We have decided that our 1989 oak kitchen needs to go. We have always been careful shoppers that educate ourselves before signing on the dotted line, but I can already tell this kitchen remodel is going to be overwhelming. It involves pushing out part of an exterior wall, taking down part of an interior wall, and we want to take the family room into consideration because that will likely be remodeled as well. We have seven bids from contractors who can do the job from start to finish. Of the seven, three are in the running. I think one is more capable of kitchen design, but he sells Kitchen Craft cabinets and I'm not sure I want to be locked into a particular brand of cabinet (I still have to do my cabinet homework). Another has an architect on staff and sent his interior decorator/KD out, which made us realize we need to get a KD involved who will have ideas on how to make the kitchen and family room flow together. I would really prefer to have one company that does it all to avoid the finger pointing that comes with hiring different contractors on our own. I'm really not interested in using a KD that is the contractor's wife/fiancée/girlfriend, either. Where on earth do we start? Do we start with finding the contractor we want, the cabinets we want, or a kitchen designer that fits us? We are in Orange County, CA and would like to keep the kitchen traditional. The style we are shooting for in the whole house is a classy tropical feel with warm woods and tones. We already have the appliances, we bought them years ago with a future remodel in mind, and I love all of them. Any tips or advice on the best way to proceed would be appreciated! Budget isn't an issue, but we need to stick with what fits the house. Putting $5000 rims on a $1000 car never made sense to me, and I don't want to make that mistake in our remodel. TIA!