Unless you're doing a major gut job, I always did the general contractor work myself. I completely built a home from lot purchase to plan design to actual construction for two homes in Pensacola, Florida. I didn't have a builder, I was it.
So when I didn't like the little 10' x 10' kitchen in our CYV, first I had Great Lakes in Summerfield put in a subway tile backsplash and Blinds 4 Less in Lady Lake put in plantation shutters and put knobs on the cabinets.
This is how it looked about 9 years ago when I finished with those little touches. Sorry, I scanned this from a photo that was a little worn. As you can see, the cabinets put in by TV were awful, I think the name was unstained maple. Even after those touches it still looked horrible.
So then I had Remington Kitchens of Leesburg reface the cabinets in white and put on new hand pulls, price was $4800. (that was new doors and pullout drawers fronts and formica over the base cabinets) Remington has since retired. I went to Best Buy and bought all new LG Appliances, $2600 delivered and installed. I kept the original formica countertops, even though granite would of been nice, and I still might do it, I was doing a bathroom remodel at the time. I bought professional faucet on eBay for $130 and I bought a new stainless single bowl 34" sink from Home Depot website for $400 and had Kiley & Sons plumbing install them. I then had the Floor Shoppe in Wildwood do the entire living area with new 12mm thick laminate 6" planks that were waterproof. The wall painting was done by Investment Painters and I stained the white grout with grout stain I bought from HD, and this how it looks now.
Blackboard was from Target, Parrot from Cozumel