If this were a newer home, I would agree with you. However this house was built in 1928. The engineer agrees that the house has simply settled and that it is not uncommon for some older homes to do so in this manner. The main carring beam and locust columns are fine and show no signs of failure nor do they need to be replaced or upgraded. We did upgrade/repair other areas as per our engineers recommendations.

You want to compare Apples to Apples - this means you need to know what you want. Specifically, what cabinet construction you want. For example, if you go to Home Depot and see a cabinet you like, the salesperson will start going blah...blah...blah. So, you need to know some specific parameters to ask about. For example, you like door style A, that's nice - Home Depot's standard is particle board, there is a "partial" plywood upgrade and then the full plywood construction upgrade. What do YOU want? Note, 1/2" plywood is not the same as 3/4" plywood. So, you need to know what you want and take those SPECIFIC details to different cabinet showrooms and even a few custom cabinets makers to find out who has the best price on the exact same cabinets. If you want to get an apples to apples price comparison, try laying out a small pretend kitchen with standard size cabinets and bring that in to the various places and have it priced out - that will tell you what the best deal is. So, a 36" sink base with tip-out drawers, a 30" 3-drawer pot and pan base, a 42" blind corner cab. A 24" (or 27" if you want 15" deep uppers) corner upper, and a few standard uppers. ALL cabinet manufacturers offer these cabs, so this is a way to get an idea on different pricing. Make sure you compare particle board to particle board, or all 1/2" plywood to all 1/2" plywood, or all 3/4" plywood (mostly custom, rarely semi-custom) to all 3/4" plywood. And make sure you compare equivalent drawer slides as well - here I suggest you do not accept anything less than Blum Blumotion undermount soft-close glides - you'll be miserable otherwise. Don't go in with a complicated layout to get a lot of different prices to compare apples to apples - the more complicated it is the more the salespeople talk and throw you off your goal. Keep it simple for now. As for pull-outs: Yes, there is a HUGE upcharge on ordering cabinets with them already installed. It is MUCH cheaper to order the pull-outs separately online yourself (Rev-a-Shelf, Hafele) and install them yourself or have your cabinet installer put them into empty cabinets BEFORE they are installed on the walls. This, unfortunately, is the only way to ACCURATELY compare prices among the gazillions of cabinet manufacturers out there. After that you can do a real layout and compare the pricing on exactly what YOU need amongst the 2-3 cabinetmakers you know already offer the best value for the money.

I have to agree, unfortunately, spending the big dollars on granite to put on cabinets that pre-date the space age seems foolish. If you do decide to redo the cabinets later, which is probably a given, you will probably not be able to save the granite unless you are very, very careful. In my experience, lower cabinets and countertops don't come out gracefully. As for bemoaning the lack of artisans etc and how unfair it is they won't do the template until cabinets are level, that's not unfair at all. Read the OP's posts more carefully, he's doing it himself so the suppliers are not even getting the install business. I think they're commendable for stipulating that, although from their point of view, it's good business, otherwise, they template and cut countertop, Rob installs and screws from underneath within an inch of its life, then countertop undulates or cracks. Human nature being what it is, the customer may then complain the suppliers SHOULD have shimmed it or insisted on it being level etc. I think it's fair. Personally, unless the countertops are literally unusable I'd stick with them til I could afford to do the kitchen, I doubt very much it would add to the resale at all, and might make it look very half-baked. At the most, I'd spend a few hundred at most to half-update such an ancient kitchen. Granite on 50-yo cabinets just makes no sense to me....and I love granite.

Active dogs and a lush, healthy lawn are incompatible :-) If you wish to have a decent lawn immediately surrounding your patio area, then you must keep the dogs off of it. You could designate a dedicated (and fenced) play area for the dogs elsewhere that is surfaced in wood chips that will resist mud and destruction. Unless you need an enlarged patio, I would not recommend increasing the size or adding on to the existing one. You could also treat the disturbed area next to the patio with wood chips as well, but the aesthetics of that solution leave much to be desired.