sixth floor apartment: what sound does a kitchen make?

KA-CHING!
KA-CHING!

KA-CHING!

that my dear friends is the sound of each cabinet piece getting added to the total.

we are seriously spending the most $$ in the room we use the least. all these cabinets for our HUGE collection of 4 bowls and 4 plates. i think i'm seriously going to need to get some cooking lessons because after we buy the cabinets and appliances, i'm going to pull my little sleeping bag in there and hole up in the kitchen.

we found the cabinets we liked. color, style, etc. we found it very quickly and actually agreed without any bickering. home depot has a little sticker price on the showroom slab that gives you a rough estimate of what your cabinets would cost for a 10x10 kitchen. so we figured that our kitchen wasn't much bigger, so the cost would be fairly close.

WE.WERE.SO.WRONG.

we decided that when we met w/our cabinet designer, that we'd start with the most basic layout to see the cost, and then add in features if we could afford it. let's just say that our very basic layout ended up costing almost double what we had anticipated!!! DOUBLE!!! it's triple the price given on that little sticker. i thought i was going to faint. so we're going basic. no fancy drawers, no lazy susans, no pantry pull-out.
but i guess that's ok, because like i said, we only have 4 bowls and 4 plates.

here's our cabinet guy w/our life saving realtor. seriously the best realtor EVER. he's helping us every step of the way. i don't even want to imagine what this whole process would've been like without him.