KL, Your new kitchen is spectacular. Thank you so much for sharing in such detail. I am thinking I ought to do the same, as I am just at the planning stages of my project. I am wondering how your kitchen is holding up after 8 months. I am considering going with IKEA boxes and semi-handmade in my kitchen reno, but worry about the durability of the Ikea drawers, slides, and hinges. Are you still happy with them? Also I am curious about what cabinet material you chose. I am guessing that SemiHandmade in Flatsawn Walnut is a veneer, right? How is it looking 8 months on? I am trying to make my budget work and am tempted to save on cabinets because it's just such a big ticket item. Are you still happy with your choice? Also, how do you like the FP fridge?

This is amazing, sockpuppetpete! I am about to do this for a small kitchen in a 2 BR apartment. Do you have any suggestions about where I should start? I am very overwhelmed. I have heard many ppl on Houzz mention IKD and Traemand. Any advice would appreciated. Thank you so much.

"It’s an over the range unit and I didn’t think there would be exposed cabinet sides." "I had someone at IKEA create my plan with me, and they didn't put cover panels between my base cabinets and range, despite the fact that I will need cover panels above the range to cover the exposed cabinet sides that extend below the OTR microwave." I have an IKEA kitchen with a standard-height microwave oven (GE JVM3160). The IKEA cabinet to which the oven is attached -- the "microwave cabinet" -- completely covers the sides of the adjacent cabinets; no cover panels needed. If the adjacent cabinets extend 16" or less below the bottom of the microwave cabinet, this GE oven would completely cover the sides of adjacent cabinets. IKEA vertical and horizontal wall cabinets are 30" and 15" high respectively, so this oven would complete cover the sides of adjacent IKEA vertical cabinets. You must make sure that the required minimum distance between the top of the range and the bottom of the cabinet above it (to which the microwave oven is attached) is met. In the case of this GE oven, the distance is 30". -- amateur

@julieste The general contractor will do everything EXCEPT install the cabinets. Traemand doesn't doe the construction work but you will need your final design BEFORE your general contractor can get started as they need to know exact measurements and where all the electrical and plumbing needs to be. Our process was: 1) Come up with our design and find a general contractor. This meant measuring, measuring, measuring and checking with a contractor (electrician, plumber, hvac) to make certain what we wanted was even possible as we needed to move plumbing, electrical, A/C ducts, and remove a wall. I played around on the IKEA site (very frustrating but also very educational) and finally paid $300 to Inspired Kitchen Design (IKD) to do a couple of design options for me. I learned about IKD here on Houzz and although their designs weren't perfect they did help me refine what I wanted. Once I had their design I went to IKEA (a few times) and also had them do a design for me which they sent to Traemand for an estimate on the installation costs. I didn't buy the cabinets or contract for installation because I didn't want the cabinets delivered and in the way during construction, but I did have a good idea of the costs. 2) Construction was done by a general contractor. In our area no one has experience or wants to do the installation of IKEA cabinets so first we had to find someone who was willing to do just the construction portion and let me use IKEA to do the cabinet install. You don't want someone unfamiliar with the IKEA system to learn on your kitchen install so make certain if you have non-IKEA people do it that they are very experienced. We had lots of construction work to be done before we got to the cabinet installation. I removed a wall to open the space up to our TV room, we then had to build a small wall to bring electrical to the island, we removed a dropped ceiling, moved all of the AC ductwork that was in the way of my new kitchen plan, put in all new lighting and ran new electrical wiring, and then put in a new high ceiling, and moved the plumbing line to the sink. The general contractor does all that work before you get to the cabinet installation. They need detailed design plans to assure that everything is going to fit perfectly when the cabinets are installed. 3) Once we got to a point where we had a ceiling and walls we could have the cabinets installed. I ordered the cabinets about midway through the process and had them delivered but waited to finalize an install date. During that period my contractor had questions about how the island would be secured, who would build the base for my peninsula, etc. I was able to talk with the Traemand estimator to get the questions answered. That process was actually much easier than I anticipated. I had Traemand build the peninsula base (I was using upper cabinets as lower cabinets and they have no legs so they need to rest on something, plus I was installing a floor AFTER installation of the cabinets so I needed to assure enough clearance that the doors would open after the floor install.) 4) IKEA/Traemand installed the cabinets. That was a two day job. When they left the appliances were in place but not hooked up, electrical work needs to be completed, countertops need to be templated and installed, plumbing needs to be reconnected. 5) The countertop man came the following day @Hannah(he is part of my general contractor agreement, not IKEA) and measured, You don't need to use IKEA countertops. I'm actually using two countertop people as I have a mix of quartz counters in my prep areas and a wooden bartop that is being made by a different person. 6) After my counters are installed (about 3 weeks from now) the tile person will come to do the backsplash, and finally the electrician will be back to finish the electrical hookup, hang the hood, etc. and the plumber will come to hook up the sink, dishwasher, etc. It seems like it has taken forever but I've done remodels before and have tremendous patience with the process. We also had Thanksgiving and Christmas in the middle of our construction which slowed things down. My husband mentioned that my first email to a contractor about getting this project started was Feb 1, 2019 so it will be just over a year from start to finish. Actual construction didn't start until Nov 11 when they did the demo of my old kitchen so I figure we will have had about three months of actual construction.