There really isn't an exclusive and no reason not to price shop to Lowes and other small shops - we went to just cabinets and as they were easier. Exclusive means they change the name so you just need to go look at your door style - ours is called one thing by Kraftmaid, one thing by HD, another by Lowes, and another by Just Cabinets - it was pretty funny so they all could say they don't have to price match.

We didn't choose custom although they probably are the same price because I was worried about the finish.

If you can wait, HD usually has specials on kitchens all the time.

We got the Cherry with the Ginger Glaze and ours were around $9000 plus we had to then add on things and one cabinet for another part of the house so it sounds about right to me, but I'd price it out with another HD or Lowes or another store just to double check.

I found the molding is where they really get you and all the extras, but it is easier and worth it to get the extra's now as they really aren't any cheaper aftermarket.

Thanks, pcjs. We don't have a "Just Cabinets" near us, but I have heard them mentioned quite a bit on this forum.

I agree that it usually is just a name change, but in our case there is a slight difference in the Lowes Kensington door and the HD Lennox Court. By looking at the catalogs, I would have sworn they were the same door with different names, but once we looked at them at the stores, we noticed a slight detail difference on the edge of the door frame. Small difference, but my DH immeidately noticed it and said he liked the HD door better.

Home Depot is running their 10% off promo right now which is pretty good considering the size of our order, but it expires Wed, 4/30, so that is why we are feeling the time pressure to move forward.

You said our price sounds about right, but yours were cheaper, so would you estimate you purchased fewer cabinets than us?

Yes, the trim pieces really increase the price. We got rid of the light rail molding bc it added almost $700 to the budget. Going to see if we miss it first and then if we do we will order it later.

Thanks again!

That quote doesn't sound terribly off for a cherry, solid raised panel door style, with all the extras you are getting. However, another place you might want to look, or at least get a price for comparison, is buycabinets.com. We got our Kraftmaid there, and, for us, the price could not be beaten either by local shops or the big box stores. You just send them your quote from HD.

About the light rails -- I'm surprised they would add $700 to the budget, even in cherry -- that's some pretty pricey light rail! But if you are going to do undercabinet lighting, you will likely need it. An inexpensive source for KM trim pieces is ebay. We ordered some of our trim from a seller called kitchentrim, I think. Good luck!

The super susan cabinets are about 1K a piece plus. Cherry is an upcharge. Pull outs are an upcharge. Lots of upcharges here. I think you're getting an extremely good price for the description. That doorstyle is just about the most expensive one KM makes if I recall. And, you are right about the exclusivity of some doors to some places. Cabinet shops have exclusives, as to each of the big box retailers. It's how they maintain a bit of individual identity in the world of mass marketing.

Our door style is one of the more expensive as well as our glaze so I can, if it helps give you our exact quote but I don't think it will help. I wouldn't feel pressured with that 10% off - they always have it or you can negociate for it with the manager. I've done it with big purchases or you can get online the mover's coupon. But, Kraftmaid often has a free cabinet deal or other stuff... don't rush, wait till you are comfortable. If live wire oak says it's a good deal, then that works for me. :) I decided I wanted Kraftmaid, and if that is an exclusive door, what you can do is go to a second HD and do a price compare that way. I didn't realize they had slight differences as for our style it was the same.

Thanks everyone. I will look into buycabinets.com, but I am a little leary of purchasing so many cabinets online. It will be good for price comparision though. Live_Wire_Oak - You made me feel a little better...Everyone wants to know they are getting a good deal. :-) I think I am to the point that I think we are getting a fair price...Might not be a steal, but it seems to be in line with other quotes.

If anyone has any other comparable quotes or advice, please let me know. We will probably make our decision by Wed. BTW, I am 7 mo prego so that adds to the time crunch! :-)

Just an update...We are still working with Home Depot on our cabinet order. I guess there really wasn't any rush on that 10% after all! We modified some things, taking some things away and adding others. Price went up about $285 based on our changes. And, now I find out they will only give me up to $300 toward the "free" sink base ($502.01)...The Lowe's guy never said anything about an "up to" limit. So, Home Depot sent the quote to the "bid room" (corporate) to see what kind of deal they can authorize...We'll see what they can do. I still have $11,500 in my head, so hopefully they can stay at that price. With such a large order, I would hope so. A couple hundred bucks probably would not make us walk away just because we have spent so much time and energy on this already, but staying at $11,500 would just make me feel good. :-) We started thinking we could do the cabinets for $8500, but then we got caught up in quality (solid cherry wood doors, dovetail drawers, thick shelves, etc) and convenience upgrades (soft close drawers, super susan, etc), so then we ended up just hoping to keep it under $12,000. Our whole budget for the kitchen is (was?) $20,000 including cabinets, counters, backsplash, wood floors, new refrigerator. Not sure if that is realistic anymore. Thankfully, DH is a handy guy and we are DIYers! Although, with one 2yr old and another one baby on the way, DIY is losing it's appeal...Looking forward to putting this project behind us and enjoying the house!

By the way, we added a second super susan to the corner cabinet that was just going to be an EZ Reach with 2 stationary shelves (addl $350), increased the size of another cab by 3 inches (addl $25), got the stainless steel tilt out trays instead of the plastic ones (addl $100), added a base filler we needed ($25), and added a tall scribe molding ($25).

