if there is no change besides ripping out soffit and new electrical, I would visit your local hardware store with a good bulletin board. A lot of handymen are actually previous employees of bigger builders/etc...for various reasons they go off on their own. Interview by phone or email. Tell them what you want done. The electrical part will probably require separate group to come in. I would probably use Barkers or Conestoga or similar-online source of design and detail work for ready to assemble cabinets......they ship to you. Putting together is the job of handyman guy with good carpentry experience-it's not rocket science. If you are in a smaller area, I wouldn't like the Lowes/Home depot crowd to be in charge..... I notice in a larger geographic area, some of their stores have really good experienced designers. In a small area, that range of experience might be limited. Too little time and too much risk to mess around. Of course, you should offer more info on this website about your PLAN-the process follows plan. Your plan might be different once you look hard at all your choices and budget and get feedback.

I work for Lowes. Many Lowes now have what's called a PSI program which pairs you with an interior designer and if you decide to install an entire kitchen (vs just say cabinets) many Lowes now have GCs which coordinate drywall wiring plumbing cabs flooring etc. This program is still not available at all Lowes so you'd have to check at your store.

I can give you some additional info if you want to message me : )

The key to a good outcome is planning. You can use this forum to post and plan much of your kitchen. Hearing why things should go where from a number of people will make you a better consumer when you do talk to a kitchen designer. Many kitchen designer types have been through the procedure so much that they forget all the things that you don't know and need to be told. If you've been to the Lowe's and have the same kitchen person twice give you the wrong information then I would definitely try a different person there and if the new person isn't bringing you more satisfaction then I would go somewhere else. The person in the store is not going to do the actual work, and it could be that their contractor is excellent… If you can talk to the contractor. I have talked to several people who have had excellent experiences at big-box stores as well as people such as myself who have had lousy experiences such that I didn't end up using them, it really does depend on how things are in your area.

People often ask this question here. To me it seems akin to asking "I'm planning on dating someone on Match.com, do you think he or she will be 'the one'"? The individual local contractor that your Big Box store assigns to your job has much more relevance to your outcome than the fact that Lowes or Home Depot is the one assigning that contractor to you. Even if you could query only those near you who used the same store that you work through, their results will not be especially indicative of what you can expect, unless you happen to be assigned the same contractor that did their job.

In some sense this is a really apt analogy in that the Big Box store is simply a matchmaker, between you and a local contractor. However since the store never gives you any info about their contractors, or any choice to you, its a little like a dating service, where you log in and are merely told "This is who you'll be taking out to dinner, have a lovely time."

We used HD for our countertops - it was slow but happy with the outcome. I know people that have used HD for cabs as well and are very happy (especially given the sale prices). You have less control over who is doing the work, but they do a lot of business and at least where I am seem to have competent if not amazing people doing the work. Seems like you would have to do your own planning and some of the GC work.

Yes.

The issue is not just about quality of the workmanship, but will Big Box add their own overlay of cost as the vendor on top of the regular charges of the installer? The bid that came back to me from HD was totally ridiculous. I found my own expert installer for a significant cost savings and just purchased the cabinets from them.

However, I did have an expensive grade of Corian purchased and installed through HD at a considerable cost savings and was pleased with the quality of the workmanship.

tgal - it's not a question of IF they'll overlay a cost to the workers they pimp for it's simply a matter of how much !

And since these publicly traded co.s' are run by professional managers with an eye for profit - you can be certain that the markup is not small.

What you have to ask yourself is : is a company who's primary focus is retail sales really going to have the skill set to effectively manage a complex process like remodeling ? Doubtful, very doubtful, especially at the outset of the program !

Another thing to consider is that (at least in the larger markets) the most talented craftsmen are not lining up to work for the BORG.

Big box stores are the middle man and try to get the cheapest contractor to keep their profits high. HD wants all money up front. All GC that I have found are willing to work with you on bench mark payments, removal, installation, and final finish work, also they are much cheaper. Buy your cabinets from an outlet store have them installed