I can provide some insight on cost, as I have literally been building my own kitchen myself over an extended period of time (not gonna say how long but longer than most people would be ok with). And I don't mean GC it myself, I mean literally doing all of the work myself.
Demo down everything down to studs
Relocate and/or add plumbing and electrical as needed. This included adding a gas line for range, exhaust duct for vent hood, moving water lines for fridge, all new water lines at sink, adding counter height outlets everywhere, adding electrical in upper cabinets for under cabinet lighting, etc.
Rebuild walls including cement backer board as needed for backsplash stone/tile
Add dimmable LED recessed lighting over entire kitchen
Build, paint, and install all of my own cabinetry. Baltic birch ply for cabinet boxes, solid maple drawers with Blum soft close undermount sliders, spice rack pullouts, Sherwin Williams Emerald enamel paint. Upper cabinets go all the to the ceiling, etc. Very nice stuff. No expense spared here.
Install kitchen sink, faucet, disposal, all undersink plumbing, etc.
Install under cabinet lighting
Install Mable stacked stone/ledger stone and marble tile backsplash on two walls (one wall has upper cabinets so the stone stops there, one wall it goes all the way up to the ceiling)
Caulk in cabinets and countertops, paint walls and trim wherever as needed, etc.
Literally all the work myself, except for one thing. The only scope of work in the entire kitchen that I didn't personally do was fabricate and install the granite countertops. We went to a yard, picked the exact slabs we wanted, then paid a fabricator to fabricate and install them.
The reason I'm listing all this out and emphasizing the fact that I did it all myself is not to brag at all. It's been a very long process and most people would not be happy with how long this has taken me. It's to make the following point below about how much these types of projects cost.
I've been keeping a very detailed spreadsheet of costs, broken down by category. My total cost so far, with me doing literally all of the work, including building the cabinets which is by far the biggest expense of any kitchen, I'm right at $23.5k, and I still have a little bit of work left to do. I'm estimating/expecting that I will finish up right at $25k. And because appliances can wildly impact the cost of a kitchen renovation, I will clarify that number only includes the new stove/range, and the vent hood that goes above it. That's it. We reused all other appliances in the kitchen.
So I say all that to say this. If it cost me ~$25k to renovate and build an entire kitchen and not even include all new appliances, Imagine how much it costs to pay other people to do it. If one were to tackle my same project by being the GC themselves, purchase pre made cabinets, pay subs to do the work, etc, I can still easily see it being 2x my cost, or around ~$50k. If one were to pay a GC for a turnkey finished project, I would imagine it would come in closer to 3x my cost.
Again, I'm not saying any of this to brag, I'm just trying to say most people just don't realize how much this stuff costs, or they just think everything should cost pre covid prices. Even with my project as a case study and self performing the most amount of work possible, it's still VERY EXPENSIVE.
