All the base cabinets should be drawers and you can now even get them under your sink. No way would I ever design a kitchen with all cupboards for bases IMO a raised bar is a waste of prep space and provieds no real separation between spaces and unless all you guest are 3’ or under also do not hide anything.Is that flooring goinf everywhere on the main floor ? I actually don’t like it with the cabinet color .If you are going for a contemporay look then choose full overlay cabinets and doors I would not choose ORB for anything in a contemporry space . IMO the backspalsh is too busy and I would suggest you hire a real KD to help with these choices not the cabinet slaesperson .

I second Patricia about the drawers. We redid our kitchen specifically to have all drawers in the base cabinets. Best decision EVER!

Also, get cabinets that go all the way to the ceiling. Otherwise that space is just a hard to dust annoyance.

I know that with builds like these the smallest thing is an expensive upgrade. But your kitchen is key to a satisfactory home. Think about function first, pretties after. Where will your mixer go? Do you make bread? How close is the kitchen to the deck with the BBQ? Can you get to the fridge for a drink without tripping over the cook? Can the cook access the fridge without walking for miles?

HI Mary, Buying your first house is overwhelming, especially when dealing with a builder who is offering you choices that don't give you what you want unless you upgrade. Have you signed the contract? If not, slow down and get a professional to go with you to any design centers to make selections. Well worth the few hundred it will cost you. If you have signed the contract, slow down and get a professional to go with you to any design centers to make selections. Well worth the few hundred it will cost you. In other words, get help from a design professional not connected to the builder.

You say you'll make changes in a few years, even things as simple as faucets, but you won't. Get what you like now. Your vision can be best realized with a pro (find one on houzz) especially if you have a limited number of choices.

@Jennifer K Thanks, we'll ask about the drawers...my husband says there are some pullouts included with the upgraded kitchen, but I don't think he knows the details. And the cabinet ceiling situation. It's been bothering me too, but we've already signed the contract, so we're kind of limited to what we can pay out-of-pocket at this point.

Avoid pullouts - drawers are far superior.

@Patricia Colwell Consulting You're probably right, but the problem is it's a tract-built home, so we're a bit limited. Also, since this is our first home, we're kind of at the top of our budget and can't add much at this point. :/ Maybe we're just better off trying to fit a more transitional style if it's going to cost us too much to upgrade things.

Yes, we're doing LVP throughout the main floor. We were playing around with some tools and thought maybe something a little more ashy (but not gray) for the flooring?

Hi Mary

You will get a more European contemporary look with flat panel fronts to your cabinets. With your manufacturer in that line it is the Lausanne.

The Shaker style doors makes it more traditional or farmhouse.

If you want white counters, why not just get Corian instead of Corian Quartz? Corian has several whites and for sure you will find one you like.

Here on Houzz, Anglophilia has Corian white counters and loves them.

(@Jar- Corian is not quartz, however there is such a thing called Corian Quartz which used to be called Zodiaq.)

I agree with Patricia about not raising part of the island.

Face it, with an open plan design, you don't conceal anything, and people will be all over your kitchen. If you don't like that, you don't go for an open kitchen!

Raising part of the island will only make you lose valuable working space on the island.

None of those three photos look anything like Scandinavian or MCM.

Unless you want a Scandinavian country look, Scandinavian kitchen are much more clean lined, and modern looking than the ones pictured above, but combined with natural wood, so it doesn't look too sterile.

19 Classy Modern Scandinavian Kitchen Design Ideas · More Info

19 Classy Modern Scandinavian Kitchen Design Ideas · More Info

19 Classy Modern Scandinavian Kitchen Design Ideas · More Info

19 Classy Modern Scandinavian Kitchen Design Ideas · More Info

19 Classy Modern Scandinavian Kitchen Design Ideas · More Info

19 Classy Modern Scandinavian Kitchen Design Ideas · More Info

I built a kitchen with drawers at my last house, and now I have moved and have a very old kitchen with almost no drawers. It is night and day different , especially if you use your kitchen heavily. You will find organizing and retrieving things from drawers soooo much better. If there is any way to get them out of the builder, get drawers.

