Thanks for the replies! We met with her and I LOVE the design. The total (without custom work for the banquette and the time for GC, demo, etc) comes to just under $14K. I have a budget of $20K (not including flooring) without appliances. I'll be tight, but it may just work. We talked in detail about buying the plans off of her or going to a Kraft Maid and although she's find with it, she charges $95/hour for design time and $65/hour for something else, can't remember...anyways, she said she would want to go with me to have the other estimate so that it would be apples to apples, of course she also said that it would be more time for her to adjust the plans for other cabinets, for example certain depths come standard in her maker that may not in a KM or similar. Sooooo, I'm not sure but I'm leaning toward giving the job to her. She comes HIGHLY recomended by my GC (who I adore!) and I trust him whole heartedly. He has also tried to stay impartial for me, which I appreciate and is having me pay her direct (he really is amazing, doing the same thing with tile guy, etc.) -- he's honest and fair. Lastly, the cabinet company (and her design company) stand by their work, she said within reason, they will just come out and replace, no matter what...no jumping through hoops...I liked the sound of that, as we're not planning on moving EVER AGAIN. haha, we've had 6 moves in 7 years, exhausting. Anyways, I need to go look at the finishes and glazing options tomorrow. Oh and I should add that the option w/out glaze only took it down $1000, and with the fake wood (can't remember the name..malinate??? something) only another $1000, just doesn't seem worth it to me.

dave in jersey wrote: it was a timing thing. We wanted to get it on the market asap, so we went with carpet. Dave-- We just had our hardwood floors redone and it was less than a three day process. They sanded the first day, applied the stain and one coat of poly, let that dry overnight and then applied another coat the next day. By the evening of the third day it was all done and could be walked on again. Of course we only had hardwood in the entry, family room and kitchen (~750 sq feet), so naturally a bigger area would probably take longer. (It was still almost $3,000.) The mess from the dust was awful (SO GLAD I'm not living in that house) but the floors look amazing....

Any HVAC company will be happy come fix your system and charge you $$$$. If it is just replacing an existing system find the cheapest installer. If you need new ducts then find someone good. Don't buy into the hype that a cheaper installer is a worse one...find the single person who has been doing this as a solo shop for a while, many times you can find these people parked at the job site of new home construction...their overhead and prices are lower and many times they are more experienced than the "tech" the local fancy HVAC company will send over. The local HVAC shop will brag about all the "training and certification"...which amounts to some nonsense online training and a rubber stamp from the manufacturer....again ignore all this hype. There is absolutely no way to justify the ridiculous prices...all business have employee costs and overhead but don't attempt to charge the markups that HVAC shops do.

Get several estimates from local contractors and pick the one you feel most comfortable with.