Hi Wierdo, Look at any financial dilemma from a reverse point a view. If your house was paid for, would you spend 6k for a loan to pay off your CC's? Just a thought... GREAT POINT... but, have YOU actually done that? Lets! Imagine you have a $250,000 home free & clear. The home value rises or falls regardless of whether the equity is used. Let's say you have $60,000 in credit card or other consumer debt. (Not unrealistic for the kind of people YOU are referring to.) Let's say you've "seen the light" and have mended your evil consumer spending ways... tightening your discipline and behaving responsibly from here forward. You're paying 8% - 12% - 18% up to as high as 34% INTEREST.... (again, regardless of whether your home value rises or falls.) Let's imagine you are paying 18%* interest on credit cards... (*we're being kind here.... the types you are referring to are usually higher than this,) your credit SUCKS, and the BEST you can qualify for is 8% mortgage* interest rates. (*We're being conservative... there is no more SubPrime lending, and currently the highest rates for ANY mortgage financing are in the mid-7%s... but let's set the hurdles as high as we can for me here...) Let's ALSO imagine your closing costs to access those funds are a whopping $5,000* (for $65,000 total.) (Again... massively conservative. For a $65,000 loan it won't be near this, really.) Your AMORTIZED payments are $476.95/month. Your INTEREST payment portions are $433.33/month. your INTEREST SAVINGS over the consumer credit INTEREST-ONLY costs are $466.67/month. If you *ONLY* pay exactly the SAME as if you were paying ONLY THE INTEREST on the credit cards, you ELIMINATE ALL of your debt FASTER! (You wouldn't be eliminating it on the credit cards at all!) If you pay $100 more (as though you were attacking the credit card debt itself,) it would take you; 50 years if you didn't refinance to optimize the use of your equity... but only 17.5 years if you did it the smart way and used your equity at a lower cost. If you pay $500 more than minimum interest, it would take you; 10 years without refinancing. 7.3 years if you do refinance. Math matters! ;~) Cheers, Dave Donhoff Leverage Planner

I'd nix KD1 right off the bat. First, $6,000 more for the same cabinets, unless what romy718 suggests is the reason. Second, for feeling pressure to put in cabs where you want drawers. If he's that way now, how will he be during the remodel when inevitable issues come up? Also, while not being able to find reviews on him or his GC doesn't necessarily mean anything, it's a little suspect. If that were the only concern, I don't think it would be a huge deal. But given the other issues, the money and the pressure to get something you really don't want, I think those reasons would cross him off my list. KD2 is flaky, but I wouldn't discount her right away, simply because of the much better pricing. But I'd be VERY careful to make sure she orders the right cabinets! Have you met with KD2's GC? I think that because KD2 is flaky, it would be super important to have a good relationship and communication with the GC. KD3 sounds like a strong possibility, if you figure you can live with the smaller cabinet size. I also like that he is concerned enough to want to bring things up to code. If you like KD4's revised plans, then he is also a possibility. If you don't like them, then he's swung twice and missed, and I'd nix him. The big caveat here is the budget. You stated that KD2 is the only one "close" to your original budget, which I interpret to mean that she is also higher than your budget, but not by as much as the others are. So I think the question here, which you certainly don't have to share online, is whether your budget was something that you were shooting for, but you could actually afford more, or is your original budget actually the money you have, and either you don't have the means for a bigger budget, or spending more would create a financial hardship? I like scone911's advice about sticking to the budget. Most of us on this forum have done, are doing, or are planning to do a kitchen remodel on a budget. Yes, there are those who can afford a $100,000 kitchen, and that's awesome, but most of us have to stick to a more modest budget, and we all have to make compromises. I also think buying KD1's design and then shopping it around might be a good thing to think about if you really love that design best. In my case, I know exactly how much I can afford to spend on my kitchen. I mean exactly, and not one penny more. "Close to" my budget won't work. Since I'm doing an IKEA kitchen, I won't have a KD, except for the gurus here on this forum, who are probably better than a KD anyway. :-) I also won't have a GC. I'm perfectly capable of going down to the courthouse and pulling permits, and I'm going to sub out the work myself. This is a good control on the budget, because it's like, "I'm hiring you to put this IKEA stuff together and hang it like this," and "I just need you to hook up this sink and garbage disposal." Etc. They only have one job, and it will cost one price. There won't be any "My electrician told me you need to rewire the whole house, so that's going to be an additional $$$." (Actually, that could be true in my case, lol!) But I realize your kitchen project does require a KD and a GC, as do most kitchen remodels. But you can be just as firm on the budget as I am, you just need to know that you're the boss and you can put your foot down and say no. Not that they're bad people, not at all. It's their job to upsell and it's your job to stick to the budget. :-) Well, hopefully something I've said here will be helpful. Best of luck! :-)

ps We have some pull up cellular blackout shades that are virtually invisible when pulled up. Wood blinds seem unnecessary and cumbersome making things heavier - perhaps more rustic than you really want. With the rest of your things already in the room, go with a small patterned light-weight drape with your color accents. Just some thoughts. Good Luck

I think at some point I will perhaps get into this "kefir-ing" but not right yet. I am just super busy. Don't know if I will be any more successful than I was at "sourdough-ing" which I tried at the beginning of the pandemic. The problem with that was, we just don't eat enough baked goods to make it worthwhile expending the time and energy maintaining a starter. Even the lowest maintenance options. We just don't eat a lot of baked goods. I'd love to eat more, but it just can't happen for a whole lot of reasons. On the flip side, kefir sounds like something we would consume on a daily basis, either water or milk. I can get good dairy kefir with live cultures at my local grocery, but it is something like 4-5 dollars a pint so I don't normally buy it. But I will take you all up on the offers of help at some point if I can. Kefir water sounds great because I actually don't like plain water. Practically have to force it down. For whatever reason plain water does not sit well with me. I often drink flavored soda water but that's not the cheapest way to stay hydrated. Am slowly recovering the use of my digestive tract. Ironically, I don't eat many of the fodmap foods anyway, not a fan of onions and garlic, although I do eat them in small amounts, and I rarely eat fresh pears or apples. Hubs eats and apple a day, but not me. That's because of the aforementioned dislike of drinking water, so I often dilute water with fruit juice, and that's how I have tended to consume my fruit calories a lot of the time. I drink a lot of cider and apple juice, don't know if that contributes to digestive issues, I think not but I can certainly cut down on the apple juice . . . the other fodmap no-no that I eat regularly though, is beans. But I've been eating beans my whole adult vegetarian life. I think with them the issue is being well-soaked ahead of time, and cooked, and the skins broken down or sieved out. Also the time of day you eat them, earlier is much better since stuff moves through your digestive tract (when it is functioning properly) faster during the day when you are up and moving. I have been limiting my bean intake and also pureeing the beans, which takes some of the digestive issues off the table . . .