gwent, I know exactly how you feel!! My hubby is on his way back home right now with the cabinets I ordered 3 months ago. My cabinet guy is so busy he stays backlogged. I am so excited I can hardly even concentrate (I am at work right now). I can't wait to get home. The cabinet builder is coming up next week with the rest of them and to assist us with the install. Soon my kitchen will look like a kitchen!!!

I wasn't there for my whole kitchen remodel and things went just fine. I think your role is to stay out of the way and be as quiet at possible; no one likes someone lurking and second guessing them while they are doing their job. You certainly should examine the cabinets before they are installed to make sure they are what you ordered and there are no obvious problems.

If, at the end of the day, there's something you don't like, you can talk to the KD or the GC. This isn't a situation where once it's done you are stuck with it. There may be things that need to be fixed or replaced, and your KD/GC can easily handle it.

Good luck and enjoy your new kitchen.

I agree you don't need to be there the whole time, but I strongly recommend looking it over each night after the installer leaves to see if anything needs to be fixed. I caught one mistake the installer was about to make while he was laying out the cabinets for our peninsual before he had screwed anything in place. The other problems I found after I got home from work one night. Thankfully it was something that he could fix fairly quickly. Although he and the KD both fought with me and tried to tell me that it was no big deal that my range hood wasn't centered above the base cabinets and I wouldn't notice after the granite went it. Believe me I was always going to notice it! Just look over everything very carefully each night. I spent hours last week just walking through our kitchen and staring at the cabinets. Our installation has taken about 6 working days and hopefully it will be finished today! If not, I may have to hurt someone...

i think you should try to be there for the first day of install (it'll probably only take 2 days, three tops) in order to catch any potential layout issues.

talk to your KD and go over the layout box by box and be sure to cover where any filler or spacers might be used. talk about how things should be centered as well.

and, yes, go over each box in order to catch any damages or finish issues.

I had to be at work while they installed. I came home and inspected. I would have loved to have been there but it wasn't in the cards. My KD and GC were in and out that day. Installer was great. No problems. Little things will be tweaked (adjusted) when the knobs and pulls get put in. Again, I won't be able to be there for it. Have to work. Will be a nice surprise when I get home.

I think you should try to be there as much as you can. Your job is not to tell them how to do theirs, but rather to answer any questions that come up, interpretation of the design, and any adjustments that must be made on site.

For instance, when my cabinets were going in, the floor was very uneven. (A couple of inches from one end of the cabinet run to the other.) So there were questions about whether to *reduce* the toekick a lot at one end, *increase* it a lot at the other end, or split the difference. There were also questions about how to align the molding between the cabinet tops and the ceiling. And of course there were questions about exactly how to install the pulls. (I gave instructions about the pulls in the morning and then went to work. Turns out there were a couple of mistakes I might have avoided by being there.)

You should be there. I wouldn't hover, but stay in the house and let them know you are available to answer questions. That way it puts the onus on them. And no, there are some mistakes that can't be easily fixed, esp. if you've got custom or semi custom cabs.

Before you do anything, inspect each cabinet to make sure that it conforms to the order. Are the finished sides finished? Are the widths the widths you ordered? Do you have all the trim pieces? Do you have all the hardware?
If you can be around to answer questions -- and there will be questions -- it does make the job go faster, Doing it right the first time is always preferable to making it right afterwards.