storklady, Good for you for keeping the budget in mind. I bet the Wilsonart looks really good, even if it's not your first choice. It's hard sometimes to look at what other people on this site have done and then settle for less. We replaced floors on the first floor (including kitchen) last spring/summer, and hope to deal with appliances and countertops this year. I'm beginning to think that we, too, will have to settle for laminate countertops, instead of solid surface that I really wanted. But so far we've paid cash (or used credit card and paid off before any interest charges) for the home improvements we've been doing. Yes, I'd like to do a complete reno with all my wish list materials, but I like being virtually debt-free better (in a little under 2 years we should have the mortgage paid off early and then we will be debt-free). So, while understand the angst of giving up on something you dreamed of, I applaud your decision. It sounds like it was the right one for you.

It helps with a basic uderstanding of how the different doorstyles rank in expense within that line, but between lines it's not as useful. The big reason that it's usless is the deceptive markup practies by most box stores. Just the cabinet boxes themselves are at about a 30% margin, which makes them appear to be cheaper than a cabinet store for those who think they are shopping apples to apples. But all of the accessories and molding's are closer to 50%, and those are the most expensive portions to begin with. So, that 10K quote is now 15K by the time you add in all of the finishing touches that a kitchen actually needs. Like toekick, scribe molding, and a touch up kit. It's the burger joint equivalent of selling you a large soda for $3 when it costs less than a quarter wholesale. Not denying anyone the ability to determine pricing however they want to, but it makes a real difference to the end consumer when they don't compare complete quotes. Box stores are NEVER the cheapest choice when comparing actual like to like quotes. Cbinet showrooms will beat them every time. The only place where they have a stranglehold is by offering credit. So the customer ends up paying more------TWICE! It's smart business, but those who deal with them should fully understand where they are being taken to the cleaners if they choose to go that route. All of those tiered discount programs are nothing but smoke and mirrors.

No magic anything other than your want list. The smaller you keep your want list and the less the upgrades, the less your cabinets will be. Decide on your budget first. There's nothing more irritating to have a customer tell you that they have no idea what their budget is, or have a totally inappropriate budget for their want list. If you tell me your budget and your want list, I can guide you to the cabinet line that will give you your want list at your budget. Maybe. If you are realistic in the first place about what you want and what is appropriate to your home within the context of it's neighborhood. If you have a 120K starter home, and come in with a wish list for a 20x20 kitchen with built in appliances with panels, and 10' ceilings with stacked cabinets and stacked crown molding and a giant island and wood hood, don't be surprised if your estimates are all around 50K+. You might get a local hack built in place and spray in the bugs in the finish type of guy to do that for 20K, but you'd be getting crap with a custom label on it. It's more like a decoration for a theater set than well made durable cabinets that will have a lifetime warranty. And in a 120K house, you'd be over improving with either expenditure. Something in the 6-12K for cabinets would be more in line for your house. There are plenty of lines that would give you a perfectly nice looking kitchen at a lower price point. Just as there are those that would be more appropriate in a 900K house. Develop your budget, and then let the KD help you to pick out which lines that budget works in. And control your "want" list. The price you spend is within your control. And stay away from Houzz and this forum as a literal guidebook for what you want in your house. It's full of VERY expensive remodels, not "average joe" style redos. You start to think that "everyone" has stacked to the ceiling inset white cabinets with glass and marble. There is nothing further from the truth! Your "average Joe" buys oak or maple cabinets, in a plain stain, not to the ceiling uppers, and maybe a plain crown. He spends around 15-20K for cabinets. His upgrades include maybe stretching to cherry, mostly drawers, a trash pull out, maybe a double stacked crown (or maybe not) and maybe an around the fridge panel if he can stretch the budget. He uses plain Kenmore or another plain consumer grade appliance. A range, not separate wall ovens and cooktop. So, you have to develop a budget that is right for YOU, no matter what pretty expensive stuff you've been viewing. You may be able to afford the pretty expensive stuff, but if you can't, don't be ashamed of having a lower budget. Most people do. Most just aren't interested enough or internet savvy enough to post here.

