"...The kitchen/bath designer just spec'd it in and we had no idea of the possible consequences...." Most desingers have no clue how to set tile. How to prep for tile. What is required. I stopped listening to designers years ago. Now I work with builders and clients designers but I do not set any tile I do not want. If the designer says. I want a flush transition from the hall to the tile I act cheeky and ask how should I install that? I ask them questions like "So you don't want a crack isolation membrane and you are happy with tiling over the old plywood?" If they say yes then I ask them to bring in their tile guy and ask why am I here? People think that tile men have the clients best interest at heart when the truth is most times they are looking to only please the builder or the designer since this is the source of their income. You need to be careful here. Some of the worst mistakes I have seen have come from the designer making stupid calls and the trades just following them.

Kountry Wood Products vs. Diamond I don't know Kountry Wood, but Diamond is good stuff. - 1/2 inch particleboard cabinet box sides Go with the strongest boxes you can get. These things are going to be around a long time, and -- as you say -- changing them is a lot of trouble and expense. They're going to be used and abused, stuffed full, leaned upon ... go with strong stuff to start with. - Standard overlay Standard overlay is usually called partial overlay. I'd definitely go with full overlay because it allows you better access to your cabinets -- I'd be willing to pay extra for this. With standard overlay, you get that "post in the middle". Something you didn't mention: Are you going with at least some all-drawer stacks instead of standard cabinets? Drawers give you better access to all your stuff. You also didn't mention whether you're using any specialized pull-outs. I don't think these are a very good bang for the buck. They cost $$$, but they only store a tiny bit. Consider: A similar cabinet concept: If you're using a Lazy Susan in the corner, but sure it's a Super Susan, not just a Lazy Susan ... the difference is that the Lazy Susan (left) is shelves supported by a central post, whereas the Super version (right) is wooden shelves supporting the turn-tables separately. - Flat drawer fronts This is a matter of style. No functional difference. - Solid wood drawer boxes with dovetail joints - Cheap epoxy coated side mount drawer slides - Thicker 3/4 inch shelves - Smooth bottom mount drawer slides with full extension and soft close Yes, pay extra for these things. When they're new, all drawers should work great -- you're paying extra so they'll continue to work well in years to come. I'd go so far as to say you should go with heavy-duty drawer slides on ALL your drawers. And be sure your drawers go allll the way to the back of your cabinet. I know, you'd assume they do ... but I have a 30" deep peninsula with two 20" deep drawers, which means I have about 10" of empty space behind those drawers that's going unused. The style we want is white shaker style. I don't think anyone's bought anything else for the last decade. The builder did say that the issues with the warped doors and loose center pieces can be fixed, but I'm skeptical about that and feel that brand new cabinets shouldn't need fixing I agree with you -- if they're not right on the day they're installed, they'll never be right. Is this the Kountry brand? If so, I'd avoid them. I was always amazed that these giant houses often had the lowest level of cabinets offered by this manufacturer. It might not be 100% ignorance. Don't we see plenty of people on this board building big-big houses, more than anyone needs? I do wonder if some of these people don't reach the finishing stages -- things like cabinets -- and realize that their finances force them to go with builder-basic items because they've already shot the budget. I would steer clear of any company that deliberately misspells their own name. Nothing good can come from that... :) My father's been dead almost three decades, but I can still hear him ranting about that very topic. I wish I could direct my potential clients to this thread when they try to tell me they can get cabinets that “look” just like the ones I’m selling for a much lower price. Yeah, but will those cheaper cabinets still "look" (and function) just like yours in a decade? We all know the answer to that question. I understand that cabinets are tremendously expensive, but this is an area where it makes sense to put in quality -- doing anything else is false economy. Our ceilings are also 9 ft. Our uppers used to be 42" tall with 12" of empty space above. Now our uppers are 46" tall (custom cabs) with 8" of molding above to meet the ceiling. Yes, I totally agree that cabinets-to-the-ceiling are expensive but worth the cost. You can achieve this by buying taller cabinets or by stacking two shorter cabinets.

I am not a pro but just replaced the fiberglass or whatever tub/shower combo for fully tiled showers. My old combination was some kind of one piece so no waterproofing would be necessary. It would just have been fitted in when my condo was originally built. My old stall shower in the guest bath was similar as it was a one piece unit with walls on three sides. The construction of my tile shower required MANY steps. The pan had various components and had to to cure between each layer. It then had to be inspected by the City to make sure that water stayed in it for 24 hours. Similarly the walls required waterproof backing as well as several layers of Red Guard for waterproofing. Again, the various layers had to cure individually and it had to be inspected by the City BEFORE the tile could be done. Judging by some of the disastrous tile jobs (solely aesthetics), tile setting done properly is a pretty skillful trade which requires an aesthetic eye as well. I would assume that the skill level for plopping in an fiberglass tub/shower or shower is not nearly as high although there have been threads on cracking acrylic pans so even those require some degree of skill. And I also assume that the actual construction materials cost some amount of money. I don't know if the other stuff such as the rough plumbing work and drains is the same. I know with my remodel, they installed new drains and obviously all new rough and trim. The stuff that you see - i.e. the trim/fixtures and the tile floor and walls are the proverbial tip of the iceberg in terms of cost. Because of the cost of constructing the shower to make sure it was structurally sound and waterproofed, I went with materials I found aesthetically pleasing that weren't inexpensive. But in the scheme of things, it was the labor and not the materials that drove up the cost so I would have felt ridiculous using $3.00 tiles on a $10,000 labor shower.

@apple_pie_order bare minimum I need to fix botched leveling mix on floor (it's too tough to break up and remove so has to be smoothed out), level the toilet flange, secure the sheet vinyl (it's already cut & loosely placed- just needs to be secured), hook up water supply lines under sink, and install the toilet. I want to get water working for the sink before I mess with leveling mix again bc I want to have water just in case. Shower can't be used bc it needs new surround & controls-- it's not hooked up to water anymore. I do have the supply lines for my sink, but I need my friend to come remove the old copper lines and hook up the new supply lines. I don't have the flexibility to squeeze in and do it myself. But he mistakenly reversed the lines so I need to get that remedied- which should only take a few minutes. So, to have a working sink and toilet isn't too far off. I need to find the tape for securing the vinyl sheet flooring though. Stuff keeps disappearing on me. I do plan to do some things a little at a time. Like do the countertop raising, new formica install, and put the new sink in before doing the rest of the master bathroom. The other bathroom still needs some finish work, electrical, paint, etc, but it can be made usable semi-simply if I can fix the floor. While the master bathroom countertop is being worked on (I plan to take it to the workshop) I could set up something with a bucket for hand-washing temporarily. We keep water in bottles around the area for washing hands when power is out (pumps can't run when power is out so we lose running water too).