We're only at the design/quote phase but so far I've been pleased with DeWil's quality and response considering how reasonably priced their cabinets are. I had already received a quote from the custom cabinet maker our designer suggested and DeWils came in for $1000 more with more bells, whistles and better quality. Other GWers have used them and been pleased and a kitchen designer who used to rep them (and lives elsewhere now) said we couldn't go wrong with them. They are a strong contender but I'm still gathering information so, thanks joannaca, for your recommendation. Joannaca, did you also talk with Neil Kelly? I went into their LO showroom, talked to a designer and was stunned at what she told me a very basic reno would cost. It wasn't even for new cabinets, just painting or refacing our existing oak cabs, which ruled out changing our layout that is workable but can be improved. They do gorgeous work but my pockets aren't deep enough.

I'm here from Oregon City. Luckymom23 you'll have to let me know where you're building. We are out in the Redland area and I'm a mom to four. ; ) We our DIY and have chosen IKEA cabinets. We just installed our first pantry cabinets in an alcove of our kitchen but won't get to tear down the rest of the kitchen until dh has a couple weeks off. I won't let him take out my kitchen with only weeknights and weekends to work on replacing it. : D

Wow, its great to see feedback on some Portland providers. We have been giving our kitchen a makeover as well, it all started with me falling for a Bluestar range...which then made it apparent the rest of the kitchen needed work to make it stand up to the range. We have our original cabinets from when the house was built 80 years ago, we did have to resize a few of the wall cabinets as they hung too low and made the counter useless. They had been refaced at some point with some lightly stained maple, and after getting quotes to paint our small kitchen cabinets in the range or $1800 we painted them ourselves with Miller primer/paint. I performed all of the electrical work, we just had to have a contractor run the gas line as we originally had a wretched electric stove. We are now at the counter decision, and are leaning towards soapstone. We got one bid and it just seemed way too high for the amount of work soapstone takes (no polishing or sealing), I just don't see how it can have $1800 in labor if I compare the cost of "DIY" from Teixeira cost. We have two straight counter tops, nothing fancy. I could screw it up and do it twice for what the quote we got was. If we had to pay the bid price of $3000+ for soapstone, I couldn't justify it. We have old cabinets, so they are a shallow depth...which means the counter is not "standard" and would have to be completely replaced if we ever replaced the cabinets. However the DIY price is a bit easier to consider. We also got our Bluestar at BASCO, but just the 30". They had a great deal going last year that saved $300 off the standard price. One complaint is that their delivery guys dented the side panel, pretty big mistake for guys that deliver high cost (heavy) appliances every day. This reminds me I need to call and finish getting credit for the damage as they offered. We found some soapstone slabs at Casa Bella and a few other spots around town, i think we found 3 warehouses with SS slabs in stock...I just hate how they can't tell you the price of it. It really seems like they have a racket going with the installers and can just make up whatever price they want. None of them would even tell us a "real" price, seems shady to me. Perhaps that is how stone is sold, but I'm not down with that game...just seems to leave too much room to just jack up the price if they don't like your fabricator or something.

We are in the process of installing an Ikea kitchen right now with custom doors/drawers/panels made by Scherr's. I cannot speak to the durability yet, but so far I am very happy with the functionality. I had the fear also about 'putting lipstick on a pig', but I don't really think this is the case here. I wanted a lot of drawers and I wanted good hardware, and Ikea makes this easy for a very reasonable price. I did not want the Ikea doors however. Using Scherr's allowed me to get exactly what I wanted for looks, with the functionality of Ikea. The only place I'm not 100% sure I made the right decision is with the cover panels. I got flat panels, and they are 3/4" thick instead of the 1/2" that Ikea sells. I did not pay attention to this detail when I ordered from Scherr's, and in one spot in the kitchen, that extra 1/4" over 2 panels is making things harder to fit. Also, I wish I had specified the panels had the rails like the doors/drawers. And I might prefer the looks of the thinner panels. It will all be ok though and I'm very happy with the doors and drawers.