It is best to limit Allowances to the cost of materials but if the cabinets and/or counters are going to be supplied and installed by other forces there is little choice but to include everything in the Allowance. I have never seen a granite counter that was not installed by the fabricator in MA and would caution against any other arrangement. Cabinets can go either way but it shouldn't be an important cost issue; do what works best. I can't think of any reason your arrangement would be considered taking you for a ride. If you are happy with the contractor's price for the rest of the work what difference would it make who you paid to install the cabinets? In general, it is not wise to discuss financial construction issues with friends who are not building professionals; they so often want to demonstrate their knowledge based on their experience on one or two projects. "That's not the way we did it" is rarely helpful. I hope I don't need to say anything about relatives. By the way, work performed by forces other than those of the GC and paid for directly by the Owner, should not be considered an Allowance. An allowance is for work to be performed by the GC that has not yet been designed or specified. (It's a miniature Cost of the Work contract inside a Fixed Price contract.) Work performed by other contractors and paid for directly by the Owner, not the GC, should be described in the contract as Work by Others and required to be coordinated by the GC but the cost should not be included in the general construction Fixed Price or any Allowance that is part of it. If you are paying a markup to the GC for the cost of this work then he might, in fact, be taking you for a ride. Who wrote the contract?

That site you posted has quite a selection! Like you, I've found the choices HD/Lowes offers to be very limited and I've never seen the beadboard design the builder put in my home at either store. I suggest you track down a local lumber supplier and see if they have any samples in stock. Also ask elitetrimworks if they'll send samples so you can compare them to what your local store offers.

depending on the thickness of the wainscoating,wainscoting first.If the wainscoting is lower than the cabinet, leave the moulding at the top of the wainscoat off until you install the cabinet and run that trim to it.If that's the case,the upper part of the cabinet up past the wainscoat will have a gap to cover w/trim.

Hi Hillside, the kitchen is Ikea and we're not cutting down our uppers, but we are stacking them. we've had to do significant shimming in order to get them passably plumb and level. I think we will need to cut the panel because as it is it would sit proud of the doors, whereas I want it to be flush with the doors. I was supposed to be under the impression that it needed to sit firmly against the wall and therefore we need to be scribed. Here is the situation in pictures: