This is far too big and investment in money and your surroundings to be concerned with anybody's feelings but your own. Professionals understand that they have a certain style and that style may or may not mesh with their clients. So long as you are polite and gracious, which of course you are, you should have no second thoughts as to interviewing the second designer. You need a good fit. And I think what a designer posts represents her best work, so I would feel very comfortable judging style based on that.

Back up, way way up. Do you want a high-end kitchen? Is your budget $40K or $100K?

Before you walk to Person B, you need to talk to people at other companies. You should have a good hold on your budget for the project. And remember that all projects creep, a $40K kitchen become $50K in the blink of an eye.

Is this your personal house? If so, I'd live with the kitchen for a while to get the feel of the house before you plink down the money.

“for the fixer upper I just closed”

“the company...has received many big design awards”

“it would be around $100k, or more. The designer said during the design process, we would identify options to fit my budget.”

Some mixed messages on both sides there. So, are you OK with $100k spend? Or, do you need to “fit your budget” which is some other number? And, that budget is...? Does your home need the level of design that a company which gets a lot of big design awards will provide, for a commensurate cost? If they are telling you $100k from the getgo, right off the bat, as their opener, then a number fairly close to that is what they’ll be expecting your kitchen to come to. If you are in agreement, that’s great. It was impossible to tell from what you wrote, other than “fixer-upper” doesn’t usually equate to that price level. Just make sure everyone is on the same page before going further.

One reason I choose the KD/company I did for my own kitchen re-model, was that in the shop, there are three framed "estimates" of costs. They are done by budget. At the low end, it is quite specific about what brands of appliances one can get at this price point, and countertop choices. The medium budget allows more - a bit nicer appliances and nicer countertop. The high end shows using all the brands you were quoted - all very pricey. I loved this!

Asking how much a kitchen costs to build or remodel is asking how much an automobile costs. Are you looking at a $13,000 Nissan Versa or Lamborghini that costs $2,000,000? Or perhaps something in-between. But if "in-between", closer to which end of the price range?

I read an article a few years ago that said that you will expect a kitchen to be similar to the car you drive. So, if it's that Nissan Versa, the kitchen will be RTA - maybe Ikea; if you drive a $55,000 Audi, it will be upper-mid range; the driver of that Lamborghini will pull out all the stops and have a kitchen that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars.

It's always important to NEVER over-build a house or a neighborhood. If most houses in ones neighborhood have standard depth, top-freezer refrigerators, then don't go too far above it.

Equally important is ones own budget. I knew I wanted to spend $25,000 on a kitchen remodel, with a $5,000 cushion. I ended up spending $28,500 - electrical was a bit more than expected, plus I had to buy a ridiculously expensive new garbage disposal. To meet this budget, I kept all my existing appliances, only moved the refrigerator, already had hardwood floors, re-used my countertops, and already had pot lights and undercounter lighting (also reused). I ended up with a beautiful kitchen that looks upper mid-range (no SubZero or integrated appliances) which would have made it look high end).

When I told my KD my budget, I asked him if it was even remotely realistic and he said it was. He certainly kept his word.