2nd option is always best. Manufacturers reserve the right to change specs without letting you know or publishing them in advance. And sometimes the are just plain wrong. If you proceed based on manufacturer's diagrams alone, and it's wrong, you'd better be prepared to eat the first panel and pay for the second because the cabinet maker won't do it and you'll never get the manufacturer to pick up the costs. They'll just point to their fine print, and the cabinet make will just say I told you so. As far as the install, it's a team effort. You need both on hand. Yes, that's twice the money, but it beats having to call the cabinet maker in the middle to modify a panel or for the cabinet maker to call the appliance guys for clarification about some bracket. Delays should be built into your expectations for the remodel. If you are lucky and everything goes as planned with a simple job, a kitchen remodel will only take 3 months. If you have a complicated kitchen, and have built ins and other issues, then 6 months would be closer to a normal time line. It ain't TV!

You can always hang the cabinets so they are pulled out 1 inch from the wall and you put a shim between the wall and the cabinet. You always need to put shims there because most walls are not 'perfectly straight' Then you put the end panel and counter top and no one will know that they were pulled out 1 inch. If you are mounting the frig next to tall cabinets, then the faces of the cabs and the refrigerator face are at the same plane. To do this, I would pull out the cabs slightly, if needed. Most of the time, the counter is mounted next to the frig and the counter is about 1 inch pulled forward (reveal) from the cabinets to give it room for the handles/knobs underneath. The countertop edge will be what is flush with the refrigerator face, not the adjacent cabinet. If you want the refrigerator flush with the cabinet face that is adjacent, then the counter top/end panel will stick out beyound the refrigerator face if you are using them. Some hinges can deal with this and some hinges cannot. (The hinge has to travel out 1 to 2 inch before it starts to swing. Otherwise, the door will run into the countertop or the adjacent panel as it starts to swing out...) hope this helps. sorry if I was not clear..... I believe SZ integrated hinges allow the refrigerator face to be recessed from the side/end panels. This is quite tricky. not sure if Liebherr allows you to recess the frig from the end panel.

I would look at top knobs- they have an appliance pull section. The berenson pulls I used said they had appliance pulls but they did not feel substantial. I was able to match my pulls exactly at top knobs and these are sturdy!

tsjmjh I am going to have to get someone to put the pulls on and I had figured out that they had to go on prior to the panel being installed. I guess I don't know where the little bit of space is for the screws until I get my appliances. I was thinking they need to be countersunk so the panel can be flat against the dw. Do all dishwashers have a space for the screws? My appliance installer said they would put the panels on for me but they will not put the pulls on the panels. So I need to get someone to do that. I don't have a cabinet person because I already had the cabinets and got the panels for the dish drawers to match the cabinets. I live in a very old house and I was installing a custom range hood to house venting over my new stove. My house has never had a vent over the stove at all but I am getting a dual fuel stove and figured with the higher BTU output of the burners I needed to get ventilation. So this is sort of an upgrade to my kitchen mostly surrounding appliances and what goes with them. It has been quite a process because of all the things you don't see that cost money (new Electrical Panel, different plugs, moving the gas line over 6 inches, etc). But it is almost complete. nidnay I think my panels should be fine. They were sprayed with an oil based paint and so I am not going to worry about doing anything more to them. But I do need to figure out how to get the pulls on there correctly so the panel will fit flush. I took your advice and got the regular pulls to match my other drawer pulls and they are 8 inches center to center. I think that is plenty big plus since I need two of them I wasn't going to spend several hundred dollars on the "appliance pulls" if the others will work just fine. You have been in on this from the beginning. I am almost done. I will post before and after photo once I am finished. I have had many frustrations along the way and every time I think it is almost at the end something will happen. Like the last 2 times the AC guy was supposed to come and cut a hole in my roof for the ducting, we had a downpour of rain so it had to be delayed. Plus the usual issues with people not showing up when they are supposed to, paint not matching, me having to supervise because the person who is supposed to is nowhere to be found, etc. But I can see the end now.