Buying a new kitchen

MoneySavingExpert.com has just posted the following message with the title Buying a new kitchen.

This is such a headache. I have a budget of £5K and all I want is a simple kitchen, Shaker style, with a new hob/extractor/bowl and half sink unit and good quality worksurface. The worksurface alone is doing my head in! I want an underfitted sink and have been told not to use a laminate (so that's B&Q and the other affordable places out) but to get granite or quartz. I've been quoted silly prices for a quartz worktop (£3500, and that's just the worktop) which is more or less the same price as the cabinets. And I don't like the harsh sound of granite when you put a cup down on it - I think I'll soon get irritated with that. I am useless at measuring but don't want to use one of those kitchen companies who seem to double/treble the price you pay for a fitted kitchen. What would you do? Buy something at IKEA or Magnet and do the measuring yourself and arrange your own carpenter to fit it (but then how do you organise the worktop and sink fitting?).

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