HI, can you pick any door style in this Portfolio series or is is just Tahoe?

https://www.timberlake.com/cabinets/portfolio/

@tozmo1 I think it's an upgrade, but I'm going to ask about the price difference. Otherwise we'll probably go with the slab panel option. I don't get why they don't at least have shaker standard instead...I feel like they can go with all styles except for ultra modern, unlike the Tahoe ones. If it's too much, I'll just probably have to deal with it and see if I can reface it eventually?

Whatever you choose, please don't feel pressured to make a choice. My first house was a tract-built house and I felt a lot of pressure to make decisions and not press the builder for more options within budget. I look back on that and realize how naive I was. You seem like a very nice person so I know you can push the builder and get more out of them without being "that person." :-) You're the one giving the builder money, they need you more than you need them. Keep asking for options you want and push to get it included in the base price.

@tozmo1 Thank you. I tried to inquire on why it was going to cost so much more ($2600, insane) for the slab cabinets and somehow see if I could get them included, but I didn't have any luck. It seems kind of silly to pay $2600 to change from one veneer cabinet face to another in the same category. Does anyone have a ballpark range on how much it would cost to reface our cabinets in the future with a full overlay slab for a kitchen our size?

Also, to everyone else, my husband insisted that the layout of the kitchen cabinets with just two pullouts is fine. He's the one who cooks, so I guess we're not upgrading. *shrugs* And he really wants to do the bar/island combo instead of an extended island.

Get your husband on here so we can talk some sense into him.

@Bokonomy, well, at least you'll always know you tried and weren't naive like i was. People on Houzz will tell you it's almost as much to get new cabinets as reface them, but that was not the experience of my neighbor who refaced hers a few years ago. It really depends on where you are located and who does it.

Love that your husband does all the cooking so seems he should have the final say in the layout, go Hubby!

The maple cabinets will be good. You can build the look you want around them. Here's a great Scandinavian pic with light cabinets. They're slab, but the look is the same.

Santa Monica Canyon · More Info

But the hard part is what to do with the flooring options you have. I agree, the dark is great but limits you throughout the rest of the house.

What about doing grey and white for that scandinavian look? I know you can't change the cabinets but can you get two different colors?

White & Grey Scandinavian Style Kitchen Design by Reico Kitchen & Bath · More Info

I'm all over the place and probably confusing you more, but have you seen the Keystone Oak - White Veil option for floors in person? That looks interesting to me. Not with the maple, but maybe with another cabinet choice. Sort of reminds me of this. Or maybe it would work with one of the maples. Hard to tell without seeing them in person.

Oak Helsinki White Rigid Core Waterproof Planks · More Info

Hubby needs to think with his head instead of just his wallet. Once he has drwers he will never again thing pullouts are good. You need to have some serious talks about what is worth the upgrades ans what is not.

I played with some of your choices. These are all your options, except for the backsplash of course. I realize I don't have the best eye for color, but here's some options.

Honestly many people on this forum dole out advice without remembering budgets and reality. Yes drawers are far superior and custom is too. But the reality is very few first time home buyers can do that. So you do what you can. If it were me, looking at my first home, I would get the location, layout and yard I wanted. I would make sure that everything in it was good but would not break the bank. I would slowly update in time and really make it mine as I could afford it.

Our first home was a total gut job. We redid everything very simple and neutral and I’m glad we did. It was all good not spectacular and we enjoyed every minute of living there and easily sold. We saved money by not going wild on our choices and made it a home over a decades worth of time.

It’s so easy to get caught up in all the decisions.

A S - That is good advice. Its probably too late here but my advice is buying new at this price level is a poor value. Its easy to get suckered in by everything being shiny and new, but you’re paying a premium for new mediocrity. Much better value to buy a home with good bones that you can make your own. Sure, it takes longer, but if you’re going to be in the home for a bit then it’s worth it in the end.

@Jar G The issue is the area we're looking at largely had tract homes built in the 70s/80s. The home we were originally under contract on had aluminum wiring, asbestos siding, and we found out it had severe foundation issues due to soil erosion. Also, much of the housing was either split levels or raised ranches in communities, often without sidewalks in sprawling areas. And we were getting sucked into bidding wars and competing with others as out-of-state buyers.

