I have not had relationships with Medallion, Dynasty, Kemper, Decora to know their price. I am a straight shooter and find it so interesting to read this message board. I am here to learn the mind of perspective buyers and what is happening to them around the country to learn of ways to improve. I find it amazing that so many people state that an itemized estimate is rare find. Also that cabinet shopping is worse than buying a car. I have only bought a few in my life I keep them till they die.. I hated my expierence buying autos! That is a disgrace to the industry I chose to be in. I personally love the kitchen remodel process becasue it is a mini design build expierence where you can be proud of your kitchen when you are done. I have stated many times that people from this site need to compare discounts from MSRP to find the average per brand and then you can see if you are being given a good price. I am begining to think that most people on this site go to retail locations based on show room appearance and equate the quality of displays with the quality of the business. The computer design software I use is Pro kitchen. It is less expensive then the more popular 20/20 that many of the stores use. The program has a data base of symbols for the cabinets organized by cabinet maker. A material list is generated from the symbols placed on the drawing that references MSRP of all the items placed on the drawing with relevant options. It is so easy to have the material list print out as a line by line estimate which is how I do it. Stores do not want to take the 2-4 hours it takes to produce a design that you can send to countless places to see who has the best deal. I can understand that to a certain extent. To me what does it matter the individual cost per item or the total as the items create the total. I had a customer in Orlando who I worked with for weeks providing quotes using different cabinet companies to get a price lower then the first go round. All my estimates were itemized line by line including all options to the custom cabinets. The husband got upset with me to the point of being almost rude that the other cabinet companies would not itemize the quotes so they could compare them to mine. I was amazed at his disdain towards me when I was the only company that gave him the info he wanted. I was told to make the kitchen fully loaded on exterior look and interior function which I did. They had 30 lineal feet of cabinetry 39" wall cabinets with crown and light rail soft close drawers and doors factory built intergal side panels on all exposed cabinets. 1 piece wainscott panels on the backs of the island and so on. Their price varied between approx $9,500 and $12,000 depending on door style chosen. The competition had a similar door style for 10,000 no crown no light rail and no upgrades. They went with the competition instead of asking me prepare a quote with out all the options. They asumed that I would not be able to match the competition because my detailed estimate gave them the ability to subtract out the options costs to see where the price would be without the extras. I would have made approx $3,000 on the $12,000 estimate. If they had asked me what was my price instead of assuming and said to me the competition is at $10,000 and been willing to show the paperwork I could have easily made another estimate with out the bells and whistles and seen my cost and decided what I was willing to negotiate to. I could have beat the competition easily. They assumed things they did not know or ask. We both lost. I could have given them a better price and we both would have been better off. Do not assume things wether you have a written total cost or a lump sum. Go to smaller stores that are more family owned get your quotes from each company and then share them with the competition and say can you beat this. You will be taken much more seriously if you have a honest written quote than a verbal story of your prices to compare. I am actually to the point where I am going to offer instead of free quotes as I do now to charging $150 for quote and measurement that is refundable if you do not purchase with me and you show me what the quote is you are going to buy and if I can not get the business for any reason and I then see a signed agreement I will refund the money. That way I will atleast see how I am losing to my competition and have a chance to learn and improve. Many dealers do not get the sales they want after working for them. Honesty is the best policy for all involved. Treat your perspective dealers and contractors as you want to be treated and you might be surprised what will happen. We have consumers playing games with us all the time. It sounds as though the dealers are doing it in kind. You have to be the adult to end the games and go with a straight face. The beauty of a free market is you are able to compare as many prices as possible. Take your written quotes and use them to your advantage and quit worrying about if I say the budget they sales person will set the price to the budget. So what if they do. Take the quote to the next guy and ask if they can beat and repeat the process until you reach the bottom price. Then size the company up and see if expierence and reputation are adequate if so you found a good deal.

