I would highly recommend you visit the kitchen forum. You can get some excellent advice there. You can spend as much or as little as you want. Nothing wrong with the cabinets from the big box stores. They sell name brands as well as off the shelf. We did a kitchen several years ago with cabinets from Lowes. They were very nice and we got cabinets for the whole kitchen (smaller than yours) for about $1300. We just did another kitchen and I purchased the cabinets used. Entire kitchen for less than $4K but A LOT of elbow grease. http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0619152730080.html

I don't even want to think what is in the crevices around my pocket door, as I've never thought to check it out! As funkycamper said, there is little room for that. Our house, built in 1952, has a pocket door between the kitchen and dining room. In our 37 years here, we've never had an issue with it. It sometimes groans and drags a bit on one side edge a bit when we pull it out, but then I would groan and drag too, if I were 64 years old! Honestly, I have closed it no more than thirty times during our life here. Our outlets and wall switch are on the opposite side of the pocket door, so maybe placement of those items could be a consideration. Best wishes.

National average expenditures are around 40K for a gut kitchen. And it's hard to do everything that any kitchen needs for less than 20K without some element of DIY. Guidelines for budgeting recommend allocating between 10-20% of your home's value towards a kitchen remodel if you live in a location that hadn't seen a lot of property value inflation. And if you do live in one of those higher property value areas, your labor costs will be MUCH higher, so you won't be terribly far off from the guidelines if you lack DIY ability. That keeps your expenditures in line with your neighborhood, rather than over or under spending. If you are planning on structural changes, like taking walls down, then the % is obviously going to be much higher than if you are keeping some of the kitchen elements like the flooring or cabinets. About half of that 10-20% should go to cabinets and their install.

So, it's nice to see your contractor noticed one of the issues! Aisles! Have you had a chance to read the Kitchen Design FAQ threads? They discuss good kitchen design principles, guidelines, etc. I'll link to them below. First I better ask, are you a function first or form (looks) first? Neither answer is right/wrong - it's what's right for you. Most of us here are function-first. It is easy to make a functional kitchen look nice; it's almost impossible to make a nice-looking by dysfunctional kitchen work well w/o tearing it out and starting over. If looks are more important to you than function, then read the rest just so you know the functional issues - that way there will be no surprises when you start to work in it after it's done. You will be making decisions with the knowledge of the consequences of your choices - both good and bad. So what other red flags do I see? Refrigerator and Island relative locations...Your island is what we call a "barrier island". It's a barrier b/w the refrigerator & Prep Zone and b/w the refrigerator & Cooking Zone/range. You will be running around that island so much that it will most likely get old fast! DW in the middle of the Prep Zone...Ideally, you want separation of your Prep and Cleanup Zones and you don't want a DW in the middle of the Prep Zone. Aisle widths...the minimum recommended aisle width for a one-person kitchen is 42" - that's only one person ever - no help with cooking, prepping, cleaning up and not allowing someone to cleanup or unload the DW while you're prepping. For two or more people, the minimum is 48". Then there's the traffic aisles behind the seats. Seating overhang...I don't know if this is an issue since there are no measurements. Aim for the minimum recommendation of 15" of clear knee/leg overhang. If you're a tall family, 18" is better. Here's a Zone Map and traffic b/w the refrigerator and Prep & Cooking Zones to illustrate: ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ To clarify about the Prep Zone...The only source of water in your Kitchen is the cleanup sink, so that means your Prep Zone is b/w the sink and the range. Water is a key component of the Prep Zone. For a functional Prep Zone, you need a water source and sufficient workspace (the bare minimum is 36" with 42" or more much, much better. If you want the island to be your primary Prep Zone, then you need to add a water source (e.g., a prep sink). Given the length of your sink wall, you don't need to. With a bit of re-configuration, you can fix some of the issues with the current space b/w the sink and range (DW in the way and not enough workspace) to make it a nice Prep Zone. Move the DW to the left of the sink Move the trash pullout to the right of the sink - for two bins, it needs to be 18" wide (one recycle bin & one trash bin). Move the range to the right far enough to give you 42" of counterspace b/w the sink and range. This does not solve the barrier island issue, it just fixes the Prep Zone. To fix all the issues, I would probably: Move the refrigerator to the upper right Then, put in an 18" cabinet next to it Next, the range Next, a 24" wide base cabinet Next, an 18" trash pullout Next, a 30" single-bowl sink (size depends on the actual length of your wall) Then, DW to the left of the sink Finally, a 36" corner susan or similar (not a blind corner cabinet, they're pretty useless!) If there's extra room, then put it b/w the DW and corner cabinet. If you want water in the island so you can use it as your primary Prep Zone, put it on the refrigerator end. That's all I have time for now, but it's probably a lot to digest anyway! Here are the links I promised: Kitchen Design FAQ Threads: FAQ -- Kitchen work zones, what are they? http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3638270/faq-kitchen-work-zones-what-are-they FAQ -- Aisle widths, walkways, seating overhangs, work and landing space, and others http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3638304/faq-aisle-widths-walkways-seating-overhangs-work-landing-space-etc FAQ -- How do I plan for storage? Types of Storage? What to Store Where? http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3638376/faq-how-do-i-plan-for-storage Looking for layout help? Memorize this first. http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/2699918/looking-for-layout-help-memorize-this-first