we picked out our hardware when we finalized our cabinet order as the hardware was included in the price of the cabinets. I know others here pay for the hardware seperately and they pick it out at a different time. Have fun!

Are you getting an estimate, or writing a final contract for the job? If it's an estimate, itemize everything. That way you can tweak it if you decide you want to upgrade appliances and downgrade the counters, or whatever. If he's writing a contract he probably wants to lock in a price so you don't have any surprises.

My kitchen guy included hardware if you pick from a certain limited line of pulls, or you could upgrade, or supply your own. By picking something he had, and ordering my counters and sink from him, my cabinets, sink, counters, and hardware were all installed on the same day.

I'm sort of doing all of this separately. Will be ordering soapstone from VA along with a sink, have already ordered my range....all I want from him is the cabinets. I have my own "Do-everything" guy who will make the necessary changes in the kitchen to ready it for the cabinets. My cabinet guy did bring in someone he had worked with in the past who I was led to believe was a "do-everything" kind of guy, but turned out to be a GC. We really don't need a GC as this is pretty simple and straightforward. I suppose I am GC'ing it.
I like him OK, I just feel like I need to watch my back and be a bit careful. Just a gut feeling.....

Also...where are these people getting these awsome graphic design pictures of their proposed kitchens?? I've only seen something so basic and simple it could have been drawn by anyone and really have a limited idea of how the whole thing is going to look.
So my questions:
*What should I expect from my custom cabinet salesman in the way of design drawings. (that black and white line drawing just doesn't cut it)

*How much itemization can I expect, if any?

*What should I look for or watch out for in the contract phase? We are pretty much at that time now!

He has a quality product, the price is fair and he has been pleasant to deal with, BUT I still want to cover all my bases!

When we got our estimate, every single cabinet, piece of filler, crown molding, etc. was listed along w/their dimensions. I would expect to see every piece of cabinetry and related items listed (like crown molding, decorative door panels, filler, finished end panels, etc.). For tall and upper cabinets, I would also expect to see the height of the cabinets listed along with the dimensions. Along with the list, a description of the item. E.g., 36" Drawer base w/3 drawers or 31" warming drawer cabinet with a drawer above and below the warming drawer. If there are any specialty items, like glass doors, they should also be listed.

I would also expect to see the wood species and finish you are having applied...stain/glaze/paint/distressed, etc. If there is an upcharge for any of these, I would expect to see that itemized as well.

Once you have this itemized list, I would compare it to the final design you have approved to be certain the correct items are being ordered.

As to the design...does your cabinet maker not use a CAD program? If not, he should still have a detailed design of your cabinets. He may or may not have hand-drawn elevations (it can be done, check out Aussie's thread to see some). It sounds like you're using an independent custom cabinet maker so hopefully some who has used custom will chime in.

HTH!

Oh, missed a question! My KD uses a CAD (Computer Aided Design) software package. In her case, it has cabinet styles by maker as well as all of the options available from that cabinet maker. My KD drew up our kitchen w/actual dimensions of walls, doors/doorways, windows, ceiling, appliances, etc. and then designed the kitchen w/cabinetry in that "space". While she is doing this, she uses the elevation view (the view where you see the actual cabinets as if you are standing in front of them) to see how it "looks". I'm sure our KD already has a pretty good idea how things will look even without the elevation view, but she used it anyway.

E.g., our KD drew up our kitchen and selected the Omega/Dynasty cabinet maker with the door we had originally selected (Danville). She then presented it to us. It was VERY helpful for me b/c I realized I had all slab drawers and didn't like (OK hated) the look. So, all she had to do was get into the program, change the door style (Artesia and later Anson) and the elevation was automatically redrawn with the new cabinets.

When the design was finalized, the program produces the list of items along w/their costs.

Granted, it's not quite as easy and quick as it sounds (if you've ever worked w/computer software it always takes tweaking, etc.) BUT, it's much faster and usually more accurate than hand-drawn designs. There is nothing wrong w/hand drawn, it's just a matter of what you're used to and how good you are at it. As with anything, however, the accuracy of both hand drawn and CAD drawings is dependent on the person entering the data/drawing up the design!

Thanks buehl!
Needless to say, it was some of your old threads that I was trying to read early this morning and they were way too scary!! I really hope things are going much better for you! Scary, I tell ya, scary!

These are computer drawings, but very simplistic. I'll make sure to get the complete detailed list before signing anything and hopefully a more detailed CAD.

I'll also check out aussie's threads as well. Thanks so much and I'm thinkin' of you. After reading some of your posts on the vent problem, etc I wanted to send flowers....
:>+

During the estimate phase, our kitchen builder hand-drew the layout, and he did include every detail as buehl mentioned. Box construction, door styles, where to put pullout drawers, HxWxD of tall cabs, etc. When it's time to build it (as in, when we have a house on that mudhole called a construction site, argh!) he'll come to our house and take detailed measurements of everything (doors, windows, electrical boxes) and build the kitchen to fit. We used the same guy when we renovated our current kitchen 8 years ago; no CAD drawings then or now.