original valves if I wanted to by just cutting them off and rewelding them to the new setup. I was afraid to do this because if it didn't sound good, I was screwed.
The shop did tell me that they couldn't weld new tips on the stock exhaust by itself. There wasn't enough extra piping from the muffler to the tip, and it had close to a 90 degree bend. I eventually just decided to get a catback and remove the stock exhaust all in one piece. Now I have it if I ever need to sell the car, or if I just want to go back to stock.