This is one of the things I worried about most in our kitchen remodel. I had wanted a very specific French ceramic tile that I couldn't get for the price I wanted in the time that I needed it. This led me to a hasty decision, and I chose unfilled travertine. After pulling the trigger, I did some research (BIG mistake) that led me to the conclusion that I had made a horrible choice. I realized I would be stuck with my decision, so I figured that, if I really hated it, I could wait a few years and pull it all out and replace it. Well, the travertine has turned out to be one of the most enjoyable features of my new kitchen! We have rugs in front of our stove and sink, so it seldom gets anything on it other than normal dirt from foot traffic (and hair from three large dogs). I just vacuum at least once a week and spot clean spills. NOTHING sticks to it and nothing shows. Believe it or not, I haven't mopped it once since it was installed in January. Thinking it had to be gross by now, I wiped a few tiles in a high traffic area with a plain white damp paper towel, and there was almost no dirt whatsoever. We have 16x16 tiles and have had no issues with cracks. I do wish I had hired a professional tiler to install it, though. My contractor's crew was not very careful, so I have some unevenness. They also ignored my request to have tiles with more holes placed on the perimeter where they would be covered with cabinets.

So, the fun keeps going on this. When the guy was in my house, he did state that it was not urgent to fix my issue immediately - I had a "couple weeks until it would be a huge problem" - his words. I had the water draining to the sump pump and it was only a drip. However, he did a very "hard sell" to get me to sign up for the work. He said scheduling somebody else would be hard and it would need another initial visit if I didn't schedule that day and I might run out of time. I asked if I could cancel if I changed my mind and he said "yes" and I could use that time for other estimates if I wanted to and just cancel and get my deposit (1/2 the job price - $1000) back. We signed the form and sent him on his way. The form has nothing on it about cancellation or refund policies. I called and cancelled this return visit on Thursday - three business days after his visit. (remember this was on Christmas eve) and confirmed I would receive my full down payment back, minus the $85 trip/diagnostic charge. They called me yesterday (Friday) and said I could only have half my deposit back because I need to cancel within three days. The "salesman" said nothing about this in our discussion and neither does our paperwork. Needless to say, they got a bit of an earful from me and the customer service rep said she would go back and discuss with management and get back to me. As a side note, I am still confirming if it applies to this type of work, but there are specific rules about cancelling contracts in Illinois for estimates given by a salesperson in a home. One is that it is always "3 business days to cancel any contract" and the other is that they need to leave me with a copy of paperwork for a cancellation policy. This policy is at http://www.illinoisattorneygeneral.gov/consumers/threedaycancel.html I will say that my history with company until the last two years had been good. My father always used them and recommended them to me. I used them for years for the basics - annual furnace and A/C checks and they have come out and worked on the boiler and heater a couple other times with basic fixes with reasonable prices. They became bad when I needed a hot water tank replaced. They charged me $1700 and I thought it was a bit high, but I trusted them and didn't want to get other quotes while my family didn't have hot water. After the fact, I checked around and found that I paid more than I should have - I talked to others in the neighborhood who had the same job done (our houses are all similar 60's quad levels built by a single builder who did the subdivision). I shook that one off and now I get this issue. My dad used to say "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me". They will not fool me twice. This company has simply grown very large in the area over the years. I feel they are losing sight of what helped them grow. They lost me as a customer. On the $200 to drill the hole, I get that. You have a specialty saw, you are taking accountability for the granite chipping or cracking, and you probably know if you need to add any extra support prior to drilling to avoid such issues. To make it worth your time to drive out, do the drilling, wear and tear on your tools, etc, $200 or $300 could make sense. I would be fine if they said $500 or $600 to do the basic pluming work for an hour or hour and a half and I get the work guarantee and continue to do business with a company over the years. $2000 is just taking advantage of somebody who thinks they have an emergency problem on their hands. I found a lot of reviews of this same company online just like mine. Some even called out the same first name of the person who came to my house of this situation. Can't be sure it is the same guy, but this is looking fishy. They only have a B rating on Angie's list with over 1600 reviews. I had never even checked until now, again, because of the decent history with myself and my father. All the more reason to be done with them.

Have you considered putting the table against the window the long way (see sketch in blue). There would be 40" of walk space if the hearth is 18" into the room. An indoor/outdoor is a great option that will anchor the table, add color as well as be the base for the room. I would also install either a long rod with stationary window panels on either side or short rods on either side of the window. The short rods would also have stationary panels. This will visually complete the windows. I would put an accent chair in the corner on the fireplace wall by the entry with an art piece above. A built-in bookshelf cabinet could be installed to the right of the firelace. Add a focal piece above the fireplace and you're all set!