Last I checked, Corian has gotten quite expensive. How much were the counter tops?

If this is for a 50K house, then that budget is appropriate. Although laminate would be a much better choice than Corian and give you some room to upgrade your appliances some. On the other hand, if this is a 300K house, then that budget is pretty low to be doing a kitchen that would be appropriate to that home. 50K for a new kitchen would be more in line for a house of that value.

So the answer to your question is, "it depends". It's all relative.

>Last I checked, Corian has gotten quite expensive.

Yes, at our HD you'll spend as much on corian as you would on exotic granites, more than quartz. That's unless you get Glacier White. But all the other colors are definitely one of the most costly countertops you can purchase. This does vary by region, but the countertop eating a huge chunk of the budget was my first thought, too.

I kinda like corian.

But the prices are high and particularly for sinks - I priced out my kitchen - only 21 sq ft of counter about $1700 with a self provided stainless sink and $2600+ with a corian sink.

Here the price pecking order(high to low) is quartz, corian, granite.

I don't know where you live but if you like the cabinets that is a great price for a complete installation. My $7900 cabinets from Home Depot last year became $24,000 after installation so I never bought them and I was not in love with them. I have one month left of my deadline and then I will look again but I may hire my own installer and buy cabinets more to my liking with the shaker door look. I know a client bought the Home Depot cabinets and loves them but hired his own installer since their installation prices in Northern NJ are way over-priced.

Any type of countertop at Lowes or HD are high. The exception is prefeb laminate counters. Go to an independent dealer of corian.

Can you install the cabinets yourself? Do they also have to remove the old cabinets?

Keep in mind American woodmark (HD) is the same as shenandoah (lowes). Some of types, stains are different. The offer similiar sales all the time. Maybe lowes offers lower install prices.

The $6516-$8550 range is just for cabinet installation and removal of old cabinets.

The corian counter & corian sink total comes to $1617 installed. I guess I thought that seemed ok?

So total price is cabinets $3894, counter $1617, and estimated labor $6516-$8550 for a final price of $12027 or $14061 depending on how high labor goes. We are wanting the soffits removoed so the cabinets go to the ceiling.... though we're considering removing the cabinets and soffits ourself and see if that can lower labor cost.

Here is the design of our kitchen HD did for us. I really like the design.

We already have new appliances...they're stainless steel.

As you can see its the labor that costs. Do as much as you can yourself. Invite friends and family over if you need extra help.

For about $11,500, or the middle of your cab estimate, I got true custom cherry cabs with all the bells and whistles, built and installed, including knobs and pulls. I don't think HD is such a bargain when you add in their labor. My neighbor got a HD kitchen remodel, and the cab over the fridge came in the wrong size, and the DW next to the corner had to be installed at an angle because there wasn't enough clearance to open it. Also, the granite counter got cracked somehow before or during install and they had to wait three weeks extra to get another. A lot depends on how good the design is. But the installers are just whoever wins the bid that year. Could be excellent,or not. Have you compared other options in your area? Getting your own installer may be the way to go.

I haven't got any other estimates yet, but I plan on it. I thought it would just be easy with HD, and I thought they'd be lowest...but we will see. I had been expecting labor to be less than the cabinets!

As far as I can tell, HD acts as a middleman. The local outfit who does HD counters, for instance, Solid Surfaces, can be hired directly. When there's a middleman, prices can be higher. I was really surprised, too, to find that HD kitchens were not necessarily a bargain.

I hope you can find great suppliers. Ask everyone you know and check Angie's List. Good luck on your project!

MistyZip, your kitchen looks like it has more cabinets than mine and cost so much less! I was removing my soffit also with cabinets to the ceiling with crown molding. Which style did you choose and stain color? That is a good price compared to mine but I was having tile installed and one ceiling fixture installed that I ended up having someone install it for free in my dining room when I had the recessing lighting done in my kitchen in December thinking that will be a head start on the kitchen. I have all my own appliances that are fairly new stainless steel so the $24,000 did NOT include the recessed lighting or the appliances and that was a compromise since the style cabinets I wanted were more money.

Ginny20, Where did you get cherry cabinets installed for that price? Where are you located? If you are within a state near me in NJ, I would love to have your installers visit me to give me a price. I keep going back and forth to cherry cabinets, maple stained cherry or off-white cabinets but I do know I prefer the shaker look for my small kitchen that is not quite 10 X 14 in size. One wall is open to the family room and the other wall is a sliding door window to the backyard. So it is really a partial U-Shape as one one is only half filled. My ceilings are only 8 feet tall.

