You need the appliances, but perhaps not on site. My cabinetmaker insisted that the fridge drawers, dishwasher and hood be delivered early so he could take real world measurements on the exact models (inc. where the plugs were). He also went to the appliance store to measure the coolers and ovens on the showroom floor. The cabinets were then installed and the appliances were instealled, then the cabinetmaker came back to finish the panelling of the appliances. The reason for having them on site, however, is if there's any question about the fit. If you didn't have the appliances when the cabinets were made, they may need to be dry fitted before anything gets installed to make sure everything is just right.

Nalcar, you're so kind to do all this. And wow, that's really dramatic! The moldings are not so much to my taste, but the split up cabs with the top across is an interesting thought. On the right, though, the wall begins to curve just after the A/C and so I think it would take a lot of work to put a flat cabinet there. I can already hear what my contractor is going to say about that one. I have a really strange apartment with very odd lines so I've been hearing a lot of that! Also, that puts the Shaker door cab very close to the built-ins which have a door in a different style. You can see them in my pic in the post on 10/31 at 8:12. What do you think? I'd also have to consider the cost of the extra granite at this point. Oh, and the usual distraction from the wall A/C is a chair in front of it and a framed picture on top. Well, no chair during the summer. :D

Do you mean panel ready - i.e. one that would use the style of your cabinet doors? If so, both Jennair and Kitchenaid make a French Door model that is panel ready for about $3000 give or take. The cost is obviously more since you need to also purchase the panels from your cabinet supplier as well as door handles for some reason. They are also 72" high so they look more built in than other refrigerators which are shorter - I believe 69" is the normal height. If the reason you want a quiet front design, is because of the SS, then perhaps a panel ready would fill the bill. I have no real input on F&P except that when I was looking at refrigerators, the salesperson said to avoid because the service network wasn't stellar. That may or may not be a factor in your area.

@Ginger Bailey, Leo Buscaglia was a professor, motivational speaker and author who was kind of an expert on love and human relationships. I don't remember in which of his books he talked about failed relationships. Leo said that if you have a long term relationship that fails accept it, know that sometimes relationships fail, and move forward. If you have another long term relationship and it fails stop and take a good long look in the mirror and figure out what you may be doing wrong. If you look through my comments on Houzz I have disagreed with the pros on many, many occasions. A few probably don't like me all that much. I also freely admit that I have learned a lot from the Pros and non-pro regular contributors on this site. When I saw your post it seemed odd to me that Beth seemed hot under the collar. She is one of the Pros that generally has a ton of patience with people. I took the time to go back and read through your original post and all the comments. Honestly, I am still still not completely clear on what happened. 1. Contracted with Contractor A to have kitchen renovated. 2. Contractor A quit 3. Paid cabinet builder $7000.00 as a deposit $2000.00 balance remaining. 4. Cabinet maker agreed to complete the job. (verbal agreement). 5 - kitchen prepared for cabinet install - not sure what to believe here: A "They ended up not showing up for the work that was to be done. I hired another contractor who fixed my kitchen, and got it almost ready for cabinet installation." B "They gutted my old kitchen, and I was left without a washer and dryer, sink, cabinets refrigerator, all that, for over 7 weeks. -The guys they sent here to work were not knowledgeable on how to frame a wall, level a floor, hang drywall." 6. Subcontractor showed up with the new cabinets and "Insisted on installing them" 7. Posted pictures of damage/issues with cabinets. Said your unhappy with the cabinets. 8. Asked if you should pay them anything more. 9. The cabinet maker touched up the cabinets and you paid $5,400.00 in addition to the original $7000.00 for a total of $12,400.00. How did you expect anyone to be able to answer your question without knowing what the original agreement with Contractor A covered or what the $9000.00 was supposed to cover. You got the kitchen prepped for cabinets (drywall, framing, leveling the floor + whatever you didn't mention. You got new cabinets and had the new cabinets installed all for $12,400.00. Even for a small kitchen in a low cost geography, that is not much money for everything that was done and yes, you owed them for doing all that work. I have a 10' galley kitchen and it is going to run double that even with getting Ikea cabinets and installing the cabinets and flooring myself and doing all my own painting, just having someone else do the plumbing, installing the sink and countertops and moving 2 doors. I live in Pennsylvania Dutch country, not exactly NYC. If I were you I might think about the fact that the first contractor quit, you weren't happy with the second contractor/cabinet maker, you weren't happy with the people on Houzz who were trying to understand your situation, you felt that the 2nd contractors were trying to rip you off when they apparently did a lot more than just build and install your cabinets and accused them of not being very good communicators. Maybe the issue isn't with everyone else and maybe it is time to take a good long look in a mirror and figure out what you may be doing wrong.