A plain jane 10x10 kitchen with oak cabinets 30'' high, no moldings, zero specialty cabinets, no drawer stacks, no decorative ends, no nothing at all can be done for 7-8K. No one wants that kitchen, or even has a kitchen that size anymore. Everyone wants something more functional, and prettier. ''Houzz worthy.'' And that's why 20K is ''average'' for a middle of the road cabinet purchase.


A 20% is average in the cabinet world for *any* upgrades. It goes like this. Oak is the cheapest wood out there so it's the ''base'' that most everything starts. No one wants oak right now, so everyone pays the upgrades of one variety or another.

Since they never price oak to begin with, they never notice the price jump. 5% maybe for soft or rustic alder, 10 % for maple, 10-15% for an upgraded stain, 15-20% for paint, 15-20% for cherry, 40-60% for walnut or even higher for exotics. 30-40% for finishing a matching interior and glass, 40% for a drawer stack, 100% for a corner organizer, 30% for the trash pull out, and two whole new expensive cabinets for choosing a wall oven and cooktop appliance choice over a range. 30% for all of that molding, and 80-100% for stacking those cabinets to the ceiling or doing transom cabinets.

And that's how 8K gets to be 20K. A 2-3K increase within all of the other increases isn't peanuts, but within the context of everything else, it's never the sole culprit for breaking the budget. It's always that pesky ''want list'' that gives someone sticker shock. The cure for that is to learn to want the plane jane 8K oak kitchen. Too simple? Not so. That 8K kitchen isn't ''Houzable'' socially approved. There IS a whole show on HGTV called ''I Want This!'' after all. It's a plugged in, online 21st century issue.

Expectations. Manage those, and you manage your budget.