All good posts on this subject. Wellborn Forest is a spin off of Welborn and located on the same street in Alabama. In the same town as a manner of speaking is Tru wood, Legacy also known as debut and Door Components. I would say as a general rule of thumb door components and Debut have the lowest prices in the group. My old business partner screwed them and they will not sell to me over her. Still makes me mad. Debut has a united series which is less expensive then some of the Chinese cabinets. Plywood box construction is not available in the United Series. Aristokraft has a instock line up called contractors choice which is Chinese like in price. You can not get soft close drawers in it. I am doing a kitchen for a family right now where an import cabinet they will put together themselves is about $3,500 for their kitchen. That is a plywood box, dovetail drawer, soft close rails, I can add soft close to the doors if I wanted to. Kabinart was $5,050. In my opinion Kabinart is better buy but they wanted to go rock bottom. The import cabinet from TSG they chose has a 5 year warranty the longest in the industry for imports. Sunco, 6 Square and Allwood would be in between those to prices. The best priced national brand for something highly modifiable is hands down bridgewood advantage. Dealer price is consistently in the low $300 per foot of wall for upper and lower cabinets fully loaded with all possible accessories. I like to sell it at $450 which is inbetween Woodmark and Kraftmaid prices in general. Smart cabinets is very low in price as well. I like there wide stile cherry shaker cabinet that is reverse raised. It is beautiful and rock bottom priced as well. They will be cheper then any brand mentioned in the other posts. There are trade offs to get the price that low it is not meant for every one. Brandom Cabinets gives me the best price to sell kitchens to a company with apartments they renovate each month I have 1/2 a truck load being unloaded in the morning. CNC has two beatiful walnut cabinets that are very inexpensive also. Limited cabinet sizes but a great cabinet for a tight budget.

the KD said he will install a "cabinet board" slightly over the face of the cabinet that will extend to almost the ceiling. I suppose the bottom edge of the board will have a sculpted edge. then he will use 4" crown molding at top. He also wanted to install small trim mid way up to "break up the blandness of the panel to ceiling" as he put it. ... Has anyone seen this ? If so, can you post a close up picture ? It sounds somewhat similar to what we did with the 9" space above our cabs ... fascia with rope trim partway up, then the molding to ceiling. These pics might help you with the idea, although your taste may run more simply vs the rope molding (personally I love it and it was one of my must haves :))

You've got a lot of really great feedback but after reading through the posts I'm inspired to post as well :-) So, yes, in agreement with those who say close to the stove, I strongly recommend the drawers or cabinet close to the stove. Considering that most spices are added during "cooking" phase and not "prep" or "finishing" phase, it's better to have them close to the stove.

romeisburning - wow, I haven't checked in on my kitchen post in a few years and all of a sudden, a flurry of activity! I am still in love with my kitchen after 4 years (wow, time flies), and I wish you the best! I too had to hunt down my Rosemary as I chose it only to have it discontinued. Your story is much more epic than mine but I think the Rosemary is amazing - my husband rolls his eyes as to this day, I still tell him how much I love it - and I hope that you enjoy it as much as we do (and if Caesarstone is monitoring, they should consider bringing this product back). As for the chopping on the stone, I am not sure as I have wood chopping boards but GO FOR IT - what a great idea for the extra stone. And the color on my walls is Benjamin Moore Citronee - I have it all over my home and love the creamy color. I see I missed some other posts over time - thank you all for the comments - and a2gemini for the "Happy Anniversary" - I remember following your inspiring kitchen. Going on year 4, I have not upgraded anything in my kitchen only added to it some plants by the window and lots of art created by my daughter. The pictures above make me laugh as the kitchen has so much more personality these days. I will post some updated pictures when I can find the time to get some good ones! Enjoy your kitchens!