It is a common error. Charging a price based off on anything and everything EXCEPT for what your actual costs are and what type of wage you expect to earn. If you'll be doing this part time, say 500 hours a year? In the most simplistic of terms, you'll have some fixed costs. Figure your overhead. Insurance, licensing, facility costs, utilities, marketing, transportation, etc, etc. Let's pick a nice easy round number like $5000 a year. Some of these numbers are fixed whether you work one hour a year or 2000 hours a year. Some will be variable. To pay that portion of your overhead with 500 hours you need to have a $10/hour component built in to your pricing. If you expand and eventually work 2000 hours a year, some of those costs may decrease on a per hour basis. Some won't. Somewhere along the line you'll get a feel for other overhead items, consumables like sandpaper, saw blades, sharpening, broken drill bits, paint brushes, etc. Tools and tool replacement, etc. Until you're charging the customer for things like that, you're paying for it out of your own wages. You just don't know it. Remember, your wages should go into your pocket. Not into the business. These consumable numbers will fluctuate based on the volume of your work. But as you gain experience, you'll develop a basic correlation between variable costs and the number of hours it takes to complete a project. Again, in a most simplistic way...let's say $2000 for the year spent on consumables. That's another $4/hour you need built in to your pricing. As you expand and work more hours, you'll spend more on consumables. So again, in SIMPLISTIC terms, your consumables cost may stay around $4/hour no matter how many hours a year you work. Think of glue. Are you gong to charge a customer a line item charge for glue? You could, but are you going to waste a minute calculating and writing that line item charge up? It's much easier to wrap common incidentals or consumables like that into overhead. If you spend $100 a year on glue and you work 500 hours a year on projects, you're spending on average 20 cents an hour on glue when you are working. The cost of the glue at 20 cents an hour can be a component in that $4/hr charge for consumable in the previous paragraph. Your wages. How much does it cost you to live? Figure a living wage and price it in. $15 an hour? $20 an hour? $50/hour? For your part-time simplistic argument, let's say $15/hour. Add all that up and right there you're at almost $30 an hour. You yourself are making a wage of $15/hour. But your business isn't making any money at all. Your business is simply covering its costs. Profit. A component that allows your business to actually make money. To expand your business, to invest in a new shop tool that may make your business more efficient. A rainy day contingency that will allow your business to survive a project that somehow got buggered up with inefficiencies. Instead of having that bugger-up ruining your business, it'll simply eat into your profit. This can vary, but again, for simplicity, figure 15% profit margin. The 15% profit component bumps your $30/hour to $34.50 an hour. On some jobs you'll work efficiently and your profit may come in above the 15% margin. On other jobs you'll bugger something up and when you're done with the accounting you may find that your profit vaporized. It's a balance. What does overhead mean? When you hire a helper and pay him $15/hr? You need to actually bill the customer $34.50/hr to pay that worker $15 an hour without your business "losing money" on your own worker. Again, this is a simplistic statement. So when you bill a project? Overhead costs? Figure your man-hours spent on a project, for the example above you'd multiply that times the $34.50 hourly cost. It's not uncommon to have to charge 2.5X what a laborer is paid to cover that laborer's wage and the business cost of carrying that laborer on the business' books. Again, the above is all very simplistic. Overhead components can be accounted for differently in terms of how they are tallied in your books and under which heading they are tallied in your books. Things can vary by trade and by region. But it has to be accounted for and if you're not charging it to your customers, you're paying for it our of your own pocket and you don't even know it. You may not know all of your numbers today. But I highly recommend you do accurate accounting. Tally everything. Reconcile hours. Incidentals. The quick run you made to the hardware store for the pack of sandpaper. The gallon of titebond. Your numbers will morph over time but as your business matures you'll eventually understand how your business runs, and how much it costs you to run your business. The better you know your business, the more efficient you can become. Most people in business haven't a clue.