What other lines does he sell? Was this just a cabinet allowance, meaning you pay anything above $40,000, and presumably get a credit for anything below (not going to happen)? I guess it's a little late to be doing the research, but since the house is 6500 square feet, I have to assume the kitchen is large, much larger than the kitchen in my open plan condo, which has 41 linear feet of kitchen cabinetry, middle of the road brand, and cost about $15,000. I would guess you have 3-4 times the number of cabinets that I have, so I would not be at all surprised by a $60,000 figure just for the kitchen.

I am no cabinet expert, but for a 6500 sq ft home with over 5 baths I would think that budget should be more like at least $100,000. Those rooms are the most expensive to build.

Hockeyfan - the 55-60k was what I was thinking as well for the kitchen. Actually, my kitchen priced out to be about 55k. the other 23k was for 4 of the bathrooms and mudroom. 3 of the bathrooms and mudroom was using a less expensive cabinet line called 6 squared. the master bath used Crystal. I am not opposed to using a less expensive line, but I am not a huge fan of the 6 squared line, as there are so few options with cabinet styles and colors. I am attaching the layout of the kitchen so you can get an idea of how many cabinets. I have 2 islands but there is a lot of "dead space" in them, but filled with wainscoting, of course.

dead space , especially paneling and moldings cost just as much as cabinetry once install is factored in.

I am not worried about installation prices - our gc has a set a reasonable price for labor and promises not to deviate from it.

That is a very low allowance. You would be hard pressed to get mid priced big box cabinetry for your kitchen and 5.5 baths with that allowance. It also doesn't help you that they are probably trying to price the cabinets very close to list, which is never the case when you walk into an kitchen shop to price cabinets.

The builder probably came up with the allowance based on putting in 6 square cabinets which are builder grade cabinets and really have no place in a large high end home like the one you are building. If it is not in the budget to up the allowance maybe look at the other lines the builder will let you use.

Thanks, Malba. He will let me use whatever line I want, but I will have to do the footwork. Thankfully, all the drawings are done so that should make it easier. I know we can go over budget, but I have to see how much my DH would like to spend, as we will be writing that check! It is just frustrating that this line item was so skewed!!!

Definitely look at other lines then. Some good mid range brands people on here recommend are shiloh, bertch and brookhaven. A lot of the masterbrand cabinets and masco (kraftmaid/merrilat) will also come in lower and are very well built cabinets with many options (finishes/details probably not as good as Crystal but they still look good). Crystal also has a lower priced line called currents..very limited door styles and colors but if they have something you like it is a lot cheaper.

I think the problem here is that it isn't a "large high end home." It's going to be a totally over-sized cheaply-built house. I doubt the builder is just cutting corners on the absurdly small cabinet allowance.

I'm building a 2700 sq foot home with 2 1/2 bathrooms and extra cabinetry for the fireplace wall, my studio, between the washer/dryer and between the great room/dining-kitchen. My builder gave me a rough estimate allowance of $38,000 for our home and I thought that was a bit low, so yours is totally unrealistic. And your kitchen area is over double the square footage of mine!

Another idea is to go to a local custom cabinet maker. Believe it or not, sometimes they are less expensive than the manufacturers. You don't say where you live, but I know for example in PA and OH they have the Amish who do excellent work.

40K is for an average suburban mid range house with 2 bathrooms and a kitchen half the size of yours. (Nightmare layout that needs to be addressed, BTW)

Your budget is 80-180 low for a high end house, for high end cabinets. I'd bet that isn't the only too low allowance for this house. No way should cheepchinese be an option to get the number down. Never ever. It would be like one of those styrofoam bricks that they ''frost'' with Crisco to put in a TV ad.

You need to take a long hard look at the other components of this build. I'd bet that they are all surface and no substance as well.

Off the top the price for the kitchen shown in that brand looks about standard. The baths sound high but there is no reference shown.

Might ask them to show you what the allowed for design looks like.

I'm glad others brought it up but my automatic reaction was how out of line are the other allowances - flooring, appliances, lighting, electrical, labour for painting (I was shocked at how much that was), tiling, etc.

Yes curious if the other allowances are as off base.

Mark, I might be outa touch , but I can't imagine a domestic line in which $30k will outfit a kitchen of that size with all of those break fronts, islands, corbels and crown plus the furniture toekick and glass that invariably goes with it.

The hood surround will cost at least $2000 unless it's made onsite outa 1/4" plywood. Heck, I totted up the install cost on that drawing and arrived at a quarter of the total budget on the kitchen alone and I didn't even factor in the fiddlesome detail work like the crown and furniture toekick.

Xedos, I agree, not 30 but the op said the kitchen came in at 55k which looks about right.

Sorry, I missed that connection.

Too hot down hear to think straight today.

Mark, I think we read "the price for the kitchen shown is....about right" as meaning the allowance was about right, not the actual price. Thanks for clearing that up. I think we're all in agreement - $55-60K just for kitchen cabinets, then add on the cabinetry for 5.5 baths.