You’re starting out backwards down the entirely wrong road. Why are you hiring a Lowes Measure if you won’t use them? You do not get a copy of the numbers. You can’t take that and go somewhere else. And, you’re dealing with Lowe’s for goodness sake. Your post is way scary. There’s a huge amount that you don’t know that you don’t know. You need a guide.

Hire a real Kitchen Designer. Develop a design. Then find a contractor to implement the design. People do full remodels to fix the problems. Not to add to them.

https://www.remodeling.hw.net/cost-vs-value/2020/

http://starcraftcustombuilders.com/kitchen.design.rules.htm

Peter, you're not doing it backwards, not everyone uses a kitchen designer and contractor. You're fine. We ordered kraftmaid from Lowes back in October (installed in January) after getting 8 quotes to compare. We had measurements already from our contractor who did the walls, electrical, plumbing, etc so we didn't have lowes measure but we worked with a great designer at Lowes who used our measurements and worked with that. We pretty much knew what we wanted at that point since they were our last quote and had 7 done before that. We have a friend who is a kitchen installer so he did our install, you may want to ask around to see if anyone you know near you knows someone who installs kitchens, get some recommendations to compare with Lowes prices on install. We didn't go through lowes for our countertop, we had a recommendation for a fabricator from a friend who told us which showrooms to go to and gave us the quotes and did the install. Any questions just ask!

Yikes! Hire an actual Kitchen Designer. Most Lowe’s cabinet people were selling lawn tractors or paint last week.

itsourcasa - thanks for understanding. As i live in townhome, don't really have lot of options to change layouts - so don't feel like i need to hire a separate designer. More or less layout we already like. We just want the cabinet/counter top redone. The cabinet designer at Lowes was very helpful so far - we didn't get to plugging in the layout in computer yet.

Liked the contractor they sent for measurement- seemed knowledgeable. Gave us some good tips/ideas, and answered all our questions.

I a done countertop years back from a smaller store - liked the job they did & came out cheaper than lowes. So i'm thinking will use them again. They've been very hepful so far.

Questions:

1). Are you happy with KraftMaids? I'm not looking for something super fancy - just something mid range/reliable. We saw the model kitchen in Lowes - and we liked KraftMaids compared to the other model kitchen they had.

2) Any experience with Quartz countertop? I'm wondering if I have to worry too much about who makes it. The counter top guy I used in past - he gave me rough estimate for 2 different qutaz. 1 is $3000 other one is $4500. I asked him why one is more expensive - he said he thinks they're similar, just he can get certain slab cheaper from certain place - and there is no logic to it. Sometimes he says some yard just have certain slabs at cheaper price.

We had Kraftmaid installed very recently. Too soon to tell how they will hold up. They are really nice though. A few doors arrived with blemishes and they had to be replaced. We purchased through a cabinetry company and not Lowe's.

My understanding with all the countertops; granite, marble, quartz , quartzite-- the price is pretty much supply and demand (what the market will pay). With the natural stones, of course some are more rare but mostly if no one wants it .... it won't be pricey. I think with countertops you want to make sure they do a good job with the installation. If you have already used a place that you were happy with,, that's great. I am not that familiar with quartz so maybe someone can comment on that but I think there are just different manufacturers.

@ProSource Memphis that's just not a true statement. Have you ever designed a kitchen at Lowes using a kitchen designer? The designer we used at Lowes had been a kitchen designer for 10 years prior to Lowes and 5 years at Lowes.

Kaytee - thanks for the response. All the ones i saw at our local lowes - Kraftmaid stood out to me as well. Also read here that their customer service is good - if you call them, seems they're quick to replace a damaged item.

salonva thanks for the feedback.

There's good and bad kitchen designers at Lowe's. Pick a good one. We flip homes and I've used the same Lowe's guy for 10 years.

Thanks Lisa - I spoke with few different ones at my local Lowes. This go around, first one that came up - i just didn't get she is that helpful. I was there another day, and saw someone else, and she seems knowledgeable, lot more enthusiastic and helpful. So far we've only done initial consultation to setup the measurement. Will need to go back and see how it works out - once they get the measurements.

The contractor they sent for measurement was very helpful as well - point outed small things here and there, and seemed fairly knowledge.

1. Yes we are very happy with Kraftmaid, we have the sonata line. Dove white uppers and midnight lowers. They were delivered within 5 weeks and we didn't have one issue or any damage! They did forget to send us the blue touch up kit so they sent that out after we called the Lowes designer, she requested it and it came right to my house 2 weeks later. It's only been 3 months living with them installed but they are very high quality IMO especially for the price!

2. We've had quartz in 3 kitchens so far. Our latest is Santamargherita from opus stone locally. Our fabricator gave us 3 yards to go to and we chose 2 quartz slabs we liked from each and he gave us prices. We chose one in the middle price wise and we're super happy with it. We needed 2 jumbo slabs and pricing varied from $8,500 to $3,000 for two slabs. All quartz just depends on the brand and style. We chose Santamargherita Vermont. No yellow undertone which was very important to me.

Some pics... we still have to install some more pulls, grout the fridge wall backsplash, do the hood and paint the door trim but we're almost done!

itsourcasa - Your Kitchen looks BEAUTIFUL!!

I think we also liked the "dove white" - we wanted white, forgot the exact name, but i think it was dove white.

Thanks also for info on the quartz - that helps. I was just wondering about the wide range of pricing. Mine is fair bit smaller than yours. The counter guy I'm dealing with said - maybe it'll work with one large slab. Even if it is two slabs - i'm hoping i can get something within $4K-$5K.

I’ve interviewed several Lowe’s and HD designers for a job opening with us. None had any basic idea of the 31 Rules. None knew what extended stiles were. None had any working knowledge of jobsite installation challenges. There is 1 locally who is great. She’s been there for 20 years. She went through the training program at corporate, before they did away with the kitchen training program entirely for everyone. She won’t leave until retirement age. We tried. Most of the other real designers left when they discontinued the PSI program. All that are left have not had any real training.

And there is one good HD designer who is now a store manager. But over half the HD stores locally don’t even do kitchens anymore. They don’t even have displays. They use remote designers in Atlanta if you want cabinets.

Quartz prices vary based on country of origin, pattern picked, Breton technology, and amount of square feet needed. Large movement patterns use large amounts of slabs, and can not guarantee seam matches even then. Chinese quartz has has a 500% price increase due to tariffs. Avoid non Breton produced stones.