Contractor for cabinets

[nytransplant]

I recently moved into a new Sonoma home in woodbury.  My wife and I and thinking of getting a built in fridge.  The cabinet maker wants $1500 for the customization of the refrigerator space.  I think this is highway robbery.  Does anyone have any recommendations for a contractor who can do this job well (blends in with the original cabinets).  Thanks.

 

[myirvine]

one thing you may want to consider is a counter-depth refrigerator unless your heart is set on a true built-in.  by using a counter-depth refrigerator, you can avoid the need to alter the existing cabinets.  for a few hundred dollars, you can probably have a contractor (or less if you do it yourself) add matching cabinet pieces to fill in the gaps around the counter-depth refrigerator to give a similar look to a true built-in... and save yourself ~$5,000.

we chose a kitchen-aid counter-depth and had a contractor fill in the space and spent a total of ~$2,750.  if we went with a true built-in by kitchen-aid, the total cost would have been ~$8,000.

the end result for us was that we kept the overhead cabinets (which would need to be removed if a built-in was added).

 

[nytransplant]

Thanks for the idea.  Need to be a little careful with boxing in the counter-depth fridge as it still needs room to ventilate.  The built-ins have the vents on the top.