I did all the demo of my kitchen myself. I have an amazing cabinet installer who has had to modify 3 drawers with a back notch and shorted a too-tall cabinet and my labor costs for cabinet install were $2600. $6000 seems really really high to me. I am in So Calif.

I never did get a formal bid from Home Depot because their estimate was for the cabinets to be around $9000 and install to be $1500 for a total of $10,500. This was for maple cabinets that had a veneer inset panel in American Woodmark, which is their cheaper line. For that price, I received quotes in Lyptus, Maple and Walnut with solid wood panels from various custom shops. In the end, I am getting way more bells and whistles in custom Walnut for that price.

I mention this because all my research has shown that Home Depot is one of the more expensive ways to do Cabinets and Countertops. Also, even when the price is the same or less, you are usually getting better value elsewhere. Some people have found sales that make the prices better, but I think the main reasons people end up going with Home Depot are 1) They love one particular KD there 2) They live in an area with few other options 3) They don't have the time or energy to research and run down multiple bids on all the different aspects of their kitchens. 4) they want to put the total cost on their Home Depot card.

I'm sure there are other reasons, but these are the ones I see brought up the most.

The project isn't as simple as it sounds. And labor is expensive anywhere and from anybody.

(Run on sentence warning!) If that labor quote includes demo of the old cabinets, appliances, and plumbing, haul off of that as trash, removing the soffits and re-drywalling that area to match the existing ceiling and painting it, re-installing the plumbing and appliances, installing the cabinets with top and bottom molding and back panels and corbels etc. and hauling off all of the cabinet cardboard and packing, then the labor is somewhat high, but not nearly as high as you think for all of that work. If there is any electrical or plumbing changes or flooring demo, leveling, and new flooring install included, then the labor quote is probably low.

You're paying for convenience. To get lower prices on the work, you're going to have to do some legwork and DIY. Break down the jobs. Figure out what you can do. Figure out what friends can do. Figure out where you could hire a pro separately (like for the plumbing reconnects, etc.). Figure out what you could do without now and still manage to do at a later time with no backtracking or loss of efficiency. Then decide if acting as your own GC is worth the headaches and time spent away from work dealing with things.

The cabinets are American Woodmark Newport Collection in White...so they're not fancy. I think they're about $110 per Linear Foot... We like the style though so it works for us.

We are in Madison WI, so I'd think labor would be cheaper here but I understand HD might be higher because of being a middle man... I really like the HD cabinets & the layout/design they did for us. I think the price seems good to me, there are a bunch of sales going on that made the price that low...which I was thinking sounded reasonable for cabinets?

I'm going to get bids from some people off Angie's list and see what the compare to. Also we meet with the HD contractor next week to get a final estimate on the job, and I'm going to ask about what we can do ourselves to lower the cost.

Everything seems to cost a lot more than expected :)

Not to be snarky here, but "local cabinet makers" are often not as big of a bargain as they seem and often do not give you decent quality. One poster on this thread has had the drawer glides installed incorrectly on her custom cabinets, and that's just a visible issue that a non lay person can see. There are a lot of hacks out there that call themselves "custom cabinet makers" and there is zero guarantee that you will get one of the good quality ones. A low price on "custom" though, is a big warning to actually look at the process of how the cabinets are produced, and with what materials, and not just at the pretty stuff on the outside.

HD and lowes has those sales/promotions all the time. Don't be rushed into a decision. I think your price sounds good for the cabinets and counter. Labor is always high. Have them break everything down.

I know someone who had a terrible experience with Home Depot. The installation was very late and didn't go well. It was especially hard for them because they have three small children and the kitchen was totally out of commission for quite a while longer than was promised.

These are not picky people when it comes to their kitchen.

You can buy from Home Depot and have someone else do the installation: my son in law is a carpenter, but not a cabinet maker - HD did the plan, supplied the cabinets, and SIL did the installation, trimwork etc. Perhaps you can find someone who has experience installing cabinets? - maybe a friend could recommend someone (SIL gets most of his jobs this way) and you could see their work.

FWIW, when I talked to HD a few years ago about ideas for my kitchen, the designer told me they actually did Martha Stewart's kitchen, so I would think that's quite an endorsement.

Misty, if you are in Madison, then perhaps you should look into Amish cabinetmakers. I think the nearest to you is in Pardeeville (near Portage), but you have lots of other options. Takes more legwork, however.

Ginny20, I am almost 4.5 hours from your cabinet maker so it sounds like that would not work. Everything is so expensive where I live in Northern NJ. I live about 1 hour from NYC. Thanks for sharing.