The home we're buying is in a community that was planned as mixed-development use with wide sidewalks and bike paths with a couple of different builders building in the development. There's an elementary school in the community, so we liked the idea of my husband being able to walk our future children to school. I wish we had more choice than we do in selections, but the builder has good reviews and uses better-than-average building materials as far as tract housing goes. While I'd love a well-built Craftsman bungalow or Queen Anne, that housing stock just isn't in the area.

@tozmo1

We didn't see that flooring option when we went back the other day unfortunately, but we were thinking maybe the natural would be a better option than the brown flooring? That way we have the option to go darker with the furniture. Here's the samples in person with the Rye sample. The Ashen grey looks fairly light in the sample in person, even though it's not actually white.

@WestCoast Hopeful Your advice totally makes sense! We actually decided to skip the starter home phase because transfer tax is 2% (!!!) in our state. For first-time homebuyers though, it's .75%. Our thought was if we were only going to live there 5-7 years, it didn't make sense to have to pay 4% for selling and buying a home, plus the realtor.

Given our weird situation, we're trying to buy the upgrades that will be super difficult to do afterwards or we just don't want to live without that are reasonably priced. Although the "can't live without"s are starting to creep up!

It’s very unlikely you will live in your tract home forever though. It’s just not common. Don’t get too bogged down with it all. Property transfer and realtors are just part of the process. If you are buying a tract home it is your starter home regardless of what you call it. I don’t mean that in a bad way but a realistic one. What you can afford as a first time home buyer will likely always be less than what you can afford 10 years later.

I do think the natural will give you more options for the rest of the house.

I like the ashen grey but I think it's too cool for the warm floor and cabinets. What about marble mist or valente pearl? Here they are with your cabinets and floor

Congratulations on your first house! It will be exciting to be part of a new community that is forming.

- I agree that the natural finish cabinets are a good choice, but just for your own peace of mind, find out how much the upgrade to Shaker would be. Assuming Shaker continues to be a valued classic, that could be an advantage for you one day when you sell.

- About that bi-level bar island...... It might seem like a great idea for adult gatherings, but if you need to talk somebody out of that, think about the future children using it!!! It's safer for them if the surface is NOT so elevated where they will be perching. Plus, there are many advantages to a one level surface so they can spread out their big pieces of artwork, craft projects, etc. They want to be near the person working in the kitchen, so make that easy for them and their stuff.

- For the counters, did you consider the leathered finishes instead of the shiney ones? It looks like there are maybe four available at the link you provided, including this one which could be a happy combo with the natural cabinetry: https://www.chbriggs.com/pub/media/chb/Venetia-Cream-Leathered.jpg

It seems like non-shiney might work better in a scandi-type vibe. In general, when man-made materials are imitating stone, I think the less obvious the pattern the better, so the ways in which the imitation falls short aren't in your face! Fortunately, your choices include a really nice option without a distracting pattern: https://www.chbriggs.com/pub/media/chb/Bianco-Pur.jpg

- About the drawers, it really would be so handy to have at least one stack of drawers since there are so many small things in a kitchen to keep organized. Maybe use the cabinet to the right of the sink, as I am guessing from the handle that the one to the left is the trash bin? Personally, I think pullouts are over-rated, and a big un-constructed cabinet holds more (and costs less). Maybe you could see about switching one of the two pull-outs in the standard package to a 3 or 4 drawer stack.

- Finally, flooring. It's nice that the same material will be used throughout the main level! But again, you have man-made materials imitating natural ones so you would potentially have to contend with the dissonance of fake wood floors next to real wood furniture and cabinetry, not just in your kitchen but in the living room and other space. Sigh. Thinking outside the box a bit, could you step aside from the floors trying to look like wood (and not doing a very good job of it) and go with one of the tile-like options instead? Those choices are quite limited at the link you provided, and all imitating travertine, a stone with a pretty dramatic pattern. I'd ask if other flooring patterns are available and see what upcharge there might be, if any, and try to find something with a pattern that won't be trying to dominate everything else you put in the rooms. Right now the market for LVP is mostly the fake wood patterns, so finding imitations of stone or ceramic tile is hard (I went through this recently myself!), but they are out there. Find a flooring store that loans out samples so you can take a piece home to live with it for a while.