Hi Trish!
Lurking as usual and saw your thread and wanted to post to tell you that we recently renovated a house and have an Ikea kitchen and we LOVE it. We got custom made spotted gum timber benchtops which were $$ but that was what we wanted so prepared to pay the extra for them. If your DH isn't too sure about building etc. you can get a qualified person out to fit them properly for you because it is obviously important to have it all squared up right. My DH is a chippy so we didn't need to worry. The Ikea people are pretty helpful as well for pointing out things in your planner that you may not have noticed including saftey specs etc.

Having said that, we also had a quote from Yarra Valley Cabinet Makers (google ) in Kilsyth who were super helpful, friendlyand the price from them was very similar but it was a 6-8 week turnaround which we didn't have. PM me if you want some photos of what ours looks like! Hope some of that helps ~ good luck!