Kountry Wood Products vs. Diamond I don't know Kountry Wood, but Diamond is good stuff. - 1/2 inch particleboard cabinet box sides Go with the strongest boxes you can get. These things are going to be around a long time, and -- as you say -- changing them is a lot of trouble and expense. They're going to be used and abused, stuffed full, leaned upon ... go with strong stuff to start with. - Standard overlay Standard overlay is usually called partial overlay. I'd definitely go with full overlay because it allows you better access to your cabinets -- I'd be willing to pay extra for this. With standard overlay, you get that "post in the middle". Something you didn't mention: Are you going with at least some all-drawer stacks instead of standard cabinets? Drawers give you better access to all your stuff. You also didn't mention whether you're using any specialized pull-outs. I don't think these are a very good bang for the buck. They cost $$$, but they only store a tiny bit. Consider: A similar cabinet concept: If you're using a Lazy Susan in the corner, but sure it's a Super Susan, not just a Lazy Susan ... the difference is that the Lazy Susan (left) is shelves supported by a central post, whereas the Super version (right) is wooden shelves supporting the turn-tables separately. - Flat drawer fronts This is a matter of style. No functional difference. - Solid wood drawer boxes with dovetail joints - Cheap epoxy coated side mount drawer slides - Thicker 3/4 inch shelves - Smooth bottom mount drawer slides with full extension and soft close Yes, pay extra for these things. When they're new, all drawers should work great -- you're paying extra so they'll continue to work well in years to come. I'd go so far as to say you should go with heavy-duty drawer slides on ALL your drawers. And be sure your drawers go allll the way to the back of your cabinet. I know, you'd assume they do ... but I have a 30" deep peninsula with two 20" deep drawers, which means I have about 10" of empty space behind those drawers that's going unused. The style we want is white shaker style. I don't think anyone's bought anything else for the last decade. The builder did say that the issues with the warped doors and loose center pieces can be fixed, but I'm skeptical about that and feel that brand new cabinets shouldn't need fixing I agree with you -- if they're not right on the day they're installed, they'll never be right. Is this the Kountry brand? If so, I'd avoid them. I was always amazed that these giant houses often had the lowest level of cabinets offered by this manufacturer. It might not be 100% ignorance. Don't we see plenty of people on this board building big-big houses, more than anyone needs? I do wonder if some of these people don't reach the finishing stages -- things like cabinets -- and realize that their finances force them to go with builder-basic items because they've already shot the budget. I would steer clear of any company that deliberately misspells their own name. Nothing good can come from that... :) My father's been dead almost three decades, but I can still hear him ranting about that very topic. I wish I could direct my potential clients to this thread when they try to tell me they can get cabinets that “look” just like the ones I’m selling for a much lower price. Yeah, but will those cheaper cabinets still "look" (and function) just like yours in a decade? We all know the answer to that question. I understand that cabinets are tremendously expensive, but this is an area where it makes sense to put in quality -- doing anything else is false economy. Our ceilings are also 9 ft. Our uppers used to be 42" tall with 12" of empty space above. Now our uppers are 46" tall (custom cabs) with 8" of molding above to meet the ceiling. Yes, I totally agree that cabinets-to-the-ceiling are expensive but worth the cost. You can achieve this by buying taller cabinets or by stacking two shorter cabinets.

^David Cary is right. No Realtor with any new home experience at all would make that claim that a 'new house construction will be perfect'. That is a ridiculous statement on it's face. As to protections in the contract, the Realtor is limited and can't practice law without a licence to do so. She should have recommended you seek legal counsel. She should have given you appropriate warnings about new construction: it's not perfect, appropriate inspections, title information and financing info (if this is a builder that has their own lender partner) etc. This is your first home so the entire process is new to you. I would re-read Joseph Corlett's last post and Charles Ross Homes last post and act accordingly if you are planning to close on this home. Or, if you can't or won't go through the repair process with this builder, make the decision to walk away but understand that there are NO perfect homes. There are well made homes and homes that have been maintained properly, but even those homes may have a defect somewhere that the seller missed - we are human. Having said that, once you own the home, be prepared to begin the maintenance process during your ownership so you don't end up with missed items and systems that don't work during your ownership. Bottom line: don't look for perfection. Get it fixed when you find it.

That's a veneer panel that is so thin that I can't imagine it was held in place by nails. I suspect that whatever the glue was it was insufficient or has failed. To fix it, first take the panel completely off, since it looks like at least half of it has come away and is being partially held on by the electrical plate. Then you would need to buy good quality carpenter's glue like Titebond and spread it evenly with a roller and position the panel back in place. The hard part for you is that it does need to be clamped, and I suspect that you don't have much in the way of specialized clamps to do this. If you have doors on both sides of the island, you could temporarily remove them, cut a piece of 3/4" plywood to the size of the panel, and then clamp this up against the panel while the glue dries. If you don't have doors on both sides, there are other ways to do clamping, but it's more complicated and I'm not going to try to detail it here. If this sounds like it exceeds your skills and available supply of clamps, then you need to get a handyman or cabinet person in to do the repair.

Pull the plumbing please. I'd make a thin cardboard template in one piece, fold/curl it to get it out of the cabinet, then figure where to cut the cardboard so it can be reinstalled through the cabinet front without folding. Cut the new plywood floor according to your cut template. For the advanced class, tap the cabinet front off as well as the adjacent cabinet fronts. Rotozip or multi-tool the cabinet sides off just above the bottom dadoes. Template the cabinet bottom and install it in one piece into the dadoes. Hot melt glue the cabinet sides back on; maybe some blocking too. Reinstall the cabinet fronts.