We’re in the design phase for a pretty large kitchen remodel. My kitchen is definitely on the large side, and we will need all new cabinetry with a 10 foot island, a wetbar and cabinets for the affixed laundry room. We’re not going top of the line - kraftmaid line. I am working with their designer. I was expecting $30-35k tops and just got the estimate at a whopping $60k! Does this seem crazy or am I just delusional?

Also, can you negotiate on price with big box stores? Looking for the best options. Thanks!

We first started talking to a contractor we liked last fall. We joined his waiting list, but hadn’t had time to finalize a design and, therefore, didn’t enter any contracts with him. Without telling us, in March he placed a cabinet order with KraftMaid. We were immediately put off (because it seemed like he was acting without our authority and did not like that he bound us to a design). We gave up our spot in line. Low and behold, our budget and kitchen needs changed and we had to update our design, but liking the contractor wanted to give him another try. He said no problem, we met with the cabinet guy and made a new design. We went into the showroom and the cabinet guy funneled us to basically one cabinet line by Kraftmaid. The store sells other lines of cabinets, other designs, but he basically insisted we get Kraftmaid saying that we have our order already in and it was placed before a huge 30-35% price increase that became effective in March, so we should go with Kraftmaid to avoid having to pay higher costs. While it sounded great that we got in on the ground floor of a price increase, the cabinet guy also said that Kraftmaid changed their program so that orders that are “pending can only be “pending” for 90 days and after that they will be cancelled. Since they placed our order in March (again, without asking—yet to be seen if that’s good or bad), we only have about a week to decide if we want to move forward with the Kraftmaid cabinets. I feel under extreme pressure to make these important and costly decisions. I’d like to know if anyone can verify that Kraftmaid has dramatically increased prices. I’m very averse to pressure tactics and want to be sure that the contractor and cabinet guy are being straight with me given we don’t have time to shop around to choose our dream cabinets. Feeling very anxious. Any advice is helpful.