For what it's worth, we had the same situation in that we originally costed based on custom cabinets, and then decided we needed to cut back the budget substantially. The first thing to change was the cabinets. The GC was initially very reluctant, but my DH basically sat him down, told him this was what we'd decided, and if he felt it would be beneath him, or not good for his professional reputation, we would quite understand if he wanted to refuse the job. He confirmed that he did want to do the job (and I do know he's not short of work) and would accept what we wanted to do. He's worked on the house before, and we know him pretty well by now. He raised his concerns with me only once more, but I didn't get into it much: just reminded him that this was what we wanted, that I appreciated him raising his concerns, but based on my experience in the UK, this was what I'd chosen. Since then, we've worked together closely on all the ordering including all the trim pieces necessary, and so on, and it's been smooth going. Incidentally, for those that don't know, all the cabinets for the US market are manufactured in the US, but in accordance with German environmental standards, which are the highest in the world. And there's a 25 year warranty. Particle board is pretty much the norm across Europe and my friends are very surprised at the reluctance of US builders to use something so tried and tested.

My contractor installed ours, although he was initially not enthusiastic. When we made it clear to him it was Ikea or nothing, and we quite understood if he didn't want the job, then he agreed. He knew I'd researched it every which way, and we booked some time to go through everything I'd worked out. The Ikea kitchen people talked me through the need for end panels, toe kicks etc, and then I went through the draft order with my GC, he was reassured that I DID know what I was talking about! He also built a plywood box to mount the base cabinets on, because of our wonky floor. I planned two cabinet modifications, and printed out the tutorials from Ikeanfans for him. I also had my laptop ready whenever a question arose - we'd look up the website and go through the instructions together, which helped. I'm delighted with the choice I made, and I think he's happy he now has the experience with Ikea, as people are trying to find ways to save money on their renovations.

I agree that using RTA cabinets makes no sense if one is having a GC do your kitchen. As I posted, the savings for RTA is when a homeowner is doing the assembly since they are saving on labor costs. If your GC is assembling them you are paying a lot of money for that and you would be better off purchasing a better middle of the road cabinet line, In my experience, the factor that drives up remodeing costs especially in a high cost of living area like New York City area is LABOR. With a small kitchen or bathroom the cost of the materials is less significant and is one of the positive aspects of having a small space - one can splurge on higher end finishes because the incremental cost is relatively insignificant and labor is more or less the same for nicer or even luxury finishes. I realized this when I priced out tile and the cost between the tile I loved and the tile that would have been a compromise was minimal and the cost of labor remained constant. Also as I posted the cost for doing a small kitchen in a multi-family condo is going to be vastly more expensive than doing the identical kitchen in a single family home even in the same area because there are all kinds of costs that are added. Not to mention that many GC will not work in a condo/coop although there are probably more with that kind of experience in a place like NYC where there are more multi-family condos.

Oh, we legit have spiders in the crevices in our old wood floors. (They also really like the cutouts for the pulleys of our old windows.) I don't really care--we like spiders generally since they eat any mosquitoes that wander in, and the black widows, which are the only ones that spook me, don't like to come inside--but if you live somewhere where spiders are common, that does seem like something that could happen. So he's not exactly wrong. That said, if you do not want baseboard, you wouldn't just leave an open gap between the wall and the floor--you'd fill it with caulk, which would solve for that in a different way. We have this in our bathroom where the baseboard was cut out around the feet of the vanity to allow the vanity to sit flush against the wall. Another thing to weigh here, since it looks (?) like there might be an outlet in the center section of the closet in the photo--if that's what that is, are you planning to plug things in that will sit on top of the dresser? You might appreciate not having it flush at the back to run cords if so.