Did either Lowes or HD come out to check your measurements? That's the only caveat I can see... I, too, too my measurements in, but I didn't catch a mistake I had made and it wasn't until an independent company came out did they point out I would have been 6" off. Plus, having the cabinet maker or dealer install usually saves them headaches later on, when the DIYer calls to say something doesn't fit or how do you do this or that. That's why cabinet places tend to like to do their own installs. Not all Lowes and HDs are the same, nor are all independent places, so the bottom line is I'm glad you found what you want for the right price and have the ability to install. Many people think they can, but will probably screw it up.

Annettacm, I too went through several different places to get quotes and settled on Kraftmaid cherry cabinets in the Kaffe stain (slightly different door style though). Lowes did the preliminary bid through measurements done by others, had their installer come out to measure and there were a few places that were slightly off. We are planning to meet this afternoon, review the final changes based on their "guaranteed" measurements, and hopefully place the order (fingers crossed). I'll be interested in hearing how your process goes, we so far have been quite pleased with Lowes and I like the Kraftmaid cabinets.

I like your doors! Very nice. Glad you found someone helpful and knowledgeable. When I did my first remodel about 8 years ago, I also had a great experience at HD. Although it helped that the KD I ended up with was a graduate of a Chicago design school, and was just working at HD because her husband had been transferred to our community and she couldn't find any other job in her field there! Show us more! Do you have the 3-D picture and floorplan?

I wanted to wish you luck. You will really have great sense of satisfaction by doing it yourself. Your doors are very similar to the ones I just chose. We are using a custom place, they are not Kraftmaid but look a lot like them.

I'll post the link for you to look at them, just for fun. They are # 10827, we are doing a painted finsish. Page 13 on the brochure.

Bee!

Here is a link that might be useful: my cabinets--a lot like yours.

Your cabinets:

Good for you! We also did our own demo and installed our cabinets. We also did our own measurements, so I have one thing to say about that: do it enough times in the space and compared to the drawing that every number checks out. Don't forget to double check that cabs that need extra room to open the doors fully have that room, and that drawers will not bang into door trim because you forgot to leave some extra space at the end.

For installation - our best move was to rent the lifter that held the uppers in place while we leveled both horizontally and vertically. It really helps. Ledger boards work, but the lifter is better. Have at least 2 people to help lift and place cabinets. They weigh a ton, especially the tall ones. We needed 3 people for the tall ones, first to even get them in the house, and second to maneuver them into place. Our tall ones came with the base separate - otherwise you can't maneuver them in the room without hitting the ceiling - so you need 2 to lift and one to skooch the base under. Watch the fingers. Carefully.

When you bring the cabinets in to install, you'll take the doors off/drawers out. Get out the roll of blue tape and mark every door, drawer, and cabinet so you'll know exactly where each item goes back later: "cabinet B, drawer B top, drawer B middle, drawer B lower." You really don't want to be guessing on this later!

And lastly, make sure you have the hardware you need. Cabinet screws are easy to find, but do you need anything else? We needed special connecting bolts for our frameless cabinets that weren't easy to find. The good news is that there are several really good video demonstrations of how install cabinets, so that shouldn't be a problem.

Good luck!

Such great advice. I am taking down many notes. I am back from ordering and now have the updated 3-D pictures.

As a note we finished our basement on our own. Studs, drywall, electrical, plumbing and HVAC were all things we could handle. We even passed all of our inspections.

I knew going in the neither HD or Lowes would measure if they were not installing. I have measured everything multiple times and verified them against the independent dealer's measurements.

Below are some pics of what we hope the kitchen will look like when done.

The sink that arrived last week. I have seen this in other's pictures here but it is great to actually touch it.

I am no expert, but wouldn't the DW be better on the right of the sink? That would put it closer to where (I assume) you are storing the dishes.