Thanks everyone for their Comments. I thought the labor would be alittle bit cheaper, but I am having one more GC coming in tomorrow, and if that doesn't work out, I will probably hire my own brother who is knows how to do all these for a cheaper price. As someone mention, I may need to hire a plumber and electrician for the work that my brother can not do. I have all the appliance ready, so this is the only thing that needed to be done in order to finish the kitchen completely. The GC that gave me the first estimate, He knows how to do everything (plumbing, electrician, and etc) so it's everything in one. I think he will have at least 2-3 of his helpers who will help him out. Sorry if I didn't get to answer any other question, but I will answer when I have more time. I need to put cabinets because we bought a foreclosure and their missing doors and the previous owner took all of the drawers. Thanks for everyone input.

I think Live Wire Oak has brought up a good point about the ceiling not being smooth enough to paper. Have you thought of hiring a person to plaster the ceiling? When we moved into our second home, we removed a wall to create a living/dining room. We also had to remove the popcorn ceiling in each room. We were left with an unfinished strip on the ceiling where the wall was removed, and after patching with drywall, sanding and painting, we could not get a uniform appearance across the two rooms. We hired a contractor that specialized in plaster ceilings and he showed us several different patterns that could be done on our 20'x16' room. He was finished in a day and did a beautiful job. I remember he was affectionately named "Two pint Julio". An Italian gentleman, he arrived first thing in the morning, set up his drop cloths and benches, then sat down, stared at the ceiling and drank 2 beer. He then worked continuously until about 6:00 when he was finished, then sat down and had two more beers as he admired his work!

The national average 5 piece master bath renovation starts at about 35K and goes up. Way up. You are way way low for this project. It also requires permits and inspections, and that the labor be done from someone licensed and insured. Which doesn't sound like he case from your chuck in a truck hack. He ain't a licensed plumber, that's for sure. Or electrician. And both are REQUIRED. He is far far to cheap for what is being discussed here. Scary cheap. As in he may rot your house down from improper work. I'd be scared to look at that kitchen work! I think your cheap little project needs to upgrade or it is not worth wasting money doing at all. No one actually puts in builder grade crapola a second time once they've lived with it the first time. It's what they dream of getting rid of as soon as possible. Labor is the biggest part of any job, so moving to better materials will not be that costly on that front. And you will get a much better return by hiring someone with better qualifications.

As for the cabinet guys, and why a GC might prefer someone.. We had a huge gut remodel plus addition. Our contract was cost plus type as it fitted better our project and our MO..wasn't easy but I think, in the end, we like the result..with whatever's left of our hearts lol Cabinets were on us. We decided to go fully custom. Actually our GC was very flexible and sometimes we'd go with somebody local if his bid was better(we did that with HVAC, roof insulation for example). With the cabinetry though he told us we can outsource it as well but he'd much rather work with a guy he knows and works with for years, and he thinks going with somebody else will make room for potential troubles-timing, everything will be harder to figure out..and he knows his guy is top-notch, and he's willing to ask him to do a discount for us. We still got two quotes. Identical ones. To the "T". One from the cabinet maker we already knew, and knew he's a nice guy. One, from our GC's guy, with the discount. The discrepancy was 5 K for exactly same quote. DH wanted to go with the cheaper quote, obviously I spent a lot of time convincing him it has a potential to turn into a logistical disaster. The "cheaper" guy was nice, but our GC didn't know that. He didn't spend years building relationship with him. This guy wasn't on his speed dial. The GC was really worried that a new guy might not be as good, and it will reflect on his, GC's, reputation, since few things are as important and expensive part of a house as cabinetry and woodwork. In short I already could foresee him becoming resentful before even meeting the guy. It'd take them time to build this relationship. And it might work just fine, but I didn't want to risk it. It was huge headache as it already was. I didn't want to add to it. So I managed to convince my DH and explain all this to him, and we went with 5 K more quote, and you know what?My DH who's a perfectionist himself in many ways, and it's not easy to get him just to praise something without first critiquing it, absolutely loves these cabinets, and wasn't sorry for a minute. It was obvious the guy (and his installer) were indeed top-notch. Of course it was like to throw a dice..maybe we'd be very pleased with the guy we knew, and everything would be fine. That's not to say that whoever charges more has to be better always. But some things in this business, they're about human relationships and all that follows. Including whom and why contractor wants for trades. And sometimes he brings in a new team because he didn't like the other one, or they're not available, or they didn't like working with him, or schedules don't match anymore, something-and neither he nor you know how they work until they start. So obviously he's gonna root for somebody he's deadly sure about. We did meet a couple of very dishonest people while remodeling..to the point I couldn't believe it. But we did meet many great guys too. That field involves so many different people trying to work together, it's paramount to choose somebody you feel right working with. Bumps on the road are inevitable, almost..it's better to drive it with somebody you trust. And to realize that how and why contractors make their decisions about things depends on many factors, including the simplest and the most complicated one-human. And if they miscalculate this factor in this business--it can cost them business too. reading you-I consider myself lucky..we had our disagreements with our GC (two years together..not easy lol. it's like sharing a prison cell..)) but he was an extremely honest person. I wish you luck in your remodel..you already have it, to a degree, since it's contained to kitchen..won't take two years..;)