I was going to have a referral for you until I saw the tight budget parameter.

doesn't your builder have options for you ?

He uses a kitchen guy. We met with him- he wants to use ultra craft cabinets. They seem nice but I also priced Dutch Wood and it seems like we can get more for our money going custom. I was just nervous since they won't install at our location so we'd have to hire someone to do that.

So how is no install and something unfamiliar to GC more for your money?

The GC uses his own install guy even for the kitchen guy he recommends (however the kitchen guy told me we would be better off using his own installers as he found (based on some other jobs) that the cg's installers weren't great). We are doing construction management so all the vendors are on us. He recommends people but he also says he doesn't really care who we use. The dutch wood quote included a lot of upgrades, like inset doors, corbels, a custom hood, etc. that the standard cabinets do not have options for. And with these upgrades, the price was about the same.

Does this include the GC's percentage? He will ultimately be responsible for the entire project correct?

He's not a gc (sorry I shouldn't have called him that since we have no gc). He's the construction manager. We pay him a flat fee and he oversees all the contractors who we pay directly (so he gets no cut). He's basically the guy on site who handles everything but we are assuming the risk. He has a number of subs he tends to work with so he recommends those but we can use whoever we want. He gets better rates on his subs since he builds any houses.

I don't know if you'll ever beat or come close to Dutch Wood prices near NYC. Mine was one of the first Dutch Wood kitchens. It has been more than 3 years and the kitchen is holding up amazingly well (as is the houseful of cabinets Dutch Wood did). If you can figure out the install, I would definitely go with them!

Kitchen

Hi Beaglesdoitbetter...I have actually been stalking your kitchen on GW. It is beautiful (as is your entire house)! Great job. Posts like your encourage me to use them. Their work looks beautiful and all of your feedback seems like they are good quality. Did you have them install the cabinets or did you have to hire someone? I am curious how things go if they do not install. Was their designer able to help guide you as to which organizational pieces to add (like the knife drawer, paper towel holder, cutting board etc.) or did you have to think of that all on your own? We have so many decisions to make on the house that I don't have as much time to devote to planning every piece of this kitchen so I need someone who can guide me and make suggestions. Also, since we aren't local I am wondering how things would go if there were problems or issues down the road (we are not that far, 2.5 hours....hmm thats not too far out of their radius, I wonder if they might consider coming?). Any feedback you have on the process would be much appreciated. I love them and want to use them but my husband and family are pushing me to use a standard cabinet maker since it's "safer."

Dutch Wood installed the cabinets b/c we are reasonably close to them.

I had pictures of all of the organizational pieces I wanted and I showed those pictures to them and they made it happen. They have a designer who can do all that, but I wanted to do it because I was very OCD about everything (I did not work w/ their designer but I think many other people on GW who came after me did?). Dutch Wood also did our dog room and our conservatory/library (including library ladder) and our 2 laundry rooms and our master closets and all our bathrooms and our master bedroom built-ins and built our master fireplace and did built-ins in our great room and gathering room and built our kitchen table. (Can you tell I am Dutch Wood obsessed)

I can tell you, I never had one single issue w/ ANYTHING. Like I said, it has been 3 years and they have not had to come back for any reason (except to deliver/install more cabinets). These cabinets are so much nicer than the cabinets in our FL house (even though the FL house people just redid the kitchen right before we moved in and spent more $ on a smaller kitchen than we spent for ours here).

I would ask if they'd consider coming since you are only 2.5 hours... it's not that far. Even if they don't, I just can't think it would be "safer" to use a standard cabinet maker than to use a company that has done such a good job for so many people on GW. Of course, YMMV because some of it will depend upon your installer...