Sorry to hijack, aloha. Hope it's ok. flwrs: We were almost as pleased with our GC as our cabinet maker and I would use him again in a flash. Compared to some of the horror stories I read here, it was smooth sailing for us. But there were some issues, as I suppose every major remodel encounters, but they were smallish. Our GC was Tim Floyd (Home office 303-425-7351 cell 303-881-4104). He has subs for electrical, plumbing, granite/counter tops, and flooring. The subs bid separately directly to you and you pay them, rather than Tim paying them. I liked this arrangement because I preferred to deal directly with them for questions, changes, etc. I loved his electrical and plumbing subs, counter tops was fine and went to great lengths to help me find my granite. I used my own flooring company and that caused some problems with scheduling - they insisted on doing things in a different order than Tim is used to (for example, IIRC, they insisted on a few days between texturing the walls and floor finishing due to the high moisture environment during texturing. They were also concerned about spills during texturing). Tim did not appreciate this and I ended up having to schedule their work myself. I wasn't that happy with them in the end, so if I was to do it over again, I would consider using Tim's flooring sub. Tim insists on pulling permits even for small remodeling jobs. He says it's the rare job that doesn't require it. I interviewed 5 GCs, and 2 said we didn't need permits ("we never pull permits for a job like this") and one said we might be able to get away without permits. We clearly needed permits. We didn't change the layout a whole lot, but we raised the ceiling (and with 2 bathrooms above the kitchen there was a lot of pipe re-jiggering to do!) and of course there was a fair amount of electrical work required on our 1975 house. As far as issues that came up with Tim, the biggest one was the OTR microwave. My DH and I took it out of the box, carefully measured the height at the sides, gave that measurement to the cabinet maker so that the MW sides would be even with the wall cabinets on either side. Then when Tim installed it, he put a piece of filler above the MW so it wasn't even. He had his reasons for doing it, but we went back and forth on removing the filler, and in the end he wouldn't do it. I gave in on that and I find the whole confrontation thing quite stressful, so I didn't feel good about it. Of course, I don't even notice it anymore. Then there was the day he brought a guy with specifically to install the pulls and knobs. This was before the cabinet installation was totally complete. I had bought various sizes with lots of extra pulls because I wasn't sure what I was going to use. So I told him that he would have to wait a day to install them. If you look closely at the picture I posted, there is one crooked pull (left side of frigde, middle drawer, left pull). I didn't notice this until the kitchen work was complete. That's what I get for delaying the pull installation - his brother ended up doing it instead of the guy that he brought specifically for that work. We weren't completely happy with the backsplash installation. The mesh backing shows through on some of the glass pieces. I had told him of this concern before he installed it, and he said that he's using the recommended white thinset (which he did). If my DH and I had done it, we would have cut the backing off of the glass pieces. Also, we had him replace some of the glass pieces with a different color and it doesn't seem random to us. But, as I said, I would use him again. He was excellent at getting back to me promptly when I contacted him, and correcting the things that I pointed out (with the exceptions that I noted). His carpentry work is beautiful. The cabinet guy was really worried about that since they had never worked together before, but after they were installed he told me that Tim did a really beautiful job. And we have had some construction types over since then and they say the same. He took so many calls during the day that I was amazed that anything ever got done, but it did. Also, he wasn't great about telling me if anyone would be at the house (or who would be), and there were days when no one would be, but I think that's normal. I got his name from the cabinet store that I almost ordered cabs from. That is how he usually works (he installs/GCs for several cabinet stores), and that is how he prefers it. I was an unusual case - when he originally bid, I was getting cabs from the store. He told me that I could give his name out but he wasn't sure that he would take non-cabinet store jobs. It depends on how busy he is. He's in Longmont and I'm in the tech center, so sometimes he was late in the morning because of traffic (we tended to meet in the morning to discuss things). He would always call me to let me know if he was delayed. He was really patient with me when I put a stop to the cabinet installation because I was concerned that an aisleway was too narrow. In the end he and the cabinet maker (and a friend that I called over in a panic!) convinced me that the aisle was ok. I agree that the GC decision is a very difficult one. Hope your remodel goes smoothly!

Yes, Barker does sell cabinet boxes without doors, they also sell pullout pantries however I believe a door is required to make that work. Look on their site under "Tall Cabinets" then go to "Glass and Exposed" cabinets where they have tall cabinets without doors. We ordered a 13" wide pantry cabinet from Barker, however ours was with a door. We're putting an Hafele pullout in it. Very good quality from Barker.

Ashley, I don't know, we can only speak from our experience and the way the companies current quality and service. We got Painted 410F Full Plywood. As for full plywood construction, this was also a lie. The backs are made from fiberboard, and not even MDF, some kind of strand board. The shelfs are also made from a low-quality strand board and many of ours have defects. We also went through the supplier / showroom as that is the only way to purchase waypoint products with a warranty (Which is worthless in our case). We are going on 16 months without a kitchen now as the cabinets are still not fully installed / missing parts. Some of the drawers had only 1 soft close shock on one side, some other had none for 2 drawers and 1 drawer that has them. Total lack of quality control. That is what we get for buying an American made brand. As many doors show seams or poor paint coverage as doors that are correctly made. Installers cracked 3 or 4 of the cabinets or maybe it was shipping and so far, we do not have replacements after over a year. We cannot complete our kitchen and may be forced to sell our house at a huge financial loss as I'm tired of playing camping with plastic tables setup in the living room for a microwave and air fryer oven we purchased months in as it appears we may never have our problem resolved by waypoint. These shady companies are the kind of installers / retailers Waypoint associates themselves with. We are currently shopping for lawyers that might be able to help, us, but it appears it would be as expensive to sue them as it would be to take the $28000 loss on the cabinets. At this point I would rather the lawyer get paid than the waypoint retailer though. I cannot even pay for / order any of the missing or damaged parts directly from waypoint as you must go through the installer who is not supporting us since he already has our money. So even after they refuse warranty, I cannot order replacement parts. This basically means that we need to tear out all the cabinets and start over with another brand. American Woodmark is the parent company, and I will never purchase American Woodmark, Shenandoah, PCS, Timberlake, Waypoint, Allen+Roth, or Hampton bay products again. Chinese Cabinets have better QC than Waypoint and are much much cheaper. I should have just bought Ikea cabinets and installed them myself. At least I would have a working kitchen by now. Stay away from Waypiont Cabinets and any retailer associated with this brand.

One thing to remember about the displays is that they are abused. Seriously abused. Hundreds of people day in and day out opening and closing drawers/cabinets, running into them with strollers, carts, whacking them with purses on the way by - and some being purposely "stress tested" by customers trying to see how tough they really are. Search this forum for IKEA reviews/users and you'll find the vast majority are very happy with their choices. ETA: One caveat to this is the Knoxhult "Instant kitchen" cabinets - those are cheap and should be avoided. The comments above refer to the regular Sektion cabinets.