So the contractor we were working with used only Mid-Continent Cabinets. After working with him since early June to put together a plan, he just told us yesterday he won't be able to start our kitchen until at least January. My husband is a contractor (works in commercial and medical development) questioned the breakdown of $25,000 for pretty standard cabinets which we think bugged the GC. I have $15,000 in Bosch appliances sitting in a warehouse and an engineer's plan for a beam to take out a wall. We are frustrated and disappointed. My husband is now considering coordinating our reno himself. Any suggestions on to pursue cabinet work - we our outside Orlando, FL...

Wow, you are all making my day, I feel like I got the bargain of the century with my cabs. Seriously thought they were high but now am feeling really good about them. nymommy, I would seriously look in to local cabinet maker as well. There is nothing that beats being to go and see, talk, feel, touch etc. your cabs as they are being made. With that said, many of the cabinet company's make beautiful cabinetry. Get all the pictures, and ideas you have and take them to someone local as well. You may indeed be surprised by cost. I love Crown Point and took pictures of them to cabinet maker just so he knew what I was looking for. Here is what I got, we are in Oregon. We went with paint grade poplar, full inset, shaker style with beadboard, soft close, furniture style toe kicks, true divided light on 3 different buffets, pull-out drawers, many other bells& whistles. My price included all the built-ins for the rest of the house. We are building a 6,000 sq. ft. home. Cabinetry in 5 baths, built-in beds and desks, window seats in 5 of the bedrooms, dining room buffet, 2 breakfast room buffets, built-in seating for breakfast room, huge floor to ceiling bookshelves in great room, family room, master suite, with cabs on bottom of open shelves. wet bar upstairs, inglenook window seats, laundry room, mudroom, linen closets. We had 415 lineal feet of cabinetry installed. They are beautiful, we paid 50,000. for everything not including paint which was about 12, 000.00 more. I think it would have been considerably more going non-local. He did a superb job and I was able to go there anytime when he was having an "issue" as this was the biggest job he had ever done. I would recommend looking into local anytime. If I could figure out the pictures I would get some on here.

queensinfo Brooklyn. Our Ikea kitchen designer comes next week to measure and do the layout. Our cabinet budget significantly changed once we decide to do a gut renovation, hire an architect, expand the bathroom and knock down multiple walls. However, I'd still go with Ikea even if we had more cash to put toward cabinets. We need a new dishwasher but we are keeping our refrigerator (less than 1 year old) and our stove (about 3 years old). They are still working on the bathroom so I haven't ordered anything yet for the kitchen. I may get the dishwasher from PC Richards unless I find a better price online with free shipping and no tax. Kitchen cabinets will be less than 10% of the renovation budget. I found a ton of Ikea cabinets renovations that shocked me to know they were Ikea. http://www.houzz.com/projects/1448805/ikea-sektion-kitchen-remodel http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/dans-kitchen-the-big-reveal-renovation-diary-201979 http://allieathome.com/ikea-semihandmade-kitchen-renovation-before-and-after/ http://www.remodelista.com/posts/ikea-upgrade-a-kitchen-remodel-with-cabinet-fronts-from-semihandmade-of-la/

watchmelol, those are great suggestions. I am afraid it will consume a lot of my time to make sure everything fits. On a project that is already 6 months delayed, i dont believe my family can afford to wait to do this all by ourselves. cpartist, thank you! Based on the feedback i am getting here, i decided to remove the valance. One small thing? I'd move your prep sink over a bit more so it's not on the edge. Leave enough space so you can put stuff down on both sides. The sink is centered to the 54" x 54" double casement window and the center of the window is 5'7" from the wall, so we are sort of stuck with that we have. We do have the island too, so that helps. What is the base cabinet to the left of the cooktop? Also what is the base cabinet to the left of the fridge/freezer? To the left of the rangetop we have a base cabinet with e double roll out tray. To the left of the fridge/freezer have a simple base cabinet with a draw up top. Do you have enough storage for pots/pans, etc? Yes, we a pantry right next to the kitchen, on the fridge/freezer side of the wall. It is 5' X 7' in size, hopefully that will be enough to stow away bigger items that will be out of sight. Stan Z, my architect had originally drawn a soffit to account for the 1' deficit in cabinets. The difference in price between having stacked cabinets and having soffits was not that much(probably $2k) so we decided to go with it. When you're trying to save money $2k sounds like a lot, but my family liked the stacked cabinet look with glass on the top cabinet, so we just ran with it. The refrigerator/freezer combo is from Electrolox Icon(https://www.lowes.com/pd/Electrolux-Refrigerator-Trim-Kit/3535332?cm_mmc=SCE_PLA_ONLY--Appliances--SosAccessories-_-3535332:Electrolux&CAWELAID=&kpid=3535332&CAGPSPN=pla&k_clickID=55ab8032-9c96-4fdb-a3b9-7113ae56f920&gclid=CKC3qvH549QCFUtNfgodWgoBnQ). I saw it in one of the local stores here and it was the best bang for the the fridge buck we found on the market. Carolina Kitchen & Bath, very reassuring to hear. Thank you for sharing. I read somewhere that that Schuler are the gold line of Medallion cabinets, not sure how accurate that is. After giving it more thought, I also have decided to remove the cabinet hood and replace it with a Broan 42" hood with an exterior blower(1200 CFM) attached. The inset hood inside the cabinet was not very practical and was less deep and had less capture area. Especially because we are using a Capital Culinarian which has high BTU output. My kitchen designer is going to make these changes to the design and will get back to me end of day today. Lowe's is having a great 20% off sale going on right now with a 10% gift card, will probably take advantage of it this July4th weekend.