Are you at all handy? There are always ready to assemble options. My husband is, by his own admission, NOT handy and he assembled all our Barker Cabinets (a total of 8 - mostly drawer stacks). There are painted options. Our cabinets, unfinished, came in less than $4k. What door style do you want?

Have you read this thread. There's some useful info from people who've had Aristocraft cabs:

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg040142479320.html

IMO, the price sounds high based on people's experience with the quality or lack thereof.

My own cabinets (Bertch via the kitchen designer at a local lumber company) averaged roughly $500 per cabinet. They've held up well, but don't have a painted option at the price I paid, I'd have had to upgrade to the company's semi-custom line to get painted and that wasn't in the budget.

Here is a link that might be useful: Previous thread on Aristocraft

I would be really concerned about the communication issue. Really concerned.

We put Aristokraft in our master bath and it is fine. We went with Shenandoah for our kitchen because we got more for the money.

Not sure if this helps but just to give you an idea since my kitchen is almost the same size. I paid 11,500 for 12x10 kitchen, Shiloh Inset-Uppers soft white painted(a standard white-not custom white), lowers Cherry w/stain.

grlwprls, I hadn't heard of them before. I'll definitely look in to that. We consider ourselves pretty handy. :)

Kris, i have looked at a few threads like that. My parents put aristokraft in two kitchens (although it was 15+ years ago) and they held up fine while they lived there. We only plan to live in this house for two or three years, so i'm not really worried about that.

At the price we were quoted that puts each cabinet at slightly over $700. That just seems crazy to me knowing they're not real wood and the quality is average at best.

EATREALFOOD,

Do you have any pictures of your kitchen finished?

From what i've read Shiloh cabinets are supposed to be a good bit nicer than aristokraft and you used better materials than we were quoted for. It seems weird to me that our price would be almost the same as yours before this guy added his "because i like you" discount.

not finished....here it is before counter installation. Cabinet prices differ by region also. I'm on the East coast. I would avoid anyone telling you they are giving you a good price/or if you have difficult communication with them. Of course there is no guarantee that you will never have problems, unless you hire "kompy" !-a person who takes pride in their work.

We purchased Decora and in fact our KD doesn't even show most clients their Aristokraft line. She said that they carry it for builders who are looking for an inexpensive line of cabinets and that she doesn't feel comfortable selling the line to "regular" customers.

We have Shiloh insets too. I'm in Arkansas and my one small wall of cabinets was $6k. But, they are a very up-charged finish. I had a lovely Shiloh kitchen in Louisiana that came in at $11k for many more cabinets in a standard finish in inset.

That said, my Barker cabinets are fabulous quality. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them at all. Nor would I think twice about recommending Shiloh. Lovely cabinets.

Anyone who doesn't let you look at something (unless you said up front "don't show me anything that costs over X") deserves the silent glare and the walk out.

Get someone else, even if you get those cabinets.

I kept my original oak boxes and added Decora doors and drawer fronts (shaker, paint-grade maple with MDF inserts). It was budget-friendly for me, +/- $1,000, since my KD knew I was on a tight budget. I never got the impression that Decora was a more expensive line.

I'm not nearly as kitchen remodel savvy as most others here, but that seems very high to me. Our cabinets were custom made and finished for around $5000. The bottom was cherry stained and top were birch (I think) but painted.

Maybe you can find a local carpenter who can make them for you for a lot less?

You should definitely get other quotes from other places with the same and/or other cabinet lines. You should also check with local custom cabinet makers - sometimes you can get exactly what you want for less money than manufactured cabinets. You don't need to settle.

You're only going to be there for a couple years? I wouldn't spend nearly what you're saying if you are planning on leaving that soon. But I'm cheap. Anyway, is the kitchen totally trashed that a new coat of paint and some surface updating wouldn't work? If so, are you close to an Ikea? Their cabs sound like they might be a good option for you.

Definitely look some more. My kitchen is 11.5 x 13. I have some extras and I paid about $11,000 with zero compromises. This is a lot of money and you need to be satisfied. Perhaps you can look at the finished kitchen site. You will see all kinds of gorgeous kitchen with costs of cabinets etc.

This post was edited by sixtyohno on Fri, Jan 18, 13 at 17:37

I didn't read that before...you only plan on staying 2 or 3 years---get thee to IKEA

If I were you I would take your layout and get some more quotes before purchasing anything. Go to a big box store, another local cabinet place, ect and price it out several different times. Each time you will learn something new and you will also learn for sure if that quote is too high which IMHO it is. We got medallion cabinets, (not all wood doors or plywood boxes - I'm gonna guess they were of similar quality to what you priced out.) Just to give you an idea, we paid $4800 + tax and installation. We have 18 cabinets-two of them are drawer bases, two are super susans,and our kitchen is 13 x 10. The uppers are all 42" high, the drawers are all full extension, and soft close.

I'd bet that you were being quoted actual list price rather than selling price. No one pays list. The usual multiplier for selling price is .45 to .5. That would make so much more sense.

That to me says that this guy is a salesperson (that smarmy "because I like you discount" would have made me slap him) rather than a KD. He doesn't understand the software or know how to price. You need to move on to somewhere else that won't treat the transaction like you're buying a car. Next thing you know, he'll take the quote off to "the manager" and agree to give you this "one time only special discount, available only today".