I had a good experience with the Menards employee I dealt with. I would call ahead when I was going to be in to review the cabinet design so I could work with him. You do have to know what is needed and be sure to order the right parts so your project is not held up. He was willing to call the Menards/medallion rep and have them look over our design before we placed the order. Menards is fairly new to our area and the Kitchen staff where not very experienced when we ordered 2 years ago. I am guessing they have gotten better now. We had a issue with one of the cabinets and they ordered a replacement one right away. We had our kitchen cabinets delivered but the basement bar that we just completed we picked up in our truck. We are fairly experienced DIY. The backsplash is a 6 x 6 honed and filled travertine set on a brick pattern.

I have painted Schuler cabinets from Lowe's, which is the same as Medallion. I had a crack show up in the raised panel of one of my doors about a week after the cabinet was installed. I called the KD at Lowe's and she spoke to the Schuler rep who sent me out a new door, no questions asked. He didn't even want the old door returned. He also said that the cabinets are guaranteed and to just let him know if I ever have any other problems. But I do have some of those hairline cracks in the finish on some of the doors that show up where the joints meet. I've accepted that these come with the territory of having painted cabinets and just add to the charm. I don't think anyone else notices them but me. But overall the painted finish of Schuler/Medallion is beautiful so I think you will be happy with them.

Let me see if I understand you on the end panels. Are you saying that on your end panels, you have a deluxe doorstyle end panel that matches your cabinet doors? If yes...On recessed and raised panel doors, when the air is too dry, the middle panel can shrink and expose a bit of unfinished wood. Where do you live? Usually in the summer, humidity is the problem and doors/wood swell. Does this sound like what you are talking about? Or it's possible the panel has shifted during shipping. Sometimes you can knock the panels back by gently tapping a door on a protected surface. But it sounds like your cabinets are installed so that's not an option. Call your dealer to come out and see them. They will be able to touch up the finish for you. Kompy

In your shoes ... knowing I am likely facing cost and time over-runs on the project ... I would ask myself what it's worth to have a better functioning temporary kitchen now. If you need quality and you need it fast, the rule of thumb is that you will pay extra for it. But if you can improve your temporary situation to the point you don't feel like you have to rush then you can remove rush charges (and probably save yourself some mistakes along the way). So - do you still have a working dishwasher & sink? Can you get them back if they were removed? Of course, all of this is assuming you didn't have to pay a deposit to WoodMode - if you did then my first concern would be getting that money back. If you paid something to the KD to send to WoodMode, it's reasonable to ask "I paid a $10k deposit and I would like to see information about how much of that deposit was your commission versus what was sent to WoodMode." I'm sorry this is happening to so many people right now, it is so much money at stake.