You are correct, however some people invite abuse... "So when you stroll into WalMart and get that good deal by buying a "made in China Product" that WalMart is stocking so they can make a 60% mark up on instead of a 20% mark up - if it were made in the USA, feel good about if you can. Me, I don't shop at WalMart anymore. I think it's almost an un-American thing to do." good example of supply and demand... is walmart american owned?? "China for sure they cast about 80% of all manufacturing, why CHEAP Labor (prbably less than .75 cents and hour), no environmental laws, no laws, no law suits due to they won't recognize international laws or patents IMO. Who suffers? The Blue collar workers all over the world. " ANother supply and demand.. all over the world. "IMO CEO's/manager's are selling American Blue collar jobs out every day, One day there not going to need white collar worker's either and the day will come when they have no market to sell there slave labor products, unless of course they are in the food stamp product business. " Sounds like he could do a better job, why not apply for it. "Sad, Very Sad that Companies and CEO will sell out there own work force to line there already filty rich pockets. For what, a few more billion dollars" Another one that could make a better CEO. "But you are sadly mistaken about the board of directors. They are handpicked buddies of the CEO. In fact almost all of them are CEO's of another corporation. So when it comes down to voting on my pay package, this month it's your turn to pat my back. Next month when we vote on your pay package, since I'm on your board of directors, I'll return the favor, for sure. That's how our corporate aristocracy works now and it's how vast fortunes are made. " Here's another guy who really knows how the corporate world works, seems like he could get himself one of these sweet jobs. "IMO that's why they don't want to go to a flat tax rate, the well off will be taxed fairly then, But everybody got an opinion, that's one benefit the free world gets with no taxes or penalties. IMO if you want to sell on the world market then there should be a world minimum wage" This guys has got to be kidding, the rich WANT a flat tax. Does he have any idea on the percentages of tax paid by income bracket? Do you think he knows what a regressive tax is?? Probably not given his post. And "world minimu wage"?? ROTFLMAO!!! "They have their own military and "hit-men" for those that oppose their actions. " too much TV, to much alcohol or something along those lines and the BEST for last..... "Personally, I find college overrated. I have a BA degree from an Ivy League school, but aside from being able to hold a conversation at a hoi-polloi wine-and-cheese event, it doesn't have a lot of relevance to what I do for a living. My degree is in American History, yet I'm a Computer Systems Engineer by trade. Go figure. One thing I did get out of it- loads of debt! A lot of people don't need college- and yet we force our young people to go because "you need a degree." Then, we saddle them with debt." Who is the "we" that is saddling idiots like him with debt? Who is forcing anyone to go to college? And he admits in this same post he has a BA from an Ivy League school and is debt because of it? Should of tried for a BS degree at a local college (BS - Bachelor of Science, BA- Bachelor of Arts). No wonder this fool thinks college is overated.

Very involved! I designed my basic layout--where I wanted things, basic measurements and such--and took it to a kitchen design/cabinet sales place. The KD there took it, ignored it, and made his own plan that looked nothing like mine. I left frustrated and put off the whole job for about six months. Another KD took my drawings and put it into his software to align with his cabinet lines, but after about six tries, he still wasn't getting it like I wanted (and he went more than 100% over my budget). I took my original sketch, along with the closest drawing from the KD with my scribbles all over it, to a custom cabinet maker. I also had additional drawings I had done in Word for some sections that were otherwise hard to explain. He took all my notes and drawings and drew up his own plans. With a couple of very minor tweaks, I went with almost exactly what his first drawing looked like. It was such a pleasure to finally find someone who was speaking the same language as I was. My kitchen came out exactly as I had pictured it from the beginning. If I had turned it over to either of the first two guys, I'm sure I would have been disappointed.

pull-out breadboards? treatment of any display space such as wine rack, bookshelves, decorative panels? treatment of plain panel sections on cabinet ends?--I wish I'd had it in writing that our guy would use good-looking grain, not too busy. I won't even share a photo of a place where it looks like he thought a nasty grain board would be on inside, not outside of the end panel, sigh. handling of grain in symmetrical sections? I know that cabinet guys can't always match up the oak well, but in big expanses of oak, there can be obnoxious wild grain that needs to be used as a positive feature, not a negative eyesore. Can your guys match-up as best they can for slab or center "Shaker" panels from same general grain kind of board--look at these large drawers, where one set has good match and one has less good. (At least there isn't a real stinker piece here.) (Note: My dad was an old-school carpenter and he would have insisted that cabinet guys treat grain as a feature in symmetrical cab faces.) maximum use of space vs. sizes of cabs? We have a few places where we could have gained functionality if measurements were different. Be sure that you keep track of the sizes and expectations as the evolution of plans takes place. I think that I can explain why the inconsistencies crept in, but I'm not the only one who should have caught the error that cost me dearly in one instance. I think it was the result of a measuring error that was caught and compensated for but only in one instead of in two places where it mattered; a different error was in consequence of a misguided effort to add symmetricality. Both were total surprises to me at time when we couldn't go backward to fix the errors and now I'm married to the errors, stuck with 3 banks of lower cabs that cannot accept a pull-out unit of a sufficient size. Ah, me.

Thanks all - the $4500 quote from our Contractor is including cabinets plus assembly labor for doing Ikea (I asked about this directly). This is part of a huge project that involves essentially building an addition, knocking out walls, moving plumbing and electricity, and more, etc. etc. I'm not sure how the $4500 breaks down to cabinets alone vs. labor, but I don't think he is charging much for the labor portion considering all the labor they are already doing on our house on this 5+ month project. I also think at this point reading through multiple threads that it's true we might easily spend more than that $4500 going to a Lowe's or Home Depot even if cabinets come preassembled. I got hopeful for a moment while in Lowes, but I'm now skeptical. We WILL likely cost out some options when the time comes, just to be sure in the end. It's just not at all worth the headache to us to try to DIY the assembly at that time for a number of personal reasons I won't go into.