erikanh: I am so impressed with all the good quality reports here that I am really hoping I can use CP - I am looking at frameless for now to keep the price down. Couple of questions for you while we are on the topic: I was assuming that your cabinets were their classic paint but then I think I just saw on one thread that yours are the milk paint - is that right? What influenced your decision? Also, as I just posted on another thread, I just found out that the center panel on their painted doors is MDF rather than maple - due to movement issues with real wood. This is true in other cabinet lines - I have been told in a couple of others that they use MDF in flat panel doors for a painted finish. Do you know what the story is for your cabinets with the inset doors? Without the face frame I am wondering if I am going to end up with very little real wood on the front of the cabinets! It is just a conceptual issue I suppose not really an issue that will make any practical difference! skeetie219: My kitchen is so small (12 x 10) that I am not sure it would be anywhere near relevant to your situation. Also I am keeping it VERY simple - their frameless line in a classic paint finish, no fancy end panels, no fancy mouldings etc - there is no way I can run to even your lower budget number. My designer did tell me today that they will not give you more than two quotes before you commit to them with a deposit which I think is very reasonable. After all doing layouts and quotes is very time consuming - my designer has spent quite a lot of time on the phone with me and did two plans and I am heading for the second quote on the near final plan. I think it is only reasonable that I should either decide to commit to them after that or move on. After you commit I think they will spend as much time as you need to determine the actual final details - at least from what I gather from folks here. HTH!

Thanks, jdesign, for trying to talk me through how this gliding system works. Thankfully, one of the two companies who offer Omega just put up a display of the doors in their store this week! So, I get to go in and see them for myself! Honu, I'm glad you found the thread again. It would be great to see your cabinets, when it is a good time for you. I finally got my initial quotes back from Durasupreme and Omega. I'm still in the process of trying to ensure they followed my list so I can compare apples to apples. I'm relieved with both quotes, which I guess is the consolation prize of a small kitchen. I didn't hold back much on the bells and whistles, so these numbers supposedly include thin end cabinets on both the fridge and the peninsula sides of the U for small pantry space, framing in the fridge, garbage pullout, microwave drawer, super susan, some drawer stacks, etc. The estimates also include costs for basic crown, light rail and toe kick. I asked to have them priced out in white shaker. Both cabinet lines are the frameless lines. They offer 3/4" plywood boxes, dovetail drawers, soft-close, full extension. Durasupreme Alectra came in at $17,528, discounted $800+ for a sale and another $800 if I pay cash - for a total then of $15,819. Shipping included. There was a $1700 up-charge for the bamboo on the lowers and fridge cabinet/pantry included. Omega's Full Access quote came in at $13,478, including shipping. It says on the quote that this is a 50% discount... It would add a little over 2K to change the uppers to the gliding door system. Bamboo and wenge would be a 50% uncharge (ouch). I'm getting a second quote from this line from another company today. The good news is that these numbers make both lines affordable for me. And, really, fairly comparable. The bad news is that I still can't find finishes in ANY line at ANY price point that I really like. I do love the Omega Metro door. That's about it, so far. It's really sad. I know stained cabinets would hold up better and slab is more cleanable and I like the IDEA of stained/wood/bamboo/wenge lowers and white uppers. But, I don't really want slab doors on the tops. I don't want dark and I don't want super grainy/busy and I don't think my house can handle heavy. The house would like light woods, but I am just not a fan of maples, firs, oaks, cherries, pines, etc. I went into this adamantly against yellow, gold, orange or red tones. Now, I am considering bamboo, but DuraSupreme's reads pretty orange/yellow and Omega's are muted but a 50% uncharge! One thing that I haven't considered, but maybe I should, is rift oak. Maybe I could live with that? Bottom line, I think I'm really a painted cabinet girl, trying to shove herself into a wood cabinet box SOMEHOW. And, all of that is probably for another thread...

Plain and Fancy and Omega will be top tier quality, with the pricing that goes with it. Dynasty, Brookhaven. and Medallion are the next steps down and are upper mid grade lines. Dynasty gives a great bang for the buck and was often less expensive than Kemper in some things because of how they structured the alterations. Kemper is solidly mid grade and I did lots of nice projects in them when I sold them. Kraftmaid is the mid grade version of Merrilat, but beware, as they've splintered into about 3 different levels of quality and makes it horribly confusing. Their customer service also sucks. Aristokraft and Merrilat are builder grade. Few choices and not so great finishes. Great for a just married in an entry level house and low expectations, but even those kids have higher expectations these days. Apologies for the poor cell phone pics but there were no lights. Kemper kitchen. This section was right around 20K The other half of the kitchen, in Dynasty. It was around 38 K. This kitchen was big enough to be two kitchens. Each half could have been a total project.

Pallman is fine. There are two things I would change: Humidity - it is at the lower end of acceptable. Even though 35% is allowed, it is still going to show some problems with splitting and checking. Please get it up to 45% - 50%. That will really, really, really help the wood look health and beautiful. This should be done SLOWLY. About 5% increase every 7 days or so. Ditch the Minwax. It is low-end DIY stuff. If Pallmant makes stains, then get them to work with Pallman stains. Get them to redo the colour patches for you to decide on your colour...again going with a coat of finish over the stain patch so that you can see the depth of colour. That's it. They are stepping up and fixing a finish that was really rough. They buffed three times (I'm assuming the buffing was between every coat) and yet they still came up with a rough finish. So they are doing it over. Very nice. You have an stand-up group of guys there. If they won't switch out the Minwax - it probably isn't a huge deal. Many refinishers like to work with Minwax because the stains have remained the same for DECADES. I'm not a fan, but oil based stains work with oil based finishes all the time. The HUMIDITY is going to be your challenge as a homeowner. If you can bump it up to 45%, you will have a much happier floor. Much, much happier floor.