However, where we saved some money was switching the 27" and 30" "Base Pots and Pans" (BPPS) cabinets to "Base 3-drawer" cabinets. Saved us about $100 a piece. The BPPS cabinets come standard with undermount ball bearing glides so they are more expensive than the Base 3-drawer which come standard with sidemounted glides. However, since we are upgrading all our drawers to undermounted, soft close anyway it made no sense to get the "BPPS" cabinets. They were charging me for the drawer glide upgrade on all the cabinets anyway, so really I was paying for the upgrade twice on those cabinets. Unfortunately, with both Lowe's and HD, this was something I noticed and had to point out. They should really know that. I also had to point out that getting furniture plywood ends on one cabinet ending being about $10 cheaper that buying the wood veneer skin for that cabinet. So, it helped to get familiar with a line and get lots of quotes so you notice these things. Because of these savings, we were able to add that second super susan - Yeh!

If anything I've said here raises any flags for anyone reading this, please let me know. We might finalize our order on Saturday if the "price is right!" Thanks again.

Personally, I'd save $100 on the SS tilt out trays. I couldn't fit any into mine (sink just a smidgen too close to edge), but when I was doing the research- lots of people like being able to throw the plastic ones into the DW. (And be sure that they will fit anyways- bummer if you upgraded, and then couldn't use them!)

Does your 15" trash pullout include the cans? I ask, cuz we had ours custom made by a carpenter, and I haven't been able to find tall cans narrow enough to fit in- I want two- could find a recycling bin if I only wanted one. So, just be sure of that; didn't occur to me how difficult it was going to be. 18" wide seems to have way more options.

Thanks. I never thought about the sink trays not fitting, but I guess it depends on your sink (which we have not decided on yet...It'll be undermounted, that's all we know) So much to decide all at once! I never thought about the plastic ones being DW-safe...wouldn't the stainless ones be DW-safe too?

Our 15" full-height (no top drawer) trash does come with one 50qt can. We could have done an 18" (not full height) with two 35 qt cans, but my DH wanted one big can. The only other option is a 21" full-height with two 50qt cans, but I did not want to give up that much space.

BTW, it looks like our final quote might be $11,400...Need to follow-up to make sure as me and the KD were playing phone tag today while I was at work.

I got the soft close on one drawer - I thought I did three but I don't know what happened and to be honest I'm not a big fan - to cost cut, I'd remove those and just make sure they have the full extension - a lot of people like them, but for the money, they are not anythign special. I'd also get two trash cans vs. one (or where do you put your cans/plastic) - we got two with the bottom mount and love it (my mom has a top mount and they are a pain to clean and trash falls back).

We a year later haven't installed our sink trays - you can get that of all things later and they aren't expensive... that can wait. We will do it but who knows when.

Also, remember you don't have to do everything at once - if you are DIY, we still haven't done anything with our backsplash - that can wait if you are over budget... we couldn't decide - I found a marble I liked but the thought of DIY when we have the rest of the house... well I just didn't care so at some point we will just paint and got the 3" granite - didn't like the 4 as it was too high.

One thing we have paid for (and we rarely pay for labor) was to get help to get the cabinets hung. The guy who did my mom's kitchen (does high end) came in with a day rate for a few days and helped my husband and they got them hung quickly as he knew what he was doing and it would have taken us 10 times as long... he also helped with some electrical and plumbing stuff as we were going to do that later but he helped precabinets. But, we only spent $1000 and it was the best money we ever spent for a few days of help. Given your situation, in less you have friends/family who are reliable and know what they are doing, you might want to budget in a helper just for that to get them in quickly. (Otherwise, there is no way we'd pay for labor and now that we've done it once we could do it on our own).

Thank you all for your suggestions. We seriously considered everything you said. In the end, we kept the SS sink tilt outs bc I have never had them and always wanted them...Now, lets see if I am this forum in a year telling people they are a waste of money. :-) We also decided to keep the 15" full-height trash with one 50qt can. We did not want to give up more width on the wall for an 18 or 21 inch and my DH wanted a big can. Our garage is near the kitchen and we put all the cans/plastic in bins there.

We are going to hang the cabinets ourselves. We have done it before (albeit on a smaller scale), so we hope we can do this one too. We have some names of people to call if we need to get bailed out. We might have someone do the crown molding for us bc we know how difficult that can be.

DH went and ordered the cabinets today. Grand total was $11,360 plus 12 months no payments. In the end, it ended up being about 18% off. Just goes to show you that you should not just accept the retail price even at the big box stores. We so far have found this Home Depot experience to be a good one (knock on wood). We have 3 days to make changes...

Thanks again. I'm sure you'll be hearing more from me in the months to come...About to post a Q about Colonial Cream granite. :-)

I can't say if we like our tilt out or not - just haven't installed it . Actually our molding wasn't too bad, but we did have the guy help us with the top and we did the bottom of the top molding and the molding for the floor just fine ourselves and we're doing the molding for the windows ourselves (plus we installed our windows ourselves). Remember we're all here to help too - we more paid to get it done quickly.

My thought on cabinets and budget - what you paid is reasonable given you don't have labor and that's where I'd pay a little more to get what you want. You can cut back on appliances some, wait on a backsplash, fancy light fixtures, etc. but the nice cabinets will be there and can't be changed easily and the are the main focal point of the kitchen. We also in then end got a good price on the granite we wanted but we have such a small kitchen we took the plunge. Colonial Cream is very pretty but we went with Gold and Silver to tie in the white appliances (I don't like stainless steel).

We found that you can negociate at some places and not at others... HD for big purchases you can at minimum get the 10% off but Just Cabinets you can't...

It sounds like you're getting a very nice price from HD for all your upgrades. I have heard that HD makes their extra money in the installation so be sure you are checking that cost. I nearly went with HD as I really liked the designer we met with who had great suggestions and years of experience. In the end, after meeting with a local cabinet maker, we've decided to go with the local guy. I know you're going to love your new kitchen. Your cherry choice was my HD pick there and I think it's gorgeous! You must come back and post pics please!

Thanks again. Looking forward to getting the cabinets and getting this project started! But still so many decisions to be made. You'll be hearing from me! :-)