New Kitchen: planning and installation

We are going to replace our kitchen. We would appreciate and welcome referrals and recommendations for architects and contractors to plan and install our new kitchen. 

I'm in the last stages of a kitchen re-do.  So far everything has been going along smoothly. Our architect was Bill Figdor.  We used Hudson Home Improvement Jersey City NJ Remodeling company.    hudsonimprovement.com/

if you are replacing a kitchen and not moving walls you don't need an architect.  In fact many kitchen designers are better at giving layout advice since they do so many of them.  Many have their own installers as well.  I'd visit some kitchen design centers and start taking to some of the designers / sales folks there and start narrowing down what you want / budget / etc.

Back in 2009 for our kitchen designer we used:

Jim Boisits / LIS Custom Designs (Merrillat Masterpiece)

We didn't move any of the walls, so we didn't need an architect (we used one for our attic renovation, cost for an architect for a small job is around 6k to 8K).  We did take down a column that was in the middle of the kitchen that had water pipes in it (we moved them to the side of kitchen).   When we took down the ceiling it had been dropped 2 feet from rafters due to the plumbing for the bathroom being run under the rafters.  To be on the safe side the contractor ran an LVL beam across the middle of the kitchen where the column had been, which had the benefit of hiding the difference in ceiling height.

Some kitchen designer are free but you have to buy your cabinets from them.  If you are expanding your kitchen and need an architect, I highly recommend Dave Spence of http://www.windigodesign.com/ .

Clayton Construction and Bob Hume generally get high marks when used.  As I found out in my attic renovation, you get what you pay for.  I.e. the lowest bid may not be the one to go with.

Here are some old threads discussing all the minutia of kitchen renovations:

https://maplewood.worldwebs.com/forums/discussion/new-kitchen-finally-the-before-and-after-shots?page=next&limit=

https://maplewood.worldwebs.com/forums/discussion/my-kitchen-reno-finally-finished?page=next&limit=

Regards,

RCH

We are nearing the end of a two-story house addition which included expanding the kitchen.  For kitchen cabinets we hired MBA Cabinetry Contractors to order and install.  http://www.mbacabinetry.com/  Their cabinet showroom is in Belleville and they are also a full service contracting company doing a lot of house additions in Maplewood and Millburn.  Their specialty is renovating the older homes in our area and maintaining the old details. The owner, Lou Mandarakas, has a lot of design ideas and will lay it out on a computer and use 3D images.  They did a great job with the installation.  They handle several different cabinet manufacturers and we opted for one of their custom lines.  Through comparison we found their costs to be much lower than one of the local kitchen design companies for the same cabinet line and layout.  Can't recommend them enough.  If you want more details feel free to message me.