Places to buy cabinets and countertops

jshf

We are doing a kitchen remodel and are currently looking at cabinets and counters.  We are looking at a 50K budget total and want medium grade cabinets.  Is there a big difference in cabinets from Home Depot vs a Kitchen store?  We plan on living in this house for the next 25 years, so need something that will last!   We live in the Philadelphia area, is there a place you can recommend?  

Also are the prices between Corian and granite/quartz significantly different?  TIA!

MommyLiberty5013

Not sure if this will work for your project/design, but I think Home Depot has a service where they leave the existing cabinet boxes/interior shelves affixed to the walls and replace all the doors for you. The idea with it is that it saves money...only having to replace the parts that are visible.

I haven't ever heard of cabinets not lasting for 25 years with proper cleaning and care (not slamming or banging them). I think after 25 years the only issue with cabinets will be whether or not they look dated.

SJU1982

We are also in the Philly area, and are currently in the middle of re-doing our kitchen.  We went with Donatucci's in South Philly for the cabinets, and Colonial in KOP for the granite.  We originally wanted to reface our cabinets, but Home Depot's price was more than double what Donatucci's was charging for brand new cabinets (we installed them ourselves). We shopped another place, can't remember the name, but Donatucci's was still cheaper.  We are in the DH area, and they waived the delivery charges at our request.

Donatucci's was priced right, but we did have a small issue.  We were shorted one cabinet that we had paid for, and had to wait an additional 2 weeks for the missing cabinet to come in once they finally ordered it.  Of course we didn't realize it was missing until we had ripped out our kitchen, and of course it had to be a middle cabinet...we were at a standstill for two weeks with no kitchen, waiting on that cabinet.  But shame on us for not counting the cabinets when they arrived.  

I am very pleased with the granite we purchased from Colonial.  Their granite is all A quality, and pricing is based on how common that particular color of granite is.  My husband asked for a discount, and they gave us 10% off without batting an eye. Our only issue with Colonial is that when they came to install the granite this week, they said the cabinets weren't level enough and to call them once we took care of that.  My husband fixed it, and they came back several hours later and installed the granite.  What was annoying is that they sent someone out last week to measure the template and although the cabinets weren't level, he said they were level enough. 

Anyway, we are pleased with both purchases.  Now I'm just counting down the days until the back splash and floor are installed.