National average expenditures are around 40K for a gut kitchen. And it's hard to do everything that any kitchen needs for less than 20K without some element of DIY. Guidelines for budgeting recommend allocating between 10-20% of your home's value towards a kitchen remodel if you live in a location that hadn't seen a lot of property value inflation. And if you do live in one of those higher property value areas, your labor costs will be MUCH higher, so you won't be terribly far off from the guidelines if you lack DIY ability. That keeps your expenditures in line with your neighborhood, rather than over or under spending. If you are planning on structural changes, like taking walls down, then the % is obviously going to be much higher than if you are keeping some of the kitchen elements like the flooring or cabinets. About half of that 10-20% should go to cabinets and their install.

I think the only way to really get an idea of costs is to jump in and start getting estimates. The 10-20% that livewire mentioned is an excellent starting point. Depending where in that range you are prepared to spend, it can tell you whether you should start looking at high, middle, or lower end materials. We wanted upper mid-range materials at lower range prices (who doesn't), so we decided to DIY as much as possible. In this way, we've been able to get most everything we want for close to 10% of our home's value (for us, that's about $32,000).

If you're in rural PA near any Amish or Mennonite communities, look into their custom cabs. They are usually surprisingly good value and beautifully made.

Thanks Ginny. I am in that area and plan on doing just that.

Wow. LWO managed to provide a very informative and (I believe) accurate answer in few words. Well done (as usual)!