Why aren't the cabinets fully covered by the insurance? You should consider hiring your own insurance adjuster to negotiate on your behalf with the insurance company. They will take a percentage of your settlement but they often get you a whole lot more that the insurance company initially offers.

You might consider ikea cabinets. Good deal for the price with top of the line hardware and often everything you need in stock so you aren't waiting for weeks for your cabinets. One note, IKEA is in the process of changing their entire kitchen line so you would want to be sure to get all the parts you need upfront--they are supposed to be stocking parts for two years, but I'd be cautious and not rely on that. If this interests you, there is an IKEA fan forum where you might find more information and help.

Start by posting your existing layout with complete and accurate measurements.

I was in a similar position almost exactly a year ago. My cabinets were fully covered. My contractor had a lot of experience in dealing with insurance so I mostly didn't have to.

As to where to start. I know you want to rush right in and get if done, but don't. Make some lists. What worked in your old kitchen, what did you love? What didn't work? What drove you crazy, what did you say to yourself, "I should have done that differently!"?

Now, get on Houzz, Pinterest, Freshome. Read a bunch of magazines. Pin ar cut out pictures of things you love. You'll find doing that will help,clarify your taste level. You may not do it conciously but after a while you may notice that 90% of the kitchens you pinned had inset cabinets, or soapstone counters, or a red range! Whatever it is after a while a pattern will form that will guide you to the style you like best.

Get a good drawing of the space and post it here. As long as you have to start from scratch maybe the layout could be improved.

Finally, drawers. Really. Cannot stress enough that you should put as many drawers in as possible. Lower cabinets, even with pull outs are no where near as easy to use or hold as much as good strong drawers.

Oh, and one more thing, don't let the insurance company run over you. Get an advocate (perhaps your GC.) once you have an idea how it's going and you know your budget, decide how much over and above the insurance settlement you are willing to spend and allocate those dollars to things the insurance company either will not pay for or will not give you much money for. In my case that included hardware, appliances (I reused everything but the cooktop and splurged there) and the backsplash. I also shelled out to replace solid doors with glass ones and paid for all the lighting and electrical. Insurance covered cabinets, paint, plumbing and countertops as well as labor (other than for the electrical and backsplash, which I paid for.)

In several cases they tried to low ball me. I went out and got quotes to replace the exact or as close to exact items that had been used in my previous kitchen and they accepted those quotes and reimbursed me accordingly.

Hang in there. It's a long, frustrating process but well worth it in the end.

I feel for you. We also had a sudden disaster wipe out our kitchen. I felt an almost overpowering need to put it back immediately but couldn't for a number of reasons. It was a very stressful time and I NEVER want to do a kitchen that way again. If you're like me, you'll find it very hard to sit still and think about your kitchen - the urge to fix it all that minute will be very strong.

If you never liked the old kitchen, do take a couple of weeks or even a couple of months to think through the layout as well as the look you'd like. Although that sounds awful, you'll be glad you did when its done. I think I went through about 4 completely different layouts that each had areas that made me uncomfortable before finding "the one." It's three years later and I still like it.

If you felt the old layout worked for you, by all means repeat it - but perhaps see if you can optimize the sizes and types of cabinets so it works a little better. Be aware that depending on where you live, you might be required to rebuild to current code. In practical terms, you might need to redo a lot of electrical stuff to meet current code.

Sometimes though, the previous kitchen may have an issue about where stuff is placed that would cause it to fail under current code. Examples are pipes in exterior walls, where the clearance left between a range and a wall is too small, or where upper cabinets are placed over a range. Something that we had go wrong that took additional time was that the framing from a previous window replacement failed. We didn't do it, but it became our problem to fix it.

I hope it all turns out wonderful for you. Try to figure out something to help with the stress - I quite often wanted a punching bag or to learn how to shoot paint balls or tequila. I know you'll be happy in the end but it will be a long road from here to there. I want it to be as easy as possible for you as you walk it.

I agree with those who say fight it or hire an insurance adjuster. Cabinets are very expensive!
Find a good contractor-this is most important! Good contractors are usually booked out so the sooner you have one who can do it in your timeframe, the better. Interview, check references and get a couple of quotes at least. While you're waiting for the quotes, look for products you want in your kitchen like the cabinets, appliances, sink, faucet, countertop, tile, hardware, etc. There are plenty of threads on garden web with advice and information on kitchens.

Listen to Weissman. Before you do anything, make sure you don't get low balled by your insurance company. They are not your friend.

Hire a Public Adjuster. You won't regret it.

1) First up, don't install the hardwoods yet. Three reasons:

a) Find out from the manufacturer of the intended hardwoods if cabinets can be installed on top of them or if the floor should be installed around the cabinets.

We're installing a floating hardwood floor, and we were told in no uncertain terms not to install the kitchen on top of the floor because it would cause a "pinch point" where the floor could not expand/contract naturally because it was pinned in place by the weight of the cabinet/counter/sink-full-of-water. That apparently can cause terrible buckling in the floor.

If you should not be installing cabinets over your floors, you'd need to know the final cabinet layout before these floors go in.

b) Since you are redoing your kitchen, you may end up wanting to widen doorways or open a wall or whatever. You want to lay the floor AFTER these changes are made, or you'll have weird-looking floor patches where the moved walls were.

c) You want as much work done as possible before the floors go in because every workman, every tool, every job is one more opportunity for your floors to be damaged. You can protect the floors after they go in, but it's still better to have your framing, electrical, plumbing, insulation, and drywall done before the floors go in.

2) This is related to number one, but don't do ANY expensive work until you have a complete plan for what is going in your kitchen. Down to which lights and where, which size cabinets are going where, etc. What trim, etc. A kitchen remodel is like dominoes -- if one of the first tiles is not placed correctly, the rest can't fall the way you want them to. It is very costly -- in time and money -- to fix an early domino that was placed rashly, and anything you feel like you're gaining by just getting SOMETHING done now will be lost a hundredfold several weeks from now when you have to undo it after a lot of stuff has been installed over it.

I really can't stress this enough: No plan? NO work. I know it's really difficult, but try not to let your urgency to restore order dictate what you actually do. You will thank yourself later.

2) As everybody else is saying, argue with your insurance for more money.

3) Start googling and pinteresting and find some inspiration pictures of kitchens you love. Get at least five, but more is better. Then sit down and figure out what are the common threads running through the pictures and how those might be put into your new kitchen. Gardenweb can help you brainstorm about this if you post your inspiration pictures. As you pull pictures, make sure you are going in a direction that fits with the architecture/style of the rest of your house. It doesn't need to be a perfect match to the rest of the house, but it should be compatible. (For example, our place is rustic Spanish-style. I like more clean, simple, and modern places. So for my kitchen, I went with more of the Spanish-revival art deco inspiration pictures -- not incongruous with our building, but also not incongruous with what I like.)

4) Concurrently with fighting your insurance company and looking for inspiration pictures you like, get gardenweb started working on a layout for your space. Post:

a) a floor plan of the entire floor of your house where the kitchen is (not just a floor plan of the kitchen -- we need to consider traffic flow, so we need to see where the kitchen is in relation to other rooms in the house)

b) pictures of the space (this helps with visualizing things that aren't clear on the floor plan)

c) the details of who uses this kitchen and how and what features you like in a kitchen

Make sure to include measurements of everything on the floor plan and preferably have the floor plan on graph paper with a 1 sq foot = 1 square scale.

5) Set up a functional kitchenette space in another room so you don't go bonkers in the meantime and you minimize the impulse to make rash, expensive decisions out of frustration. My husband had an old Ikea dresser, and Ikea sells glass tops for their dressers for $30. I put dishes in the dresser drawers, and we use the glass top as a counter top. I bought a $50 hot plate to go on our "counter," and we already had a mini fridge and a microwave. It's not perfect, but we can still eat sort of normally, and it works.

Yes, fight your insurance company. We are going thru the same with hail damage to our roof. We're very close to full coverage & hope to get that with the next inspection. Initially they were giving us about 10% of where we are now. It took getting a contractor involved.

Thanks to all who posted to give me ideas. I am so grateful. I am feeling like I need to put it all back together and need to take a deep breath and slow down. I will try and get the floor plan together for posting soon. I do,have lots of inspiration pictures and you are right they do tell a story about what I like in a kitchen. So that is a place to start. Haven't got the estimate from insurance yet but I did find out that cabinets would be part of it via email. I guess I need to get an estimate for replacement and push for that amount from everyone's comments. I like the idea regarding setting up a functional temporary kitchen and not making rash decisions I may regret. Ikea,is in the back of my mind also. They are changing over their lines and we have one nearby so it could be fun seeing all the new things come in. Hey, I am feeling better already:) Thanks again so so much!

Christina222 I just got my adjusters report and reread your post and have a question or two:). I haven't had enough time to even choose a contractor. I did have one come out who had done a friends kitchen and they were out of my budget, really high end for our area. I am wondering if you are aware of how long you have to gather quotes as I think they are planning on sending out a check. I went to a kitchen and bath contractor today and priced my old cabinets. They still make then after all these years and for just the cabinets they were under without installation so I know I should negotiate. I am thinking maybe getting a full estimate in the full scope but that will take time. I can hardly think much less choose the contractor, how did you make that decision? For the most part there are not a lot of full service contractors around here and many people go to the big box stores, ikea, for their kitchens. I don't think they could quote a price for the whole deal but perhaps I am wrong. When you negotiated with the adjuster did you provide estimates for the whole kitchen? Thanks, angelcake